Border Wars

Today took me to Collins College 14th Street Studios in Tempe (among other places) to get a photo of a crew headed by Collins College instructor Ryan Noble (front and center) who locally produced a feature-length immigration drama called "Border Wars."

They gave me full range of the studio and the building in general to shoot and when I picked the supply closet I thought it would illustrate things best because of all of the cool studio gadgets on the shelves, but as soon as my subjects stepped into frame they blocked all of the supplies, but I was pressed for time and came away with this "band shot."

Scandalesque at Wrigley Mansion

I was very moved by Deanna's and Courtney's respective posts about casualties of war and rebuilding after the floods. I feel somewhat meek and superficial in the world of photojournalism when our task is capturing the human condition and I get an assignment like this one... I guess I feel that I have a larger responsibility as a photojournalist than what my current role allows.

Now that I got that off my chest...

Saturday I made it out to the Wrigley Mansion hidden away in the hills north of the Phoenix Biltmore for the latest performance of the burlesque/cabaret troop Scandalesque. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy this assignment ; ) ...I'm just saying that there are more important things happening in the world... If you get a chance, catch one of these shows. They're a lot of fun.

Alltel Ice Den

We're putting together our annual "Guide to Everything" over at the College Times and that means having to drive all over the Valley getting shots of different businesses that we think might interest college students. Yesterday I shot a number of different places, but only one I thought enough to post. I had just finished taking photos of people ice skating and was on my way out when I noticed this guy sharpening ice skates in the corner.

Professional Bull Riding

Saturday night I made it out to Jobing.com Arena in Glendale for PBR. It was my first time going to a bull riding event and I had a great time. It was really pretty exciting. I guess it doesn't hurt getting to shoot from atop the bull pen. It's a unique perspective...Especially when you get to experience the smell.

Rockabilly Group: Voodoo Swing

At around sunset I went out to the desert near the San Tan mountains with a local Rockabilly group called Voodoo Swing. The bassist's son is a friend of mine and they needed some band photos so they can start a MySpace page...Apparently you can't get booked for gigs these days unless venues can check you out on MySpace.

Since Deanna asked...I shot this using two remote strobes on stands firing through white diffuser umbrellas. I had one midi strobe with a red gel inside the car, but it didn't fire with any sort of reliability so you can only catch it in a couple of frames. My camera was set to ISO100, shooting at 1/50 second at f/5.6. I'm not sure, but I think my main light was near full power or 1/2 power and my fill light was at 1/8-1/4 power.

Hotel San Carlos with Brenda Lee

Saturday I met up with a local Pin-Up model named Brenda Lee at the historic Hotel San Carlos in downtown Phoenix. She and her boyfriend rented the Carey Grant suite and booked a couple of photographers to shoot in the hotel.

I tried another multiple since she had a ton of wardrobe changes that she brought. We had full reign of the hotel. It was a lot of fun.






Brenda's boyfriend, Coz, had a style of his own, so I got a couple shots of him too.

Lightning!!!....Finally!

I have had the WORST time capturing lightning this season...I thought for a while that God didn't like me, or maybe he/she/it was just messing with me because I would spend hours at a time chasing, setting up, and waiting for lightning the past couple of weeks whenever I could find time. I would leave the shutter open for 20-30 seconds and just as it would close lightning would strike. It happened repeatedly, and I almost pulled my hair out.

I set up on the 4th floor outdoor stairwell next to a new hospital in Mesa to get this shot...The same thing kept happening where I would just miss a strike after a full 30-second exposure. And when I finally did capture some lightning, a MedEvac helicopter was landing just then and left a streak through the frame from its flashing lights. I was just going to give up because the lightning was getting more and more infrequent when this baby lit up the sky...What a pain in the ass! (Click to Enlarge)