Soccer Wars

"Palo Alto’s oldest soccer club, Harmonie, warms up prior to their game on Saturday in Palo Alto. The soccer club managed to get some time on the field to host a local soccer club tri-team competition calling it the “Palo Alto Cup.” The games are intended to help highlight the competitive soccer clubs in Palo Alto while continuing quest to regain field time slots."

There is a few soccer clubs in Palo Alto that have been around for a while now.



And with more leagues for younger kids and women sprouting up these teams have a hard time getting slots to practice.



It is important to practice for any sport you play... without practice, you can't get better.

Sacred Heart Prep vs Mills Football

There is not much to talk about or nothing very interesting had happened so here are a few images for you guys to enjoy.

Details

Always look for details while shooting assignments. They can always come in handy for fillers or cool designs. Here is a football I found with the harsh son hitting it.

Making something out of nothing

"Grita Dev, of Woodside, talks to customers during a garage sell. Supporters of Measure W gathered in Redwood City on Saturday to raise money towards the measure’s campaign to stop massive development at Cargill."

Have you ever showed up and just say... are you kidding me? Well today was one of those days. There was nothing there... how am I going to show everything in one photo?

Peace in the middle east...

"Susan Hasse, of Redwood City, participates in a peace rally held at the corner of 4th Avenue and El Camino Real in San Mateo on Thursday. The Declaration of Peace group has held a rally every Tuesday for over three years at the same corner. The group said that if September 11th did not fall on their usual day of rallying, they would still have been out there"

Sorry I just had too.

So today marked the 7th year since 9-11. I can believe its been that long. Just yesterday it seemed I joined the Navy back in March of 2001 and off to war I went. Any way this group was standing at the corner getting some attention from the public.

Cross Country

Cross country with no numbers on people jerseys can be very tough to identify when you only have a time slot of 10 min. I cant believe I had to truck it all the way to Daly City today to get these photos... man what a drive... and what weather difference... I had to wear a sweatshirt.

September 11th Details

"American flags stand on the lawn of the Menlo Park Fire Protection District Headquarters Station located on Middlefield Road. Menlo Park firefighters placed 343 American flags at each of the districts stations on Thursday to commemorate the sacrifice of the firefighters in the September 11th terrorist attacks."
Yet another busy day! One of my assignments where basically over even before I woke up. But details is not always bad.

Though I do have some photos of people looking at the American flags, the details brought it home for me.

Enjoy!

Go Green Go LEED

"Left, Sharifa Wilson, chair of the East Palo Alto Family YMCA accepts a plaque presented by Lynn N. Simon, of San Francisco. The YMCA held a plaque unveiling for earning the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold certification on Wednesday. The award marks the first LEED certified building in East Palo Alto and the first for the YMCA in the nation. A LEED certification is awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council in recognition of a building being “green.”"
And finally for my last assignment. It took place at the East Palo Alto "Y". Everything you need to know about this photo can be found in the caption. As soon I was done shooting this it was about 5:20 p.m. when I then rushed out back to the office to get all the images in by 6 p.m. Success!

Tennis

Now for assignment no. 3. It's about 3:30 p.m. and I need to finish up editing and hit up one more place so I can get home before 6:50 p.m. I took about 15min to shoot Tennis then ran to my car to be in East Palo Alto by 4:30.

I pull up to the YMCA in EPA with a bit of time to spare. I grab my lap top and start editing. I got all the photos downloaded and chosen so all I had to do is put in the captions and the photos on the wire.

Mime's Cafe

"Left, Juan R. Jimenez, of Redwood City, serves a piece of roast beef to David Weir, of San Francisco, during an appreciation lunch held at Mime’s Café on Wednesday in Redwood City. Mime’s is scheduled to close their doors on Friday after being open for 13 years serving as a nonprofit culinary training program."
For my second assignment I covered Mime's Cafe... a nonprofit that is closing after 13 years. It is too bad because this place was great.

"Right, culinary instructor Adam Weiner and his daughter, Stephanie, center, mingle with San Mateo County Supervisor (3rd District) Richard Gordon and other guests during an appreciation lunch held at Mime’s Café on Wednesday in Redwood City. "

Woodside Library

"Two-year-old Celeste Cobaugh, of Woodside, peeks over a shelf during a musical story time event held at the Woodside library on Wednesday. The library holds a Baby/Toddler Musical Storytime on Wednesdays through September 24th. For more information visit: www.smcl.org."

Today was interesting. It was my first day as the solo photographer at our paper. I loaded my self with assignments and was trying to be sufficient with getting there, shooting, editing, and writing captions.

"Left, Anjaline Bekx, of Pacifica, and her husband, Mike Eppley, a senior library assistant, “point at something red” while singing a song on Wednesday at the Woodside library. The library holds a Baby/Toddler Musical Storytime on Wednesdays through September 24th. For more information visit: www.smcl.org."

The fist assignment was at the Woodside Library in Woodside, just west of Redwood City. They have a musical story time that seems to be popular in the area.

Gatos, Scotts, Volleyball

Today's match was between Carlmont High School in Belmont and SHP. Though the home team (Carlmont) fell 3 - 0 it was, once again, an exiting game to watch.

Football Portrait

I took this photo last month but wanted to share it with everyone. Photo was taken for a High School football preview. I dont remember kids being this big when I was in high school!?!?!

Family Portraits

After a stressful head shot session I drove up to do a small portrait session with some folks kids who I photographed their wedding a while back.

Her cute little 3 month old did so well!

We ended up going over the Central Park in San Mateo around 6 p.m. and spent some time taking photos around the park.

It's a bit different to take photos of a baby, especially trying to keep her up without falling... difficult... but fun, and not only for me but the parents enjoyed it as well.

Head Shots

Wow I don't think I have ever been so stressed out for a very long time. It didn't help that I have not done a head shot for a very long time, but when the lights you used did not go off correctly then you start to sweat. I set up the lights and everything was looking good. The exposure was a bit off so a bit of adjusting and the normal things where made but as soon as the last test was made... the lights did not go off correctly. The first gentleman made his way in to get his photo done and I felt soooo embarrassed to tell him what happened. He looked a bit upset but I told him that I can fix it and make it work.

There was a large window that allowed a lot of natural light into the room. I scooted the chair used for the portraits closer to the window and grabbed a reflector that I brought with me and got a fairly good result as you can see from the top image.

Chihuahua Racing

"Chloe, a Chihuahua-pug mix, dashes around Menlo Park's Bayfront Park on Wednesday. Chloe, along with her owners Mel and Katrina Soledad of Palo Alto, are participating in the PETCO Unleashed National Chihuahua races in San Diego over the weekend."

As some of you know, a few months back I photographed the Chihuahua races in San Bruno. The winner ended up being Chloe who lives with her owners in Palo Alto.

Naturally our paper would pick up the story and run with it.

Though this fast little pup can run, unfortunately she didn't win the races that took place over the last weekend of August in San Diego.
To read more on Chloe visit: www.paloaltodailynews.com

To check out racing photos from San Bruno visit: KGPhojo.com

Just for Fun

My editor and I went to do report on a story a couple of weeks ago just down the street from the office. The sun was setting as we where about to take off and since he loves his car soooo much I told him to stand in front of his car so I can snap a photo. There is a lot of goofy shots of him but I finally got a decent shot of him and his car.