New News and Review News Feature This Week

Well, with this morning comes a link to some stuff I shot the weekend of December 17 - Sacramento's newest basketball franchise! Haven't heard? Yeah, almost no one has.

Sacramento recently became the new home of the Sacramento Heatwave (formerly the Fresno Heatwave) and are a part of the newly resurected ABA.

The Sacramento News and Review has a piece about the team this week in which I shot the art for. You can check the story out here.

Not many people were there - hopefully they will start packing people in. Unfortunately, I see similarities between these guys and other small market sports teams that had moved into the area...

Related Tags: aba, sacramento, heatwave, basketball, news, review, alternative, newspaper, river, rats, roller, hockey

New tools bring more work in the long run

Hey all - I've been hammering away at wrapping my head around Color Workspaces.

"What are Color Workspaces?", you ask? Well, basically they are Satan.

You see, I got a new monitor for Christmas - a sleek 19 inch, lcd wide screen bohemeth. (It actually allows me to work AND watch movies at the same time!!!) It rocks! Yet...

I have been noticing that since replacing my old, clunky monitor I have been having problems with color correction and have traced it to the calibration of my monitor in relation to photoshop. Here is an example of the problems I've been running into:

The "problem" picture - after saving it in photoshop it dulled out and lost a lot of it's appeal.

The fixed version - much more "poppy"

This is the result of the Color Workspace profiles - the first is Adobe 1998; the second is sRGB. Basically, Adobe RGB is preferred by pros because it keeps all of the color information in the file. Unfortunately, for output - it stinks. You get washed out colors on the web as well as on prints made at the photomat. sRGB is much better with the wow factor for displaying on webpages and print photography, but much of the color information is sacrificed.

So, what am I to do? I'm still trying to figure out if my editorial work is affected by the profiles - the images are converted into CMYK (which is another ball of wax altogether) and shouldn't make a difference... but with Photoshop you never can tell.

More as I figure it out...

Related Tags: photoshop, profiles, color, problems, web, portrait, photography, monitor, lcd

All Nighter - Part II

Whoo boy - Monday went well with my finished piece that I wrote about previously. Once I get a breath back I'll post a picture of the finished product. Above is the end result of a marathon 14 hour design-fest for my Advanced Photoshop final. We had to produce a poster advertising an art show being held next semester at SCC.

Again, another all nighter - but to be fair, I did work on other stuff while working on this as well. Just glad that this semester is FINALLY put to bed!

Related Tags: advanced, Art, city, college, design, finals, photoshop, Sacramento, school, show

What you get when you stay up all night...

Untitled - WILL be Acrylic/Mixed Media by 10 AM (hopefully)...

This is my final for my Design class Ive been taking this semester and I still have to paint all the colors in by 10 AM.

Damn it, I'm tired...

Related Tags: Art, class, final, project, school, sleepy, show

You have to be one or the other

WINNER...

OR LOSER
(Taken at UFC 65 at Arco Arena in December 2006)

Related Tags: 65, fighting, Irwin, James, KO, Sacramento, UFC

David Collier

Some portraits I shot of local photographer David Collier near the end of September for the November/December issue of Luxury Living Magazine. I was bummed because they features his work over the portraits I shot - I got really inventive, too.

He shoots landscapes and uses mainly a Hasselblad for his work. I was trying to find an interesting way to shoot him and thought, "Why not shoot him through his own equipment?" - so, I had him set his camera up on a tripod (I was too afraid of breaking it myself) and focused on the screen...

Related Tags: Art, Collier, David, feature, Living, Luxury, Portrait, Sacramento

Jeff Landay and Aaron Tippin

This last Saturday night, Club Aqua in Citrus Heights hosted a fundraiser/welcome home party for Marine Corporal Jeff Landay. Cpl. Landay was seriously injured in Iraq earlier in the year where, after being in a coma for over a month, he had to undergo drastic skull and jaw reconstructive surgery.


After Landay's mother wrote local radio station KNCI detailing all that her son and family had been through, the station put together this event that was also attended by country music star Aaron Tippin, who performed an Acoustic set for all of the attendees.

Aaron Tippin (right) performs.

After the performance, Landay was presented with a Purple Heart for his injuries sustained in Iraq.

Landay with his mother, Michelle, watching the performance.

The evening was very touching - Tom (a photographer who works for Folsom Life and who I run into all of the time) actually stopped shooting at one point and made a point of shaking Landay's hand and thanking him for his service. Hundreds of people showed up to show their support, not only for the Landay family, but for ALL veterans (who showed up themselves in droves); it's events like this that make me think that people can be good sometimes.

Related Tags: aaron, club aqua, fundraiser, heart, home, Landay, marines, purple, Sacramento, tippin, welcome

I've been doing it wrong all this time...

The above video* is a "training" video about eating sushi and the Japanese traditions associated with it. My discovery of it this is actually quite timely - last week I shot pictures for the Mikuni 2007 Calendar and I could have used the information!

The shoot was set for earlier in the morning and lasted well into the 2 PM area of the afternoon - I shot 10 different dishes in all and each one will be used in the calendar, which is a promotional thing they give out to vendors and clients as well as other people who need to know the date while looking at a sushi roll.

When I get a copy of the calendar, I'll be sure to add a few pictures from it here.


* Disclaimer - This video isn't real! It is, what they call in "the bisness", a farce. Do not take anything from it seriously! That is all.

ROBBED!!!

My car was broken into! All that was taken was some of my school work (which I sorely needed today - nothing worse than trying to tap dance my way around what I wanted to do without any visuals), my cell phone car charger and my business cards.

What???

Business cards? Who wants to steal my business cards? Do they get a high price on "the street"?

Whatever, man. I'm gonna be out $200 for a window so, if you don't recieve a gift from me this year, Merry Christmas. Your gift is keeping the rain and cats out of my car.

Greystone

In the November/December issue of Luxury Living Magazine I was asked to drive to St. Helena, California to take pictures of Greystone. I'd never heard of it myself - looks like I was the only one!


Greystone shares a building with the Culinary Institute of America at Napa - one of the most prestigious culinary schools on the West Coast. The place basically is a castle (it used to be a winery) and it is very intimidating to walk up to.




Inside was simply beautiful - the waiting area includes copies of Wine Spectator to read (they underwrite the restaurant) and has a roaring fire ready to warm you up from the often chilly Napa Valley weather.


While I was there shooting I pretty much had carte blanche - I wandered around and shot the chefs working as well as a few of the entrees they had prepared for me.

That next weekend I grabbed my wife and headed out there for an early dinner. It was a bit expensive for my tastes (I'm not used to paying such amounts for food), but it was well worth it.

So, I think I'm gonna come back...

Yeah. Gave WordPress a try. Not really a big fan. Don't get me wrong - I'm sure it's great for people who have the time to learn how to use it. As for myself - not so much. Over the next couple of days I'm gonna start moving all of the content over here so sit tight!

Tess

Here’s a picture I took last week of a friend of mine named Tess - we went out and shot in the “Warehouse District” here in Sacramento. Although this looks like a studio shot, it was actually taken in front of the Napa Auto Parts off of 19th Street (otherwise known as the “Big Blue Box”).

I was inspired by some of the photos that were featured a few weeks ago on America’s Next Top Model (I’m not proud to write that I watch the show - just because of my wife, though) and I decided to try it. Me likey - not quite the blurred effect that they featured on the show but I’m a fan of how it looks.

SushiMasters 2006

I did a little event photography at the SushiMasters 2006 event at the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium on September 18th. I got there around 1:30 in the afternoon and shot the event (with a second shooter) until almost 10!!! My legs were incredibly sore the next day, believe you me. It’s weird, but you never realize how much sushi rolling involves bending at the waist and looking down until you have to shoot chefs doing it.


The last thing I had to do (which took me forever) was the food portraits - and all of it was post-production work. I had to eliminate the backgrounds on all of the dishes and that was a lot of fun. I’m quite happy with the results:

Shray

FINALLY! I’ve been waiting for almost 2 months to share these images of a sculptor named Shray. I shot these for Luxury Living magazine back in July and have had to sit on them until the magazine came out.Shray is an artist based out of San Francisco (for now) but who does all of her bronze pouring here in Sactramento at the Art Foundry (http://www.artfoundryinc.com/).

On the day of the shoot I drove out with Assistant Jon to the Legion of Honor in San Francisco to meet Shray and her husband, Neil. Once we found each other, we entered the LoA and had 30 minutes to shoot . Because of the lack of time (and the fact that it was “Free Admssion” day to the museum and there were hundreds of people walking around) I shot all natural light. Unbeknownst to be, husband Neil was shooting shoot with his own camera. (You can see those pictures here: http://www.shraybronze.com/legion/index.html)

After we finished up there we headed over to their apartment to shoot some environmental portraits as well as some “action” shots of Shray working with some clay. They have a beautiful corner apartment overlooking the city and, while we were shooting, got to see the Parrots of Telegraph Hill flying right by the windows!

Here a a few pictures that didn’t run in the magazine - I have a slew of them and will they will probably end up seeing the light of day over at Shray’s website - http://www.shraybronze.com.

The Biggest Chicken Egg in the World???

This is one of two pictures that ran in Out Here Magazine’s Fall issue that helped illustrate a story about the (possibly) World’s Largest Chicken Egg that was laid in Smartville, California this past summer. (The egg was 6.4 ounces which blows the previous record holder’s 5.6 ounces out of the water.) I got a call early one morning from the editor asking if I’d be able to head up ASAP and shoot the egg for her mag. I was STOKED - this is exactly the kind of thing that Charles Kuralt (one of my personal heroes) would have covered!!!

Sixty miles later I ended up on the doorstep of the Peterson family, the group that owns the chickens that laid the egg. Because of the light-bluish hue of the egg’s shell, they know it was one of three Araucana hens that they have. (The Araucanas are well known for their ability to produce tinted egg shells.) None of them were the worse for wear, though. I kept my eye on each one and none were walking funny.

I could probably become a hermit if I wanted to...

I don’t know what’s going on. Just a few short weeks ago I was sick and had to sit out of my daily photographing activities for a coulple of days (as well as lose out on a weekend). After four or five days I was feeling much better so I went back to my hectic schedule.

Well, I’m sick AGAIN! I’m just getting over the worst (hopefully) - a terrible sore throat as well as a nasty and constant cough. The cough isn’t as constant now but just as nasty. (A few times I’ve nearly blacked out while hacking myself silly.)

While sitting in my illness-induced isolation from the world I’ve come to realize that I like not having to deal with the general public. Just sitting around creating white blood cells and sweating (because, of course, the interior of my house runs close to 90 degrees with the air conditioning on) has really made me happy as a clam… well, a sick clam who takes impromptu “naps” on the kitchen linoleum after coughing fits.

Folsom International Triathlon

So, this last Sunday I went out to cover the Folsom International Triathlon, an event in it’s fifth year out at Lake Natomas. I wandered around for a while (somehow I was the only guy who couldn’t find where the event was starting from…) and looked for interesting things to shoot.

One thing I’ve noticed about these types of events is how nice everyone is. I had one of the event coordinators come up to me and, instead of trying to chase me off or ask for credentials (which is common in other sports and events that I’ve shot) he actually clued me in on some of the better vantage points for photography in the immediate area. Very cool dude - it’s people like him at events like these that make me not mind the 5:30 AM wake up so much.

Click here to visit the F.I.T. website

Vern Peasenell

This is a portrait that I did today of Vern Peasenell, an artist from Roseville, California. His studio is located right next to the railyards and is full of the interesting stuff he’s done over the years.

He’s quite a talented guy - he works with wood, metal, paint, printmaking, ceramics… even foam! The guy is a whirlwind of not only ability but energy as well. A really fun time - he was bursting with ideas and was a pleasure to shoot!

Look for his pictures in an upcoming edition of Roseville/GraniteBay Style Magazine!

Terry Miura for Luxury Living

Terry Miura is an artist here in Sacramento who I shot in May for Luxury Living Magazine. He was kind enough to let me into his studio for almost an hour as he worked one morning on a piece.

These pictures weren’t used for the magazine article - they mostly ran with pictures of his artwork. I really liked these images, though, and think that they show a bit of insight on Mr. Miura.

Take some time to check out his website - along with his portfolio you can see what he is currently working on in his studio as well as upcoming events and workshops.