Galvan Studios

Photo by Yvette at Galvan Studios

This past Tuesday, Bryan and I visited Galvan Studios in Whittier with our Portrait Photography class. Galvan Studios is owned and operated by the husband and wife photography team of Yvette and Roman Galvan. It is located in Historical Uptown Whittier set among unique shops and boutiques. Yvette and Roman welcomed our 20+ student class very graciously. They began by showing us some of their work. Their work consists mostly of portrait and wedding photography. By viewing their photographs you can tell that they have a very unique style. They specialize in capturing real moments in their images. Upon discussing this in further detail, they revealed that they rarely pose their subjects but instead observe their subjects interacting and shoot when the moment is right. They also have mastered the art of composition and using available light. Because of this, their pictures are usually always perfect straight out of the camera and very rarely need tweaking in Photoshop afterwards.

Photo by Yvette at Galvan Studios

Following their work presentation, they answered a lot of the classes questions and showed us their equipment. They shoot with all Nikon equipment and have been for the majority of their career. The important thing they said that I thought I would mention is that the camera you own is not the most important thing when taking good photos. They said that you do not always have to have the most expensive, high end camera to take great pictures. The most important thing is knowing your camera inside and out and also understanding composition and knowing how to take advantage of the light that is available to you.

They also showed us how to set up a portrait shot of a couple with their studio equipment. Of course being the photogenic person that I am, I volunteered Bryan and I to be the couple. Now of course Bryan and I didn’t exactly dress to have our picture taken otherwise we would have worn more neutral colors, but I really thought the bright colors that we were wearing really made the photo pop. We’ve never had professional portrait photos taken in a studio so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I think Yvette did a fantastic job. Not that I would have expected anything less of her, I mean look at their site, their photos are amazing!

Photo by Yvette at Galvan Studios

Listening to Yvette talk about how she and Roman run the business, especially about what has been successful and what has been not so successful has inspired me to try new things with Shez Photo. One thing I hope to do is to blog more about what’s going on with Bryan and I and our photography. This will coincide with our articles that we normally write with events, I hope to at least have a new entry every week even if we are not covering an event.

Once again I would like to thank Roman and Yvette Galvon at Galvon studios for allowing our class to visit them. I hope to one day do a shoot with them again. If you would like wedding photography, great portraits done of you or you just want to check out their work, the website is www.galvanphoto.com

Mission Bay Triathlon 2008

This past weekend we helped cover the Mission Bay Triathlon. Mission Bay is a very lovely area of San Diego that includes lovely beaches, Shamu and lots of triathletes. We had another very early morning photographing this event. It was a lot of fun, as usual, but San Diego is always a great place to be. Our friends at Amatuer Endurance have provided an excellent race report and as always check out some of our photos in the gallery.

Orange County Triathlon 2008

This past Sunday we went to the Orange County Triathlon. This event happens to be a fairly short drive from our house. We left our house at about 5am, we were met with a very dense fog on the drive over. It was actually frighteningly dense, we couldn’t see 2 feet in front of our car. When we got to the course, which partially took place on beautiful Lake Mission Viejo, the fog was settled on the lake. It was amazing that the athletes were able to find their way through the fog while they did their swim. You could hardly see the buoys. Luckily, the fog started to burn off by the time the first few swimmers entered the transition.

Long Beach Triathlon 2008 and What I’ve Learned

This past weekend was the Long Beach Triathlon. The event took place where most events take place in Long Beach, off of Shoreline Drive near the convention center, aquarium and the Queen Mary. This particular event is our fifth triathlon that we have covered and their are a few things that I have learned since we started.

In covering a triathlon you must first be prepared to wake up early. We arrived at 5am to this triathlon, before most of the athletes even arrived. The picture to the left was taken of the Queen Mary somewhere around the time of 5:30am. Why wake up so early? Well if you want to cover an event, particularly if the event has a course of some kind, it is a good idea to stake it out first. Whether this be the day before the event or in the hours before, this is a good way to find where the best place for good shots are. Bryan and I walked down to where the run course would be and found a great spot for him to take shots of the runners with the Queen Mary in the background.

The second thing I learned; be prepared to risk your life. Now obviously if you have to choose between getting the shot or possible death, please choose life. However, don’t let a little danger get in the way of a good photograph. For example, I staked out a position on a road just ahead of the transition. It was a 2 lane road that was coned off for the event, it was also on a steep incline. People transitioning would ride up the hill to the bike course on Shoreline Drive and when they finished their second loop they would come to a sharp turn which led right back down the same incline. I positioned myself between the cones near the the top of the incline. This was not a problem when bikes were coming out of the transition, as they would have to had taken a wide line to come anywhere near me, however, the bikes coming back from their second loop into the transition for the run almost always took the line of the cones. I want to make something perfectly clear, I was NEVER in the path of an oncoming cyclist, I don’t recommend that. That is not only dangerous for you but very dangerous for the athlete, and the last thing you want to do is put the athlete’s life at risk. There was a chance though that if one of the cyclist didn’t take the turn right and crashed I would have been crashed into. I always tried to have an area that I could move into if that happened. Fortunately that didn’t happen and I came away with some great shots even if the other spectators thought I was crazy.

Usually events such as triathlons are covered by photographers hired specifically by the event coordinators. These photographers are usually given access to the best spots along the course. Don’t think that because you are not the official event photographer that you can’t take the same shots in the same places. At this particular triathlon I got to take almost the same shots as the “official” photographers because I strategically placed myself in these areas. As long as you are not blocking these photographers shots than you can usually get away with being in the same spots. At the finish line there were two “official” photographers sitting at either side of the gates. I simply placed myself behind them, I stood in the middle so they didn’t block my view of the incoming runners and I snapped away. As long as I moved out of the way when the runners came closer to me no one had a problem with me standing there. Don’t assume that everything is off limits, unless the race director tells you otherwise, don’t be afraid to get the shots you want.

Overall, this event went very well. We got a lot of good shots out of the event that we have posted in our gallery. Check out Bryan’s race report at Amateur Endurance.

New Stuff!

If you haven’t already noticed we have put up a few new things on the site. As you can see we have completely changed the look of our home page. It is still a work in progress, we hope to be adding more features to our page. We have also added a video that we made in one of our classes, enjoy a few of our photographs and listen to the sweet sounds of our friends Last American Buffalo.

I have also added a few new-old pictures in the gallery. You can find them in the Black & White and Horse galleries. We will be quite busy the next few weeks. We have several triathlons we will be covering locally and in San Diego, so keep checking back for updates. Also Bryan has been writing a few articles for our friends at Amateur Endurance, check out his article Weekend Warrior and his series on Mountain Bikes.

That’s all for now, see you next week for the Long Beach Triathlon!

Imperial Beach Triathlon/Duathlon 2008

Hey everybody! We just finished covering another endurance event, this time we did the Imperial Beach Triathlon/Duathlon. Imperial Beach is located very far south in San Diego County, very close to Mexico in fact. We saw alot of familiar faces at this event, we are starting to get to know some of the San Diego triathletes, it’s amazing how often these people compete. Once again we covered this race with our friends at Amateur Endurance, in fact Bryan even did the race report for them. Check it out here.

Other exciting news of the day…Team Amateur Endurance came in 1st place in the mixed relay! Check out all the pics from this weekends event in the gallery.

« Previous Page — Next Page »