High Dynamic Range Photography by Carl Roessler

Just as background, each competitor has to knock over all steel targets, and put two bullet holes in each tan-colored target without hitting any white (penalty) targets.

On the second day of building and testing the stages, I barely beat the wind coming in to look at Stages 10-13. Two of them feature looooong rifle shots. I used the telephoto lens (clumsily) to look out at the five steel targets on the distant mountainside. You can barely see them!

These long-shot stages are often difficult to use for videos because they can drag on for a couple of minutes while a competitor struggles again and again to hit those distant targets.

It is those stages, however, which often determine the match winners.

Day 1

The winds dropped in the late morning of the first day of shooting, and I was able to catch up with a squad, which included some old friends from my competing days.

They happened to be shooting two stages, which include the long rifle shots at big steel rocker targets up on the hillside.

While we can't see the targets very well, the range officers have spotting scopes and call out, "Hit!" each time a shooter hits one of the targets.

As always, I'm furious with the Chinese drone-makers for not putting audio in the !#!$!%!^! camera!

Day 2

After more than 55 video flights, I'm dividing the match in these galleries by the day to assure fast viewing.

On Day 2, the Super Squads were not scheduled until the afternoon, so I dropped in on some of the 250 shooters competing. These videos are a choice sample at the end of a looooong day.

It can’t be repeated too often: I’m furious with the Chinese manufacturers of the drone for not putting sound in the camera.

Also, I tried a number of angles with the drones to vary the videos. However, when the drone was to the left you couldn't see what the shooter was hitting on the right and vice versa. That's why on narrow left-and-right stages; I stayed near the centerline.

Day 3

For the first time, this final day featured sunny calm as the winds disappeared. A good thing, too, because the next day after the match was over, the wind was howling strongly enough to ground any drones!

I mainly followed a couple of squads, but tried when I could to break away to catch others on either side. Lugging drones the size of mine would reduce the number of videos I could accomplish.

The happy ending is that many shooters did get into these galleries to show their skills!

Carl's Adventures. . . NEVER ending ;-)