Moses Mabhida Stadium – 28 November

It is 28 November  2009, a day before the opening match at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban. I’m at the Kingspark Swimming pool across the street busy with the Westville sprints gala. Just finished taken photos for the day at 6:30 pm and went out to get some fresh air.

See the light outside, rush back inside, grab my D3, 24-70mm, 20mm and 10.4mm lenses. Ran to the outside pavilion to the top and took around thirty images with the three lenses for about 10 minutes. Normally stadium lights and ambient light balances out for only 10 minutes or so. So to get the right balance one must be quick and be at the right time at the right place.

Tomorrow at 3:30pm is the opening match between Amazulu and Maritzburg united. All the tickets are sold out which mean there will be more than  70 000  people in the stadium. I’m going to cover the game and looking forward to see the stadium from the inside for the first time. One of the 2010 World Cup Semi Finals will be hosted at the stadium. Hope i will have the priviledge to attend that match as well.

Here one of the images i took with the Nikon 20mm F2.8 lens.

Gerhard

www.supermedia.co.za

Kelly Slater

Came upon this image of Kelly Slater that i took in 2008 during the Billabong Pro in Jeffreys Bay at Supertubes. Used a Nikon D3 and a Nikon 400mm F2.8 lens fitted with a 1.4 converter.

Gerhard

www.supermedia.co.za

Gerhard Steenkamp Photography

Go to Gerhard Steenkamp Photography and have a look at my Wedding,Corporate and Portrait Portfolios.

Gerhard

Prints From Africa

After some requests i decided to register a new blog and sell some of my images as prints. To view some of these fine Art Prints For Sale go to Prints from Africa.

Gerhard

www.supermedia.co.za

Craizy Daisy

On 19 November i did the yearly product shoot for Martinet and her team at Crazy Daisy in Bloemfontein. It is always a pleasure to go and take photos there. Apart from all the lovely food and products they are a very sufficient team and also very friendly.

I did the shoot on location with a Nikon D3 and a Nikon 200 mm F2 and a Nikon 105 mm f2.8 lens. For photos like these i always opt for the prime lenses for the extra bit of image quality. Zoom lenses just don’t give the same sharpness, saturation and contrast.

Setting om my camera were plain and simple. Aperture priority with the highlights function activated on my screen so i can see whats is going on. Then i just kick the brake and petrol by spinning the back wheel on my camera to the left and to the right. To do this go to your settings and set to auto exposure compensation. By doing this you don’t have to press the button in front and turn the back wheel on the camera. You can set your exposure by just turning the back wheel. On normal if you turn it to the right or ant-clockwise it will under expose and to the left or clockwise it will over expose.

White Balance on Auto with one notch to the left to add a bit of blue. ISO vary between 200 and 640. All the images were taken with available light only.

Gerhard

www.supermedia.co.za

Bafana Bafana vs Jamaica

Well i don’t know if Bennie McCarthy is the right player to save Bafana Bafana’s dreams for the 2010 World Cup but i heard that CJ vd Linde is injured so maybe this is the right guy to go and save the Boks at prop. And if it is starting to going bad in the kicking department he can also sort the kicking out.

Looking at the next photo you will see that Bennie can still  jump so maybe he can also sort out the line-out out if there might be a problem om Saturday against Italy. I’m telling you this is the guy for tight head prop………..just a joke, i think he is still a very good player. Maybe 15 kilos lighter and he can safe Bafana Bafana as well.

Photo taken on 17 November 2009 when Bafana Bafana played Jamaica at Vodacom Park in Bloemfontein.

Gerhard

www.supermedia.co.za

Nikon 400mm F2.8

Got a mail from my photographer friend in the UK Matthew last week and it went like this;

“How are you using your lens, do you have a 400mm with a 1.4x converter ? It is very sharp if it is, I guess thats the advantage of Nikon over the Canon I use”

I answered him like this;

“At the moment i’m using the 1.7 converter on the 400mm which give you a 680mm F4.8. Then the camera can switch between full frame and a 1.5 conversion which give you a 1020mm F4.8.  So if i sit behind the pitch i’m using it on the 1020mm setting on the far side and on 680mm on the closest wickets”

Here an image of Graeme Smith on 15 November 2009 in the game between England and South Africa at Centurion.

Gerhard

More images on www.supermedia.co.za

George du Rand

George du Rand smashes the 200m backstroke world record today (7 November 2009) in a time of 1min. 47.08sec in Moscow Russia at the Fina/Arena World Cup Swimming event.

The old record was held by Markus Rogan of Austria. His world record time was 1min 47,84sec.

Here an image of George that i took at the African leg of the Fina/Arena World Cup swimming on 17 October 2009 in Durban.

Gerhard

www.supermedia.co.za

Fourie du Preez

For the second time Fourie du Preez received the player of the year award. Here an image of him during the Currie Cup final between the Bulls and the Cheetahs at Loftus Versfeld on 31 October 2009. Heinrich Brussow running behind him got the young player of the year award.

Gerhard

More images on www.supermedia.co.za

Blue Bulls vs Cheetahs 31 October 2009

Congratulations to the Bulls and tough luck to the Cheetahs. Fourie du Preez was outstanding to create three tries against the run of play.

At least the Cheetahs won two of the three national titles with the 0/19 and 0/21 teams beating the Lions and the Sharks selectively in their finals at Loftus on Saturday. Well done Cheetahs were all proud of you!!!

Here an image of Victor Matfield running onto the field in his 5oth game for the Bulls.

More images of the three games on www.supermedia.co.za

Gerhard