2015 4A IEL Regional Tennis

I was able to make it to a handful of the 4A IEL Regional Tennis matches hosted by Sandpoint High School at various locations.  The meet featured tennis players from Sandpoint High School, Lakeland High School and Moscow High School.  For full galleries from this meet and to order prints please visit my website at this link: http://bit.ly/1FRTzUd

IEL Regional Tennis Meet - 9 IEL Regional Tennis Meet - 8 IEL Regional Tennis Meet - 7 IEL Regional Tennis Meet - 6 IEL Regional Tennis Meet - 5 IEL Regional Tennis Meet - 4 IEL Regional Tennis Meet - 3 IEL Regional Tennis Meet - 2 IEL Regional Tennis Meet - 1

 

Jason Duchow Photography is located in Oldtown, Idaho and does on location portraiture throughout Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington.   Jason specializes in environmental portrait photography often with the use of  dramatic lighting techniques and is also known for his freelance sports photography work for www.idahosports.com, The Coeur d’Alene Press, The Bonner County Daily Bee, Priest River Times, Newport Miner, Living Local and a handful of other newspapers and publications.

05/07/2015 Lacrosse (Coeur d’Alene at Lake City)

Cross town rivals Lake City and Coeur d’Alene faced off for the final time in the 2015 season.  Coeur d’Alene was the victor with a 9-5 final score.  For a full gallery of photos from this game and to order prints visit my website at this link: http://bit.ly/1dfJ5oq

Lacrosse - Coeur d'Alene at Lake city 05-07-20156 Lacrosse - Coeur d'Alene at Lake city 05-07-20155 Lacrosse - Coeur d'Alene at Lake city 05-07-20154 Lacrosse - Coeur d'Alene at Lake city 05-07-20153 Lacrosse - Coeur d'Alene at Lake city 05-07-20152 Lacrosse - Coeur d'Alene at Lake city 05-07-20151

Lacrosse - Coeur d'Alene at Lake city 05-07-20157 Lacrosse - Coeur d'Alene at Lake city 05-07-20150

 

Jason Duchow Photography is located in Oldtown, Idaho and does on location portraiture throughout Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington.   Jason specializes in environmental portrait photography often with the use of  dramatic lighting techniques and is also known for his freelance sports photography work for www.idahosports.com, The Coeur d’Alene Press, The Bonner County Daily Bee, Priest River Times, Newport Miner, Living Local and a handful of other newspapers and publications.

2015 IEL Regional Track Meet

2015 Lost in the 50’s Parade

2015 Idaho State Softball Tournament

2015 Idaho State cheer competiton

2015 Idaho State Dance and Cheer Competition

After taking over 100,000 photos and spending 150-200 hours editing, the 2015 Idaho State Dance and Cheer Competition galleries are finally finished!   I knew that covering this event was going to mean two very long days of photography and many hours of editing, but I did not expect it to take me a month and a half before I could finally write this blog post.  Now after going through the thousands of shots I culled it down to just under 31,000 photos to edit and publish.  I have a few things to say about the event and the work that went into covering it, but first let me mention that I am offering a screaming great deal on the photos from the event so if you were a competitor, parent or grandparent of a competitor please keep reading for the details.  Rocky Mountain High School dancers performing during the 2015 Idaho State Dance CompetitionIn my years of sports photography I have captured images of dance teams and cheerleaders at many different sporting events but this spring I had my first taste of the competitive side dance and cheer.   With most sports there are moments of peak action and often there is one or more athlete involved in that peak action.  I watch for those moments and react to them in an attempt to capture an image or series of images that are compelling and interesting.  Most often these moments are somewhat predictable and the better you know the sport the easier it is to follow and anticipate what is going to happen.  Even with sports like Soccer and Lacrosse where there is constant play there is plenty of time in between peak action when I am not taking photos.  Dance and Cheer, on the other hand, is not like that at all.Kellogg Cheerleader performing at the state cheer competition

The official rules of the dance routines state that the routine has to be 2-3 minutes long.  For Cheer three out of the four kinds of routines of have a maximum time limit of 1 minutes and the show routines have a maximum time limit of 2 minutes and 30 seconds.  My goal at an event like this is to capture at least one or more great images of every single dancer or cheerleader but the tricky thing is I only have 1 to 3 minutes to make sure that happens.  This is in no way an easy task; it means holding my camera to my eye constantly scanning the court back and forth and firing away like a mad man trying to make sure that during every pass I at least attempt to photograph every performer.

Idaho State Dance Competition

One thing that I did to help capture as many images as possible was to set up a remote camera with a wide angle lens. This camera was triggered by a remote placed on the camera in my hand which allowed me to get close up shots and wide angle shots at the same time.  Here is an example of how I was able to isolate a single cheerleader in midair with one camera while also capturing the entire context of the moment with my remotely triggered camera.

20150321-JD1_5778-2Since this was my first ever Dance and Cheer competition I was so very grateful for how helpful the event coordinators were to work with.  Julie Hammons, the Event Director and Lisa Hahle, the Co-Event Director were genuinely glad to have me there and were so very helpful to me.  I also enjoyed the fleeting moments between routines when I was able to chat with the judges.  I learned a lot from them which in turn helped me to do a better job behind the camera.2015 Idaho Dance competition

I really enjoyed being a part of the event and I would love to cover it again in the future but now it is time to see if the hundreds of hours I have spent on the project were a worthwhile investment and whether or not covering it again in the future is a viable business decision.   If you or someone you love was a part of this event and you think this was a worthwhile use of my time you can cast your vote by placing an order for prints or digital copies.  As I mentioned in the opening paragraph I also have a super great, all inclusive digital package that may be the best value I have ever offered. You can check out the details for that below.

2015 Idaho State cheer competiton

All Inclusive Digital Package

For the 2015 State Dance and Cheer competition I am offering all of the photos of your dance or cheer team’s competitions and awards as a digital download for only $199.  This download link for the photos can be shared with every member of your team so that means that everyone on the team gets to have their own copies to keep and treasure forever.  You can split the cost between teammates or purchase the package as a gift to share with your team.   Below you will find a link to view all of the photo galleries on my website where you can view and order individual photos as well as a link to purchase the complete package.  If you have any questions or need any assistance you can contact me through the contact link at the top of the page.

Links:  View the Galleries  /  Purchase the Package

Now for some more images from the competition

Sandpoint Dancer

Idaho State cheer State Dance

Idaho State cheer Idaho State Dance

Lakeland Cheer 20150320-JD1_3341B

Glenns Ferry Cheer Idaho State Dance

Idaho State cheer Idaho State DanceBishop Kelly Cheer Idaho State DanceSt. Maries Cheer Idaho State DanceMadison Bobcat Cheer Idaho State DanceMeridian Cheer Idaho State DanceIdaho State cheer Idaho State DanceIdaho State cheer Idaho State Dance Idaho State DanceNew Plymouth CheerMinico Cheer

 

 

 

Winter Senior Portraits with Taylor Ann

This winter in North Idaho ended up being a total flop when it came to doing winter senior portraits..  We had a little bit of snow early but then, in the heart of the winter when it was time to actually start doing some sessions with my senior models there was not even snow to be found on Schweitzer Mountain Resort.  I even ended up traveling to Glacier National Park at one point to see if I could find any good winter conditions there, I was able to find a bit of snow up high, but there was still a lot less than I would have expected.

Thankfully there was a day when we got a surprise snow storm so I contacted Taylor Ann, my Class of 2016 Senior model from Newport and she just happened to not be in school that day.  I quickly gathered up some gear and headed out to meet up with her.  Of course the weather was par for the course and as soon as we met up it had warmed up and started raining in town.  Since we we were together and had the time we thought we would see if we could find any snow at a higher elevation and the search paid off.  We found just enough snow to grab a few fun shots and call it a day.  We had nice overcast conditions, falling snow and some nice white snow on the ground so for this shoot we worked completely with natural light.

Winter Senior Portraits 014 20150202 Winter Senior Portraits 015 Winter Senior Portraits 016 Winter Senior Portraits 017 Winter Senior Portraits 018

Jason Duchow Photography is located in Oldtown, Idaho and does on location portraiture throughout Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington.   Jason specializes in environmental portrait photography often with the use of  dramatic lighting techniques and is also known for his freelance sports photography work.  Jason is also a Sponsored Pro for Interfit Photographic (http://interfitphotographic.com/)

Favorite 100 Portraits of 2014

The job of narrowing down all of the portraits I have taken the past year to only my favorite 100 is so very difficult, I have great clients and every one of them have photos that I love and want to include in my final Favorite 100 portraits of 2014, but alas I have to narrow it down to only 100.  2014 was a great year for me.  I added new photos to my portfolio that I have had in my mind for a long time, I learned new things and I pushed myself to try new things.  For the first time I entered photos into the Senior Style Guide Hot 100 contest and was thrilled to find out that I had an image selected in the urban category, check it out here.  This was a hard job, but now I can present to you a short video featuring my favorite 100 portraits of 2014!

 

Jason Duchow Photography is located in Oldtown, Idaho and does on location portraiture throughout Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington.   Jason specializes in environmental portrait photography often with the use of  dramatic lighting techniques and is also known for his freelance sports photography work.  Jason is also a Sponsored Pro for Interfit Photographic (http://interfitphotographic.com/)

2014 Senior Style Guide Hot 100

SSG Hot 100 ButtonEvery year Senior Style Guide accepts submissions from senior photo artists throughout the world.  The contest has 10 categories and they choose 10 winning images per category for a total of 100 winning images.  This year I entered the contest for the first time and was pleased to find out that I had a photo that made the final cut!

The image that was selected was of Sandpoint High School senior Preston Cole.  The category for this photo was “Urban” and it was taken on the backside of an old warehouse near the loading docks.  This was a slightly tricky photo to make as you will see in the behind the scenes photo of our lighting set up.  Here is the finished image of Preston.

urban strobist "off camera flash"Here is what it looks like straight out of the camera:Now the lighting set up.  This image was made using two strobes, one boomed directly above Preston with a 7″ reflector and a 30 degree grid.  The point of this light was to light his shoulders and hair as well as the rail, stairs and a little spill on the door.  The idea here was to mimic a light on the building above the door.  For the main light I used a strobe with a 47″ gridded octa, the light was positioned to create a lighting pattern right between Rembrandt and Loop when he was looking at the camera.  The photo was shot with a Canon 5DIII with a 24-70 f2.8 lense at f10.BTS "Behind the Scenes" "lighting set up"urban strobist "off camera flash" So now let me explain what was tricky about making this photo.  If you look closely at my assistant Mark you will notice that the lip on the loading bay was very narrow.  It was too narrow to fit the base of the c-stand so we had to use one of the rubber bumpers for the third leg.  The bumpers, as you can see, are not level with the loading bay floor so left to itself the stand would not be stable.  To solve this we used all of our weight bags on the back legs and had Mark putting his weight on the stand and NEVER letting go!   Here is a close up for you.2014 Senior Style Guide winning senior photo of Sandpoint senior Preston ColeTo close I just want to say thank you to Vickie Black and the crew at Senior Style Guide for putting together the Hot 100.  I am grateful for the opportunity to enter the contest and very excited to be selected.  I am excited to work with the upcoming class of 2016 and look forward to making more great images for them. Who knows maybe one of those will make the cut for next year’s contest!

Jason Duchow Photography is located in Oldtown, Idaho and does on location portraiture throughout Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington.  Jason specializes in environmental portrait photography often with the use of  dramatic lighting techniques and is also known for his freelance sports photography work for www.idahosports.com, The Coeur d’Alene Press, The Bonner County Daily Bee, Priest River Times, Newport Miner, Living Local and a handful of other newspapers and publications.