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/

Greek Festival

Louis Busta, of San Mateo, dances along side Anthony Cairo, of Millbrae, while performing a traditional Greek dance for visitors to watch on Saturday at the Greek Festival held at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church in Belmont.

It's that time of year again where us Greeks get together and spread out culture to others by putting on a festival.



Left, Derek Brenner, of Santa Barbara, and George Stergion, of San Mateo, guide George Komis, of San Francisco, with positioning the lamb on Saturday at the Greek Festival held at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church in Belmont.

Greek dancing, food, Ouzo, and music, what can be better? Not much, unless you want to spend thousands of dollars to visit Greece.



Paul Vavuris, of Palo Alto, while wearing his Greek fisherman’s hat browses through the Greek Festival held at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church in Belmont on Saturday.

I know one thing... I ate too much loukoumades! You gotta try them... mmm sooo good.




Anastasia Karastamatis and her daughter Annie Gouskos, of Santa Cruz, put together a salad for the Greek Festival held at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church in Belmont on Saturday.

Battle of Belmont

"Carlmont’s Katie Cresci has her spike blocked by Notre Dame’s Rachel Heagy during Thursday’s game in Belmont."


Another battle of girls volleyball in Belmont between Carlmont and Notre Dame, and another battle with my focusing issues and Canon's flagship Mark III. 90% of my images where out of focus... that was a bit irritating, and again I need to call Canon to "fix" the problem... Ok now that I got that out we can enjoy the photos.





"Carlmont players celebrate after scoring against Notre Dame during their match on Thursday in Belmont."


It was an intense game! With the power out and only natural light being allowed in the gym from some funny looking glass the Notre Dame gym has (terrible when the lights are actually on) it was tough to shoot since a lot of gyms like to just eat the light. There was no score board, no AC, and mind you it was well over 100 outside so it was a bit warm in the gym as well, but the game seemed more interesting to me than all the others I have shot. If you would like to read more about the game check out the story: www.paloaltodailynews.com

Green Car

Well... the caption summarizes this photo:

"Freelance writer Joe Conner brought his 1984 lime green biodiesel Mercedes Benz to the Stanford football game on Thursday as part of his appearances at major sporting events around the country to promote alternative fuels."

The guy is from southern Calif., interesting fella and with a bunch of sponsors. There is a lot more info on him here: www.paloaltodailynews.com

Obama Watch Party

I was assigned to shoot an Obama watch party. You ask, what is a watch party? Well thats an easy answer! A bunch of Obama supporters gathered on Thursday night to watch Obama speak live on T.V.




The event started at 6:30 in the Obama campaign office in Palo Alto, Calif. I was a bit late since I had a few other assignments to attend. It was packed and it was hard to get around. I must say, Obama knows how to speak. For more info there is a story posted on our papers site. www.paloaltodailynews.com

New Sponsor!

So the Great Guys at BorrowLenses.com want to sponsor me for large events! Exiting news because these guys are great! Lenses, cameras, remotes, you name it they have it! Great customer service, local here in the Bay Area, and just great all around, and I am not saying that just because they want to sponsor me but because they are great! Check them out some time!