Night Sky

I shot this one night while I was shooting lightning....I thought it was kind of interesting with the clouds screaming by, this was a 25 second exposure at f/2.8 as ISO 200.  The shot kind of gives me a perspective that no matter what nature throws at us, it can and will never affect what goes on beyond its reach.  Kind of humbling I guess.

I love monsoon season!

Well, even while I'm a little under the weather, I love being right under the storms.  A cell coming in from South East gave me plenty of opportunity to get some decent shots.  For whatever reason this night was way more productive than any other to date.  In about an hours time I was gifted by the storm with about 4 incredibly strikes that lit the sky up with crazy random bolts going through the storm!  Here are a few that got my attention.

If I only left earlier.....

Well, every photographer will tell you, being there is half the battle.  I saw the storm develop right over my house, and I thought it wouldn't produce anything interesting.  Then as soon as the sun went down I could see that this storm was lit up like a christmas tree inside.  I stood and watched for about 10 minutes before I realized this storm had some really good potential for decent shots.  I raced home to grab my gear, and headed out.  By the time I reached my site to shoot, the storm lost most of his energy and was only producing mostly cloud to cloud strikes.  On the way to my gear and to my site to shoot, I had a spectacular view of a very entertaining small lightning show.  But because I waited too long at my dads house, I wasn't able to get what I wanted. :( boo on me! but enjoy everyone

My Cousin playing in the pool

So after cruisin' the strobist web site I was inspired to just play around with some off camera flash.  Luckily I had a live subject which for the sports minded like myself makes for a fun activity.  My cousin Kyle who is I believe 9 or 10 loves to swim in the pool and play basketball with me, so I felt it would be a fun thing to shoot.  First thing I did was gaffer my flash to the top of the backboard after I put it in a zip lock bag to protect it from water.  Then i sat right underneath the hoop and he did slam after slam.  I set the zoom on the flash to 80mm to really focus the light just on him and once I figured out the best area to sit, I just watched him time after time and had a great time together!

Academy: Behind the show.

Here is a montage of photos compiled by me that gives you an idea of what its like to be in drum corps.  I hope you guys in enjoy.  Check it out here

Academy's practice before they head out across the country!

I took the personal initiative to make a photo story on something that is near and dear to my heart - drum corps. I have already posted a photo gallery on a show that was in Glendale.  In that post I described what drum corps was.  I participated in this activity for many years, and I have fallen in love with everything that the activity stands for.  Now that I have an opportunity to stand on the other side of the horn, I wanted to take a day and create a photo story that could capture the work that goes into a show.  Please enjoy these images as the members of the Academy work hard everyday to entertain thousands across the United States. You can view the photo gallery here

Yet another fun lightning shot right by the house.

You should expect to see many more lightning shots to come down the road.  Every night I love seeing what this monsoon season will bring to my front door.  If gas were cheaper, I would travel to get my shots, but unfortunately I'm forced to be stationary.  The strike was right over the San tan mountains South of Gilbert.  The exposure was f/10 at 10 seconds at ISO 200.  The shot was actually pretty far away for my 16-35mm lense.  So I had to crop a bit for this image.  Fortunately it still turned out to an enjoyable image.

A shoot in some miserable heat!

In a total naive thought that the evening in early July would be a totally great time to shoot some portraits out by Tempe Town Lakes proved to be a setting for incredibly hot and muggy conditions.  There weren't any clouds but still the smoke from the Lane 2 fire burning up near Crown King.  It was the only thing I was hoping on to save the sun from being so powerful in my background. I happen to get a few good images out of the shoot, and still had a great time with the shoot as well, despite the constant stream of sweat running down my face.  On the road to learning the tricks of the trade, I will log this one under - Keep in mind what time of the year it is, and where you want to shoot.  View the images here.

Natural fireworks on the eve of the Nation's birthday - Nightmare on the playground.

This shot came on a very eery setting.  I just got out of a movie and was looking forward to go home, but once I stepped out of the theater, I heard the crack of thunder and the light flash all around.  Luckily I did some portrait photography earlier that day so I had my camera with me.  I jumped into my car and headed off to where it was going.  I knew it was headed West and so I hurried on the 10 and moved my Elliot road and took that as far West as I could.  When I got there it was raining so hard I had to set up my tripod in my car and just hope for some decent shots..No luck.  So After it stopped raining I decided to head to a park and there was a kind of an eery setting at a playground.  This shot kind of reminded me of a scene from the mind of Tim Burton.

SouthWest Corps Connection at Glendale Community College! DCI!!

First you might ask what the hell is DCI? Well its actually Drum and bugle Corps International.  It is a league of (professional) marching organizations that contains only Brass, Color Guard (flags, rifles, weapons, and dance), Battery (marching percussion and pit.) Unlike high school and university marching bands, there are no wood winds (saxophones, clarinets, flutes.) Each corps is comprised of 150 members and travel all around the country competing against each other in competitions at high schools, colleges, and professional football stadiums.  These members are from the ages of 13-22 and devote their entire summers to this activity.  You can think of it along the lines of a major league baseball team on a 3 month road trip.  Take out the nice hotels, free drinks, and soft beds and put in hot gyms, cold showers, unpredictable weather and field conditions for practice.  Despite the expensive price for tickets to see a show (up to $150!) these performers are not paid. In fact, they pay to do this activity, and quite handsomely.  These shows that they do are nothing short of spectacular.  A normal marching band show may consist of 50 drill sets.  A drum corps show can have as few as 160 all the way up to 250 or 300 drill sets!  The music is of the highest level and the expectations on a nightly basis of these performers surpass those of a University football team!  Now that you have an idea of what Drum corps is, here are a few photos from a very hot night at GCC where The Academy of Tempe, AZ hosted Phantom Regiment from IL, Santa Clara Vanguard, Velvet Knights, and Mystikal, all from CA.  Check out the photos here