The Crossroads

As I was headed home today, I found the skies really amazing and decided to make a photograph. So I took some time and found some cows and made some images but was really unhappy with what I had, they just lacked that "it" quality. So I kept driving and found this memorial on the side of the road just as the sky was unleashing some really amazing clouds. I made a few exposures. I really have no idea who it was for or when it happened but I hope my image is some kind of tribute to who was lost at this site.

My fish

So I got a Canon G10 in December for my vacation, and finally decided to play around with the video mode on it. So I put together a video of me moving my fish from their old tank to their new one. I just wish I had it during the move to video the whole transition, so your going to have to put up with a bunch of still images and a lot of missing scenes, but at least the end has a nice amount of them swimming around. So here is a video of my other passion. That's right when I'm not taking pictures I don't retreat to my "batcave" and work on my next plan to thwart evil doers (even though I wish I did) I work on my reef! I hope you enjoy!

Poor little piggys

With the economy getting worse and people having to worry about if they will be able to pay their mortgage. More and more animals are getting left to their own devices and I got to cover one of these situations on Saturday. It was a real sad scene, the owners of the property had around 15 pot-bellied pigs to start with, but the owners had neglected them very badly. So badly that one of them was dead and decomposing, and the rest were all under fed and one of them had a very bad running noise and a possible infection,

The bank foreclosed on the property about ten days ago and so the water was also shut off so none of the animals could get fresh water. I came by in the morning and shot some photos of the pigs while a concerned neighbor feed them and tried to capture some o the loose ones. I was going to come back and shoot a local pot-bellied rescue group try and capture and transport the rest of them. However the realtor showed up while I was gone and called the sheriff on the neighbor for trespassing and was going to have her arrested (glad I left when I did). After a bit of begging and pleading, the neighbor got the okay from the bank to feed and rescue the pigs.

What happened to pong?

Last Thursday I had an assignment to cover an after school program at a local library. The program was a Rock Band 2 tournament called "Rockfest" there were probably 15 people playing and it was really surprising to me that they all seemed like they were at a funeral. None of them had any real expressions, except for this one little guy, who I guess plays the game all the time and is a 6 year old Rock Band phenome!

The library manager really wanted me to play so I had to give it a shot, and all I can say is playing a real guitar is a lot different and easier than the game version. Can you believe that this cute little toe-headed rug-rat totally kicked my butt! he got a 98% while I managed a meager 49%. I guess I'll just have to stay confident in the fact that I can probably play Stairway to Haven on a real guitar better then him!

My drive home

Today I had a few meetings in Temecula and also I had to scout a portrait location at a house near the edge of wine country. So when I was done I decided to go home through wine country , well on my way home the afternoon light was just perfect and I spotted some cows and bulls on the side of the road with some great light hitting them. I stopped and made a few exposures, The problem was that they saw me and the "alpha" bull (I'm not really sure what you call a leader bull) kept standing in front of the rest of the cows so I ended up with a bunch of two butted bovines.
On my way back to the car I spotted a bicycle tire stuck in the ground on end with this really nice green field behind it. So a made a few more exposures and got back int he car and decided to head home. Well as I crossed Winchester Road ( a rural highway that leads from Temecula to Hemet) I saw a huge wall a darkness to the north, at the edge of Menifee and the town of Winchester . With the winds picking up today I wasn't sure if it was just dust of a fire, so I decided to take a closer look.

As I got near the area I could quickly tell it was the wind picking up dust, but it was powerful enough to knock power in the area twice and the two traffic lights I had to go through in the area where out. All and all I think it was a fun drive home.

January Storm

I woke up yesterday looked out my window, and saw that some really great looking clouds had formed to the east of my home. So I picked up my cameras and headed out the door to hopefully make a picture.

I drove around for awhile and didn't really find anything to interesting to fill the frame with, just clouds! and as cool looking the clouds were it really didn't make an interesting picture. So as I was just about home I made one last turn down a country road and found this great farm house with "my clouds" hovering over it . I made a few frames and was fairly happy with what I came away with.

Hell Week

Well in the past 9 days I have shot 23 assignments, and in the world of freelancing that is a good thing. I can't complain about having the work, but man has it been a wild ride! I am going to try and share as much from the past 9 days as I can and go through each assignment to give a good idea of how the photos were made.

Sunday the 9th Lake Elsinore Grand Prix
I have shot this event in the past, but the last time I covered it the route ran through the streets of Lake Elsinore. It is now done at a local motocross track, which really takes away from the crowds atmosphere. I ended up shooting the last race of the day which started at 1:45 pm ans lasted for 20 laps of the five mile track. The first few shots were of the start and then I moved locations and tried for some more interesting shots.

I made this image after a quick run from the starting line to the first big turn, I decided that I wanted to convey the speed at which these racers were going so I slowed down my shutter speed and panned with the bikes as they raced by.
I was shooting on the other side of the track when I noticed this climbing section and the large amount of dust the bikes were turning up as they went by. So I ran over there put on my 16-35mm and got low. While making this shot I got completely covered in dirt, the three frames after this one are just brown dust.

Tuesday the 11th
I had four assignments this day, and the first one was the Murrieta Veterans day parade.


I have shot this event for the past two years and this year I tried to get as many different shots as I could, however I made an image very close to this one last year. This time I tried to get more in the frame then last year and get the planes in a better spot in the frame, and I think I did it.

In covering any kind of large public event I always look for someone who stands out, or who can sum up the feel of an event in one frame. And in this case I got lucky as I was getting ready to leave I saw this cute little girl holding up this sign.

Second assignment: Deputy D.A.
I didn't have much time on this assignment it was at 4:00PM and I needed to get to my next one (about 15 miles away) by 5PM.

Her office was really badly lit and full of a lot distracting things, so I decided to go dark. I don't normally like this look but I am somewhat happy with how it came out. I used two flash units one on the sign on her desk and the other on her face.

Third assignment: Reality show contestant
This was another one with every little time, and also I had to shoot it at her work a winery. A business that had absolutely nothing to with the show she was on. The show was like some what like Fear Factor with out the bug eating.

So after walking around the winery with her I found the barrel room, which had great light and a real spooky kind of feel. I took a few shots with her using an off camera flash and am fairly happy with how they came out.

Last assignment of the day: Girls Volley Ball
This was a CIF simi final match between Palos Verdes and Temecula Valley a pretty basic assignment just set your exposure right and watch for action.


Wendnesday the 12th:Late night construction shoot
Even though this one was at 10:30PM and it was really hard to get my butt up and go shoot it, I really enjoyed shooting it. I can't remember the last time I got to shoot traffic at night and really experiment with different exposures. I used a tripod and my 70-200mm, and due to the fact that I don't have a shutter release I set the timer up on my camera so the shutter would close 15 sec after I hit the button.


Thursday the 13th

Assignment one: Horribly lit after school program.
This assignment was of an after school program for kids who like Anime the Japanese art form that spawned that unforgettable classic Pokemon. This was at the Murrieta public library and all the lights were turned off so the kids could watch the movies. Luckily there was one window that let in just enough light make the shoot possible.


In this shot I used the low light to an advantage and shot the screen with the kids in the forground to give some scale to the shot.

With the one spot in the room that had some light I got this shot of a couple of the kids laughing at the movie.

Second assignment: More Volley Ball finals
This time Anaheim Katella at Lake Elsinore



Friday the 14th

1st assignment
Helper dog test
In this one A local canine helper dog training facility was holding there final test before the dogs can graduate and live with their new humans. It was held at a local mall and even though I wanted to follow them in and get shots of the dogs working with money and helping them navigate the mall, I have had problems in the past with security at this mall and didn't have clearance to be there, so I made sure to get my shots before the dogs and people went inside.



Second assignment:
High school football Hemet at West Valley
Just like the volley ball this one is pretty much set your exposure and wait for the action plays to come your way





Saturday the 15th
I had five assignments this day, my first one was a Veterans tribute at 9:00AM, then a Tech piece at 10:30AM, then a recycling drive at Noon, then a Fashion show at 1:30PM, and finally a Christmas tree lighting at 3:30Pm that ended up being at 4:50PM.

Veterans Tribute

This event was in a really badly lit rec-center with glass doors running down both sides of the building, also for the most part it was an award ceremony. Which is something really dull to shoot, you just can't get interesting shots when you just have people talking at a mic. The other thing is that this was a Veterans event so I felt obligated to get some good images. So I spent the whole assignment trying to find people in audience reacting to the ceremony and then the JROTC came out with their sabers and gave me even more to work with.





Tech piece

This one was at the public library and was of local elementary school students participating in a technology education class. The class is part of a federal grant the Temecula Valley Unified School District received to teach students to act as technology mentors. I really only had three shots to get in this one, the teacher, a kid working, and a group shot of the kids working on the computers.

Recycling drive

What should have been really simple one, a local school did a recycle fest in which they collected recyclable materials. In this type of assignment I try and get photos individuals not just a big overall shot. At this particular assignment I had to deal with an overzealous organizer who thought he knew what photos I should take, including dressing up a school official in a green costume and parading him around like a bad Disney character in front of me, so I spent most of the time trying to avoid him. I really hate dealing with people who think they are helping me out by saying “hey photographer here’s your shot” or “Look up and smile big for the camera” that type of photo is fine for your family photo album but doesn’t belong anywhere near a newspaper.

Fashion Show

This was a weird one a fall fashion show at a middle school featuring elementary thru high school students. I don't really like the idea of little kids dressing up and walking down a runway trying to look sexy. But it did lend it self to some fun candids before the event started so I tried to focus more on that side of it.

Tree Lighting

My last assignment of the day was a newly established city (Menifee, my town) first Christmas tree lighting ceremony. It was the first time I got to shoot tree lighting in the day light. The lighting took place at around 4:45PM and it was nice to get a chance to shoot a tree lighting and actually get all the people's faces in the shot without having to use a strobe, even though I did use one to make them stand out.

Sunday the 16th

low-security women's correction facility

This one didn't go the way we had planned; it was suppose to be about inmates reading bed time stories on camera that would be turned into DVD's so their children can hear them. However this facility is part of Cal Fire and the inmates had to work on the wildfires that broke out that weekend.

So insted of doing that the reporter and I got to tour the facillity with one of the CO's


Suicide

As I was leaving the correctional facility I got word of a Police pursuit in Lake Elsinore, this is not out of the ordinary. However this time the suspect was armed and threatening to kill himself. By the time I got to the scene it was to late.

By the time I got there he had crashed into a brick wall, then the officers tried to get him out, he didn't comply so they fired pepper spray into the cab of his truck. Shortly after that the officers on scene heard a gun shot. This is the kind of story that is really not easy to photograph, you tell you’re self that it is news and it needs to be covered, but it is still a human life that just ended.