This is Halloween

Last night was Halloween and for the first time in about 6 years I got to dress up. We decided to hang out with our good friends Claudia and Jimmy while they took Jimmy’s younger siblings out trick-or-treating. I had a costume that I bought 3 years ago from Hot Topic that I had yet to wear, so I was very excited to finally get my chance. I bought Bryan a Dark Knight costume this year and I think he really enjoyed it. While trick-or-treating, he was constantly on the look out for trouble so that he might swoop in and save the day. We walked around a few blocks in Chino, there were a lot of nicely decorated houses, it’s always nice to see people in the Halloween spirit. I remember back in the day when I used to trick-or-treat the whole neighborhood would be decorated, it was like Christmas, but with monsters. We walked around for about an hour and then all went back to our place to watch Diary of the Dead, a great zombie movie by George A. Romero. We even got a couple of trick-or-treaters at our condo! It was an awesome night and so much fun to dress up. Happy Halloween from Shez Photo!

Cal Poly Pomona Pumpkin Festival 2008

Each year for the past 3 years Bryan and I have attended the Cal Poly Pomona Pumpkin Festival. This year it was held on October 18th and 19th and as always it was a festive event. This year marked the 16th anniversary for the event which takes place across from the Cal Poly Pomona campus on the corner of South Campus Blvd and Temple Ave. The field that they use for the pumpkin patch is quite large, however, I don’t believe all the pumpkins are actually grown there as the field is usually empty all year until about two weeks before the event then the pumpkins magically appear. And there are a lot of pumpkins to be had so it must be quite a feat for the people who are trucking them in and spreading them throughout the field. The event is put on by the College of Agriculture and the Ag students volunteer in every aspect.

Bryan and I got there later than usual, around 11am. We usually like to get there when they first open the event at 8am. The reason for this is because this is a very popular event, literally thousands of people attend the Pumpkin Fest every year and this year was no different. When we got there it was very crowded but we made or way through towards the other side of the field. We took a few pictures of the beautiful sunflowers that they plant every year and then began the task of finding our pumpkins. For the first time this year we brought a wagon. In years past we were limited in the amount of pumpkins we could get because we actually had to carry them back to the car. In case you didn’t know this, pumpkins are heavy, so we usually only got two. This year Bryan went to Home Depot and got a nifty little garden wagon and we took full advantage, we got five pumpkins this time around. This may seem like a lot but there are people there who get up to ten pumpkins, it’s crazy. The admission and parking for this event is always free and the pumpkins are usually $4 a piece and slightly cheaper if you get baseball sized ones. This is one of my favorite events to take pictures at because of all the beautiful autumn colors.

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.

Fourth of July

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

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

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