Fourth of July
July 5, 2008
We hope everyone had a fun and safe 4th of July. This year we decided to go to Huntington Beach to check out their fireworks show. We got down there around 6pm and we were suprised to see how many people were down there. We had to park on a residential street over a mile away from the beach. The majority of the crowd watched the fireworks show from the beach but we decided to pay $10 each to watch them from the pier. It was definitely worth the cost, they were shooting them off at the end of the pier so they were right over our heads. Bryan got some really great slow shutter speed shots. Check them out here.
Oh yeah, we also got some amazing sunset shots. Aww…the sun setting over the Southern California coast, is there anything more beautiful?
San Diego International Triathlon
July 1, 2008
This past weekend (June 29th) was the San Diego International Triathlon. We have posted pictures of the event in our gallery.
Early One Morning
Well the first thing you have to face when covering a triathlon is getting up way too early in the morning. It is well worth it but when that alarm goes off you ask yourself just for a moment “What was I thinking”. So Jamie and I piled into Jay’s vehicle and went off towards the starting line and transition area. Jay is our friend who participated in the event along with hundreds of other triathletes. We arrived and Jay went off to prepare and warm up while Jamie took a spot along the bike route and I took a spot on the run course.
It’s Dark Early in the Morning
So guess what? It’s dark early in the morning before the sun comes up. This made shooting the swim pretty futile. That and the fact that even a 200mm lens was not enough reach. I later noticed that the light meter gets easily confused by water too. Either it was that or all the bright orange kayaks and yellow swim caps. Either way my swim photos were useless. 
Jamie got a good shot at the turn around point for the swim though.
“I hit 47 mph on the downhill!”
Jay told us he hit 47 mph on the downhill section of the bike part of the race. In case you don’t know, anything over about 30mph feels really fast on a bicycle. This is especially true on road bike with brakes about as wide as my pinky finger. Jamie got some great shots of the bike riders including this great panning shot.
Time to hit the pavement
Once the athletes transitioned from the bike they got into their running shoes to finish out the triathlon. I positioned myself so I could take photos of the runners along two points in their run without moving from my location. This worked well and I was able to get some great shots. The funny thing is runners can look awkward depending on where they are in their stride when you take the photo. This one came out pretty well. 
Lessons learned
Jamie and I learned a couple of lessons at this event. First is always bring more memory then you think you will need. The second is that sometimes setting the autofocus to use only one point makes sense. I got a lot of shots where the AF focused on the cones in the road or a reflective road sign or the sign for a hotel instead of the runner. The third is to check the histogram to make sure the meter isn’t confused.
“I’d do it again”
In the end it was a blast. We even took a pic of Jay, drove his car to the finish line, and took a pic of him again. We learned a lot and we will definitely want to photograph this event again.
For race coverage check out www.amateurendurance.com
Shooting with Film
February 23, 2008
Recently I’ve decided to get back into film photography, black and white film nonetheless. Since then I’ve been asked numerous questions about my decision, such as: Why go back to a practically dead technology? Who develops film anymore?…and my personal favorite…What is this “film” you speak of? All excellent, if not misinformed, questions. To get one thing straight, I have not given up digital. I still love the advantages of shooting in digital; the fact that I can review my pictures instantly, I can take an unlimited amount of pictures and I can do almost anything with the RAW file. I still prefer to shoot in digital for most situations. The main reason I decided to get back into film photography is because I remember how much I truly loved it back in high school, one of the only things I enjoyed about high school. I know most people will never understand this, but a tingle literally runs down my spine at the thought of manually processing film and prints. I can’t even begin to explain how amazing this process is. One would have to do it themselves to truly understand how much more rewarding it is to do the whole process as opposed to letting your digital camera basically do it all for you. It gave me a whole new appreciation of photography.
Film usage has definitely decreased since digital has become so popular nowadays but it has definitely not died out completely. There are still several places that sell and develop film. Personally, I buy all my film at Samy’s Camera. I have also developed a few rolls there, so as to answer the “who exactly develops film anymore?” question, they do. They also sell all darkroom products, from developing chemicals to photo paper and everything in between.
I decided that I wanted to get a film camera that was similar to the cameras I used in my high school photography class. So it had to be a Pentax SLR and it had to be old. How old you ask? Well the older the better. I found a Pentax Program Plus (circa 1986) on Ebay for about $65, and after a little begging, I got Bryan to buy it for me as an early Valentine’s Day present. Let me tell you, this camera is OLD school; no auto focus, no automatic film advance or rewind, nothing…it was perfect! Well it did have a light meter, for that I am grateful, there’s some things I can’t live without. I also recently purchased a 80-200mm telephoto lens for it via Ebay for $24.99, you can get some really great deals there! To break in my new camera, I went to a local ranch to take some photos of horses (I know, I take a lot of horse pictures) on some old Ilford XP2 400 film. The film was at least 5 years past it’s expiration, however the pictures came out pretty decent. I did take the digital files that I got when I developed the roll at Samy’s and put them into Fireworks to fix the contrast a little. I have to admit the old film had a bit of a gray haze to it. This is something that could have also been fixed in a darkroom with an enlarger, however, I did not have access to one just yet. Here are a few photos that I have shot.
Another factor that brought on my re-dedication to film was the fact that Bryan and I have decided to go for our photography certification. While Bryan has had just a couple of photography courses in all his time in school, I on the other hand have had many. However, I have decided to start over and enroll with him in a beginning black & white film photography course. I am very anxious to do all this stuff over again, as it was so much fun the first time. I convinced Bryan to get a film camera as well that he can use in this class. He wanted something a little more sophisticated. He wanted a Canon film camera so he could use the lenses we already had for our DSLR. As an early birthday present I purchased him a Canon A2E (circa sometime in the mid 90’s) which included such features as auto focus, the ability to shoot 5 fps and many of the same shooting modes as our DSLR. All for the low price of $85 on Ebay of course. Here are some shots that he took with the same old XP2 400 film.
Shooting with film is a tricky thing. You can’t just shoot with reckless abandon like you do in digital since you only have about 24 shots, so you have to make them count. On top of that, you can’t review the pictures after you’ve taken them, so you have to be aware of your settings at all times. This factor alone has made me a better photographer, I actually have to take the time to set the aperture and shutter speed. I can’t be as spontaneous as I am with my digital. I have to plan the shot, study the conditions and set the camera accordingly because every shot needs to count.
Finally, why did I choose to shoot black & white film over color? Simple, black & white film is by far the easiest and cheapest to develop when doing it yourself. Color processing requires a few more steps and chemicals whereas black & white processing is very straight forward, anybody can do it Most importantly, black & white photography is beautiful, at least I think so. When I look at photographs from years past I just love them. I think I love black & white photography even more than color.
Colin McRae 1968-2007
September 17, 2007
I am sad to say that my favorite rally car driver Colin McRae has passed away this past Saturday in a helicopter crash along with 3 others including his 5 year old son. I feel blessed that I was able to see McRae race in person at the X Games back in August. He was an amazing driver, undoubtedly one of the greatest in the history of rally. Here is our photo of him after he over shot the turn and got his car stuck on the plastic barricade. He sure knew how to make rally even more entertaining. He will be missed immensely.
X Games 13!
August 6, 2007
See our photos from X Games 13 in the gallery!
Brand NEW Photos!!!
July 23, 2007
So Bryan and I have been traveling a lot lately, and by traveling I mean mostly going down to San Diego. However, we did also visit the great state of Texas. We took tons of pictures over the last few weeks and are just getting around to posting them. We have a wide variety, from Texas to animals at the Wild Animal Park and Fourth of July fireworks in San Diego. So go check them all out in our gallery!