Grease is the Word...

I recently had the pleasure of shooting the dress rehearsals for the high school production of Grease. What a talented group of kids; they're so good it's easy to forget they are only in high school. With so many opportunities for great shots and so much action on stage, it's hard to focus :)

And it's not just the vocals; these kids can dance and act as well. We have some truly amazing talent in town.

I'd be surprised if some of these kids don't pursue a career in the performing arts.

It also helps to have outstanding direction, choreography, lighting, and many volunteers who help put together an outstanding production. The hard work really shows; the show was fantastic.

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Here are a few additional shots; it's hard to decide between the color or black and white version...

Harlem Wizards in Town

The Harlem Wizards were in town so I took the opportunity to capture some fun shots. These guys were exciting to watch and very entertaining. I think the entire town was packed into the gym!

These images were shot with my 70-200 f2.8 IS lens on a 1D Mark III @ 1250 ISO, 1/100 sec at f2.8. As you can see, the images are very clean, even at this ISO. The Mark III is amazing; shooting at 10 frames per second allows me to capture an entire action sequence. I can then select the exact moment I'm looking for.

In between the fun and the exhibitions, they did play some hoops. The teachers and parents were awesome but were no match for the Wizards. They did score a few points but lost in the end.

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London at Night

I just returned from a 5-day trip to London; it's one of my favorite cities (except for the exchange rate). Network connectivity was poor so I didn't have a chance to post from the hotel. The weather was OK by English standards but not optimal for photography (generally overcast and gray). So I decided to try some night shots with my Mark III given its low noise at higher ISO values. I started shooting as the sun began to set. The above image of Big Ben and Parliament was handheld at ISO 1600, f2.8 at 1/40th sec. The only retouching on this photo was a simple white balance.

I also had a chance to eat at Punjab, my favorite Indian restaurant located just down the street from Covent Garden. As always, the food was excellent! I miss London already...