My New Year’s resolution is to work harder at the marketing and licensing of my photography. For an outdoor photographer who is more at home shooting wild things in wild places and wild people doing wild things in those wild places, sitting in front of a computer or being on the phone is obviously not my forte. So when my friend and excellent photojournalist Bob Linder called to suggest that we check out the action at the Missouri Whitewater Championships on the St. Francis River in southeast Missouri last month, my New Year’s resolution was broken (temporarily).
I caved in partially because photographing the whitewater championships on the St. Francis is one of my favorite springtime activities, and because the UPS man delivered a new Nikon D4 DSLR camera the day before. While most of the world was drooling over the “New iPad,” being delivered that day, Nikon photographers across the planet were (and still are) fantasizing about the D4. I was lucky enough to be among the very first to receive one.
I’m not going to get into a review of the Nikon D4. There are more qualified people who can do that better than me. I can say that the qualities I was looking for (faster focusing, better tracking, HD video, better sensor resolution, and better noise quality at high ISO) are all present in this killer camera.
The 45th Missouri Whitewater Championships proved to be a great testing ground to challenge myself with the camera. I wasn’t the only one being challenged though. Record high water challenged both competitors and organizers of the competition. Heavy rain in the days before the competition sent water levels on the St. Francis River in southeast Missouri to some of the highest that the championships has experienced.
As is always the case, the time spent on a beautiful spring day on the St. Francis was a treat and a great shakedown on operating the new camera.
Now, it’s back to marketing and licensing of my work. On the plus side, I’ve already experienced some interest in the photos from the St. Francis River from a magazine publisher so I guess the diversion from my New Year’s resolution activities was worthwhile.
ABOVE: Hunter Smoak of Ames, Ia. races in the K1 men's Novice/Expert class on the slalom course of the 45th Annual Missouri Whitewater Championships. Smoak placed fifth in the class and first in the downriver K1 Men’s Novice class. The Missouri Whitewater Championships, held on the St. Francis River at the Millstream Gardens Conservation Area, is the oldest regional whitewater slalom race in the United States. Heavy rain in the days prior to the competition sent water levels on the St. Francis River to some of the highest heights that the race has ever been run. Only expert classes were run on the flood level race course. Novices who chose to race were re-classified as “novice experts”; to recognize their achievements.
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