Game Day:Is tailgating an art form?

It was about 11:30 a.m., and as I drove toward Blackstock Stadium on the campus of DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind., only three blocks or so from my parking spot at the north end of the stadium, I could sense that today would be unlike the two small-college football Game Day trips I'd made previously this fall.

This, Nov. 12, 2011, would be the 118th meeting of DePauw and Wabash College in the storied annual Monon Bell Classic, and I could hear the rhythm and beat of urban music coming from somewhere south of where I was parking. My parking spot was in a low area behind a recreational complex adjoining the stadium, so I couldn't see anything south. Not being up on my contemporary R&B, I wondered whether the music was live or being piped through an audio system. I was eager to find out; it had my anticipatory juices pumping. I knew that there would be something picture-worthy in that southerly direction; all I had to do was follow the music.

The tailgating at Hanover (Ind.) College, which I visited Oct. 22 for a decisive 58-7 win by the home school over Manchester (North Manchester, Ind.) College, had been modest and largely in one place -- a meadow immediately adjoining L.S. Ayres Field, where the Hanover Panthers play their home games. The activity was a bit more intense on Nov. 5, when I made my first-ever visit to Wabash in Crawfordsville, Ind., where the Little Giants clinched the North Coast Athletic Conference championship by defeating Wittenberg College, Springfield, Ohio, 28-17.

Tailgating at DePauw was an expanse -- an art form, even -- compared to what I'd seen at Hanover and Wabash. It sprawled over several parking lots, and there was even a healthy section roped off for Wabash supporters. But this was the day of the Monon Bell Classic, so it was to be expected. Picture opportunities throughout the lots were so voluminous, that I had very little time to save for exploring the DePauw campus. I did grab some shots when I forced myself to pull away, but I'll definitely need to made a second visit to do it justice.

Today's post is devoted largely to the aforementioned tailgating. It you've never done any pregame tailgating, hopefully it gives you a good feel about what you might expect -- and enjoy. The concluding photographs take you into Blackstock Stadium to show the DePauw pep band, the school's Tiger mascot, the two Wabash students who began the afternoon's long, non-stop ringing of the Monon Bell along the Little Giants' sideline and the on-field television camera setup behind the south end zone. Oh, to tidy up a tiny mystery I dangled at the beginning of this post -- the music, as it turned out, was not a live performance. It was piped over a very impressive sound system within the tailgate expanse.

The next post will be devoted to some of my campus shots at DePauw from last weekend's visit.   

Above: This is one picture I thought I ought to pause and offer an explanation. It's a high-dynamic range (HDR) rendering, the melding of multiple pictures of the same scene using different exposures with each of my three shots. I was curious to see if using HDR would pick up the football being tossed by these boys at multiple points in flight. As you can see, it did. I began the three-shot sequence with the boy farthest from camera in throwing motion, but still not releasing the ball. That's why you see only two balls in flight, and not three. What this image also tells you is the the Photomatix software I use to meld my HDR images does a pretty good job of reducing blur or motion when directed to do so, otherwise, you should have seen some blur in and around the arm of the smaller boy, the one who threw the ball.  

Shots from class for on-location, off-camera flash photography

The woman you see in this series is Sarah, who modeled last week for students in a photography class aimed at people seeking more experience using off-camera, on-location flash in their photography. Some of the shots you see here were taken with one light (flash), some with two (like the one above) and some were with available light, which I squeezed in as other students took their turns using Sarah for their poses with flash systems. The one-flash shots were taken fired into a white umbrella mounted on a light stand; with two flashes, the second unit was usually hand-held by our teacher, Dustin Allison, and without any modification. It was used as an accent light, usually to highlight either Sarah's hair or a dark side of her face and usually set at about half the intensity of the main light.

I've been very pleased with the class; I think it's just what I needed to get past the discomfort I'd previously encountered when it came to artful, productive use of artificial light with my subjects. Throughout the four sessions, we used simple, manual-only wireless triggers and receivers -- Cactus Vs transceivers, to be specific -- obtained through Gadget Infinity in Hong Kong. If you're in a position where you cannot afford the very functional, and versatile, Pocket Wizards (considered by many pros as the standard wireless system in the industry), I can recommend the Cactus Vs.

Pocket Wizards will cost you $500+ for the combination of a one transmitter and one receiver. You can get two Cactus V transceivers -- a transceiver is a sort of unisex unit; a flip of a switch on the side of the unit allows it to serve as either transmitter or receiver -- for $60. I bought two sets (for $120) because I hope to integrate two lights into many of my shots, which means I need a minimum of three units. Just be aware that the Cactus Vs can be used only in Manual mode; the Pocket Wizards' versatility enables you to use your flash in either Manual or TTL (through the lens) modes.

For those unfamiliar, Manual mode is a simple (and recommended) way to learn off-camera flash using a wireless system. Your exposure will be consistent as long as your settings remain the same; that means you have to worry only about where to place the light and how to pose your subject. The rest will boil down to camera settings (aperture, shutter speed, ISO), which are easily adjustable. Whereas with TTL, which automatically calculates flash lighting exposure for you, lighting could change from one shot to the next. And I suppose that could be a good or bad thing. But with either option, there is always something you can do to adjust the lighting on your subject if you don't like what you see.

Sarah has modeled for other Indy Photo Coach classes, so she was a natural. She would vary poses without prompting ... and was happy to follow directions when the photographers asked for specific adjustments. Basically, she was a dream model. So Sarah, if you ever read this, thank you for that. The photo at the top, as I mentioned previously, features two lights -- my Speedlite 580 EXII as the main light, firing into an umbrella about 5 feet from Sarah and 45 degrees camera right. It was set at 1/16 intensity. Dustin was aiming the second Speedlight 580 EXII, set at 1/32 intensity, from about 130 degrees camera left, at the right side of Sarah's face to highlight both the face and hair. All of the shots using flash were shot, by the way, with a 0.25 orange gel on the flash.

Here then are some other shots from my shoot of Sarah that day.

Above and below: Two more two-light shots, with Dustin holding the accent light off to the left and behind Sarah.

Above and next four below: One-light shots, with the light position and Sarah's face in relation to that light the only things varying.

Above and the remainder below: These were taken with available light -- no artiticial light -- in between poses Sarah was giving to others in the class. Sarah was such a natural that I thought I should exploit as much "pose" time as possible when there were any lulls.

Palladium Classics Series debuts

I was outside the new state-of-the-art Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel (Ind.), including the main Palladium concert hall, last fall when the impressive, limestone building was still a good time away from imminent opening and, hence, "under construction" -- and not accessible to the general public. I took a good number of pictures back then -- again, only of the exterior -- and posted some in Photo Potpourri soon afterward.

On Sunday, I was fortunate to be on hand for the first performance of the Classics Series, one of the center's four series (Pop, Country and Jazz being the three others) in its inaugural season. Sunday's show featured the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Miró Quartet featuring renowned cellist Lynn Harrell. Harrell joined the Miró quartet as the fifth instrument for Schubert's Cello Quintet in C major.

Opening the bill were pianists Wu Han and Inon Barnatan, colleagues at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, who doubled up on one piano to perform Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue," a rich, satisfying -- and memorable -- launch for the facility's concert series. In between, Han returned to the stage to join fellow Lincoln Center Chamber colleagues Arnaud Sussman (violin), Mark Holloway (viola) and Andreas Brantelid (cello) to perform Brahm's Piano Quartet in G minor. You can add me to the list of people who will agree that the acoustics are every bit as excellent as has been touted. A good example: When Harrell and the Miro's Daniel Ching (on violin), had to repeatedly pluck their instruments during the Schubert composition, you could hear every pluck loudly and distinctly, and I was sitting in a third-level right-side mezzanine box, which was three levels up and about halfway back from the stage.  

The center doesn't allow photographs to be taken during performances, so arriving fashionably not-early-enough, I grabbed as many shots of the interior that I could in the short time I had before the lights dimmed and the show started. So as to travel light, I brought along my Canon PowerShot G12, which served me pretty well. The photos in this post are from that shoot. The image at the top of this post was snapped about a minute or so before the show started. I hope to get back to the center at a future date and do justice with a thorough photographic study. 

Below are pictures I was able to grab Sunday. In the exterior shot immediately below, you can see a bit of the red carpet that was laid out for the previous night's fundraiser, a high-dollar, big celeb (Neil Sedaka, Dionne Warwick, Chris Botti, Michael Feinstein) opening gala and dinner.