Christmas Activities - 7 pics

[Dbl]

Just a few of the activities enjoyed by my family over the Christmas holiday, and still enjoying. Haven't had a chance to get ice fishing pictures, to busy fishing

#1 My son enjoying some fun on one of our two vintage snowmobiles.

#2 Some really nice snow this year.

#3 Snowshoeing was very popular this week.

#4 My nephew enjoying the first shots with his new shotgun.

#5 And the results

#6 Once quick scenery shot in color.

#7 And in black and white. Any preference on which one?

[WifeKidsandDog]

These are all great but I really like the stop action in the snowmobile shots. Great work on a grey day.

[MN Shutterbug]

Excellent timing on the bird. Did you just focus and hold the trigger down in burst mode, hoping he'd hit it? Whatever you did, it sure worked. I like how you caught the shell being ejected from the shotgun, too.

BTW, what did you meter off of in the first photo?

[MARINERMAGNUM]

1976 Yamaha GS340-nice sled!

[Dbl]

Thanks Cheryl, man I have a few hundred shots from yesterday afternoon, it really was a blast to shoot.

XT, I actually just shot a two shot burst on the clay shots, most of them were right on with the first shot. I was in AI servo and just picked up the clay just as if I was shooting it with a gun. I was waiting for a powder shot but they did not give me one

All of these photos were shot in manual. XT the first snowmobile shot is an excellent reason to chose manual, that dark background would have completely mis-read that shot for sure. I meter off my hand it gets me within 1/3 of a stop most every time. Just hold it out in front of me and fill the lens with my hand out of focus.

MM- WOW you know your snowmobiles! Right on the money. When I was younger we had a 1972 338SL so I have always had a soft spot for older Yamaha's. This one I picked up last winter for $200. Runs like a dream! I also have a 1974 Ski-Doo Elan 250T. My ice fishing machine, one guy can pick it up and load it into the back of a truck! Just have to wash all my clothes after riding to get rid of that smell of gasoline!

By the way these were all shot on private land with no danger to the photographer other than the driving of his 21 year old son!!!!

[buzzsaw]

That first snowmobile shot is great with the halo of snow over the top of your son! Great timing! Actually the thread is full of pics with great timing, the shell ejecting and the clay exploding. I prefer the one shot you asked about in color, the blues in the sky seem to add a lil bit of mood for me. Nice series, Dan.

[finnbay]

Great shots, Dan! Looks like a fun day! I like the first two sno-mo shots. Tough choice on the color vs BW, but I think I like the color better.

[WCS]

Nice snowmobile shots. Looks like you had a great Christmas.

[MN Shutterbug]

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XT, the first snowmobile shot is an excellent reason to choose manual, that dark background would have completely mis-read that shot for sure. I meter off my hand it gets me within 1/3 of a stop most every time. Just hold it out in front of me and fill the lens with my hand out of focus.

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Without anything to meter off of, I would have chose Av and decreased the exposure with the EC dial. Of course, this would have been more of an educated guess. I had completely forgot about using the hand for metering. I used to use this method, several years ago. I had assumed you chose spot meter and metered off their faces, on the other shots.

Sad but true, I used to know many of these things when I had my Nikon 35mm cameras. I probably went close to 10 years without any serious shooting. Unfortunately, I forgot a lot of what used to be automatic. I'm glad that you and others are bringing back memories of things I should have never forgot.

Another thing I must get used to is that digital is positive, like slide film. I always used to shoot negative film. The first time I took a few shots of something with snow in the bg,with my digital camera, I used the EC to decrease exposure. Guess what? I still remember shooting brown bears at the top of sunlit waterfalls in Alaska, many years ago. I decreased the exposure by a full 2 stops to get decent photos. Now, I have to think opposite that, when using the EC dial.

So much to learn, so much to remember. (sigh)

[Steve Foss]

Nice work, Dan. Looks like you had a great time with the family.

I like the B&W treatment of the snow/grass/sun. There's not much color in the color version, and removing the tan of the grass allows the eye to be drawn to the few strong compositional elements in the image. I also like that the only way you can tell where the snow ends and the sky begins is because of the grass.

I like those older Yammies, too. I've got a 1980 Exciter 440 that I use to haul my ice fishing flipover.

XT: Heck, man, good news is you'll pick it back up faster because even though though it's buried in the dim cobwebs of time in the back of the brain, it's easier to dig up info already learned than it is to learn it for the first time. Especially at our age.

[The_Duckslayer]

All nice work Dan. First shot with the halo looks like planes when they break the sound barrier. I like the colour one better than the B&W. Even though there is not a lot of colour it just seems to add richness or something that I can not explain. Thanks for sharing. Take care and N Joy the Hunt././Jimbo

[MARINERMAGNUM]

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I've got a 1980 Exciter 440 that I use to haul my ice fishing flipover.

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Those are a good sled too-Love the Black and gold theme.

[MARINERMAGNUM]

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MM- WOW you know your snowmobiles!

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I'm still [gulp] hanging onto my 76 and 77 SRX's. But the wife thinks they need to go.

I told her they can leave if replaced with a 600 F4L IS

[Steve Foss]

MM, thing I love most about the sled (well, except that I got it FREE and in perfect working condition), is that it's light and generally runs on top of slush rather than slogging through it. And of course if it does bog, I can pick up the back with one arm and move it over, and can get it up into the bed of the pickup on my own if I have to.

But, well, I DON'T like the narrow footprint of the runners compared with modern sleds. It's got a TON of scat, though, much more than I'll ever need for hauling gear. All that said, it's great at what I use it for. It's kind of cool, actually, using a sled built in the year I graduated high school.

If you can get your wife to go for that trade, I'd say it's a DARN FINE TRADE!

And sorry to keep this thread off topic from Dan's original post. Now, back to the love for dbl's pics!

[Dbl]

Actually I would prefer to talk about the sleds, the pics are not all that great. I worked these on my laptop and got home this evening and on my monitor they look VERY over sharpened. Don't understand that at all, just applied just a slight sharpening to these. I will have to rework these and re-post.

Now back to the sleds. The 74 Ski-Doo Elan 250T I have is so darn light you can lift the thing by yourself. The narrow tracks and ski stance will most definitely give you a heck of a work out. I am currently paying the price for 5 days of riding these things around. I hope to walk upright again by the new year!

[2u77matt]

Dbl,

I really like the first snowmobile shot (well, all of them, but especially that one). For my own education, may I ask what lens and aperture/shutter speed combo were used to stop motion in those shots?

[DTro]

That brings back some memories! Great shots.

I had a sled like that. I want to say it was a 433. Did Yamaha make a 433? It was something like that. 427...I forget

These big ol carbs were right in your chest, and after riding it you smelled of 2 stroke for about a week, and to choke it, you had to cover the carb openings with your choppers and pull at the same time.

ah to be young again.

[Dbl]

2u77matt,

These were all taken with a Mark IIN and 70-200/2.8. Shot at 800 ISO and f5.0. Shutter speeds varied from 1/2000s to 1/5000s. I am sure that anything above 1/1000s would have been more than adequate to stop any action. I prefer overkill when it comes to shutter speed.

dtro,

Yamaha did make a 433, it was a very fast sled in its time. I remember covering the carb trick myself. LOL Maybe that is what makes these old machines so much fun, they call us back to our youth! Of course it also reminds us that some of us are not all that young after getting beat up riding the darn things.

[Steve Foss]

You sports slobs, always a slave to fast shutter speeds

I froze my nose in 1973 on the back of an Arctic Cat, and never got on a sled again (thank God it was a Polaris) until I was a reporter with the Grand Forks Herald about 25 years later and went along on an attempt to set the world record for the number of sleds zooming from MN into Canada and back (it failed.)

I started hitting ice fishing very hard in 1996 in North Dakota and Minnesota, and didn't start hauling my gear via sled until 2004.

Man, I love that little Exciter 440. I spent many years in the gym and still go 260, and while the sled doesn't have much of a suspension, it still starts every time on the second pull, and I can wrestle it anywhere I want to with a minimum of effort.

Well, I still look with envy upon those monster two-up, wide-track, long-track, paddle-track testosterone sleds. But I know that, while it's rare enough they get stuck, when they do they are REALLY stuck, and there's nowhere my little 440 can go that I can't muscle it out on my own if I have to.

There, Dan, enough sled talk for you?

And I have to say that a guy with your sleds and interest in all things winter should get his sorry butt up to the Burntside Bash on Jan. 26 to try his hand at lakers and pictures. You can, of course, find info on that on the BWCAW-Duluth-Ely-Range board.

[MARINERMAGNUM]

Steve's little ripper?

[Steve Foss]

Bubba! Totally!

[Dbl]

MM is the king of Vintage Sleds!!!! That is a good looking ride! I agree Steve, I would love something newer but it is nice not having to worry about whether or not it snows or not, no payments! And you are right it is darn easy to pull these things out of snowbanks.

I will have to check my shooting schedule and work and see if I could make it up on the 26th. That sounds like it would be a blast. Never spent time fishing laker's, though I have wanted to. I will keep that date on the calender.

[Steve Foss]

Golly, as long as you're not jockeying corporate clients along the jet routes or shooting kids in unis, or, well, satisfying Mrs. Dbl's honey-do list, what's stopping you from coming up here? This will be my sixth Bside Bash, and I've been so busy organizing stuff that I've had little time to shoot images.