Sign Spinners

I shot this video a few weeks ago to coincide with the print story we were running. I just now figured out how to get it uploaded to my blog. I'll be more timely with future videos...I promise.

Spring Valley

I spent the weekend cabinning with friends in Spring Valley near Flagstaff. It was nice to get away from the Phoenix heat for a couple of days and the scenery was beautiful. 

Sunday morning I was up at 5 a.m. to catch the sunrise...
Here's a manual panorama of the sunrise over the mountains (Click to Enlarge)...
I saw about 20 white tail deer crossing the valley and spent the next hour-and-a-half or so stalking them. My stalking skills need some work, though... I only got within 120 yards before they spooked and ran off into the woods.

Warped Tour

Wednesday I headed out to Cricket Wireless Pavilion in west Phoenix for the Vans Warped Tour. There were five different stages going and most of the bands I had never heard of, but it was a good time...

There was Mayday Parade... 

Against Me!...

The Academy Is...
Crowd surfers...
Gym Class Heroes...
and Alesana, just to name a few.

Here I caught a couple of fellow photojournalists (from the Arizona Republic) editing and transmitting back stage...Notice the intense concentration brought on by the pressure of making deadline. (Click to Enlarge)

Summer Spectacular with Robosaurus

Saturday night took me to Firebird International Raceway for the Summer Spectacular with Robosaurus. There were drag-racing funny cars...

Burnouts...
Jet cars shooting 30-foot flames...
Robosaurus demolishing and torching cars...




And fireworks to top it all off.

Scorpion Under Black Light

My neighbor is out of town and before she left she asked to check up on her house now and then. Tonight I took a flashlight into her back yard to make sure everything was okay. I don't think she gets the place sprayed because it was an arachnid-fest back there....I ran into four scorpions and two black widows.

I remembered that I had a portable, battery-powered black light in my garage and that for some reason scorpions glow under black light...So here you go. (Shot with a 50mm f1.4 lens at 1/20th of a second at ISO800. Camera on tripod.)

Mannequin Multiple

The owners of the College Times realized that our insurance policy doesn't cover models and make up artists for on-location photo shoots, so until a new policy is drafted, I'm on model lock-down.

The model freeze gave me an opportunity to use that "multiple" technique that I tried out a couple of months ago (see my "Trying Something New" blog from April) for our swimsuit fashion shoot for our upcoming issue.

In this photo I used only one mannequin over and over in different outfits and hair styles to make it look like a mannequin pool party.

(Click to Enlarge)

Hootenanny with Weezer

Tuesday evening the Edge 103.9 hosted "Hootenanny with Weezer." 200 of  the Valley's biggest Weezer fans were invited to come to a secret location in Phoenix and jam along with the band...And it was recorded live to boot.

People showed up with some of the most random instruments... Ukuleles, didgeridoos, cow bells, you name it.
This guy is playing the melodica...It's a wind keyboard. Right after I took his picture he was picked out of the crowd by the guys from Weezer to play a solo during the recording.... It was a good time.