August Entries

I'm currently testing out this page as a possible blog style journal. I will try to have at least one entry per week, and separate the entries into different months so the journal doesn't turn into a super long page. Please feel free to comment at the bottom of the page and like the pictures here.
Thank you.

Waiting for the Moment
This was my first image that I submitted to a print competition for judging at the PPGBA's June meeting, just a week after I captured the image, and to my surprise I did better than I had hoped for. I have been attending to the PPGBA's monthly meetings for about a year now and I had never gathered the courage to bring my self to submit a print for judging. Like most of my images, this one was a quick picture I captured in a series of about five or six frames. The bride was already running late and we had to split time between me and the videographers. The image didn't look like much when I captured it but I knew the potential it had once I retouched it. I received a score of 78/100 at the judging, not bad for my first entry. After taking in the comments and critique I learned what I could have done better for the next bride :)
Juan Luz Wedding
It's not too often that I'm given a lot of time to spend with the groom during a wedding, rarely do I get a chance to see them before the ceremony. Scott was a rare exception to this trend, I got a chance to spend about two hours, if i recall correctly, with him and his groomsmen, all 6 of them. I had a chance to take plenty of individual portraits of them and then we wrapped it up by climbing to the roof of their church. How often does that happen? I took a series of group portraits, some where I was about two feet away from the edge of the roof and about 50 feet from the ground. One of the request the bride had was for me to take a picture of Scott and his groomsmen with the steeple in the background. I wasn't sure how i was going to make the ugly air ducts and roof look good in a picture. I stepped back to take in the view and it slowly came together as I posed everyone. In the end I was really surprised and happy with the shot.
GP1 4272 Edit
Great Expectation
A few months back I took a studio lighting workshop to help better enhance my use of both natural and artificial light in my portraits. As most of you know my wife is expecting our 2nd baby (first baby boy) and I wanted to take a portrait that was totally different from my previous work. I had no idea where to start so i started with different poses and they all seemed too familiar to what I had seen or done. During my frustration I told my wife to relax, because she was tired, so she leaned back to relax and stretch her neck, and then I saw what I had been looking for. I just refined her posture a bit and had her cover up with her hands, I shot about 6 frames and presto! I'm always critical of my work so I wasn't sure I was happy with it until the next day when I came back to review it one more time. I took it to the Professional Photographers of the Greater Bay Area (PPGBA) July monthly meeting for the print competition. I went with really high expectations, I was looking for a perfect score but at the end of the night I came in short by just one point. My score was a 79/100, the only portrait that got a higher score than me in the same category was the teacher that I learned the lighting technique from. I listened the judges give their point of view and reasoning, I was really bummed out, but it was the only way I could really learn so i could not repeat the same mistakes on my next image.
Maternity

August Entries

Waiting for the Moment

Great Expectation