Sports Authority Field, Mile High Stadium, Denver, Colorado.

"X Shot" information.

Camera - Canon EOS 5D Mark II

ISO - 4000

Shutter - 1/30 sec.

F/stop - 8

Lens - 500 mm

Note - tripod and cable release used for this photo.

Challenge.

I wanted to get a photo of Mile High Stadium at night, during a football game. I had noticed how the stadium glowed, now I wanted to capture that image.

Solution.

I decided to go to the foothills, west of Denver, this would would give me a clean shot of Denver and the stadium. From this distance, the only lens that would work would be my 500 mm. Now I also knew that a full moon would be coming up a little after sunset. I picked a location, trying to line up the moon with the stadium, but I was off. The photo turned out ok but not good enough. After missing that opportunity, I found another location on Look Out Mountain. This was real nice, the glowing stadium was right in front of downtown Denver and Colfax Blvd was all lit up, off to the right. Again, my 500 was the only glass that would work.  I needed a f/stop of at least f.8, to have enough depth of field to get the stadium and city in focus. There was some wind, so a long time exposure, using the 500, was out. Setting my ISO to 4000 gave me a shutter speed that would work. My camera can handle high ISO settings, making this shot possible.

Ken Papaleo

Colorado Photographer

kenpapaleo@highcountrycoloring.com

303-674-0615