New Public Library

"Hundreds of people gathered in Redwood Shores on Saturday to witness the grand opening of the new public library."

Redwood Shores opened their new library today!

"Redwood City Council Member Barbara Pierce speaks during the Redwood Shores public library opening ceremony."

There was absolutely no parking when I got there but this was the big event of the day.

"Children “cut the ribbon” as they run through the front doors on the new Redwood Shored library."

This is definitely a great addition to the city for children and others to enjoy!

Division 3 College Football

Some more hard hitting football.

I just wanted to take a second and share some of these photos.

I do admit... a 400mm would of came handy

It's Electric!

"Left, Naoko Komura, of Mountain View, and Carsten Avenhaus, of Mountain View, browse through the annual Electric Vehicle Rally held at Palo Alto High School in Palo Alto on Saturday."

It's that time of year again where the Palo Alto High School parking lot is packed with electrical cars and anything that moves! Electrical cars that where invented years ago where available to look at and scooters from today where also there for purchase or just to get more info on how it works.


There was one car there that looked like a FIT cut in half! The guy who had it told me it can get up to 130 miles an hour and from 0-60 in 4 seconds... now thats the car I want to have.

A story will be posted on the event tomorrow here: www.paloaltodailynews.com

Aragon Football

AH yes High School Football season is upon us again and you gotta love the lights they have! lol yeah they are not that good.

I forgot how much fun it is to shoot these games and im sure even more fun when I get a 400mm 2.8 IS lens and sit on my lazy butt and shoot from one side of the field.

I did get to meet a photographer who was shooting for the Aragon yearbook since his kids went and go to that school... and... for once in a long time... I had "Camera Envy" HE HAD 2... YES... TWO NIKON D3s... waaaa... but no he was no regular parent.. he was a wedding photographer of 18 years... oh well, nice guy though thats for sure.

Jackie Speier

"Congresswoman Jackie Speier, met with local lawmakers at the Foster City Hall Council Chambers on Friday about their concerns and requests before she headed back to Washington next week."

Congresswoman Jackie Speier was available... well the caption explains it. The funny part was the jokes whey where making about the conventions that happened in these past couple of weeks... I will leave it to your imagination since it was off the record.

Boxing

Ah yes... boxing! There are always great photos to get when you go to a boxing place... this guy is one of the guys my paper is doing a feature on... I wish I had more time but when you shooting in a limited time slot and have a deadline to catch for more than just your paper then, well, you get what you get sometimes. I will post the link on the feature they do on him once its finished up. He is and interesting guy.

Another day, another dollar, another police officer telling me....

... to get the heck out of here.



So there was a fatal accident for those who dont read the news in the area here in Palo Alto where an old lady passed. Now accident scenes are not my favorite part of my work but I still need to cover them. I pulled up to where they had the road block so I can get through and photograph the scene when the first police officer told me that I can enter at another point... so I said.. ok fair enough... so I sat in traffic for about 30 min trying to get around to this other point. Finally... in there! I pulled aside to ask the officer to let me through. "We are not allowed to have any one go up the street" said the officer. I replied as nice as I could and explained to her that I am a newspaper photographer and I need to cover the scene. Well after about 10 min of arguing to let me through I was fed up and parked my car. After parking my car I made my way through some trees and around the road block... well all good now im in the clear... but had about a mile walk ahead of me... I lugged my photo gear up the hill where police cars where flying passed. I finally get to the scene of the accident where all the firefighters and emergency crews had already taken off... bummer... so I started snapping photos... Finally I was noticed and approached by an officer on scene... he was polite but I knew he didt want me to be there. I explained to him that I had every right to be there and not letting me through the road block was unconstitutional. He then backed off and just asked me to stay away from certain areas... I just dont get it... a lot of police departments in the area act like the first amendment does not exist... its a bit irritating. All it comes down to basically is being aggressive and I have noticed aggressiveness has gone away in a lot of the field.

To read more on what happened that day to the lady visit: www.paloaltodailynews.com

The out-takes

There where way more out takes then these but wanted to go over these.

I like this one, its sharp, well composed and nice lighting but I have a million of these shots and they become boring after a while. Good stock shot for other things but just not as exiting.

This second shot though I think is a good image it is also not the peak of action. I was just a second late as you can see from the ball being to the side... and obviously the other photographer (probably a parent) was a bit off as well since I got their flash in the photo.

HAHA this image... it reminds me of a dog that is tracking the ball. So I thought I would share this one with you guys!

Now this image here gave me an idea that I want to try to get next time to work with. This is why you should not delete your images when you shoot. this was accidental exposure shot gave me an idea! Ill let you look at it and tell me what you think my thoughts are about this.

More Volleyball!

Man gotta love crappy lights but its what you need to put up with when you shoot in high school gyms. The shot above was shot with 6400 ISO with my Mark III... mind you not... most of my shots where out of focus with the glamorous focusing system Canon has on this camera and the lack of customer service and drive to actually fix it. I do admit the quality of the image is great... but it does not help when you are shooting sports and cant focus.
This second image was shot at 3200 ISO... when you enlarge the photo in photoshop you can tell the difference in quality. 3200 ISO is way better than 6400 but 64 still looks damn good. I will post some out takes and go over those next.

Woodside High Volleyball

Yet another volleyball game and I think I am getting the hang of it.



Though there was not as good of light as the last game I had to cover, the availability to move and get different angels was great.



A lot with sports photography is angels. That is why a lot of sports photographers use clamps, pocket wizards, and other cool tools to get angles you would usually not get.



Enjoy the photos and comments are always welcome!

Belly Dancing

Redwood City does it again! I think they out did them self from last year. Definitely changed up their normal dance on the square from last year and have a lot going on.


Belly dancing is what they featured today and ballroom dancing last time. The have a bunch of other types of things other than just music which is what they did last year, just music.

Happy Labor Day!

It is my day off so time to be lazy! Happy Labor Day everyone and happy shooting.

Take me out to the ball game....

Believe it or not this was the first time I took my kids to a baseball game... I know I know... what took you so long... well, I usually take them to do other things and never really thought about taking them to a minor league game because the pro games add up when you buy tickets... well... i didn't but these tickets...



The kids had a lot of fun. Out doors, nice night, and they knew it was passed their bedtime.



The game went fast since it was very defensive. We left in the bottom of the eighth inning to beat traffic when the San Jose Giants where up 1 to 0... and I am sure they won because they where playing very well.



And... thanks goes out the man who made it all possible... my photographer friend James Baker and you can visit his site here: http://www.jameswbaker.com/