The Real Surf City

The Real Surf City
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

This shot is of the statue "to honor surfing" erected in 1992. There is a nearby bench inscribed with the following, "In memory of all surfers who have caught their last wave … Santa Cruz Surfing Club."

Views of Natural Bridges

Can't believe I've lived in Santa Cruz for nearly 11 years and I've never photographed Natural Bridges State Beach until this weekend. Other than the Boardwalk, it's got to be the most photographed thing in the county.

Concert photography

I'm a pretty big music fan. I'm an even bigger fan of Dave Matthews Band. I try to see them every year they come to the Bay Area. This year though, they weren't just putting on a normal concert -- with normal concert ticket prices. No, they were headlining the second night of the Outside Lands festival in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. The tickets were too much for me to consider, so I decided I would try to photograph my first major concert for the paper I work for. This gets me in for free, in front of the front row and allows me to bring in my camera equipment.



First thing's first, I needed to ask permission. I'm not a staff photographer at the paper, I'm a graphic designer, so I needed to make sure it was OK for me to use the paper's name to get credentials. I asked the Entertainment Editor and Features Editor and got the go. If any of you are wanting to do the same, go for it. Get to know your local Entertainment Editor or music writer and when something comes up, just ask to see if they want any photos. You may get lucky. Next for me was research.



I know the Dave Matthews Band's music well, so I didn't need to listen to it to get a feel for it, but if you are shooting an act you don't know, I'd suggest getting some of their stuff. The thought behind this is similar to sports photography. You can anticipate what's coming. This way your photography is proactive instead of reactive. You don't want to miss that cool moment because you didn't know what was coming next.

One thing I didn't know was the three-song rule. The photographers are allowed in the pit for the first three songs and that's it. The only exception is the official event photographers (or the venue's house photographer). So you need to shoot fast. Plus, knowing this, you seem a little more cool -- like you've done this before -- when they tell you this while picking up your press pass.



Another thing you want to do is shoot the opener(s). If this is your first time shooting a major concert it will allow you to know where you can go to get the good angles for the headliner. The pit is usually less crowded so you can get some really good stuff without worrying about getting in someone's way. Plus, this opener may get huge someday and you will have these great shots of them from back in the day. I shot Jason Mraz for practice. Now, he's pretty big already, but it still gave me the chance to practice, especially since he's a guitar player like Dave Matthews. I also shot the Black Eyed Peas but they were useless as practice since none of them are anchored to instruments.



I think the most important thing you can do for concert photography is to shoot in manual mode. For my DMB photos, I shot them all at 800 ISO, 1/250 f/2.8 with a 70-200 lens. If I had shot in one of the automatic modes, then the light meter would have been thrown off due to the lighting. Better to find a middle ground and let the lights either over- or under-expose the photos. They usually look pretty good and if you really need to, you can try to fix little exposure errors in post.



There are a few things that I'll have to keep in mind for the next time I do this.

1. I'd shoot at ISO 400 and 1/125 so I don't have as much noise in the photos. With an IS lens, this shouldn't be too tough.
2. A second camera. I only have one body, but I'd rent another so I could get some wide-angle shots without wasting time changing lenses. The lighting rig was impressive when you looked straight up and I had a cool shot in mind with Dave Matthews dwarfed by the lights.
3. I need to be a bit more pushy. Not rude, but if there's a shot I want, I need to just do it. I had wanted to stand on the little ledge in front of the barricades to get a little higher over the stage. The problem was that I didn't want to piss off the fans in the front. That's fine, but I'd only stand on the ledge for about 5 seconds at most, so I should have just done it. Since I didn't, I don't have any good shots of the drummer.
4. Cards, I must remember business cards. I had them in my camera bag, but since the space is tight in the pit, I didn't bring my bag with me. I met a lot of cool people in there and they share the same passion for music and photography that I do, so keeping in contact would have been nice.

Stolen photo

Fireworks at the Boardwalk
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

So I'm watching TV today before going in to work and a PSA for Save Our Shores comes on. Normally, I don't pay something like this much mind, but something caught my eye at the end of the commercial. The above photo appeared with the Save Our Shores logo over it. The only problem is that they didn't pay for it. It belongs to me. I called them up and they said the commercial was from last year and shouldn't be running anymore. They also said they didn't have anything to do with stealing my photo. I guess they outsource the PSAs. Anyway, I was apologized to and told the ad would be pulled right away. They are also going to find out how my photo ended up on their commercial.

Ugh.

A night high dynamic range image

City Hall at Night
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

HDR image of San Francisco's City Hall from the 33rd floor of the Hilton Towers.

All these pinup photos

Cowgirl pinup
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

I'm blessed with friends that like to be photographed, and as someone trying to figure out the ends and outs of portrait photography, that’s a huge advantage.

These pinup photos posed a few unique challenges for me. First, I've never shot in this style before. I had to do some research on lighting and poses, and let me tell you, that was rough work. Most of what I found were the old Vargas drawings, but those were only a starting point. I wasn’t sure any human could actually pose in those shapes. I eventually found some photos to use as a starting point for the poses.

The lighting wasn't as tough as I thought it would be. I just needed to go soft. This type of photo is meant to flatter, so any wrinkles or imperfections needed to be hidden. I decided to go with a dual umbrella setup. One shoot-through umbrella on either side with even powered flashes attached. The only difference is the umbrella on the right is smaller. The umbrella route also allowed the subjects the freedom to move around a little.

The backdrop was another issue. I decided on a seamless white background so that I wouldn't have to worry about a set. The problem was that I didn’t have a backdrop or the room to put it anywhere. One trip to Home Depot fixed that.

I bought four 2-foot PVC pipes at 1-inch diameter and three "T" connectors. Total cost: $2.77. I also bought two 8x12 foot paint cloths at $7 each. When I got home, I put the pipes together and placed the center "T" connector on my light stand. I taped one tarp to the pipes and threw the other on the ground. I lit the backdrop with two strobes on either side of the subject. When I finished, everything fit nicely in my lighting bag, making my wife pretty happy.

This was all shot in my living room. I just moved the coffee table out of the way and placed a blanket over the TV to avoid unwanted reflections.

I still wish I had more room. I had to use a wide-angle zoom for all the shots and some of the full-length shots suffered as a result. Someday I have a large, dedicated studio, but I'm afraid that day is far off. This will do for now.

Pinup

Pinup
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

Pinup

Pinup
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

New photos coming

I shot a few portraits recently but I haven't posted them because I didn't get their permission to. Or, more accurately, they didn't want me to without their OK. Well, I've got their OK on a few frames, so I'll be posting them soon.

Stay tuned.

Casey

Casey
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

A friend's daughter wants to learn about portrait photography, so she and her dad came over so I could take some of her pictures and show around some lights. I think she's got the photo bug now.

Christchurch Cathedral Organ

Christchurch Cathedral Organ
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

Yacht Harbor

Yacht Harbor
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

An oldie but goodie

Omaru Bank

20090307_newzealand_0220
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

Omaru, New Zealand

Auckland Ferry Building

Auckland Ferry Building
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

Milford Sound

Milford Sound
Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

Honeymoon slideshow

I'm still going through all of the photos from our New Zealand trip, but here's a slideshow of most of the good ones. Most are processed and color corrected, but not all of them.

We're home

Well, we are back in the States and have a day of rest under our belt. I can't remember ever sleeping that good before. I guess if I have trouble sleeping again, I just have to go to New Zealand and make sure not to sleep for 40 hours on the way back.

I'm downloading photos right now, which is slow going. There are 2,300 photos that I had transferred to Julie's computer and a bunch still on a card from the last few days on the North Island. I guess I hadn't written anything on the North Island. Here goes.

We took a ferry from Picton to Wellington across the Cook Straight. Wonderful little cruise. It's a little pricey when you take a camper van, but hey, what else am I going to do with it. While parking the van on the ship, one of the mechanics noticed my camera gear and immediately picked me as a reader of strobist.com. We had a great little conversation about lighting and cameras in general. Julie said we were talking in our own language, one she couldn't follow very well. David, if you are reading this, you need a seminar in New Zealand.

When we parked in Wellington, I just wanted to walk around without the camera. I figured that a city is a city and we just wanted to walk. I also was a little wobbly from taking so many photos from the ferry. OK, big mistake. My bad. Wellington is a beautiful city with a wonderful little harbour. I'm sorry I didn't get a photo to show you all. I guess you will just have to go and see for yourselves.

We drove 6 hours the next morning to Rotorua. I think Rotorua is great because it smells so bad. You see, there are steam vents full of sulphure and natural hot springs all over the place. The whole area smells like rotten eggs. This is a blessing if you've been traveling and are a little smelly yourself. Plus, you can pass gas and no one would ever know.

In Rotorua we went to the museum, sat in some mineral pools and ate a hangi feast at a Maori holy place. It was a little contrived, but a great peek into the rituals and history of the Maori people. Plus, the food was great.

Next, we drove to Waitomo to go caving. Pardon the pun, but it rocked. We get in a wetsuit and rappel into caves, sometimes over waterfalls. There were a few tight spaces, but never too tight. The glow worms in the caves were also pretty amazing. Our guide Liam was pretty funny about the glow worms. He said that they are actually maggot larva that attract tourists with glowing poo, but market research didn't think that would look good on a brochure, so the term glow worm was created. Those funny Kiwi. Next (and final) stop, Aukland.

Aukland is also a wonderful city and the main feature is their new(ish) Sky City Tower. It's the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere and this being New Zealand, you can jump off it. Julie entertained thoughts of doing it until she saw the price. Plus, when we ate dinner up there that night she noted how high it was. After dinner we went to the observation deck and they have glass panels in the floor you can stand on and look straight down. That turned her stomach a little and she eventually admitted she was glad she didn't do it.

The next morning we left. We didn't want to, and we concidered just staying, but we ... well actually, I'm still not sure why we didn't.

A few notes about New Zealand:

• The speed limit is 100 kph everywhere except where posted, like through towns and on curves. It's nice.
• Roundabouts make perfect sense and I don't know why we don't have them everywhere here.
• They like 80s music. In fact, most radio stations play all music from the last 30 years alongside new music.
• I love rugby. Go Highlanders.
• Feijoa juice is so yummy and we need to get it here. Come on Odwalla, this is right up your ally.
• The coffee is better there and flat whites are my new drink of choice. Mochas are always served with marshmellows.
  
• Bacon there is similar to Candian Bacon here. What we call bacon is called American Bacon there.
• Nonfat milk is called trim.
• McDonalds is everywhere, though most of them have full coffee shops called McCafe. Plus, they still call a quarterpounder a quarterpounder.
• Drivers are better.
• Everyone seems so active and healthy.
• People don't seem to collect as many sea shells. Here, everyone takes shells and they can be hard to find on the beach. There, they are everywhere.
• Coffee is in every bar, but there is no free wireless interet anywhere.
• No one says "You're Welcome." They say "Thank You" again or "No Worries" or something along those lines.
• No one seems to like George Bush and everyone wanted to know how Obama was doing.
• The economy is bad there too.
• Newspapers are twice as wide and have 8 columns. Plus, people still seem to read them.
• The major newspapers have a weekend edition and don't print on Sundays.
• Visitor information is very easy to come by. Every town, no matter how small, has an "i sight" that will book hotels and tours for you.
• Campervans are everywhere.
• We want to go back.

Thanks for reading. I'll have more photos posted in a few days, so check back often.

Here in Blenheim

Greetings again. First off, I want everyone to know that we had intended to blog much more. We had envisioned ourselves sipping flat whites and mochaccinos at a café and using their wireless to send you all photos and updates. Turns out that free wireless is something of an oxymoron here. Sorry about that. Julie is keeping pretty good notes on what we do, so maybe when we get home, there will be a more detailed account. Plus, I've got (at this point) 1,500+ photos that I will have to go through and sort out before uploading them. I’m doing a few, but just the highlights.

We were in Queenstown last you heard from us and the temptation to stay was strong. Even though it was rainy nearly the entire time we were there, we didn't want to leave. Besides, since it was cloudy, I didn’t get a single good photo of Queenstown and we never actually saw the Remarkables, so we really wanted to stay for better weather. Hopefully we will come back at some point.

We did a nice hike to the top of the gondola above Queenstown that was tough for me, but of course it was a breeze for Julie. Even without the Remarkables, the view was worth the walk. We rode the gondola down for a nice lunch at Fergburger, which was excellent. Julie needed a coffee, so we had to stop in at Starbucks, not because we are silly Americans that need our retail chains, but because a friend of the family used to work there. Hey Maddie, Amber says "hello" and she misses you. From there, it was off to Wanaka.

If you happen to find yourself in Wanaka, there's one thing you have to do … see a film at Cinema Paradiso. We saw "Yes Man." The experience was better than the film. I’m not sure words can do the place justice except to say that it may be what I would consider heaven. Movies, food, beer, wine and homemade cookies and ice cream. All the seats are old couches except the ones in an old car off to the side of the cinema. Julie and I are thinking of opening our own back home.

The next day was all driving to Fox Glacier. We had lunch in Haast and ended up in Fox somewhat late. Beautiful drive though. Friday morning we got up before dawn and started what for me was the best day so far here. We did a speed hike around Lake Matheson to get some sunrise photos. The reason we were speed walking was because we had an 8:45 appointment for a helicopter ride over the Fox Glacier and around Mount Tasman and Mount Cook. Wow. Just wow. (Note: Even though I wanted to use a bunch of exclamation points, I didn’t just for Larry.) We were supposed to land on a glacier, but it was too windy to go over the divide. Disappointing but OK still. The photos rock and I can’t wait to play with the hundreds I took in the 30 minutes we were up there.

We dilly-dallied in Fox and took a few photos of sheep and a goat we named Sir William. We next had Rocinante (the name of our campervan for you literary types) take us to Franz Joseph for lunch where Julie had the world’s largest cup … er … bowl of mocha.

We continued to Hotitika where the next day was a Wild Foods Festival. Julie really wanted to try some gross food, so we parked at a bad hostel and went the next morning. The highlight was the homemade kahlua with fresh, unpasteurized cows milk. The lowlight, well, Julie might tell a better tale later on. Let's just say that not all parts of the cow should be eaten and you should remove the shells from creepy-crawlies before putting them in your mouth. I've got pictures, don't worry. The kangaroo was quite good and I really liked the raw tuna, which wasn’t odd to me, but people around me seemed keenly interested that I was eating raw fish. $2 NZ (about $1.10 US) for a pretty good sized chunk. I had seconds and really wanted to take some home as that would probably cost about $7 in Santa Cruz.

From there we drove to Nelson and prepared for our next awesome day ... WINE TASTING. First off though, in Nelson, Julie had a coffee (notice a theme here?) that was spicy. The chocolatier added red pepper flakes to the chocolate. The sample we had was pretty good but I think Julie's mocha was a bit too spicy.

We did a wine tour so we wouldn’t have to drive, which was good because I don’t think either of us could have. We bought a few too many bottles depending on who you ask. The aren't too many red wines here other than Pinot Noir, though one small winery had a great Syrah that should be even better in a few years. Yeah, like it will last that long. I had a nice seafood chowder for lunch at the second winery. Our driver said the only place he’s had better chowder was in Monterey. He was right.

Right now we are in Blenheim, still marinating in our wine. I think we'll crack open a bottle to finish the night. Until next time ...

Cheers.


Sunrise at Fox.

Lake Matheson
Mount Cook
Mount Tasman
The town of Fox with Tasman and Cook in the background
Fox Glacier
Julie tries something (can you guess it? It's not what's on the sign.)
Julie doesn't like what she tries.
Tony tries some wine grapes.

In Queenstown now

Visited Milford Sound in the rain and it was still pretty cool. I'm still a bit sick, so Julie went on a long hike while I rested up. She made it back safe, even though it snowed on her. We went to a nice dinner last night at Fishbone here in Queenstown and had drinks at Minibar (which is really mini).

Some quick photos for you.

News from New Zealand

Sorry about the lack of updates, but we haven’t been near too many hotspots. Right now, I’m writing to you from Dunedin where New Zealand’s oldest University is. School is back in sessions, so last night (Saturday) was a huge party downtown. Julie and I went to a rugby game where the Dunedin Hylanders beat the Canterbury Crusaders 6-0, which was their first win over the Crusaders in 6 years and their first shutout in 13. The Crusaders are considered New Zealand’s finest team, but as one bloke put it, “They’re not anymore.”

I won’t spend too much time here detailing every detail of our journey so far since Julie is the one keeping notes and she’s off on a walk right now (I’ve got a bit of a sore throat, so I’m staying in at the moment). Our campervan is nice, though it is starting to smell a bit. We’ll clean it up so I can grab a few shots of it to show you all. Here’s a very quick rundown of where we’ve been:

Sydney due to our long layover. Then into Christchurch where we stayed with Julie’s cousin Sarah and her husband Brooks as well as their new addition Ida. Then we headed to Timaru for our second night. The next day we drove to Omaru were we saw some baby penguins and Maroki (name might not be right) were we saw some adult Yellow Eyed Penguins. Into Dunedin for rugby, drinks and sleep. Next up is going to be Te Anu were we will collect ourselves for the journey to Milford Sound. After that, probably Queenstown. I think we are not doing the rail trail bike trek since I’m not feeling the best right now. Maybe on our next trip.

Photos are taking too long to upload, so maybe we'll post some later.

We're here

Stop worrying, we made. Computer is nearly out of juice, so more later. We had an adventurous couple of days, so many stories to tell. Photos coming.

Bleary-eyed and we haven't gone anywhere

Well, apparently there was a mechanical failure on our plane, so we sat on the tarmac for 4 hours while they tried to fix it, but eventually, the flight was canceled. We were put up in a hotel for the night and told to be back at the airport at 9am for a 11am flight. This was at about 3:30am. I made an effort to stay awake all night so I would sleep on the plane. I ended up getting about 10 minutes sleep while Julie snagged about an hour and a half.

Right now, Julie is mailing her Leatherman back to herself because she accidentally left it in her bag she was carrying on. Oops. Not the smoothest start to our honeymoon, but an adventure none-the-less.

Until next time.

We're off to New Zealand

My wife and I are taking our much-needed honeymoon to New Zealand on Monday and you're invited.

OK, so you can't actually come with us, but we will be blogging about our adventure whenever we are near an internet connection. Julie will be doing the lion's share of the writing and I'll be posting the photos.

So join us on our journey and don't forget to post some comments to let us know that you are reading.

Tour of California

Originally uploaded by Anthony L. Solis.

Stage 1 winner Francisco Mancebo races during stage 2 of the 2009 Amgen Tour of California near Bonny Doon Road outside of Santa Cruz, CA on Monday, Feb. 16, 2009.