Tons of photos

Where have I been? Taking pictures, that's where. Let's catch up.
SHELBY
Back in October, my little sister finally nailed down a time where I could take her senior portraits. She and my other sister came to Santa Cruz where we spent the entire day shooting. She's never really been shy in front of the camera, so the hardest part was really to get her to not laugh ... at least not in every frame.

We took some classic portraits on the side of my house where the sun is nice in the morning. Most of these were pretty typical of what you would see in most senior portrait sessions.

After a quick wardrobe change and a short drive, My sisters, my wife and I unloaded the equipment at DeLaVeaga Park where I had hoped to get Shelby in a redwood setting. My inexperience simply made the shade of the redwoods look like a darkened studio. Still, the shots came out pretty nice (even the one above where I couldn't get her to stop laughing).

Shelby also wanted some shots near the water and some at the railroad tracks. The water ones came out pretty OK, but the railroad tracks didn't look so good. On to the last setting.

The main setting I thought of for her portraits was Lighthouse Field as the sun was setting. The sun would backlight the weeds and give a luminescent glow to the photo. The field, which is at Lighthouse Point, was covered in fog that day though. Still, I got most of the photos I wanted and I think Shelby really liked that setting as well. Maybe I can get her out there during the summer sometime and take some more just for fun.

ELYSE
I can't show you any of the new photos I took of my friend Elyse because she wants to use them as promo shots and doesn't want them online first. Hopefully she'll let me post some later. We still had a lot of fun taking new photos of her at Wilder Ranch in November. The main reason for the shoot was because she won the Freeride World Tour Championship in skiing and has an old wooden pair of skis as a trophy. Trust me, the shots look good.

THANKSGIVING
Other that fun family photos, my main goal over the Thanksgiving holiday was to get a nice portrait of my grandfather. That really wasn't as easy as it sounds. He's not a fan of having his picture taken anymore (not sure if he ever was or if this is new). I had originally wanted to pose him in his living room, but I was traveling light for the holiday and didn't bring my lighting setup, just a flash. I got him talking to my wife about how to make salsa (she loves his salsa verde and may be the main reason she married me ... to get that recipe). Soon, he forgot the camera was there and I was able to get my shots.

I haven't given up on the living room portraits though. Next time.

The rest of the photos I took were mainly fun family photos. I'm sure at first that the family tired of me always snapping photos, but as always, people soon forget about. That's when the best photos happen.

49ERS
Yes, I got to be on the sidelines and shoot a 49ers game. The only bad thing was that I couldn't cheer when the 49ers beats Favre and the Jets. The reason I was going was to take photos of Jets cornerback Dwight Lowery, who went to school in Santa Cruz County. Sentinel reporter Jim Seimas was doing a story on his chances at Rookie of the Year and my wife (Jim's boss) was there to get some extra quotes from other players on what they thought about Lowery.

The morning started out a little rough. I accidentally turned off the alarm and slept in an extra hour as a result. Anyone who knows me knows that I don't like to be late. I was told to get to the ballpark at about 10 a.m. but the late start and a very bad accident on Highway 17 got us up there at noon ... an hour before kickoff. Basically this meant that I didn't have time to figure out a lot of the basics of shooting an NFL game like where the photographer's bathroom was. I had to pee the entire first half. I finally had a chance to ask at halftime. This being Candlestick Park, I was pointed to the old Giants dugout. I pissed in the same toilet as Barry Bonds. I feel stronger already.

On the sidelines, the game happens fast. So fast that I couldn't always keep up with what was happening on the field. I was too worried about framing my shots and staying in focus. I got lucky in that every touchdown that day happened right in front of me. Jason Hill's fumble in the endzone ... got it. Favre's rushing touchdown ... right at me. I even managed a few good snaps of Lowery covering passes and making tackles.

See more 49ers photos here.

CHRISTINA THE ROCK STAR
If you ever want to have a blast while photographing someone, get Christina. She wanted to pretend she was a rock star getting some promo shots done for her latest album. Never mind that she doesn't have a whole lot of musical ability (sorry Christina). Still, she wanted to play the part and I was only too happy to practice lighting her. Besides, If I could get her not to laugh in every frame, I could do the same with anyone.

It's been said that our photoshoot was like a "Behind the Music" episode. We started out light and happy, went to some edgy yelling, then dark and moody. We finished with her swigging from a whiskey bottle and looking pretty hung over.