Ambient Focus

A new project for the new year.

2012-01-17T22:34:00.000-08:00

I always say that I am going to do my best to update AF more often but I always fail miserably at doing so. This has forced me to take drastic measures.

To kick-start more regular updates I am starting a new project in 2012. I don't have a name for it but I do have a plan. Every day, while on assignment, I am going to photograph something unrelated to assignment. I may shoot multiple photos each day if I have a lot of stories and I may just shoot one photo. Who knows what will happen? But I will shoot at least one every day. At the end of each week I will post my five favorite photos with a blurb.

Here's my example to start off:

Jan. 17: While photographing an interview with John Vanderheiden in Lockeford, this cowboy stood to my left staring out the window.

Hopefully having a goal will keep me on track and make AF a little more enjoyable. Now if life can just send me something interesting everyday.

Top 12(13) of 2011

2011-12-27T14:34:00.000-08:00

The end of 2011 is approaching and in the newsroom that means the year end lists are being made. Top 10 stories, top 10 quotes, top 10 reader comments, top 10 photos, top 10 this, top 10 that. I would normally compile a collection of photos I've taken this year that I like without any structure. I like it so it gets added to the collection. But this year I'm taking a note from my friend a fellow photojournalist Clifford Oto and selecting one photo from each month.

Some months were easy. One photo stood out among the the rest. In other months(July) no photos were particularly interesting. And then there was October, a month full of great photos.

My votes have been tallied I have made the final judgement. Here are my favorite Lodi News-Sentinel photos from 2011.

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Jan. 3:

The year got off to an exciting start with the reorganization of the SJC board of supervisors. As I'm sure you are all aware, there are no assignments in the world of photojournalism more action-packed than meetings. From the beginning this was a real slobber-knocker of a meeting. Items were discusses in monotone voices, thanks for a year served were given. I could hardly contain my excitement. During the meeting, Mr. Ruhstaller up there was named the new chairman of the board. While he was speaking to the crowd he leaned forward to reach the mic and peered over his spectacles. With the county sign behind him it was one of those moments where all the elements came together to make an interesting photo out of a boring moment.

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Feb. 14:

It's been a couple of slow years for fires. We haven't had any major structure fires or grass fires in a long time. Fires are always horrible for the people affected by them, but for photos they are a goldmine. When I arrived on scene for this fire the flames were under control so I resorted to photos of the firefighters cleaning up the mess. but then from the garage came a couple of firefighters carrying puppies. They were barely breathing. One appeared to be unconscious. The firefighters and EMTs gather around the dogs and began resuscitating them. I knew as I snapped photo after photo I was getting something few had ever witnessed. Did I get any photos of flames? No, but would that really have been better than an EMT cradling two puppies, one wearing an oxygen mask?

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March 16:

The guys on SWAT have a tough job. They deal with the crazies who will probably hurt themselves or others if they get the chance. To keep their skills up to snuff the SWAT team has monthly training sessions and occasionally hold competitions against other SWAT teams. In this photo the Elk Grove team was going from classroom to classroom searching for a "husband" holding his "wife' hostage. When they entered the room they began yelling at the reporter and I to get our hands up, not realizing we were not part of the scenario.

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April 11:

This was one of my favorite assignments from the entire year. Retired WWII veteran Chuck Casella was a B-17 gunner when he served. In April he had the opportunity to take a ride on the Liberty Belle, a B-17 that toured the country. It was amazing to see the oldster hopping on board and navigating through the plane like he was a twenty-something again. Sadly, about a month after these photos were taken the Liberty Belle crashed and burned outside of Chicago.

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May 5:

Shooting Cinco de Mayo at New Hope School in Thornton has become an annual event. There's singing, dancing and kids in traditional Mexican clothes. This year I snagged a photo of a kindergartner who seemed to be quite embarrassed while still having the time of her life.

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June 23:

As a journalist you are sometimes involved with a story that truly opens your eyes. This year Jeff Kooyman was that story. He's one of those people that everyone in town knows of, sees them hanging around here and there, have heard stories about but know really know anything concrete about the person. If you speak to Jeff you may think he's a little off. 30 years of drug abuse will do that to you. But what you probably don't know is he's a graduate of UC Davis and a brilliant pianist. He is the reason you don't judge a book by its cover. Check out the video, "Jeff Kooyman: A Life Renewed" for the whole story.

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July 12:

This has been the year of REACH. I have photographed REACH more times this year than any other year at the Sentinel. I've been to the REACH station, I've taken a couple rides in it and I've been to numerous accidents in which REACH was used to transport an injured person. This photo was taken during a training session with Lodi firefighters at Hutchins Street Square. They were reviewing landing procedures. Nothing to terribly exciting. But while shooting I did get the opportunity to stand beneath the chopper as it was landing, giving me a unique view of the crew.

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Aug 6:

Feature portraits a constant as a photoj. Rare is the day I don't shoot one. Staci Takach is a local photographer who was featured on the cover of the Lodi Living section. She brought a bunch of cameras for the interview and photo shoot. I gave her the simple instruction of "have fun." It worked. She was relaxed and gave me plenty of great candid shots. This was my favorite of the bunch and my favorite portrait of the year.

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Sept. 15:

Former LNS reporter Jordan Guinn is a glutton for punishment and will do just about anything you tell him to. So what did we do to the guy who gets motion sickness if he turns a corner too quickly? We threw him on some carnival rides at the Lodi Grape Festival. He was a trooper, riding nearly everything he was told to, but he couldn't keep the brave face on the whole time. If you ever want to hear a grown man scream, watch the video of Jordan at the Grape Festival.

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Oct:

Wildlife photography is not my specialty. In fact, I'd say it's the field of photography I am the worst at and have the least amount of experience in. So when I got this photo of a juvenile bald eagle at the Pardee Reservoir I was quite pleased with myself. We saw the eagle take flight from the shore and I manages to snap off a coupe shots before he got out of range. But in a stroke of good luck he landed again and perched on a tree. We manage to drive out boat right under the guy before he finally took flight again, giving me this shot.

Kabbadi is an eastern sport. A mix of tag, red rover and wrestlemania. I love shooting other cultures so I jumped at the chance to work on my day off and shoot at the Sikh temple. The sport was unlike anything I had ever photographed. Surrounded by a crowd of about 3000 it was also the largest sporting event I covered this year.

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Nov. 18:

In July a postal worker was hit by a car as he crossed the street. His legs were crushed. He has had multiple surgeries and months of therapy, slowly learning to walk again. During one of his weekly sessions at Lodi Memorial West the physical therapist pressed on his knee as he performed leg presses. The look on his face was of excruciating pain.

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Dec. 14:

For family members of soldiers serving oversees there is no better gift than their safe return home. This month I've photographed two homecomings – a son surprising his mother and a father surprising his children. Tears flowed freely at both. It's hard to imagine a more joyous occasion.

Life isn't always a piece of cake...

2011-11-23T09:07:00.000-08:00

But sometimes it is easy as pie.

I always give my coworker Maggie a hard time about the assignments she gives me to shoot. She is the city hall reporter so most of her stories deal with some kind of government regulation, city council meeting or pensions. All riveting topics when it comes to photography as you can imagine.

How can I forget the time we drove around photographing non-ADA compliant curbs? Or the thrilling task of photographing storm drains? How I have not won a Pulitzer yet is beyond me.

But sometimes, sometimes Maggie works a miracle and finds something good. And by good I mean delicious.

Being that this is Thanksgiving week people are out preparing for the most important part of the day and the reason we all gather together–pie!

On Monday we headed over to Phillips Farms where they made more than 700 pies for Thanksgiving last year. That's a lot of pie filling.

The photos were not technically challenging or even particularly interesting to look at but it was fun. Sometimes that's all that matters.

What I enjoyed most about it though(other than eating a delicious apple pie) was making the video. This is one of those cases when a movie does more justice to a subject than still images. With the video you can see the crust forming, the juices dripping and the skill it takes to form the crust(it's harder than it looks). The photos just didn't convey it as well.

So check out the video, read Mags' story and enjoy a safe and happy Thanksgiving.

Big Sur Wedding

2011-10-15T13:22:00.000-07:00

A couple posts ago I said I only shoot a wedding or two each year. I have now met my quota.

Last weekend I had the opportunity to assist Jen, of New Vintage Photography, shoot a wedding in Big Sur, Ca. I jumped at the chance. It was a chance to shoot a wedding somewhere I had never been to and avoid all the post wedding work of being the lead photographer. It also gave me time to focus on other things and not have to worry about getting all those shots the bride wants.

It was a great DIY wedding. Really, how can any wedding with fiddle and mandolin players be bad?

Here are a couple shots I came back with. For the whole set and more weddings, engagement sessions, and family portraits, check out New Vintage.

I didn't get to do as much sightseeing as I would have liked too, but we got a little in.

Jen getting a shot of some rust barbed wire.

She also managed to sneak off a shot of me.

And one shot of the beautiful coast.

Hopefully I can be back to Big Sur again.

Kabaddi-It's like a childrens game but way more violent

2011-10-03T09:34:00.000-07:00

Working at the News-Sentinel for as long as I have means there isn't much that happens in this area that I haven't shot before. But every once in a while something new comes along.

That something new is Kabaddi.

Until yesterday I had no idea what Kabaddi was. However, I learned quickly that it is an intense athletic competition popular in India, Iran, Pakistan and other eastern countries. It's basically a mix of red rover, tag, and Wrestle Mania.

Let's see if I can explain this without thoroughly confusing everyone. Two teams face off in a large dirt ring with a line down the center. On the center line, in the middle, are two small mounds of dirt about 10 feet apart. At any given time there are five members of each team on each half of the ring. One person on each team is the "Raider." The other four stand together holding each others arms.

The raider from team A approaches the four members of team B on B's half of the ring. The raider then has 30 seconds to make contact with one of the four opponents. If he contacts one he then as 30 seconds to return to his half of the ring through the mounds of dirt while the opponent he contacted tries to stop him. If he makes it back team A gets the point. If he is stopped team B gets the point. Then the whole processes is repeated, switching roles between the two teams.

It was unlike anything I've ever watched before.

Dirt clouding the air and my eyes. The crowd of 3000 cheering as the voice of the announcer calling the fight in Punjabi rang out. Athletes slamming each other to the ground. It was a sensory overload.

Enough with the typing. Time fore the photos and a video.

The night ended early because a real fight broke out during the tournament, prompting law enforcement for clear everyone out. Hopefully that doesn't prevent the return of the matches next year because I would love to shoot Kabaddi again.

Welcome, Lodi News-Sentinel readers!

2011-09-29T13:25:00.000-07:00

Today is a good day for Ambient Focus. AF has been added to the Lodinews.com list of featured blogs. Hopefully that will bring more traffic here and give LNS readers a little bit of insight to the world of photojournalism.

So, welcome, LNS readers! I hope you enjoy Ambient Focus. I will do my best to regularly give you glimpses into my world and share with you photos and videos you won't see anywhere else.

With that I'd like to add another little update. While I love the current look of AF, it is important that I keep the blog fresh and dynamic. So I will be making some changes to make AF a little more engaging.

These changes may or may not be for the better and they make take a little time to implement them all(blogger is still working on getting the new blog designs fully customizable). The first thing I hope to do is at least get my Ambient Focus camera header back up at the top.

So hang in there if things look a little wonky. If you really don't like the new look, please leave me a comment with some feedback. If things really go off the deep end I will revert back to the more classic look. I've posted a photo below of what the blog typically looks like so you can pick which version you like more when I go through the redesign.

For everyone reading on Lodinews.com, click HERE to visit the full blog and subscribe.

Thanks again, everyone, for visiting Ambient Focus. I look forward to hearing from you all.

-Dan Evans
Chief Photographer, Lodi News-Sentinel

Lodi Grape Fesival

2011-09-20T22:19:00.000-07:00

Another year and another Grape Festival has passed. The Grape Festival is one of those events every year that I both look forward to and dread. I look forward to it because there are always good photos to be had. I dread it because it means a lot of work and late nights.

This year, like last year, I went to the festival during its final hours to take some video. Last year I had just purchased my Nikon D3s and the Grape Fest video was one of my first. It was pretty straight forward-clips of rides, people playing games and so on.

The festival obviously had the exact same stuff this year, but I took advantage of my more developed video eye and channeled my inner Sophia Coppola. I'm happy with the results.

Photographing Photographers featuring Staci Takach

2011-08-12T23:36:00.000-07:00

Working for a newspaper I have shot a lot of feature profile photos. Many of those profiles have been artists for the paper's weekly Lodi Living section. Some those artists have been photographers.

Shooting artists is normally pretty easy because they generally have some kind of outgoing personality that shines through in photos.

But photographing another photographer can be a little awkward simply because you know they are watching everything you do. Make a minor screw up while shooting a painter and they probably won't notice. Screw up in front of a shooter and you know they saw it.

Luckily for me, last week's shoot with local photog and friend Staci Takach went on without a hitch. She made it as easy as it could have been. She picked a good location, laid out her camera collection on a blanket and went to town being herself. It made for some great photos.

Being a photographer, she knew exactly what I wanted with me only giving her a couple instructions. She sat, played with her camera, answered questions from the reporter and talked to a dragonfly, all while ignoring me, giving me the best candid portraits I could get.

For the shoot she chose a meadow in the Lodi Lake nature area, one of her favorite places to shoot. We shot in the early evening, giving us some great, golden back light. This really helped me recreate the vintage feel she conveys in her own photos.

So, if you have some free time, read the story about Staci and her photography at Lodinews.com and visit her blog.

http://www.stacitakach.com/

www.Lodinews.com/Staci Takach

My one wedding of the year.

2011-07-20T22:50:00.000-07:00

It takes a special breed of shooter to be a wedding photog. I'm not one of them. Put me in the middle of a dangerous or miserable situation a I flourish. Put me in the middle of a wedding and I hate life. Much like landscape photography, wedding photography is just not in my blood. When I shoot a wedding I'm working and I hate when photography becomes work. Even my career as a full-time photojournalist rarely feels like work. That's why I only do one or two a year and always for friends.

It's not that I'm bad at it. I simply don't enjoy it.

A couple weeks ago I got my one wedding out of the way. Well, half a wedding really. I didn't shoot the ceremony because it was held in a temple in San Diego. I only shot the reception.

The location of the reception was great. The only problem was the time. It started around 4:30 pm on a cloudless summer day. For the candid shots later in the evening this was great. For the posed group shots at 5 there's not much worse. It's incredibly difficult to overpower the sun at that time of day, even with multiple off-camera flashes.

Anyway, here are some of the mostly candid shots of the bride. Hope you like em.

Jeff Kooyman: A Life Renewed

2011-07-17T17:11:00.000-07:00

So, it's been a long time since I've updated the blog. Sorry about that. I've been busy these last couple months. But I'm coming back strong with this one and I will try to give you guys more frequent updates. Soon I'll put a couple photos from the 2011 Lodi Cycle Fest and a wedding reception I recently shot.

For the last couple weeks Lauren, the Lodi Living editor at the LNS, and I have been working countless hours on a story about Jeff Kooyman. He's one of those people that everyone in town recognizes but few really know. So we set out to get to know him. Turns out he's actually a very interesting character.

I'm not going to bog down this blog with all the details about his life-that's what the story is for. But I will say what I thought I knew about him was all wrong.

I'm very pleased with the way the photos and video turned out on this one. I've only been shooting video for a few months, so I still have a lot to learn. But this video is the accumulation of everything I've learned so far.

So go read the great story by Lauren and take a gander at the video. There's also a ton of photos in the gallery. I think you guys will like it.

One Last Mission

2011-04-11T21:02:00.000-07:00

Today in Sacramento the Liberty Belle, a restored WW II-era B-17 bomber was at Mather Air Force Base giving rides. So last week we found a local WW II vet who served on a B-17 during the war and we brought him a long for the ride.

He had not been on a B-17 since his final mission on June 20, 1944. These guys were suppose to fly 25 missions and their duty was done. His 25th mission was the day before D-day. So he had to fly a few extra missions on D-Day and the following two days.

He was a tail gunner. Flew 31 missions in all. Bailed out once and crashed during one of the post D-day missions.

Great guy. And still sharp as a tac.

It was a lot of fun shooting.

All shots taken with Nikon D3s w/17-35 2.8

I missed the flames but got the real story of the fire

2011-02-14T21:30:00.000-08:00

Right off the bat today fire tones rang out over the newsroom from the police scanner. An attic fire. I grabbed my gear and headed out the door.

As I approached the house a lot of smoke was billowing out but flames were nowhere to be seen. As I neared the firetrucks a few flames sprouted from the roof but they only lasted a couple seconds before being doused for good.

The fire was under control and the opportunity for great action shots had all but passed.

I watched the firefighters go in and out of the house carrying charred pieces of wood, wall insulation. A firefighter came out carrying some family photos and I knew it was the best thing I was going to get. I shot the photos and waited for him to return to the house with a second load.

I noticed the homeowner and her daughter talking to the firefighters and pointing at the closed garage door. They opened it and the firefighters rushed in as a wave of thick smoke wafted out.

Expecting to see flames I raised my camera and waited. What I got was more powerful than fire. The firefighters came out carrying two small dogs, one dangling lifeless.

The firefighters came running to where I was standing, the dog was foaming from the mouth. They got on their knees next to an EMT and got to work, giving the dog oxygen with a mask meant for a person.

In all the fires I have photographed I have rarely seen anything so compelling and I captured every second of it. I have shots of the dogs being brought out and shots of the dog surrounded by emergency crews, but one shot, after the dog had been stabilized, told the whole story.

*Click photo to enlarge*

Camera: Nikon D3s. Lens: Nikkor 17-35mm. 1/250th of a sec. @f/3.2, ISO 400.

Dancers in the Dark

2010-12-14T21:32:00.000-08:00

Being a photojournalist in a sprawling metropolitan city such as Lodi I have covered just about everything the typical daily newspaper has to offer. Fires, city council meetings, professional sports, high-speed chases, dance-offs between Lady Liberty and a giant pickle and everything in-between. Having covered such a large variety of things I've learned what I'm terrible at shooting, what I hate shooting, what I enjoy shooting, and what I shoot best.

If there is anything I enjoy shooting the most and am very good at shooting it's "misery(to quote one of my best friends)" and performance arts.

I love shooting performers on stage, especially dancers. And if I can get in the mix of the action even better.

Tonight there was no stage. Just a small studio with black walls(a room I have shot in in the past-never this well though, thanks to my D3s). But there were plenty of dancers, albeit little ones.

A few ballerinas were practicing for an upcoming performance of The Nutcracker and I had to photograph one of them for a QNA. But I'm never going to pass up the opportunity to shoot something I love, so I stuck around a snapped off a few photos of the group.

Hope you guys like the photos.

I apologize for the lack of updates. This time of year there isn't a whole lot going on for work.

-Dan.

He yelled "GHEET TO DA CHOPPA!!!" before he vetoed everyone in the room with his chain gun.

2010-10-02T22:23:00.000-07:00

Totally happened just like that.

Seriously.

Okay. Maybe not so much. But it was still pretty great.

At the News-Sentinel I had two goals; to become the chief photographer and to photograph Arnold Schwarzenegger(click name to learn who Arnold Schwarzenegger is). I realize the latter is an odd goal to have but I love the guy and with him being the guv'na it was a feasible goal.

I have accomplished both of those goals this year.

On to the story.

Lodi's local super-cop, Detective Eric Bradley, was awarded the Medal of Valor at a ceremony the other day and I was their to cover it with Maggie, one of our reporters. During the course of the ceremony Arnold didn't do a whole lot but I was excited just to be there photographing him. I took a ton of completely unnecessary shots of him just to have them.

And on to the shots.

(Nikon D3s, ISO 1600 f/2.8 @ 1/250th)

Judge Cinda Fox, who was saved by Detective Eric Bradley, back right, when she was attacked in a courtroom by the defendant in a murder trial, was recognized as well during the ceremony.

(Nikon D3s, ISO 4000 f/4 @ 1/320th)

This photo of the guv'na speaking to Jerry Brown is just asking to be captioned.

(Nikon D3s, ISO 1600 f/2.8 @ 1/250th)

Detective Eric Bradley being congratulated by the Arnold.

(Nikon D3s, ISO 4000 f/4 @ 1/320th)

There's a story with the next photo. After the ceremony Arnold had a photo op with all the officers honored and a meet-n-greet with everyone else. Myself and Clifford Oto, of the Stockton Record, took the opening to race up and get some shots. It was a slow walk to the front, squeezing between the wall and rows of chairs. Cliff got through first and I was right behind. As I got up there I saw Arnold shaking hands with the Judge and I clumsily lifted my camera trying to get the shot before it was too late.

I almost got it. My aim was a bit off.

Immediately after the greeting the Judge turned around and hugged Det. Bradley. A great moment captured by Cliff. I got it but the first shot was blurry and the second shot, while technically good, just didn't do it for me.

We were then approached by a member of Arnold's staff and told to go back to the press area. But we already got what we wanted.

(Nikon D3s, ISO 1600 f/2.8 @ 1/200th)

And here's Cliff for good measure. He may work for the competition but he's still a highly respectable fellow shooter in my book.

(Nikon D3s, ISO 800 f/2.8 @ 1/200th)

There you have it. What a great day of shooting that was.

*For some unknown reason the photos can't be enlarged when you click on them like they can on every other entry. I'm trying to figure out what the problem is. Sorry about that.

Eid ul-Fitr-I'm still learning this whole video thing.

2010-09-11T08:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning I shot the Eid ul-Fitr service at the Lodi Mosque. Basically, it's a holiday celebrated the day after Ramadan ends. Several hundred people were there, crammed into the masque and overflowing outside. It's all about building relations and creating a stronger brotherhood between people and they truly demonstrate that.

Many, many people came up to me, shook my hand, and said things like, "Good morning, brother," "Welcome, brother," asked how I was, and spoke to me in a language I don't understand with a big smile on their faces. On my way out after speaking to the Imam and president of the mosque, a man met me at the door, shook my hand and asked, "Do you know what we do on this holiday?" Obviously not knowing I said I didn't know to which he replied, "We hug." And the promptly hugged me and patted my on the back.

They were friendlier and more welcoming than many of the other churches I have worked in.

While I was there I took the opportunity to shoot some video along with photos to practice my skills and hopefully improve. I wouldn't call what I have "skills" yet, but I am improving I think.

A couple things I did learn-I really need a steadicam and I an external mic. The built-in mic picked up way too much ambient noise while I was recording the prayer for audio.

So here's the video. I pieced it together using Adobe Premiere Pro, which I'm starting to understand a lot better. I did have to put in a couple crappy video clips because I needed them for filler. It's not easy getting interesting clips of people sitting. Let me know what you guys think.

And here are some of the photos.

(Nikon D3s ISO 100, f/1.6 @ 1/8000th)

(Nikon D3s ISO 100, f/1.8 @ 1/8000th)

(Nikon D300s ISO 200, f/3.5 @ 1/3200th)

(Nikon D300 ISO 200, f/4.5 @ 1/6400th)

(Nikon D3s ISO 100, f/1.6 @ 1/8000th)

(Nikon D3s ISO 100, f/1.4 @ 1/8000th)

Making the Old New Again

2010-09-06T10:12:00.000-07:00

Whenever I go out shooting i always save every photo, even the bad ones(unless it is absolutely, without question, 100% unusable).

The reason I do this is because when I'm bored I go through old collections of unedited photos.

I go out and shoot a project and when I come home I always get straight to editing. I find all the best photos and I'll go through 3 or 4 edited versions of each before I have the "final" version. I upload them to flickr, post them on a photo message board, and then I blog about them. All of that done within a matter of hours, at most a day or two.

But when I go back through the photos on those boring nights and weekends, months after the photos were take, sometimes years, I always come across a new photo to edit. Time away from the photos can give you a fresh eye. You'll see something you didn't see before. Or you may re-edit a photo because you've learned a new technique, you've fine-tuned your existing editing skills, or you have a better program to use.

That's what I did last night. Over the last month or so I've been using Adobe Lightroom 3 to do most of my editing and I now prefer it over photoshop. Last night I was bored and revisited the pepper harvest from last year. I've looked through these photos many, many times and I still managed to find photos I could edit for the first time or improve in some way.

(Nikon D300 ISO 200, f/5.6 @ 1/1250)

(Nikon D300 ISO 200, f/5.6 @ 1/1600)

(Nikon D300 ISO 200, f/5.6 @ 1/1000)

(Nikon D300 ISO 200, f/5.6 @ 1/1250)

(Nikon D300 ISO 200, f/5.6 @ 1/1600)

(Nikon D300 ISO 200, f/5.6 @ 1/4000)

When I originally edited the pepper harvest I did everything in black and white. That's just what I prefer for this kind of work. But for these I decided to keep the color to really show off the great tones in the sky, peppers, and plants.

I might even prefer these over the originals.

Friday Night Lights, Sept. 3, 2010

2010-09-05T20:14:00.000-07:00

Another Friday, another game of pigskin. Not a terribly exciting or action-packed game, but at least I don't dread football season like I use to.

Friday's game was held at Sheldon HS in Elk Grove, a newish stadium, but surprisingly darker than the stadium I shot in the week before. I had to push my ISO up to 8000at a point. I didn't help that the midfield bank of lights were off during half the time I shot. Still looks great though. That vertical shot down there is cropped way down from the original image and it's still usable. And thanks to Clifford Oto, photographer at the Stockton Record, I know what my camera is capable of. He also shoots with a D3s and he shot at ISO 12,800 during the Galt/Manteca game last Friday and even those look great.

Hopefully in just a couple weeks I'll have a 300mm lens in my hands.

(Nikon D3s ISO 4000, f/3.2 @ 1/800)

(Nikon D3s ISO 8000, f/3.5 @ 1/1000)

(Nikon D3s ISO 6400, f/3.2 @ 1/800)

(Nikon D3s ISO 8000, f/3.5 @ 1/1000)

(Nikon D3s ISO 4000, f/3.5 @ 1/1000)

Volleyball-The Real Test of a Camera's Might

2010-08-31T21:39:00.000-07:00

It turns out Tokay High's gym is considerably darker than a football field. Those football shots below were shot at ISO 4000, f/3.2-f/4 at 1/1000th of a second shutter speed.

But in Tokay's gym even ISO 5000 wasn't quite high enough to get a fast enough shutter speed to completely freeze the action. These were shot at f/3.2, so I could have gone down to f/2.8 to get 1/3 stop faster shutter speed, but lenses aren't their sharpest wide open.

At the next match I will take the ISO up to 8000. That ought to freeze things up a bit.

I still haven't shot a single photo at the D3s' highest standard ISO of 12,800(let alone 25K and above). One night I may just have to push it.

(all shots-Nikon D3s ISO 5000, f/3.2 @ 1/400)

Volleyball was a lot herder to shoot than I remember it being. I think it's because I have to get closer to the court than I did using the 200mm lens on my D300, so the volleyball comes at me a lot quicker than it use to. All the more reason to get that 300mm. Could be hard to use in the gym though.

Head up, I'll probably be posting a lot of sports stuff in the next couple months. It's just that time of year when sports dominate most of my time.

Friday Night Lights

2010-08-28T09:58:00.001-07:00

High school football season has officially started and last night I covered the first varsity game ever for a new high school. But more importantly(to me) I got to put my D3s to its first real test and it aced the exam.

Super fast focus and amazing ISO performance. Once the sun dropped and the players were lit only by the stadium lights I took the ISO up to 4000, set my shutter to 1/1000 and varied my aperture from f/3.2 to f/4, depending on the location of the players on the field.

With that shutter speed of 1/1000 I was able to freeze the action flawlessly, something I was never able to do with my older D300, especially on darker fields like our local Grape Bowl.

But I had one big disadvantage-my lens.

On my D300 my 200mm 2.8 worked well enough for football(not great since it wasn't long enough for mid-field action or action on the opposite sideline) because of the 1.5 crop factor. That means to have my photos show nothing but the action I didn't have to crop much. But on the full framed D3s I lose that crop factor. That leads to more cropping and that leads to what little noise there is being made bigger. Photos look less sharp because of this.

So this cements my buying a 300mm lens mid-September. If I want to take full advantage of the D3s I have to have the longer telephoto lens.

But other than that things couldn't have gone better(from the equipment standpoint-the game could have used some better action).

Here are some shots.

First up is a pregame shot of the coach talking to his players. I couldn't pass up the beautiful "Golden hour."

(Nikon D300 ISO 800, f/3.2 @ 1/1250)

And some action shots.

(Nikon D3s ISO 4000, f/4 @ 1/1000)

(Nikon D3s ISO 4000, f/3.2 @ 1/1000)

That's all for now. I'm looking forward to using the new camera at Monday's varsity girls volleyball at Tokay and the upcoming basketball season.

Video test

2010-08-26T20:31:00.000-07:00

Since getting my Nikon D3s last week I've been attempting to learn the art of taking video. Mostly I've just been walking around the office in my free time taking clips of coworkers and splicing them together haphazardly.

Yesterday I had to photograph a local house that is on the market. This house happens to be in the middle of a vineyard. And being the time of year that it is the grapes are looking mighty ripe for picking. So I went back there this evening to take some simple video clips.

I edited them together using Adobe Premiere Pro, a video editing program with more options than I know what to do with a far too complicated for a person with no prior editing experience. So I did the obvious thing and jumped right in, clicking on buttons of which I have no idea what they do.

But after a while a managed to MacGyver some clips together with some royalty-free music.(gotta love that stuff).

The best way to view it is by double clicking on the video so it takes you to youtube. Then you can watch it full screen @720p.

Not too bad. I need to work on my transitions so i can avoid that freeze frame between shots. But I will figure it all out eventually.

_DSC0001.jpg

2010-08-23T10:31:00.000-07:00

After a year of dreaming and a few months of tight saving, it is finally here. On Friday of last week the Nikon D3s was delivered to my office. I was like a little kid ripping into the last present on Christmas morning(we all know the last gift is the best one).

Here are the specs for those who want to see em: Nikon D3s

When I got it it only had a tiny charge in the battery, so I couldn't use it for the remainder of the work day. However, I did take a photo to be the first photo. Image _DSC0001.jpg. And since I was in the office I decided to photograph the most important thing in the building.

The great and powerful Floyd!

Since Friday I have used the camera to shoot a story and it performed brilliantly, but those photos have not run in the paper yet and so I won't be showing them here. But what I do have is an image detailing just why this camera costs so much and why it's a photojournalist's ultimate weapon.

What this image shows are to photos taken with the same lens at f/4, both using ISO 3200. One is the D300 I've been using for a few years(and will continue to use) and one is the new D3s. These have not been processed in any way other than converting them from RAW to jpg and cutting the chunk out of the middle. As you can see the D3s has far less noise, has better color, and is much sharper at the same ISO.

Keep in mind that these are chunks taken out of the middle of the image, so if you were viewing the whole image on screen the noise on the D3s would be even less noticeable.

*Be sure to click the image to see the full size version.

And here is the whole D3s version(resized for easier viewing) so you can see about how big of a chunk the shots above are compared to the whole.

That's all for now. I can't wait to share some real work with the new camera, photos and video alike.

Justin and Lisa Hotz

2010-08-13T14:42:00.001-07:00

Back in July I had the pleasure of photographing Lisa and Justin's wedding down in southern California. Having known Lisa my entire life I couldn't say no to shooting her wedding. It was a lot of work(made easier by my buddy Brian who helped out) but I had a blast.

Now that Lisa and Justin have seen the proofs I can finally show off some of the photos. These are a few of my favorites.

That's all for now. Hope you folks like em.

Lodi Gem and Mineral Society

2010-08-01T20:12:00.000-07:00

Since taking over as chief photographer at the Lodi News-Sentinel I haven't had much time to shoot anything just for the fun of it and not for work. So when an opportunity came for break from the salt mine I jumped on it.

Last week I had three assignments at basically the same place(two at American Legion Hall and one next door at Zupo Field) all at the same time. Working as quickly as I could I shot a portrait of Bob Gross, retiring director of the Lodi Community Band, and a meeting of the local Tea Party Patriots. As I was walking back to my car to drop off my lighting equipment before moving onto the baseball game I heard the eardrum-piercing sound of a bench grinder coming from what looked like a miniature airplane hanger. I had to investigate.

What I found inside was the Lodi Gem and Mineral Society. A few fellas cutting, grinding, and polishing stones. The guy who runs the place, who's name I can't recall, gave me a tour and explained the process of taking a chunky piece of gray rock and cutting/polishing it into a colorful and smooth stone.

I didn't have much time to stay but I shot for a few minutes and enjoyed the little break from work. I will be going back one day when I have more time to shoot.

A few minutes after I found the Lodi Gem and Mineral Society former mayor of Lodi and councilmember JoAnne Mounce also had to investigate the same sounds that drew mw. Great minds think alike.

Well, that's all for now. Thanks for looking, everyone. In the coming weeks there is a good chance I'll be adding updates because I will have some motivation to get out and shoot. And that motivation is coming in the form of a new Nikon D3s camera(http://nikonusa.com/D3S). I can't wait to get it. August 19th can't come soon enough.

Bass licks and Guitar Riffs

2010-06-25T09:06:00.000-07:00

Let's face it. When it comes to photography equipment you get what you pay for. Buy a cheap lens and you get soft images and poor build quality. Buy a cheap plastic camera(Holga) and get light leaks(albeit the results can be awesome in some cases and this is why most people buy them).

I use to always by cheap because it's what I could afford. And because of that I have a bunch of lenses that are either broken or just sit and collect dust.

But in the case of radio slaves for my speedlights I went cheap. Less than $20 cheap. To give you an idea of what that means, Pocket Wizards, the industry standard in radio triggers, are $400+ for one transmitter and one receiver. Not cheap. I'll get them eventually since they are coming out with a Nikon specific set which will be great. But for now, I got a set of Opteka triggers, a brand I've never heard of.

As expected they were inconsistent. I had to fiddle with them to get them to work and they would work for a while. Then they would quit and I'd have to tinker a little more. Did this until it stopped working all together.

But when they do work they work great.

I went out with a couple buddies of mine to test them along with a new 40 in. softbox. I couldn't be happier with the results. The softbox did exactly what it was suppose to do and the radio triggers fired my flashes without having a clear line of sight from camera to flash.

On the shoot I only used one flash because I only had one receiver. I'm generally a two flash kind of photog. So I paid $14 for another receiver that I got in the mail yesterday. I popped the new one on my smaller flash and left the same receiver/flash combo I used the other night together.

Ran some tests and the new receiver/small flash worked perfectly but the set from the other night still wasn't working. I did the obvious thing and swapped receivers and flashes. And behold, they fired every time after that.

So problem solve...for now.

Anyway, here are the shots of my friends. All were shot on a Nikon 300 with a 17-55 f/2.8, ISO 200. Sync speed and aperture varied. Processed with Photoshop CS5 Raw. This is the second round of editing these photos. I'll probably go one more round to get better color consistency, especially in the sky.

Hope you guys enjoy the shots. I will try to start updating more often. Assignments for work aren't always the best blog fodder and I don't get a lot of time to go shoot stories on my own anymore. But I will try my best.

-Dan

One Week Down

2010-04-04T20:09:00.000-07:00

I survived my first week as the chief photographer at the News-Sentinel and what a week it was. I had a slow day, three fairly busy days, and one completely full, "how did I manage to get it all done" day. Pretty good idea of what I can expect for my time as chief.

Anyway, I thought I'd share some of the photos I took this week and the stories I was a part of. *Click on the titles to see the story at Lodinews.com

Fiddling Joe

First up is Joesph Christensen, a champion fiddler from Clements. This was a great shoot. Set up a couple lights and fired away as the kid played his heart out.

I couldn't be happier with the way the shots turned out. Couldn't have been done without help from the Lodi Living editor, Lauren Nelson, and Joe's mother, who held up my lighting equipment in the heavy wind.

Nicole Lang

This was a simple one-flash shot at Lodi High. Took a few throws to get the timing right.

Fake arrest leads to real arrest

There is nothing special about this photo at all, but the story is about as ironic as they come.

Thanks for looking, everyone. Hopefully I will be updating more now that I have a lot more stories to shoot.

News and an old photo

2010-03-22T01:03:00.000-07:00

Obviously I haven't been updating the ol' blog as of late. I don't really have a good excuse for this. But I do have good news. I was recently promoted to Chief Photographer at the Lodi News-Sentinel. That means I will have more stories to shoot and a larger variety. So I will have more to share here.

In other news, I was going through some older photos, looking to reedit a few and I came across this shot from my Tent City story. I'm not entirely sure how I missed it because I love it.

That is all for now. Hopefully you will hear from me again soon.

A Year in Photos-2009

2010-01-07T12:50:00.000-08:00

So another year has ended and at the News-Sentinel we've had to go through all our photos and pic the best/our favorites from 2009. And as it truns out, this year was painfully boring when it came to local news. This summer is the slowest fire season we've had since I started working for the LNS and the year's biggest controversy was whether or not to continue praying at the city council meetings.

So with that I didn't have a whole lot to chooses from as far as "Best" photos of the year. But I still managed to get some photos I like. Whether or not they are good is debatable, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as they say.

So here are my favorite shots of the year in no particular order.

*Keep in mind these are shots for the News-Sentinel and not my favorite shots of my own personal work which i think is much stronger this year.

A quick update.

2009-11-14T00:06:00.000-08:00

Since I haven't added anything new since Sept. I thought I'd give you guys the heads up on what's going on. And what's going on is nothing. Nada. Zilch. I have shot nothing interesting since Sept. and prospects in upcoming months aren't looking good either. It's just been a boring season here in Lodi.

If you have any ideas on some photo essays you'd like to see please share.

Have a good one and thanks for reading.

-Dan

The final peppers and a couple grapes.

2009-09-20T23:50:00.000-07:00

I have the two last shots from the pepper harvest and a couple from a grape harvest I shot the other day. It was late in the morning when I got to the grape harvest so the sun was high and harsh. Hopefully I can make it to another grape harvest before the season is over. I'd like to get there a dawn for the best light.

I'm actually not happy with the grape shots, but I'm posting them anyway just to show something that did not turn out the way I wanted. Helps me to improve myself by looking at what I did wrong and figuring out how I can do it better.

Peppers:

Grapes:

That's all for now. And as always, go to the Wade Wire. It can be found in my links on the right side of the blog.

She's a Pepper

2009-09-12T23:21:00.000-07:00

One Last shot.

I Had A Dream...

2009-09-10T22:13:00.000-07:00

Seriously. I had a dream just this morning at about 8:20 a.m. Indulge me for a moment while I tell you my dream.

My boss and I were driving down a narrow country road trying to find a place to pull off to photograph a giant tornado.

When we finally found a place to pull off the tornado was gone. But in the field next to us were dozens of workers bent over harvesting. Others were unloading buckets into trailers. We decided this is what we were going to photograph instead.

*MEOW

*MEOW

*MEOW

That's my cat, Darby, waking me up from my dream.

Fast forward a couple hours and I'm leaving the Target plaza on 8 Mile Rd. and driving towards Davis Rd. And what do I see? A field of workers. Bent Over. Harvesting. Others are unloading buckets full of peppers into trailers behind tractors. I quickly drove home, grabbed my gear, and rushed back just a few minutes before they went to lunch. I only got off a few shots, but from those shots I got one I liked and that is all I ask for.

All of this is completely true. Seriously.

A little less depth of field and this would have been perfect. Maybe f/4 instead of f/8. Oh well. Grape harvest tomorrow or early next week with Van Ruiten. With the strawberry harvest from earlier this year my harvest project is coming along nicely.

-Dan

P.S. Go read the WadeWire. Link on the right side of my blog.

P.P.S. This is a reminder that you should always keep your gear handy at all times. I would have had soo much more time to shoot if I hadn't had to drive the 10 minutes home and 10 minutes back.

*UPDATE* I went back out this morning. Go a couple shots I like. Also met with the Bill Rogan of Van Ruiten Winery and I will be going out to a harvest tonight after work.

These are early edits. They will probably be worked on 2 or 3 more times.

Foreigner

2009-08-30T23:33:00.000-07:00

No, I don't mean the interesting people from abroad that come here to make a new life for themselves. I mean the band that should have called it quits years ago.

They played at the annual Rock the Square fundraiser at Hutchins Street Square on Friday. It's a huge fundraiser for local charities. Each year they bring in a different band. Last year the Doobie Brothers put on a great show. The year before that was Kenny Loggins(I can't imagine any square being rocked by the singer of Rainbow Connection). This year it was the driving force behind songs such as Urgent and Dirty White Boys.

These guys had more cheese than a pizza. And the women were going nuts for it. Was it the booze they'd been drinking all night? I sure hope so because if acting like the lead singer is what I'll have to do to get a lady when I'm older I'm afraid I'll be single my whole life.

I was laughing most of the time I was there shooting.

That is all. Remember to check out the other blogs I link to, especially the Wade Wire.

-Dan

And Now For Something Completely Different

2009-08-03T22:13:00.000-07:00

You won't see me doing this often; wedding photos(actually, you don't see me doing portraits in general as I don't like them much). Now this isn't an actual wedding. That's not for another week. These are just some shots i took while checking out the site for next week's wedding. Very simple setup on these. Two Sb-600s triggered by an Sb-900. My buddy Brian was holding a large diffuser off camera on most of the shots, blocking the sunlight and getting rid of that ugly dappled shade/sun combo.

Paul and Naomi were great subjects. I can't wait to do more of this and get more shots next Monday.

A lesson in lighting from Joe McNally

2009-07-11T15:48:00.000-07:00

Pretty much anyone who takes photography seriously knows who Joe McNally is. He is an amazing photojournalist and portrait photographer. he does a lot of stuff for NatGeo. I was introduced to his work through my boss/buddy Brian and my portraits haven't been the same since.

For those unfamiliar with Joe's work he is the master of using small hot shoe flashes to create elaborate portraits. He does everything from simple one flash and a reflector photos to massive 12, 13, even 20 flash portraits. He goes all out.

Today I went out to my favorite place in the world(yes, more favorite than Disneyland even) to make a portrait of my cousin. A few years ago I took a snapshot of him smoking what would be one of his very last pipes and I got quite a few people offering to buy it. So I thought he'd be the perfect subject for a portrait in my favorite place.

I really just wanted to recreate one of Joe's shots that he took of a fisherman in a workshop. Instead of a workshop I have an old barn full of old, dirty things. And instead of a fisherman I have a retired carpenter. This wasn't a planned shoot. I just showed up. So my cousin is just wearing what he had on. He normally wears overalls, which is what I was hoping for, but no luck today. Oh well.

And instead of a long-winded description of the shoot, I just drew it out(another thing Mr. McNally does).

The sketch still leaves some room for explanation though. I took the shot at about 2 pm so the whole barn was in shadow. I had to light the whole thing. I forgot to put in the sketch that I stopped the camera down by a stop and a half from aperture priority. The auto exposure was adjusting for the dark background and over exposing the whole scene. The Sb-600 with the gold reflector was to light the junk in the back. I used the window to diffuse the the fill/Sb-900(gel'd with a CTO for the warm glow).

I think the shot turned out pretty well. Exactly what I was hoping for actually. I just wish the clothes were a little more fitting to the environment.

The girl with Cystic Fibrosis

2009-06-30T15:47:00.000-07:00

I had to photograph a lady the other day(during an interview with the reporter) who is trying to raise money for the trip to Stanford foe a double lung transplant due to having Cystic Fibrosis. It was an interesting shoot because the topic of illness is normally a sad one but she was all kinds of bubbly and cheerful. It was also a hard house to shoot in. It was weakly lit, most of the time I had to shoot while facing open windows, and the walls were painted an off color, dishing out color-casts.

Because of the condition her lungs are in she has to be connect to oxygen at all times. So when I shot I really wanted accentuate the tube that was in her nose and draped over her body.

I also needed to convey with photos both the somber nature of the situation she was in and the perky attitude she had. Not easy with bland, flat light. So I used some flash to supplement the ambient light. Bright highlights and dark shadows for the more serious moments(first photo) and even, bright light for her constant giggling(last photo) and a more cheerful feel.

Because of her attachment to oxygen tanks, she rarely leaves the house, so I had to include her environment in the shots. Being stuck in a house makes her like a prisoner, so I used the supports in the divider wall to mimic a jail cell. She wants to be a fashion designer, so I tried to get the mannequin in as often as I could as well.

The end result is far from perfect, but I'm happy with the way they came out considering what I had to work with.

People trying to overcome medical adversity always make for great photo assignments.

-Dan

The Matador and the Bulge...er...Bull

2009-06-14T18:42:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I've posted here. Mostly due to the graduation season being hectic and tiring. I haven't gotten a chance to go shoot anything on my own time and news has been mostly lacking in excitement. But the other night i got to shoot a bullfight. Something I had never experienced before. I had no idea what to expect. I was hoping for excitement and I was not disappointed.

When the first bull came out of the entrance hall and immediately turned and smashed a hole in the wall that was suppose to separate guys like me from one-ton of angry mammal I knew it would not be boring. And the excitement just kept coming.

The Horseman and the matadors did exactly what you'd expect them to do; dodge a bull and jab it with non-lethal spears. Pretty standard. But then cam the Forcados. Their job is the pega de cara or pega de caras, "face catch" in English. I think you see where this is going.

After a fight is over about twenty of these guys line up in a straight line and let the bull charge and ram them while they hang on and try to slow it down.

Nuts.

Anyway, it was pretty cool and I'd love to go to more.

For today's photos I've stuck with just one of the Matadors, Victor Blasquez. He was the top guy of the four matadors at the show.

This is during the opening ceremony.

And on to the fight.

Don't stare directly into it. I think you know what I'm talking about.

Remember those Fordacdos I mentioned? Yeah, their job sucks. *Photo in color for full green elf hat action

I hope you enjoy the photos.

-Dan

Migrant workers at home.

2009-05-18T22:04:00.001-07:00

Today was a nice day off from work. And how did I spend it? By "working." Anyone who lives here in the golden state knows that farming is a huge part of our state's identity. And for tenss of thousands of people it is a way of life. On East Harney Ln. outside of Lodi is a fairly large immigrant housing project. So tonight I decided to head out there and see if I could document some of the people living there.

Once I got there I immediately approached the first person I saw. Francisco Martinez. He spoke very little English. Just enough to get a basic idea before finding someone else to translate for us. His neighbor was a big help. So once she explained to him what I wanted he welcomed me into his home.

I was welcomed by his parents right away. They were incredibly nice despite our inability to communicate. They even treated me to dinner. It was horrible tasting, but I smiled, had seconds, and said thank you.

I was stunned by their home. It was so bare. So plain.

Not much happened while I was there. Berta, the mother, spent 3 hours cooking, Juan, the father, watched television, Marco, the brother, slept, and Francisco went out and played soccer. Not too terribly different from the typical American family(that is except for the soccer bit).

Francisco Martinez watches a small television in his minimally furnished living room.

Francisco Martinez stretches before going out to play soccer with other residents of the migrant worker camp.

Berta Martinaz serves dinner after 3 hours of preparation.
Brothers Marco, left, and Francisco Martinez rest in their shared room in the early evening.
Berta Martinez prepares a mole sauce was her husband, Juan, watches television nearby.
Berta Martinez tastes a small dollop of mole sauce on her hand while preparing dinner for her family.
Francisco Martinez looks through photos a relative sent to the family in the mail.
Crucifixes hang from a nail near the door of the small Martinez house. Small religious trinkets are all that decorate the bare walls of the small home.

That's it for now. I still have some photos to go through. I always find another one to use.

-Dan

2009-05-05T12:16:00.001-07:00

Just a couple more shots from the strawberry farm. The lady there loved the photos so much she asked me to take some more of her. They really aren't as good, but I was running out of angles to shoot from. They were basically doing the same thing over and over.

This week in photos

2009-05-01T20:04:00.000-07:00

This weeks "This week in photos" consists entirely of photos taken today. This week flew by. I don't feel like I've worked at all. Nevertheless, this is Friday night which means I must have worked at some point.

Anyway, today I finally got to photograph a harvest. I've had trouble with getting this done because it seems nobody is willing to let me in their fields. I promised I wouldn't report them to immigration services but even that didn't work! *Please note I didn't actually say that.

It took some smooth talking but I finally got a guy to let me in his field.

And the last shot came from the SJAA swim meet at Bear Creek High School this morning. I know, sports shots should be in color. But I've said it once and I'll say it again; B&W is better.

Well, that's not normally true in sports, but it is true in this case.

And that's this week in photos. Remember to check out the blogs and websites I have link on the right side of this page.

-Dan

Bolinas, Ca with the Intrepid Soul

2009-04-27T10:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to a beautiful and apparently little known beach in Bolinas. It was a nice little staycation with my pals Brian and Natalie of the Intrepid Soul and Natalie's friend Laura. It was a great day of laughs, surfing for Brian, lazing about for the rest of us, and working on our sunburns.

We left Lodi around 9 am on our long journey to the coast. Brian was obviously excited to be getting some surfing in.

Nat was quite happy to have her picture taken. Laura not so much.

We had to pull off the road for a bit for some fresh air and a beautiful view of the coast.

This guy ran out in front of us. Luckily we weren't going any faster because he was just a few feet in front of the Jeep.

As soon as we got there Brian was in the water.

This guy took a liking to Nat when she was holding Brian's camera.

This is an old guy with a kite if you couldn't figure that out.
FEET!

Random fun.

And a giant dog.

The kite guy without his kite. Something must have been interesting on the side of the hill he's looking at.

Me looking all kinds of sexy...kinda.

Our uninvited guest.
I'll be honest. I have no idea what's going on here.

Natalie was gathering pieces for some kind of Frankenstein crab until I destroyed it with a rock.

Hand-slapping fun.

Natalie taking care of her man.

COOKIES!

Newtons.

Working on my epic sunburn.

Bizarre wood man thing on the beach.

Natalie doing an impression of the coolest person she knows; me. Her coolness failed in comparison though.

Natalie building a rock monument.

And this is why I'm always behind the camera.

So the trip was tons of fun. Weather was gorgeous. Go read the Intrepid Soul in a few days to see a better written version of the trip.

This Week in Photos

2009-04-25T22:34:00.000-07:00

If you looked at my schedule this week you'd immediately notice how unexciting it was. But it never ceases to amaze me that good photos can from from seemingly boring events. This is is this week in photos.

This is a 12 year old with a type of lymphoma. His family's winery held a fundraiser for him today out at Vino Piazza. He was having a beanbag war with his brother and a few friends in a corridor. I ducked down behind a shelf to avoid a beanbag pelting and snapped a few shots; one while he rested between battles and one during a lull in the battle. Super high ISO. Very noisy. Heavy shadow on one side and bright highlights from the open end of the corridor on the other. I love the way it turned out though. There's something about shadowed faces with rimlight around the body that always gets me.

He walked a little further down and the light hit him from the front. Great light.

This guy was sorting food for the food giveaways at the Salvation Army. I personally like this one more in b&w because the tones are as good as they get. But apparently people tend to thing b&w is "lying."

And this youngin' is cleaning glass at Washington School for Comcast Cares Day. I cut her torso in half and showed more of the windows to accentuate how small she was and how far she had to reach to get to the windows. And the light is awesome.
It's occurred to me that I like to shoot the right sides of people. Hmmm...

Go visit my friends' blogs!

-Dan

Boring days at work...

2009-04-21T23:45:00.000-07:00

...are boring.

They start with high school golf; the most action packed action sport full of action ever...EVER! After this shot this golfer did several backflips, punched the other players in their faces, and then threw his clubs in the water. Sadly, I was briefly distracted by a nearby squirrel and have no proof of it actually happening.

And they end with meetings about how boring meetings are. This is Joe Nobody asking the board of trustees, "wtf am I doing here? This is boring! You're bored too, right?"

Soon. Soon the summer fire season will begin. High school sports will end which makes my days a little less exciting, but at least fields and houses will be on fire.

-Dan

PS: As always make sure to check out the blogs of my friends and colleagues; The WadeWire and The Intrepid Soul especially.

Candlelight vigil for a Lodi teen

2009-04-20T22:07:00.000-07:00

Last night I was asked by my editor and publisher to cover a candlelight vigil for Diego Chavira who was killed last week. I have been to vigils in the past but they were all much smaller than this one. More than 150 people gathered around second base(the position Diego once played for the Lodi High baseball team) at Zupo Field in Lodi.

Whenever I shoot something that involves the death of a person I always worry about intruding. I've never actually run into any problems, but it's always in the back of my mind. Last night though I had none of those feelings. I felt very welcomed. Even when I was knelt just a few feet in front of his grieving mother they never once made it seem like they didn't want me there.

Now, on to the photos.

I know the Chavira family will never see this blog, but I thank them anyway for allowing me to photograph them during such an emotional event.

-Dan

PS: Make sure to check out The Intrepid Soul by LNS Photo Chief Brian Feulner.

Portraits of Tent City

2009-04-03T19:33:00.000-07:00

As I'm sure anyone who reads a newspaper or watches the news in Northern Ca already knows, Sacramento's tent city recently made headlines across the nation and even in countries around the world. When I heard about it I immediately wanted to shoot there. So I one Monday morning I went to tent city for a couple hours and got a handful of shots. I had such a great experience that I went back the following Saturday and planned on staying the whole night. Things didn't work out, but I was still there for several hours. I met a lot of great people with fascinating stories and a few people whom I would not turn my back on.

Many of the residents at tent city were very open about how they ended up there and what it's like for them. Unlike the media would lead you to believe though, most of these people are not new to being homeless nor are they out there because of the economy. Sure, some are new, but most have been there for years. One man, Jeff(I had trouble getting last names from people) has been there for 15 years and every moment of those 15 years show in his face.

Enough with the reading. Now it's time for photos.

Jeff, a resident of Tent City who has been homeless for 15 years, calls over Groucho, one of four kittens he keeps as pets:

Luis is called by many the "Mayor of Tent City:"

William Hopkins sits with Rex, one of many dogs that call Tent City home:

Luis lives in a tent that closely resembles a bachelor's studio apartment. He has the luxuries of a twin-sized bed, a recliner, travel dvd player, a stereo, a propane stove, and even carpet:

Many residents of Tent City share food and drinks with each other that they receive from various churches and donation centers:

Michelle is nuzzled by her dog while she waits for a pan on the fire to heat up to cook lunch:

Two residents leave Tent City during the late morning:

In stark contrast to newer tents and newer residents, 15 years of homelessness can be seen in the face of Jeff and his tent, held together with strands of tape:

Daniel gets light from a friend for his hand-rolled cigarette:

Lady stands guard over the Mayor's house, a small community of several tents interconnected. When I knelt to take Lady's photo she was hunched over and growling at another dog. As soon as I started shooting she stopped barking and sat upright. This dog knows how to have a photo taken:

Michelle sharing her tent with her dog:

Horatio is one of the few first time homeless in Tent City. He came here from a 4-bedroom house in Meadowview:

Mary and Melody. Melody, left, is no longer homeless, but she often visits friends in Tent City and other homeless camps:

Mary holds up a pair of pants to Melody to check the size. Church groups often bring donations to the city:

A beer to end a long day in Tent City:

Drug use is not uncommon in Tent City. While she no longer buys drugs, Gayle still smokes marijuana. She is celebrating news that she will see and speak to her father for the first time in 13 years and she will hopefully have an apartment by the time he gets to California:

Melody does not live in Tent City, but she is homeless. She stays on nearby 12th Street:

Shooting this was eye opening. There was a wide range of people out there. From completely normal people that if you saw them in a store or talked to them you'd have no idea they were homeless to people were in a permanent state of left field. I hope you enjoyed the photos and I'd love some feedback on them.

Have a good one, folks.

-Dan

A new blog for a new path in life

2009-03-28T22:32:00.000-07:00

Well, folks, I can only assume that if you're reading this first entry in Ambient Focus you know me personally and you've come here only after my pointing it out to you. I'll tell you right now this is no Intrepid Soul. I don't surf, climb rocks, photograph myself on snowmobiles, and I certainly don't balance hot dogs on the noses of small animals. My antics are far less exciting. Quite frankly, you're more likely to see photos of action figures here because that's what I do in my spare time. But hopefully this blog will help broaden my horizons.

In the early days of my photographic journey I fell in love with the faces of people across the world through the portraits of Steve McCurry. I saw the suffering of thousands in the photos of James Nachtwey. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to be a war and poverty photographer.

Until now I never tried to walk down that path though.

Recently I went out to Tent City in Sacramento and spent several hours talking to and photographing it's citizens. After editing the photos and seeing what I had, I decided it was time to take the path I've longed to walk.

And that brings us back to the reason for this blog. I hope to begin covering events outside of what I'm required to shoot for work. From the constant rallies and protests found in the Bay Area to simple street photographing showing the wanderings of everyday people. If things go well I can keep this blog updated with quality journalistic photos...and a steady flow of action figure shots(I love doing it. I won't deny it). And if fate smiles down on me this will lead to a bigger world.

So thank you for coming here and reading my ramblings. I'm not a blogger and I'm not much of a writer, but I'll do my best to make this worth reading.

-Dan

P.S. Sorry for the popshots, Brian.