BSC at the dome

Boston Scientific sponsors Gopher sports which is great. As a part of that sponsorship they get a certain amount of advertising at events. Last month I was asked by HR if I might be interesting in creating animation for use at the Gopher football games at the Metrodome. Hell yeah!

This is a still from the animation. Click on it to see the full resolution version. Be ready to scroll!



Right off I hit on the idea of the long strip being a blood vessel so I thought blood cells would make a neat backdrop to the text and logo treatments. I also tried more 3D cells but the more graphic cells looked better and didn't screen blood!

The display it would play on is one of those wrap around LED displays between upper and lower desks. I've usually seen them as continuous bands all the way around but the dome display was just stand alone with the bizarre resolution of 2400 by 40 pixels. By contrast, a TV is generally speaking 640 by 480 pixels. The whole piece only 17 seconds long and designed to loop for as long as they play it during breaks in the action. Its so wide that it's hard to put onto the blog. But is you want to see it, right click on this link and down load it. Then play it in Quicktime.

Here is a photo at the dome. The animation is the blue strip in the middle and just peeking in on the right.



OK, so I have to come clean on the photo. It's a fake. I couldn't find anyone to take a photo at a game so with a little help from some nameless Gopher fan on Flickr, I was able to find a random game photo. It nicely shows the display - just not the right message. No problem. Here's how I did it. Click on the images for a zoom in.

Here is the orginal. With a little color and contrast adjustment.



I saved one frame (this one) from the animation. Then scaled it down and warped it slightly to the curve of the stands. I was kinda luck that it's mostly flat to the camera so I didn't have to correct for perspective.



The new display does not look like its lit up so I had to add some glare and boost the saturation.



Much better. I also added subtle things like noise to the new elements and grunged up the edges. The CG elements were too perfect.

Bicycle Planet

On this planet, unlike this planet, the inhabitants have made a clearing for cyclocross racing.

This was made in Photoshop from a whole bunch of shots at the Afton Alps Cyclocross race. Normal photos can be found on Flickr.

Bike Race Dogs

I've been out to a couple bike races taking photos. I have photos from the Ham Lake Cyclocross race here, and yesterdays Afton Alps race here.

It occurred to me as I processed through yesterdays photos that I often end up with a really nice shot of someones dog. I don't know these dogs or their owners.

My photo tip to take away from this is that; even if you are somewhere to specially shoot subject A, always have an open eye to subject B, C, or D. They might end up more interesting then what you thought you were there to photograph in the first place.

UND Hockey Verses Mankato

My good friends and neighbors Hal Propp and his son Connor invited me along to a Sioux hockey game in Mankato. Hal is a UND alum like me. The Mavericks have a really good team this year and had already beaten UND on Friday night. The Sioux looked a bit sloppy to start with but came alive in the 3rd period to win 4-3. Winning goal was scored with only 8 seconds on the clock. Ended up being a fun game. We had a ball.



I had some trouble bring my camera into the arena. At the entrance the security guard asked me if I was a photographer. "Well, no, I'm not a professional if that's what you mean". It was the 20-200 pro-grade lens that drew her attention. I didn't argue, much, and headed back to the car. On the way I passed the front doors to the arena so I figured, what the hell, why not try here.

I passed right through with the camera right over my shoulder. I guess I found the 'camera' entrance. Wink wink. I didn't want to push my luck so I stayed in my seat in the far corner where all the North Dakota fans were. It limited my view but it was better then the view from the car if I got caught.

More photos on Flickr

Oseola Duathlon Photo

A nice shot from a Milwaukee photographer covering the race a few weeks back. Still waiting for the digital copy I ordered 2 weeks ago. Maybe me posting a hacked screen snap will draw his attention.

There are a few things that make it a great photo; The dynamic angle of the body as I'm about to turn is almost perfect. The dark defocused background really makes me and the bike standout. No sunglasses! You can actually recognize who the person is. Some of it's luck but a good photographer makes a certain amount of their luck happen by thinking ahead and being prepared. Nice job Fuad. Full disclosure; I did do a small bit of color and exposure correction on the screen snap I took from his race gallery.

This shot is just as I was heading out on the bike leg. The pylon in the left corner was only about 3 feet from the curb that we had to stay between. It was very tight.

Boston Scientifc Bike Club

During the week I try to get out for a ride with the guys at work. Around 11:30 a random bunch of people get together for a 20-22 mile ride through the northern suburbs of St Paul. We gather in the parking lot after changing into our gear in the company locker rooms. It's usually a very strong group and it's always fun. Some of us have been riding together at noon for years. Today we had a larger group of 8 people.



On this day I decided to take along my Canon G9 and try my hand at riding and shooting. A feat that can be a bit unnerving. I mostly just shot away without spending to much time thinking about it. Better to watch the road and my mates with at least one eye.



This video is of the hill on Snail Lake Road. It's the last hard stretch before we cool down on the last mile back to work. Most of the time we treat it like the end of a race. Either we stay together as if we were a team trying to launch someone to the top, or it's everyone for themselves.



I have a lot more photos on Flickr. The loop we take, which we call the northern loop, takes us up into White Bear Lake then loops back through North Oaks. It's a really nice urban ride that takes us around a few lakes, along a golf course, and some nice long stretches to really hammer on. Here is the map of our route.





View Larger Map

New Bike

I bought a new road bike!

Some time this Summer I decided that I was going to buy a new bike next year. I figured that gave me 6 to 9 months to look around and make some decisions on what I wanted.

The issue was accelerated for me when the right shifter on my Bianchi seized up. The mechanic told me it was a replace, not repair. Not good news but seeing as it was Fall and I would probably ride my Cervelo time trial bike on the trainer this winter - not a complete tragedy.

One day while I was at Now Sport, sponsor of my triathlon team, the owner, Paul, told me he had a used bike of the type I had my eye on. He let me take it for a few days, actually 4 days over a weekend. Now that is customer service. No money down or deposit. I just walked out.

The neat thing about the bike is that it was ridden for the Summer by a guy named Tim Mulrooney, Timmer to the racing community. Timmer was a sponsored rider on the Now Sport team. See, when you are really good you get bikes from your sponsor to ride. He went on to be the Rider of the Year (ROY) for the top division in Minnesota. The dude it fast. Here is a photo of Tim on the bike.


Photo from http://nowbikes-fitness.com/

So I bought!

It's a Litespeed Icon with Shimano Dura Ace components. It's made of Titanium. I haven't been on it more then a few times since I was getting ready for the 2 duathlons. But I hope to get some nice rides before it gets too cold.