Payson night.....a starry one indeed.....

For the Longest time I have wanted to get out of the valley and take some photos of the night sky....I really need an intevelometer, but can't afford one at the moment, but this photo really gives you the idea of how many stars are truly out there! This photo was taken at f/2.8 ISO 1600 at 30 seconds....I ran it through noise ninja and did a small color correction to get rid of the orange tungsten looks of the trees a bit.

PAYSON!!!!! SNOOWWWW!

So my girlfriend extended an invitation to go up to Payson with her family.  Of course I went, there just north of Payson in Christopher Creek was a nice 6 inches of snow to have a grand time in. We stayed in their cabin and enjoyed a nice evening in the cold! here I have some photos of the fun during the day.....My next post will have my photos of the night! OOOOOOO!

Turkey Day storm

So for a lack of a tripod but an awesome 5d that I'm quickly starting to love....I just laid my camera down where ever I thought it was flat and just popped a couple of images of the stars and the storm.....Hope you enjoy!

Announcement photos from Saturday

Well, its that time of the year again, and I got an opportunity to shoot a very pretty thing that is graduating in December.  Here is a few of my favs!

Starting off November right!

Ok guys, 6 days into November and already I have a couple of proud shots. I would like to share them with you!

Best of-for October

I have been so super busy guys and I can't talk to much about these shots, so I am trying to post more and more but I've been so damn busy.....Enjoy them and tell me what you think!

Deanna: Once photographer - Now model!

Oh wait...nevermind she just helped out for a class! 

THANK YOU SO MUCH D!!

Ride along with Tempe Party Patrol

After about 6 hours on patrol with the Tempe Party Patrol this Friday the 26th, I realized now it isn't worth it AT ALL to drink underage at a party that is starting to get a little loud.  I witnessed these cops issue MIC's and MIP's to at least 20 people.  One party we went to was full of under agers, everyone of them got cited.  One of the kids there was 19 had a gun on him and was arrested because of a warrant for his arrest he had.

The biggest action that happened last night was breaking up the Snow Devils party.  We had 2 runners,  1st - a little 19 year old girl that didn't want to lose her scholarship, she's in jail now - 2nd a guy that decided that he wasn't going to get caught, that didn't work out to well for him, he ended up getting tackled on the Asphalt by 2 members of the Tempe Action Team that resulted in a busted up face and hurt reputation.

Another girl was found passed out in the bathroom who blew a .000 on many different breathalizers - she was unresponsive and was sent to the hospital to find out what the heck was wrong with her - I think it was a ruphee or something.

I found out that just don't lie to cops, they hate that, and they will find out.  If your going to use your brothers information, make sure you know it even after you blow a .107.

what a night....11 - 5 witnessing people walk out of houses in grass skirts and bikinis, glazed over eyes, the smell of puke and weed, bloody faces, girls crying in hand cuffs. 

OHHH and the biggest thing, the cops were great with me carrying around 2 huge cameras. Everyone in hand cuffs was like "Who the hell is the camera man." and "I have rights, I don't want my picture taken" as they were sitting on a sidewalk in public property.  The best one of the night "I have rights and I don't want my picture taken" (cops says) "oh why is that?" Cause its embarrassing and he doesn't have the right to take my picture!" Well don't look like a drunken idiot who just ran from the cops, hahah ooohh great stuff.

ASU football 2-0!

I thought I was a super genius shooting from what my camera looked to be a truer color.  But after seeing it on the computer, ew.  Never shoot daylight white balance in that stadium.  I know just saying it doesn't make sense, but yeah.....ew. Enjoy ASU vs. Stanford!

My first slide show with the AZ Republic!!!!!

Hey guys, so my internship has finally started and I'm on the ground running.  Today (Saturday) I did 2 assignments and yesterday I covered First Fridays in down town Phoenix.  You can see the slide show here at azcentral.com 

Dreaming big and having fun at it!

After my shoot with my brother (pictures from the previous post) I was looking through them and found  one that kind of looked like my brother was flying.  I know its stupid, but then I started editing the photo and found that if in fact my brother played for the Atlanta Braves and was their ace pitcher AND if the Braves had even a remote chance of making the playoffs this year - because of my brother's unbelievable -almost supernatural powers - than this (in my mind) would be the photo that would be in Sports Illustrated, or ESPN Magazine.  Ahh sigh, I can dream big can't I?  To shoot for a major publication such as that is a goal I strive for, and who knows maybe one day it will come true!

It can be fun to make up stories for your images and make them come to life with a single caption.  

My Bro and Studio Lights

Today I got an opportunity to go all out with a bunch of White Lightning 800's, umbrellas, snoots and reflectors.  I asked my brother to model for me and he didn't mind at all...So I took my rare opportunity and ran with it.  I really hope that I get to use these lights again in the future because I had a ton of fun with them and now understand why everyone who likes light wants to use it more and more!  Click here to view my images

Welcome back football fans - its the fall semester WOOT

So here is another season of ASU football, and another potential year of greatness for 2nd year coach Dennis Erickson.  I was able to shoot this game being an assistant to Jason Wise.  Hopefully the coming weekends I will also be at Sun Devil Stadium as a Intern photographer for the Arizona Republic.  I have yet to start that adventure but it is soon to come.  All last year I shot mainly the action side of the football game, being a assistant or second shooter, I kind of split the bunch and tried to go for more feature stuff.  So I tried my hand at that and was more or less impressed with what I got.  So here is a link to my favorites of the bunch.  Hope you enjoy

The beautiful big puffy clouds from 26th!

As I was leaving school today from downtown I was cursing myself all the way to my car as I didn't have my camera with me.  The big tall sky scrapers with the amazing sky we had today was just screaming at me to take its picture.  So I decided to make it up to myself and treat me to a small adventure to the edge of civilization just past Riggs and Dobson.  As I shot the tumbleweeds across the desert I started to miss the beauty (I think its pretty) of the desert we live in.  If any of you never went out to Maricopa then took a small 40 minute ride to Gila Bend going through highway 238, you are missing out on a truly beautiful sight especially right after it rains.  I was truly blessed to have lived out there for 12 years and experienced what it was like to live where cell phones, ipods, and the next model of shoe werent so important.

falling in love with HDR!

In my perpetual quest to gain experience in photography, I came along HDR (High Dynamic Range) images - You can edit these photos in 2 different ways - for a more realistic type photo - like one of the crane - or a detail enhanced way like the 2 water fall ones.  an HDR image is made by layering 3 bracketed images together and by doing so the detail and color is amplified to get a broader range of color, making an incredibly vibrate photo.

DIY Beauty dish hard at work

So good ol' strobist taught me a thing or 2 about DIY and now I have a very beautiful Beauty dish for my Speed light! I spent about 2 hours (it should have only taken 30 minutes) going to the store getting an 18" planter bowl some screws white and black paint for plastic, then jumped on over to Staples and got myself a case of 50 blank CD's (I needed some) and I the case they came in.  Then I jumped to Auto Zone and got myself a 3.75" convex mirror - threw them all together and Walah! a beautiful beauty dish.  Here are some photos that make me happy! lol this is my 13 year old cousin helping me out in my  needs to test it!

A new way to shoot lightning

I have recently just discovered the power of many photos and I have been captivated by the motion of the clouds and the intensity of the lightning can all be captured in many photos.  I am looking forward to adding more "movies" like this in the future.  Look at the stars moving in a westerly motion and the cloud sheering and the formation of the clouds moving eastwardly, then for some reason just head due South.  

Rompin' in the destert in search of the allusive meteor shower

My initial idea for this rare opportunity was on a clear stary night go out to Table Mesa Road North of Phoenix and point my camera at the North Star and get the rotational affect on an Hour + exposure with lines going through it due to the shooting stars.  But clouds and the moon had other ideas for me.  We went offroading on the trail in a jeep and got about 2 or 3 miles off the main road up there....Where we stopped there was the river that feeds into lake Pleasant.  We walked over that found some cacti that was going to make for a good foreground.  So as we waited for the clouds to go away I decided to see what I can do with the moon and this is what I got.

Wedding in Texas!

Well, I was hired to be flown out to Texas for the marriage of Sarah and Chris.  They had a beautiful ceremony and a great team to produce the wedding.  I had my hands full as the only photographer there, but the party was awesome with me and gave me all the time and room I needed to get the shots I wanted.  Here are a select few of the days activities, and I'm sure Sarah and Chris are going to love these!