Not Graduations.

I feel like all I've been shooting for the past few weeks is graduation after graduation. I hear the song in my sleep. All the speeches sound the same. You really get stuck in that rut! But I haven't been shooting ONLY grads. Here are a few photos from the not-graduation assignments of the past couple weeks. A benefit concert by Jet Stream at The Canyon Club, for 15-year-old Taylor Messina. The concert, silent auction and raffle raised funds for Messina's treatment for Stage IV Midline Carcinoma.



Some wild art for Moorpark at Underwood farms. Little kids and strawberries. Let the insanity begin.









The One Gathering in Camarillo, 14 local churches came together for Pentecost. It was massive.







And on the other end of the spectrum... the wine and food fest for Casa Pacifica out at CSUCI.


(I love the shot above. I really, really wish it had run. Something different!)







I went out to the Camarillo Pond Rats pond for the very first time in Acorn history (we're fairly new to Camarillo) and shot some photos of the guys racing their RC boats around the pond. Those guys are FAST! The boats were super trick, I ended up with about fifty really nice shots. I normally wouldn't shoot so many, but I was having a good time playing with shooting angles and the water reflections and spray (plus my new lens' servo - first test!). I promised to post more photos here, so in a couple of days when I get all those edited I'll upload some additional photos from this event.










And finally, the Greek festival in Camarillo. The photo that ran was of the "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" star, who came to sign posters for her new movie "My Life in Ruins." I didn't think it was as interesting as these shots, but you know... celebrities... I guess just don't get that excited about them as most people do!





In other news, I am now on twitter! My twitter name is "snapitsiris"... yes, as in snap like a camera shutter. You can follow me and my daily adventures shooting. I'll add a direct link here to my twitter profile for easy access. And the 70-200 arrived safe and sound just before graduations began. It's a beast, a big lump of metal and glass to lug around, and it's already making me wonder if my chiropractor offers frequent flyer miles. But it shoots like a dream and I'm thrilled to have it. It was so nice for graduations. Next up: the photos from said grads!

The Very Good and the Very Bad

...of sports photography.

Lately I've been using that basketball ceiling bounce trick an awful lot, and it's beat out my other methods - the Canon infrared wireless system, on-camera flash, and going commando - so far. Last week I tried using two 580s, one on-camera master and one as the slave, and that was a disaster. The slave fired a full second after the master, and only fired at all when I was within 10 feet! Useless, totally useless.

However, bounce flash has worked quite well. I turned out some really nice images in the past two weeks. We're just getting into CIF basketball games, my very favorites. The bleachers are full, the crowd is passionate, access is restricted so you don't get people running into your gear or in front of the lens. The players are brilliant, great action, and tons of emotion. And the best part - all players are wearing the right jerseys (usually with numbers on both front AND back!) and coaches always bring a roster! Those two factors make my life so much easier.

The downside of this season is that I'm also shooting a lot of soccer. Night soccer, on dimly lit fields. The play ranges far and wide, so there is absolutely no way to light it except on-camera. Action is hit and miss, the referees are uptight, the stadium lights create hotspots and every field has black holes, devoid of even the puniest photons. It wouldn't be so bad if I had a 70-200, a 400, anything with sharper glass than my cheapo 70-300. I end up follow focusing so much because the autofocus is sketchy. Even so, the glass isn't sharp anymore and I end up with fuzzy images that need a lot of post-processing. Which I hate.

But editing those basketball photos is a real dream, and that almost makes up for slogging through hundreds of fuzzy, noisy soccer shots. The latest basketball game fit onto just one card and editing took less than a half hour! The images needed almost nothing, just a bit of sharpening and color balance (just barely). Here are a few from a game last week:

Sleep well, and dream of Pocket Wizards...

Kudos to you if you caught that Princess Bride reference. Greatest movie ever.

Conejo Valley Wild Art

This was just a shot I grabbed at Cheseboro Park in Agoura Hills a few weeks ago, on a nice morning when we needed some wild art. I didn't put it in since the paper filled up before we needed the photos I had shot, but it is quite pretty. Nothing special, really, just some old oaks and a bench. Nice sky. Rolling hills.

Here's a shot I've been meaning to put up for a while now. This is an occasion when having a stand or tripod on which I could have mounted my flash would have been just killer. It's also an example of how much I've learned even in the few weeks since I shot this. Now, I would shoot it very differently. I would pull the background down a half stop or so, strobe with a cord from the upper left or perhaps give her a little side/back lighting. This is just plain old on-camera, with an omnibounce. But now I am prepared.

The "500" is because this is the 500th game she has coached at Newbury Park High School. Yes, the 500th game. She's been there over 30 years, if I remember correctly. Talk about a legacy. Arranging the basketballs like that was an idea from my sports editor, and I liked it. Again, nothing fancy, but more visually interesting than a standard headshot.