May 16th, 2009 - Black Belt Promotion Test

On May 16th I tested for my 1st degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do from Tiger Martial Arts. Although I couldn't take photos during the test, I was able to take videos of my fellow black belt candidates doing their board breaking, so here are a few of my favorite videos I captured below.

May 9th Wedding

I second shot this wedding with Cindy Carlile of Captured by Candi. I had so many favorites from this one it was hard to choose which ones I liked the best!

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You can see more of my favorites in the gallery here: http://photos.cathoffman.com/gallery/7394691_CdiGB

May 1st Wedding

Had a lot of fun photographing this lovely couple, and I tried out some new post processing which I was very pleased with. For those wondering where this is, it is all on the campus of the University of Notre Dame. The ceremony was held in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart and the reception was at the Morris Inn on campus.

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More photos that I loved here: http://photos.cathoffman.com/gallery/7083913_DbXEY

Animoto Attempt

I gave animoto a try, neat but without paying you really can't do a large amount of photos in the free acount 30 second limit.

Last pre-tournament VU men's basketball game

This past Saturday was the Valparaiso University Crusader men's last home game before the Horizon League tournament started. (I think they have their first game for the tourney tonight in Ohio or something...) So here are the shots I managed to pull off with my beloved 5D Mark II and my 70-200 f2.8/L IS.... enjoy! ^_^

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And 12... though there is a hand in the middle, I'm working on figuring out how to remove it.

Some of my best ring shots

I was recently asked to post some of my best ring shots on the dgrin.com forums, so below are what I shared... enjoy!

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Valpo Women's Basketball vs. Cleveland State (January 5th, 2009)

Took the 5D2 out for some more sports action.... this time for the Valparaiso University women's game against Cleveland State. I used the 70-200 2.8 IS as usual... and the shots were taken at ISO 4,000 f2.8... shutter varying between 1/800 or 1/1000 generally depending on the lighting.

Below are a few of my favorites:

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More can be found here: http://photos.cathoffman.com/gallery/7057305_uEATg

December 20th Wedding

This was my first wedding with my 5D Mark II as well as my first wedding getting to use the 35 1.4/L Both thoroughly impressed me in what I was able to pull off using them. I second shot this wedding for / with Cindy of Captured By Candi.

First we will start off with my all time favorite wedding photograph:


I also got a great shot of her dancing with her mom:


The cake looked very yummy


The couple had this awesome cozy as the gifts for everyone


I love this shot I took of their guests


Since there was a Christmas tree at the reception hall, I used it for the ring shot


The couple was really fun to work with


And everyone had lots of fun!




For of my portfolio favorites from that wedding can be seen here: http://photos.cathoffman.com/gallery/6291485_dVV3z

Thanks for looking! Next post on my list of "catching up" will be photos from my family time for Christmas and New Years :)

New photos in my slideshow

I uploaded some new photos into the slideshow on my main page :) Mostly wedding photos but also added one photo from an engagement shoot and one photo from a basketball game. I should have the wedding photo favorites from the December 20th wedding uploaded tonight while I sleep (at least that's the plan). I narrowed my 750 or so photos down to 50 of my favorites. My 5D Mark II takes huge files though, most of my images at 10mb or bigger if I export them at 100% jpg resolution. But the photos look amazing and I love the results the 35L and 135L lenses were giving me on that camera. My absolute favorite first dance photo is in that bunch that will be getting uploaded later.

Catching up on recent events

So in my rush to constantly test my 5D Mark II out (which oh yeah, do I REALLLLLLLY love this camera) I have a few more things prior to the wedding I just shot to post. Namely some really nice shots I was able to take in available light w/ the 135 f2/L lens that I also got not the long ago.

These were taken at my work places staff Christmas feast last week. (I work at Valparaiso University's IT department for my "main" job)









Seriously, no flash for any of these! I'm loving this camera and it's high ISO abilities!!