Friday, October 26, 2007

Precious Cargo


Note to self: Always have camera ready.


This is what I saw just driving down the street. This was an old beat-up tricycle, the only cargo being hauled. I imagine the driver delivered his goods, found the trike, without pedals, and tossed up on his rig for his kid, or something.



Until next time, keep shooting

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Mark Doty - Poet & Memoirist


Had the wonderful opportunity to listen to Mark Doty today, while taking photos and doing a video. Doty's bio, from his website markdoty.org is below. Doty talked to students and guests at Citrus College in Glendora today.
This poet and memoirist talked about poems and their structures, the way they are made and how they should be interpreted. He detailed how they can come to life and how, many times, they can be a work in progress for many years until something in the poem enlightens the author to realize what it is that the poem must convey. Check out my video for some of his thoughts.


Doty is very expressive visually and with words as he decribes his poems and the manner in which he creates them.

Mark Doty is the author of seven books of poems, among them School of the Arts, Source, Sweet Machine, Atlantis, and My Alexandria. He has also published three volumes of nonfiction prose: Still Life with Oysters and Lemon, Heaven's Coast and Firebird.
Doty’s poems have appeared in many magazines including The Atlantic Monthly, The London Review of Books, Ploughshares, Poetry, and The New Yorker. Widely anthologized, his poems appear in The Norton Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry and many other collections.
Doty has received the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, a Whiting Writers Award, two Lambda Literary Awards and the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction. He is the only American poet to have received the T.S. Eliot Prize in the U.K., and has received fellowships from the Guggenheim, Ingram Merrill and Lila Wallace/Readers Digest Foundations, and from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Doty lives in New York City and in Houston, Texas, where he is John and Rebecca Moores Professor in the graduate program at the University of Houston.

Tech details: Taking photos indoors is quiet the challenge because of low light and backgrounds. Your first disadvantage is the low lighting used inside. Setting your ISO to about 800 will make your job easier. Then, shoot by spot metering your subject with your aperture (f-stop) wide open and the proper shutter speed. Set manual settings and stay the course. The dark background is going to attempt and will throw your exposures off if you go any other way. The darkness will over-expose your subject and render useless your photos. Remember that the subject is what is important to you and let everything else fall where it may. It will be the exact opposite with a white background. If you are not careful, the white background will underexpose everything. This is so because the meter will attempt to set everything at 18% gray. Another thing I will touch on next time, getting your color balance right. Until next time, keep shooting.

Here is the video:


Wednesday, October 24, 2007

The Moon


Thirty minutes later, looking North East, this is what I saw. The post below was looking South West.

Ever wonder why the moon and sun look the same size? This is what I found for you. From freemars.org

The Sun happens to be 400 times the Moon's diameter, and 400 times as far away. That coincidence means the Sun and Moon appear to be the same size when viewed from Earth. A total solar eclipse, in which the Moon is between the Earth and Sun, blocks the bright light from the Sun's photosphere, allowing us to see the faint glow from the corona, the Sun's outer atmosphere.

Until next time, keep shooting.

The Evening Sun


Well, looking out my window just before 6 pm (18:00 hrs), this is what I saw. Now, realize that it is not as dark as the photo shows, but in order to get a right sun exposure, the darkening sky gets even darker, but the color of the sun is almost 100% accurate barring any camera processing software errors.

The sun looks like this because of all the particulate matter in the air, smoke from the fires that surround L.A. County. Until next time, keep shooting.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Paparazzi Style - For one night!

Hello everyone,

This is why I would never want to be a Paparazzo (at least not full time!) Look at all these Paparazzi, crammed into a very tiny space, all growling out names of stars, trying to get their attention and a look into their eyes with the lens.
Here we have Mrs. Tony Parker, otherwise known as Eva Longoria, being fully flashed by the Paparazzo.




Host George Lopez.

Okay, back to reallity. Notice that in the top photo, I was INSIDE the red cordon, on the carpet. Last Thursday night, I had the duty to photograph some Hollywood stars for Padres Contra El Cancer (Parents Against Cancer). I have been their official photographer for about five years.


Ah, the ever-so-beautiful Jessica Alba also came to support Padres.

Anyway, their annual gala has grown so much in the last 20 years that is has really become a true Hollywood event. This year's gala was hosted by none other than George Lopez, pictured above. Eva Longoria, from Desperate Housewives is the national spokesperson for them and she was also one of the hosts.
Many other stars came to support this great organization. This is a wonderful organization that helps children with cancer and their families, not only to navigate through the maze they have to go through when someone has cancer, but they also help them with ANYTHING they need in order to get through their ordeal.


Find out more about them at their website www.iamhope.com .








Here is Andrea Bowen to the left looking fantastic. Down below are Eva & Jessica chatting it up in the green room area.

You know, I love doing these events, but only when I am the official shooter because I get the ALL ACCESS pass that lets me get those fantastic candids that we almost never see. I am not intrusive at all and, most of the time, I ask if I can take the photo. Many times the people in the VIP rooms already know that I am there to do my job and they just let me go about my way. And last but not least, over here on the right is Nicollette Sheridan.






This fundraising event was in West Hollywood at The Lot studios. Mario Lopez, here with Eva hanging out, was also there and he was roasted by George Lopez most of the night, but he took it in stride. Until next time, keep shooting!

Local firefighters head out to battle the flames - Rio Hondo Fire Academy Roadrunners



Hello,

Today, one of my assignments was to go and take pictures and video of the Rio Hondo Fire Academy guys and gal as they took off to help battle the flames raging up near Castaic. These young people have the heart and courage that most of us would be hard-pressed to bring up. They loaded up all their gear and headed out for possibly as long as 14 days. Imagine taking off to battle flames and being out in the field for two weeks at a time. Man, that's something else. This first photo shows all the provisions they took. About two dozen people for this little amount of water for two weeks, maybe someone will help them ot when they are in the field. I know I drink about three or four of the water bottles, plus some soda and milk during the day, so this can't last too long. They also had personal gear, first aid stuff and whatever else they need to fight the flames.

Here is the video:

Helen Thomas, First Lady of the Press


Hello everyone,

Been quite busy for the last few days, but here is something new.

Helen Thomas, the long-time White House reporter visited Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut yesterday and talked about her time covering presidents from JFK to Bush II.

Here is a video and some pics of this very knowledgeable lady who roasted the present administration.