Boot Camp

Today is the day of the Minnesota Roller Girls' championship bout at the Roy Wilkins Hall in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Good luck to them! I hope it's a fun time for everybody.

I'm staying home. I'm kind of catching my breath the past few days. Things have been pretty busy with the North Star Roller Girls so far this spring, with both league bouts and travel team bouts coming rather quickly. In March there was a league bout, and then a week off, and then three consecutive weekends with travel team bouts in different cities. One of these was in Columbus, Ohio - 14 hours each way by freeway. I'm very, very committed to supporting NSRG and I really want to go to every single bout I can, but even I couldn't survive this schedule without going broke. Neither could the rest of the NSRG Media Team. So we finally had to meet and divide these games up among ourselves. It was the first time we've done that. I hope we don't ever have to do it again.

Last weekend was the third of these trips, to Madison, Wisconsin. I went, and when I got home I spent (as usual) the next 3-4 days absorbed in post-processing the photos. At one point I had them all done and posted them on Fotki.com (which is where the NSRG media team maintains albums of NSRG photos), but then I took a second look at them and hated the color balance. So I deleted them all and re-processed them!

In one way that sounds fanatic but in another way it's not. This is just me wanting excellence, and also me being willing (and, thank goodness, able at the moment) to put in the kind of time that all this post-processing requires. I'll say it again - derby is not just a passion of mine. It is also my graduate-level PhD in photography. If passion is the reason I shoot this sport, then learning new skills is one of the great rewards. My friendship with NSRG has given me a chance to shoot in many, many different conditions - portraits, studio, action, candids, events, parties, outdoor light, bar light, stadium light, studio strobes, with on-camera flash, without flash ... the variations go on and on. And beyond the camera, I've been learning how to use Lightroom and Photoshop at a whole new level just to make these photos look the best they possibly can. After all this, I honestly feel like I'm ready for any photo subject on planet earth. Somalia? Antarctica? Urban riots? Terrorism? Pirates? Hah. After derby, these would be a piece of cake.

You think I'm joking, but I'm not. Derby is fast, has multiple subjects (the pack), is chaotic, and takes place (as often as not) in lousy lighting conditions. At least in a war zone I'd be shooting in daylight and people aren't hurling past on roller skates. Are you kidding? It's a no-brainer. Give me the war zone any day. After derby, I could cover flying bullets in my sleep.