Anyway, here’s a selection of pictures from today…

Y.M... oops wrong song

Jump Start?

Zumba is one of the new keep fit crazes and in attendance were 342 ladies, and 3 blokes. It’s a very high energy dance aerobics, lots of fun, and below is a sample of pictures from the session.

Zumba!

“Join newcomers and Zumba lovers, young and old, to support the British Heart Foundation’s life-saving Mending Broken Hearts Appeal. It’s just £5 to register (children under 5 go free) and you’ll get a 50 minute Zumba class with qualified instructors. £4 of your entry fee plus all sponsorship raised goes directly to the British Heart Foundation by kind support of our partners Sheffield International Venues.

Gates open from 10.30am for an 11.30am-1pm Zumba session.”

Just in case you (like me until today) have no idea what Zumba is, Zumba is (according to wiki) a dance fitness program originating in Colombia during the 1990s. The program combines international music with dance in an effort to make exercise fun. Zumba classes are offered through licensed instructors in more than 110,000 locations in over 125 countries.

Anyway, enough waffle, here’s some pics…

Zumba Dancing & Mr Hearty

Mr Hearty & the SIV Team

Santas in the Fountain

and attended today as their official photographer. So here’s a selection of images from today

(PS I know I gave my card to a few parents today, if you know I took a picture today & it isn’t here and you want a copy please contact me and I’ll email one over)

Santa Gets Funky

Darth using dastardly tricks

Santa Love

Santa Baby

To begin it all went well, I arranged to finish work early to get up there for dusk, even managed to get payroll done early so I could. Got up to Sheffield, went into the Peace Gardens as they were being turned red from dusk and started firing some test shots, and then it all went horribly wrong, a hair appeared on the pics stuck to the sensor.

I’ve been using a Canon EOS 400D for the last 3 years, which has a built in sensor cleaner which will shift most crap off the sensor, but I’ve moved to a camera that lacks this feature, and haven’t got round to carrying a blower. No problems I’m quite adept at blowing crap off the lenses, I know you shouldn’t, but I’ll just do it manually. Big mistake.

The time when it’s really crucial you don’t spray, you do. Now the hairs gone, but I’ve got a wet sensor. Bad times. Very bad times. It’s 5:10pm on a Monday, it’s dusk shortly, it’s rush hour, homes an hour round trip at a good time, which it isn’t, and the event kicks off at 6pm.

Now I’m not one to sing Jessops praises, but I knew there was one not to far away, so I rushed round there in the hope they’d have a sensor cleaning kit, preferbly a wet cleaning kit. Didn’t get lucky on the latter, but did manage to pick up a “Lenspen SensorKlear Pro” kit for £34, expensive, especially when it’s £18 at Amazon, but at this point the choices were go home, or get the camera clean and cover the event, so took the plunge. Time was ticking on, asked the staff if I was ok do this right here on the counter, this was a good move I think I could at a push use Eclipse out in the field, but the Lenspen sensor cleaner is a tricky to use, and not that fast cleaner, especially not for the mess I’d made of the sensor. The staff gave me plenty of time and space to just get the job done properly and no problems not locking up bang on the 5:30 close time, so many thanks to the Jessops staff for that. 5:35 I’d managed to get the sensor just about acceptable, and head back out to shoot. This kit comes with an extra rocket blower, I’ll make sure I’m carrying this on me in the future now. Not making that mistake twice.

The work & heartache was worth it in the end though. Whilst the Peace Gardens weren’t that successful lit, the Wheel of Sheffield worked really well esp on long exposures, and managed to get some shots I’m really happy with

Wheel of Sheffield in Red

The SensorKlear didn’t fully shift the water marks off the sensor, and I prefer the theory of the Eclipse cleaners, trying to shift dirt is easier with a wet wipe, and I used a swap and Eclipse once I got home to shift a stubborn water mark I hadn’t shifted with the SensorKlear, but luckily it didn’t really affect any shots.