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.