Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Redesigned website

My website has been outdated for quite some time now and I really wanted an easier-to-maintain solution. I found Wix not too long ago and they allow for advanced-looking sites with no coding knowledge needed. Right up my ally.

As a graphic designer, I always hated the website building process. It's like the two sides of my brain would refuse to talk to each other. I need to be able to see what I'm doing in real time just to make sure it looks good. I can't be bothered to remember if I forgot a /bold tag or not.

Wix is a simple drag and drop editor that doesn't make you stay locked into templates like most WYSIWYG editors out there. OK, that was my plug for Wix. They're not giving me anything for it and I don't get anything if you decide to sign up. It's just something that worked for me.

So check out my new site Solis Photography to see what I done.

Oh, so you want a photo to go along with this post? OK, here ya go:


Steamer Lane

Saturday, October 09, 2010

Shooting Sports

Lately I've been shooting a lot of surfing and I've added a few more skills to my repertoire: football and baseball photographer.

I wanted to get another chance at shooting a professional football game so I asked (begged) my wife, who is the sports editor of the Santa Cruz Sentinel. She was nice enough to get me a press pass for the sideline of the 49ers-Saints Monday Night Football game.



Not too long after that, she just asked if I wanted to shoot the Giants' final game of the season. When she asked the Giants were up 3 games over the Padres in the National League West and were supposed to have clinched a playoff spot by the time I was going to shoot the game. The Giants don't make things that easy though. Turns out they clinched on the very last game of the season -- the same game I was at.

Now, I had never shot baseball before and it took me a while to figure things out, but by the end of the game, I think I had it. So I got some pretty good shots but the best part was that I ended up in the Giants clubhouse afterward getting sprayed with champagne by Giants pitcher Matt Cain. Sure, for the everyday photographers it was no big deal, but for me ... well it was a moment I'll not soon forget.