alpharon's posterous

I really have to post more frequently on this blog.  Project 365 is just a small part of my photography and I feel like I've got so much more to share with everyone.  This is going to be a big update to Project 365 with a lot of pictures to catch up on, so I'm just going to get right to it.

[37/365] :: Happy Birthday Emilia.  Everyone meet Emilia! (AKA: Auntie Mely, Auntie Sis, Mamma Mely, etc.)  I came prepared knowing that I would be getting good lighting for my pictures during the birthday party today.  I was intent on getting this portrait of Auntie Mely with the blurred out bokeh for the background.  My Sigma 85/1.4 was the perfect lens for this shot, so I had it mounted to my 7D for the majority of the day.  This was the first shot I took of her.  I ended up with a lot of great shots that day, but I chose this image because it's the one I had planned to shoot before even clicking the shutter button on my camera.

[38/365] :: Kukui Nuts.  In all honesty, this shot was forced.  It was getting late in the evening and I had not had an opportunity to take any pictures.  I was looking around the house for items to use and found the kakui nut and shell necklaces to use as my subjects for the picture.  This was the first day in Project 365 where I had to really force myself to just take the picture.  I think it ended up being a really sharp, clean image.  The subjects don't exactly call out to the viewer, but that's ok.  I can live with it.

[39/365] :: Pondering Escape.  There is shopping area by where I live that has this awesome pond filled with fat koi fish and turtles.  These guys look like they have it made and I'm not sure they'd ever want to escape this man made environment they all live in.  I had to have some real patience when photographing these animals because they were constantly swimming around looking for food on the surface of the water.  There was a lot of luck involved in snapping this image with only the turtle's head partially breaking through to the water's surface.  Most of my other shots had the fish creating ripples in the water and blurring out anything below the surface.  I was happy to get such a clear image and to capture the interaction between the pond's inhabitants.

[40/365] :: Light Vibrations.  This was very much an experimental shot.  I had no idea how it would turn out whe I was planning it.  I was sitting in the passenger seat of our car.  We were exiting the freeway and headed towards an off ramp.  I set the shutter speed to 5 seconds and held the camera as steady as I could on the car's dashboard.  This was the result of the vibrations from the car and the road.  I was able to capture all the light trails from the cars, streetlights, and road reflectors surrounding the vehicle.  I'm surprised that more than half the image turned out to be complete darkness.  It must have been a very dark night to be driving around.

[41/365] :: The Jewel.  This was my view in the morning from the parking lot near Scripps Pier in La Jolla.  It's looking out towards La Jolla Shores in the foreground and La Jolla Cove in the distance.  I was checking out the surf that morning to see if it was worth paddling out for a session in the water.  That wave might look a little deceiving since there isn't anything around to compare it's size to.  It was actually quite small out that morning and I decided not to get in the water.  I took this quick picture instead and really like how it turned out.  It would have taken me a very long time to clone out that strand of grass in the foreground, so I chose to just leave it since it doesn't really take away anything from the image.  The light was hitting everything right in this photo and I really like the clarity I got from it.  The skies are clean, the scenery is sharp, and the waves look fun.  It's just a classic San Diego morning.

[42/365] :: Board Topper.  Another year, another birthday.  I was happy to celebrate it with a small group of family and friends.  We had a really fun time just hanging out, having some drinks, and getting down with Dance Central on the Kinect.  I was blown away when my cake was brought in and I was able to look over all the details.  I got a kick out of a replica of my Firewire Surfboard on top of the cake.  The shells look like the perfect sea shells we all used to search for on the beach when we were kids.  The "sand" on the beach was actually brown sugar.  Everything on the cake was edible.  It also tasted really good!  Seeing it again in pictures gets me motivated to go out and surf.  I appreciated everything about it and was very thankful to share it with my family and friends that night.

[43/365] :: Dragon Parking.  I drove the fam out to downtown for a meet up with some friends to check out the San Diego Padres Fan Fest.  It was a beautiful day and we all decided to walk over and check out a Chinese festival happening just a few blocks away from the park.  As we were walking around, I wanted to see if I could practice some shots on street photography.  I kept an eye out for any interesting subjects to shoot.  We came across this dragon parked on the sidewalk during the Chinese festival.  I like the juxtaposition of the dragon and the "No Parking" street sign just behind it.   Juxtaposition was one of the first things I read about when researching street photography and I was happy to find it in this shot.  I ended up with some really good street photography shots that day, but I chose this image as proof of my learning and progression on the subject.  I will have to start a photoset just for street photography so I can have a place to upload the other photos to.

[44/365] :: Top of the Hill.  These kids are just too cool.  They've become so easy for me to photograph because they've been conditioned to seeing my camera pointed at them whenever we're all together.  HAHA!  I think a lot of it also has to do with me being able to anticipate their next move so I can quickly get in place for the next shot.  This quick 5 minute shoot started off with them staring through the windows of the playground playhouse.  They realized that their faces weren't showing, so they made their way up above the windows and gave me the poses you see in this shot.  It was almost effortless on my part as they did all the work for the shot.  I just sat there and clicked the shutter.

[45/365] :: VDay Moon.  We've been having some beautiful days in San Diego with some clear skies and warm weather.  I've been seeing a lot of the moon during the day, usually on my drive home from work.  Unfortunately, the sun will usually be setting before I can get my gear set up to get a day shot of the moon.  Today was different since I was able to leave work an hour earlier.  I had plenty of time to set up my 400L lens for this daytime moon shot.  I found it to be a little harder shot to take during the day than it is at night.  Nighttime moon shots are easy with their monochrome look.  Daytime moon shots have subtle changes to the blue sky all over the image that sometimes makes the image look unnatural.  I had to be careful to stealthly blend the whole sky together in post processing to make the image look clean and more natural.  I think it worked out for this shot.  The moon ended up being very sharp and well detailed.  I'll have to try this again on a full moon in the daytime to get the whole image.

I managed to process a couple more photos from the 2011 Volcom Pipeline Pro.  All the photos I'm posting from the event are from the final day of competition.  I really like how these shots turned out.  Not much processing was done to them at all.  The biggest thing I had to do with them was some cropping to get the framing of the photo just the way I wanted it.  All the shots were taken using the center point expansion on my Canon 7D, so I tried to frame them in post with the surfer off center to show movement.  I do that with a lot of the surf shots I take, so I hope they don't start to look repetitive.  I've still got a lot more photos from the event, but I've had too many distractions keeping me from editing them.

I've also had a lot of suggestions about getting these images published in a magazine or sold to industry professionals.  Unfortunately, the media business is all about speed and I was unable to get these pictures processed and uploaded in time to beat out any of the professionals.  Also, a lot of publications and websites already send out their own photographers to these events, so most outlets already have the photos they need.  For now, they'll simply remain a part of my collection until someone decides they'd like to purchase them.

Enjoy the photos.  I may post more from the event in the future.  I will also be posting an update to Project 365 and maybe some gear reviews coming soon (!!!), so keep checking back for that!

The North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii has been a mecca for surfers worlwide.  It was a privelege to be able to visit this 7 Mile Miracle during one of the biggest swells of the year.  The swell brought Eddie sized waves to the North Shore.  Unfortunately, there weren't enough big waves to run The Eddie, but there were plenty of big waves for all kinds of shenanigans. 

There was a lot of surfing going on and the swell just happened to fall into the the timeframe for running the 2011 Volcom Pipeline Pro.  My family's vacation to Hawaii coincided with this event and we decided to check out the last day of competition during our visit to the island.  It was flawless Pipeline with both Backdoor & Pipe barrelling perfectly.  This was my first time at a surf competition with waves as good as they'll ever be at Pipeline.  The surfing was near flawless as each competitor got barrel after barrel.  These guys really made it look easy out there.  The winner of the event was 18-year-old John John Florence from the North Shore.  He lives only a few houses down from where the competition was held and is considered a seasoned veteran on these waves.

I shot all these photos with a Canon EOS 7D and Canon EF 400mm ƒ/5.6L USM lens mounted on a Manfrotto monopod with tilt head.  This setup was very portable and worked really well.  I was able to get A LOT of great shots, but I'm only picking out a few to share on this blog.  You can view the rest of the shots from my Flickr set as I finish editing and uploading them.

Enjoy the photos and please let me know what you think by leaving a comment!

Aamion Goodwin was getting some of the best tube rides of the whole contest.  I loved his style and ease of getting in and out of the wave.

Aamion Goodwin performing a rare cutback after exiting a barrel. 

Makuakai Rothman falling from the sky.

Corey Lopez scooping some water to slow for the barrel.

John John Florence screaming in for the ride.

Bruce Irons entering nirvana.

John John Florence, Chris Ward, Aamion Goodwin & Jamie O'Brienshowing some great sportsmanship at the end of the competition.

John John Florence hoisted up the shoulders of friends to claim his win.

Here's a little digression from my Project 365 posts to show off some of my other photography.  I do take more than one picture a day, so there's usually plenty of content for me to share. 

In my life before photography, there was surfing.  Taking pictures of surf and surfers was an inevitable choice.  I've been lucky enough to acquire the gear I need to shoot surf effectively from the beach.  I haven't yet tried to shoot from the water, but it's not entirely out of the question.  If I'm not out surfing a good swell, I'll usually be on the beach hunting for a great shot.

These shots were taken in the last week of 2010 at Windansea.  All the surfers are unidentified because it's usually pretty hard to track them all down at the end of their sessions to sign some sort of model release.  Also, I usually don't know which pictures I want to use until I get them uploaded to my computer.  I would like to eventually shoot surfers professionally and maybe book one for a personal session someday.  I've still got a long way to go, but I'm putting in the work now so I can be ready for it when the time comes.

The shots were taken just before sunset with the surfers and waves backlit.  The light was constantly changing and bringing out the different colors in the water.  I focused on showcasing the colors and the light in post processing.  Of course, the surfers are the main attraction of the photos and they all performed like pros.