Michael Hickey Photographer

Jessica and Kyle are engaged - Kokomo Wedding photography

A brief break in sports this past weekened as I shot the handsome couple Jessica and Kyle who are recently engaged at Highland Park in Kokomo, Indiana. Their wedding is coming up in Indianapolis in October and I couldn't be more anxious to shoot it!

 

 

 

Canon 5D Mark III - A VERY unscientific analysis

I've owned the new Canon 5D Mark III for a little over a week now and I thought I'd share my thoughts. 

First of all, I'm not a scientist. This is not a technical review, I don't have the time or inclination to get into a detailed and scientific analysis of the images. This is just a few words from a normal photographer using the camera in a normal way, not under stringently controlled conditions and no charts or advanced software. Just a normal working guy's opinion and a few images from recent NBA games. 

What I like:

High ISO performance! Without a doubt Canon's best performer to date. Nikon has always had the edge but this camera closes the gap in a serious way. I also own a 1D Mark IV and I cringe when I push it up to ISO 3200. The 5D Mark III sings all the way up to IS0 6400 and is quite useable at ISO 12800. With some noise reduction and good post processing skills, I can see using it at ISO 25600. It's that good. The following images demonstrate it. 

AF. There's no comparing this camera to previous versions of the 5D series. None at all. I've not had a chance to use and test each AF scenario but what I've seen has been very good to excellent. Best in class...? I wouldn't go that far until I've had more time to experiment. There are 6 different built in AF scenarios that are tailored somewhat to different types of applications and sports. The scenario I've been using that the camera suggests you use for basketball has been a good performer. Not quite excellent but very good. It's nailed some shots that I thought to myself "no way" I got that but then on the next play it performed like an old dog leaving me scratching my head wondering why it didn't get nailed on. Got me? So the jury's still out on the AF but to sum up, the good outweighs the bad by a long shot even with a LOT more experimenting to do. 

Dual card support. Pretty much the same operation we've had in the 1D series with the Mark III and IV which I use a lot. Thank you Canon. 

Flash exposure. I don't have the new 600EX but the performance with the 580EXII has been very good. No real complaints here.

RAW Image processing. I've not had a chance to use this in a real world situation but I love this feature. I normally shoot in all RAW and I can't tell you how many times I've had people look at the back of my camera and request a copy of an image ASAP. Previously this kind of request was a pain in the butt because it meant opening up a RAW image processor, editing, sizing the image, saving and then sending. Now with the RAW Image processing feature I can still shoot in RAW and when someone sees a shot they like and want immediately, I go to the RAW image processing feature on the camera and convert the image to jpg, size it, apply some basic editing and save it as a jpg with a push of a button all in camera. Open up the card and among all of your RAW's is that jpg, drag it to the email and presto, done!

What I'm NOT crazy about:

Battery. This thing is a power hog, plain and simple. My Mark IV is so efficient on power it seems like I hardly ever charge my batteries. Having more than two batteries for a single Mark IV is overkill. I feel I can go for days on a single battery charge and I shoot a LOT of sports and I use a LOT of AF and IS. As for the 5D Mark III, I've charged the battery a LOT comparitively speaking and I had the camera start to die on me (blinking battery light) in the middle of a shoot that sent me scrambling for a co worker's battery back in the office and begging to borrow a charger from a collegue before an NBA game last night. I NEED the grip accessory and more batteries ASAP. Thankfully, Canon stuck with the LP-E6 battery meaning they're in plentiful supply already.

Buffer. I usually shoot sports in RAW+M. I archive the RAWs later but I use the jpgs for deadline submissions. Works perfectly with the Mark IV shooting sports. The 5D Mark III, however, is a dog in this respect. I'm lucky to get a 7 or 8 image burst before filling the buffer and shutting down shooting. Just something I'm going to have to get used to by being a little more selective in what I shoot. Not a huge deal, just an adjustment. I'm sure if I shot just RAW or just JPG it probably wouldn't affect me much but again I haven't tried that yet.

Shutter lag weirdness. Not sure if this is a bug or a setting but sometimes on a fast break scenario, I'll press the shutter button and nothing happens for a second or two. Like I said maybe it's just a setting but it's killed me a couple of times already and something that I need to look into.

I'll update this post if I think of anything else but this is the stuff that jumps out at me intially.

If I had to give this camera a rating it would be conditionally an 8 or 9 out of 10 depending on further testing and usage and that's using it primarily for sports. I could very well be a 10 out of 10 for normal everyday photojournalism or wedding work. I can't wait to use it at a wedding next week, my feeling is it will perform marvelously providing I have enough battery power!

Here's some grab shots before a recent NBA game with an ISO indication and lastly I'll throw in a small gallery of action shots.

 

 

 

Canon 5D Mark III action gallery - Images by Michael Hickey

Speaking of wedding photography....

I can let the cat out of the bag and announce that the brand spanking new wedding website is now in development. Michael Hickey Weddings is in beta form but it's not so bad that I don't want anyone to see it, lol. So head over to check it out. Slowly I'll add more galleries to the site and some more polishes here and there and maybe even the overall general layout might change, who knows, but at least it's getting done, ya know?

I've always been a little disappointed in the traffic performance of my main site compared to the site I had before Photoshelter came along, not that I'm knocking Photoshelter but I got a LOT more inquiries and bookings with my old, OLD site so I'm hoping this brings a little of that back. Plus, I can't continue to have all the sports and entertainment content compete with the wedding content and expect people to find my wedding info. Ain't happening. 

I'd love to hear any feedback anybody might have.

Thanks for looking!

Indianapolis Kokomo Indiana Wedding photography

Indianapolis Carmel Fishers Kokomo Indiana Wedding Photography - Images by Michael Hickey

I've updated my wedding gallery to reflect some recent weddings that I've shot. I've got a small handful of weddings this year in addition to all of the sports that I shoot but I'm always looking to pick up more. Many sports photographers detest weddings whereas I enjoy them a great deal. Yes, it's a long hard day but the emotions, moments and memories are exactly what a photojournalist such as myself craves. 
Coming soon, I'll be introducing an all new website totally devtoted to my wedding photography services so be on the lookout! 

Indiana Pacers yo yo season continues

76ersBlazers - Images by Michael Hickey

Pacers continue to play pretty decent basketball against everybody except for the elite teams. Just seems like we can't get it together to beat the top teams of the league. 

NBA-Indiana Pacers vs Golden State Warriors-Indianapolis

NBA-Indiana Pacers vs Golden State Warriors-Indianapolis, IN - Images by Michael Hickey

 

The Pacers ruined Brandon Rush's return to Indianapolis by blowing out the Warriors at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The guys in blue in gold are on a hot streak right now here's hoping they can keep it up.

Daytona 500

No way in hell was I missing my flight home on Sunday night.....

 

 

 

So I got nuttin'....

NBA Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers Pacemates

NBA-Lebron James and Indiana Pacers Pacemates - Images by Michael Hickey

Somebody forgot to tell the Indiana Pacers there was a game Tuesday night. Maybe they were spending the night with their valentines because the men in gold didn't show up to face King Lebron and the Heat at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Just watching warmups I knew it was going to be a long night, the Heat looked relaxed and was hitting everything in sight before they took their warmups off. After the tip it didn't take long to see that the Heat were there to put on a clinic for the audience in Indy and the Pacemates were there to do what they do best during the timeouts but a "basketball game" never happened. It was a disaster to put it mildly. Down by thirty at the half, Granger exited the game with an ankle injury and the Heat played everyone but the ball boys and training staff in the fourth quarter but the Pacers still couldn't recover. 
In all seriousness it was terrible game to watch and an even worse game to shoot. Nothing memorable here folks but if you feel compelled to look be my guest but prepare to be underwhelmed.

At least there's the Pacemates.

NCAA Basketball: Purdue Boilermakers vs Northwestern Wildcats-West Lafayette, IN

NCAA-Purdue Boilermakers vs Northwestern Wildcats-West Lafayette, In - Images by Michael Hickey

First of all, something I don't understand. When a school, team, league, etc issues a parking credential to a photographer and then they don't grant you anyway to park to PICK UP the parking credential, life gets a little aggravating. Please work on this Purdue, thanks in advance.

This game stayed pretty darn close all night until the very end when the Boilermakers pulled away in the closing minutes and was capped off when Northwestern's Drew Crawford got a little crazy reacting to what he initially thought was a charging foul on him. He proceded to slam the ball and was lit up for a "T". Since he was charged with another technical foul earlier in the game for a minor skirmish this foul caused him to be ejected. And to top the entire incident off with a cherry, the charging foul that drew his reaction was changed to blocking foul on Purdue. Whoops.

Purdue over Northwestern 87-77.

NBA Basketball: Indiana Pacers vs Denver Nuggets-Indianapolis, In

NBA Indiana Pacers vs Denver Nuggets-Indianapolis - Images by Michael Hickey

The Indiana Pacers are on a skid and they have the Heat tomorrow night. And the Bulls and their injury issues with D Rose, you'd think now would be a good time to make up some ground in the central division.

Shout out to the Indiana Pacers Pacemates for the traffic they consistently send to my site!!!!