Altie

17 hours ago, shanshani said:

A weird number of people seem convinced that Yuzu won’t add back his 4Lo and I’m scratching my head as to why. Yeah, sure, he got injured on it, but skaters don’t just stop jumping something because they got injured doing it. The circumstances around 4Lz were very different.

Yeah. At Helsinki practices, 4Lo was one of the jumps he was practicing the most, being apparently frustrated that landing the jump was difficult on that ice (many skaters had problems with the ice at this competition). He clearly wants to include the jump this season (and he LOVES the jump). So, yeah, I'm pretty sure 4Lo will be back at worlds.

9 hours ago, PoohCannelle said:

"Juliet, don’t die. If Romeo dies, I die."

Logic 100%

 

 

Also does anyone know the name of these two commentators (french speaking SUB _{and no it's not Monfort and Candeloro}) ?

 

Actually, they are pretty funny because, at first, one of the man seems quite skeptical on the capacity of Yuzuru Hanyu to break another WR (it was just after his first WR at Skate America 2012).... But then at the end, he's totally convince, can't believe what he just saw, saying ''This is the 2014 Olympic champion" and "he's landing on the ice like a feather" (ah ah if only he'd known the meaning of 羽). This cannot be more accurate !

 

One of the commentator is Alban Préaubert, former french figure skater and French Eurosport commentator for these last 6 or 7 years I think ?

I don't know the name of the other one, but he used to comment very often for french Eurosport, too.

Alban is in fact one of the two infamous commentators (with Nathalie Péchalat) who were super unfair with Yuzuru during the grand prix series. Which is really a shame, because his comments are usually pretty good. But these last years he's been pretty harsh with Yuzu (and Javi, too, tbh), loving more the youger generation - I guess he's one of those guys who don't like when it's always the same ones on the top.

Happy to hear comments from the time when he still loved him :)

(He also looooved H&L Helsinki 2017, to be fair)

A great, long podcast about and with my childhood hero, Surya Bonaly : https://www.binge.audio/surya-le-19-novembre/

If you understand french, i's really worth listening.

Thank youuuu !!!!

So, it was anan

Help !

It looks like I'm unable to find one of my favourite Yuzu picture : a very, very close close-up of his gorgeous face in hope and legacy costume, with a bit of brian's head in the picture if I remember well ? I think it was the cover of a magazine, Ice jewels or something ?

Would anyone be so kind and give me a link to that beautiful picture ?

The designer of this poster should be fired, seriously... :)

Yeah, there's no "jokingly", but I'm pretty sure that was a joke indeed :).

Omg YesWay I LOVE your photos, and it means a lot that you took the time to write these advices.

And yes, I'm deeply aware that my lens is not good enough for the quality I dream of for figure skating photos... The aperture is just not big enough. As I was saying, I'm a beginner in sport photography, so all the advices here really mean a lot. I love my camera, and knowing that you used to have the same is really good to know,  but I've been pretty disappointed so far by this lens tbh - I' guess I'm too used to high apertures/fixed focal length lenses and the crispy pictures you can get with them (and small field depth is a must).

I'm going to keep your lens reference preciously. Olympus 40-150mm f2.8 Pro. Duly noted. Wow, I'm going to have to save some money for it, but it seems to be worth it... Let's just hope Yuzu will still be competing next season, for the GPF in France for instance

15 hours ago, Maya said:

 

Some cameras have the "post focus" feature, which as I understand would allow you to fix focusing issues after the fact. Might your camera have that feature, too?

 

Focus tracking is another feature that might alleviate the focusing problem. Increasing number of models have it. It can be used in conjunction with face detection, which requires pre-registration of the face of the person you'd like to focus on.

 

How do these features work for figure skating motion and still images? Please share your experiences if you've used any of them.

Thanks a lot for your answers.

Yes, I have the post-focus option on my camera... It multiplies the number of pictures, but it might be worth it, I'll try it next time :)

I have to check the focus tracking. It's not my camera's forte, I fear, but maybe I didn't use it correctly.

(and I'm discovering my pictures on another screen and the colors are completely off... damnit, I really need to invest in a good screen :( )

My camera is mirrorless, but focus is always challenging with it, especially with this lens - I'm more a landscape photograph usually, and landscapes don't move, they all behave nicely !

The problem with mirrorelss cameras is that you have to rely on what you see on the screen, and that very often the picture seems to be well focused there, but then when you zoom in you realise that it was blurry... That was really my main challenge. At least with my camera.

So, really, if somebody has some advices for getting easy focused images, I'll take them gladly

I also realised but too late that I could take really nice films with it. Next time I'll film the run-throughs...

I'm not a big specialist on Figure skating photography. Helsinki was my second time, after Milan last year. But since I'm quite happy with some of my pictures, I'll give my two cents.

I found Gala settings to be easier than competition/practice to be honest. I just underexposed the pictures quite a bit so that the parts in the spotlight well exposed, and used the "sport photo" mode of my camera (i.e : high speed, high ISO setting).

Here are some of my pictures (http://spacealtie.tumblr.com/post/179990200942/some-of-my-pictures-of-yuzuru-hanyu-at-helsinki):

I tweaked a bit these photos with lightroom afterwards (enhanced contrast, mostly), but not much.

However I find that taking figure skating pictures in general is very challenging. So many pictures taken. So many baaaad pictures, blurry, underexposed, so kuyashii !

- I have a good camera, but the lens I use doesn't have a big enough aperture to take good pictures from afar (Lumix GX80 and 14-140 lens / equivalent to roughly 30-300 mm lens with a reflex camera, f/5.6 with full zooming). I've become really jealous of people with pro or semi-pro materials

- It depends a lot on your place in  the rink. During singles competition I was on the small side of the rink, 11th rank. It was a great place to watch the competition, I found, however too far to get pictures with good details. During the gala, pratice, and ice dance competition, I was just above the athlete's entrance and that's by far where I took my best pictures.

- Since I was limited by my zoom, I almost took all my pictures with the biggest magnifying factor. I worked on composition afterwards at home, because those athletes are so. damn. fast.

- I had to tweek a lot the exposure to get good pictures. And I used bracketting all the time to get, you know, the "moment décisif" ;). The "sport pictures" mode of my camera seemed to work well, so I didn't change the other camera parameters myself - but you'll need high ISO and high speed to get not-too-blurry pictures.

- The most challenging I found was to get the right focus in the images ! These guys are so fast, you have no time to change the settings to take the picture, I ended with so many pictures that are blurry in the end because my camera focused on the ice and not on the athletes. And my lens is a bit slow for the autofocus. In the end, I forced my camera to focus always on the same spot of the image, and put the athletes on that spot when taking the picture. It worked all right.

1 minute ago, SydneyH said:

I think so far she's only there for Ice dance now , but do you know who is the new woman ?? I can't catch her name 

and about Alban , quite often I agree with him (even though is crusade for Vincent sake is quite funny for me ^^) but about Otoñal costume even tho you can don't like it I can't really understand beside the colour where is the 'imitation of Johny's here like I was quite confused because he was quite vehement about that so  )

Yeah he was wrong about that comment, for sure

I don't know who the woman is. She's the same who commented Yuzu's FS in Nice I think :

Tbh honest I quite like Alban Préaubert's comments most of the time (it's the guy's name). He tries to be as objective as possible in his comments while being supportive - he even mentioned Shoma's problems ith prerotation, even if he loves Shoma, and very often calls out judges for their selective way of pushing some skaters up, and others down.

So, yeah, his comment about Johnny is unfair, and I didn't like it either, but I think it's only because he really doesn't like Otonal's costume I don't like it either tbh.

Nathalie Péchalat is... another story. But she doesn't comment this season, it seems ? Aaaaand... that's a good thing

Excellente initiative

Je m'étais pas mal déconnectée du patinage ces derniers mois, mais un séjour à Helsinki et je suis de nouveau à fond haha.

Depuis mon retour je plane toujours d'ailleurs, c'était tellement magique. Un bout de mon cerveau est resté là-bas, je crois

It's true football is "democratic" in a way - but it's no wonder if the countries with the best players have ambitious sports politics - for instance in France there's a very effective network of football schools recruiting - and paying - young talents from an early age (13 years old I think). It helps a lot...

It's no wonder why there were in fact not 23, but 50 french players at the world cup ! 27 players, born and raised in France, played for other teams because they had two nationalities.

Speaking about figure skating, Philippe Candeloro and Brian Joubert came from a very humble background for instance. I think it's easier in France because rinks get subventions, even though of course not as much as football does.

This match was amazing, dramaturgy-wise. I was hooked from beginning to the end. Own goals, penalties, goalkeeper's mistake - sublime goals - unexpected luck on both sides - errors and redemption - it had all ! Even the weather added to the drama ! :)

It's funny how it felt that Croatia was dominating, regardless of the score... I couldn't breath until the very last seconds of the match, because Croatia never gave up and the french seemed to never be able to get the ball - yet when they finally could, they scored with lightning speed actions. That strategy - relying on defense and then counter-attack quickly - is so bad for my blood pressure, really. No other team managed to block the french team that effectively during the championship.

I also loved the general "fair-play" feeling there was. Players helping eachother getting up after fouls or impacts, no agressivity between the two teams.

So, congratulation, Croatia !

And Pogba, M'Bappé, Griezman - what an amazing trio.

What a crazy sunday. And it's not finished, it's a bit crazy in France right now tbh. If only figure skating could make people as happy and united as football does !

Only in sports, especially football, does France show proudly how diverse the country is, and how positive it can be.... too bad ot's not more often, but it's heartwarming nevertheless.

Now I'm breathing again. Omg what a match !

Me right now 

Allez les bleus !

I hope for France to win of course, but honestly I would be happy for Croatia if they win.

I think France is better technically, and the players will be in better shape than croatians, who played 3 prolongations (=1 match more !!!), while France played none.. And they'll have one day less to get some rest.

But Croatia is good too, has some awesome players, and has a titanium mindset !!!

May the better win !

Edit : I really liked this article about the french team, and why they're succeeding now where the previous generation failed : https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jul/12/didier-deschamps-france-world-cup-final-belgium

Both France and Croatia have strong memories about 1998 and need to "kill their fathers" in order to step out from the shadow of the legendary teams from 20 years ago.

They had competed against eachother in semi-finals then.

A France-Croatia final would bring back ghosts from the past... I like the idea :)

Here the feeling is that Belgium was the strongest opponent, that this match looked like a final.

But then people remember 2016 when France was favorite for the final of the Euro after a huge semi-final, and then lost to Portugal...

Anything can happen.

Thank god we have good defenders... Varane has been huge tonight !

Congrats to belgium, though, they were badass opponents !

Very exciting match so far 

Both teams are great. Kudos to the keepers indeed !

Nice try mbappe :)

I m so anxious !