CDIA Celebration

We had our last day of school on Friday.  It has been an awesome seven months with a great group of people and I'm sad that the program is finished.  Here are a few photos from our final class (thanks to Kristen Finn for taking the group shot at the end):

DC Rollergirls

The lovely ladies of DC Rollergirls were kind enough to let me interview and photograph them a couple of weeks ago.  DC Rollergirls is the women's flat track roller derby league for Washington DC and is made up of a great group. Between the crazy stickers and derby gear and unique personalities there was a wealth of material to work with. They were all very nice and patient with me as I kept showing up at the practices to stick a camera in their face. My goal was to document the story of the rollergirls and their league. Unfortunately the story isn't finished as I haven't been to a bout yet to catch the real action.  But this is a good start.

Shooting in a giant gymnasium with very little light is tricky.  It's even more tricky when that light turns everyone an ugly shade of green.  Since they are humans and not aliens from Mars I went with black and white so the focus would be on the girls and not their skin color.  Being able to shoot at 6400 ISO also made my life much easier (thank you Canon 5D MkII).  It allowed me to shoot with ambient light and avoid setting up a stadium-esque set of lights and corresponding umbrellas.

 

Skeletons and chains...Oh my!

Why take a well-deserved Thanksgiving vacation when you can hang out in a dark studio photographing skeletons and chains?  That's messed up.  At least it was a skeleton with pizzazz and flair and a yellow silk scarf and a purple hat. (click on photo for larger version)

And the winner is...

"America's Pastime" by me.  I spent the evening with my wife Grace at the DC FotoWeek awards ceremony where I was awarded best photo in the "Student Advertising" category.  They even gave me a certificate to make it official.  It was an honor to be mentioned along side some amazing photographers. 

DC Fotoweek answers to be revealed tomorrow

Tomorrow night is the awards ceremony for Fotoweek DC at the National Geographic Society Grosvenor Auditorium.  It is here that I will find out if my baseball photo wins the prize in the 'Student Advertising' category (I should start working on my "I'd like to thank the Academy" speech just in case.)  Win or lose, it's exciting to be a part of such a big photography event held locally in DC.  The Fotoweek DC organizers have made this event into a photographer's dream: there's the NightVisions all-night shooting party, the photo demo's by some of the top professionals in the field, the portfolio reviews, and the exhibits.  Everyone should attend something related to this event even if you're not in a photographer. 

Leo In Wide Angle

Just got the Canon 16-35mm f2.8L II lens this morning and decided to try out some wide angle action on Leo.  You can just see the excitement on his face... (click on photo for larger view)

New Washington Wizards photographer for the winter

I will be the new photo intern for the Washington Wizards when they start the regular season on Halloween night.  I'll be there for every home game covering the game itself, the fans, and the general game experience.  This will be a great opportunity to flex my creative and lighting muscles.  Arenas are basically black holes of darkness with a little light shining on the action so I'll really have to push myself to get high quality photos that capture the moment.

Next time you're watching a Wizards home game look for the short white guy running around the arena with a bunch of equipment around his neck.

Chloe' and Hans Wedding

Here's a sample of the photos from Hans and Chloe's beautiful wedding last weekend in Newark.  Having photographed many ceremonies in incredibly dark churches, I was thrilled with the venue that they used for their wedding.  Big windows?  Check.  Lots of open space to move around?  Check.  Lots of colorful details?  Check. 

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

FotoWeek DC 2009 Finalist!

FotoWeek DC is an annual photo festival that just started last year.  It consists of exhibitions, talks, and contests and attracts some of the top photographers in the industry.  Imagine my surprise when I received the following email this week:

Congratulations! We are pleased to inform you that you are a finalist in the FotoWeek DC Awards Competition. This means that your image will be exhibited in one of our  FotoWeek galleries in Georgetown  throughout the length of FotoWeek DC and you might be the first prize winner in the category you entered. You are also invited to the Awards Ceremony and Reception to be held at the National Geographic Society on November 5, 2009 where the winners will be announced and prizes will be awarded. 

I had submitted my baseball photo in to the 'student advertising' category and apparently someone really liked it:

Fun With Props

Good evening boys and girls,
We had some fun around the photo studio and in the neighboring areas last week. I've always been impressed with the photographers who could turn boring environments into fun images. Who knew a copy machine, water, and a stone thingy could be such great props? (click on photos for larger version)

You're never too old to play with toys

There are no small roles, only small people.

Photo illustrations with toys are fun. The best part is you can have the little guys pose for hours and they don't complain. I didn't even get to the boombox, the delivery guy, or the police car. I smell a sequel.

(click on photo for larger version)

My beautiful wife

Studio portraits

We spent the week doing portraits in the studio at school. There was a wide variety of models (thanks to Sarah, Sarika, and Sanjay for volunteering!) and studio setups to shoot with. It was a great experience to pair up different lighting and poses to bring out the personality in each subject (click on photos for larger versions).

Fun In The Studio

Here are some old photos from a studio session we had a few weeks ago.

Giant Leo and Little Gaston

Here's a fun little composition of my cat Leo and my classmate Gaston. The Leo photo was first shot in the apartment and Gaston was then shot in the studio. The studio lights were set up to mimic the lights from the window in the apartment. After that it was a matter of getting Gaston the right size and giving him shadows. Click on the photo for a larger version. (Props to Gaston for being a great model)

Take Me Out To The Ballgame...

buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks.

Lennon (Bulldog, Not Beatle)

Here are some photos of Lennon the French Bulldog. He is only 14 weeks old but is already quite the model.