Holiday Photos (all ready!)

It's hard to believe that the 2016 Holiday Season is already here. This year absolutely flew by. The question was asked to Matt's parents about what they wanted for Christmas? Their answer was a family photo. So coincidentally, Wendy, Carlos and family were down for Thanksgiving, so we took a trip to the beach for a late afternoon/sunset shoot. It was a nice fall day, a little breezy and chilly. I didn't think much of it, as the light was falling quickly. We ended up getting our shots and then met for dinner afterwards. Wendy was especially "cold to the bone" as she described. I initially thought this was just her until the others said they were cold too. It was then that I realized, I was wearing a sweater and shoes. The subjects were all in jeans, black teeshirts and barefoot down close to the water. Anyway, they were all troopers and we got some good shots. All captured with the Nikon 85mm f/1.8, 70-200mm f/2.8 or 24mm f/2.8 and two Nikon Speedlights.

Oh Baby Baby

NOVEMBER, 2016 - Teegan and Cash were born about a week apart this month. Both were born to first time parents and I was honored to be asked to photograph them for the first time. Both babies were awesome subjects and did well in front of the camera. The images were captured with the Nikon 85mm f/1.8 and two Nikon Speedlights. Here's a few pics from the sessions.

Yes, Cash's dad is a Dolphins fan...

Here's Teegan

Let there be Light

CARSON, Calif. (October, 2016) - Had the opportunity to shoot a soccer game in the StubHub Center recently. It's been about a year since I've covered any events there. I think I started shooting games at the then Home Depot Center in 2005. Since then the lighting has always been less than stellar. In fact, what made it difficult is that the exposure varied based on field location. I used to divide the field into 4 zones (down the line, far goal, far side and in front of the near goal). All of these zones were slightly different and required you to roll your exposure while following the action. The consequence was unrecoverable shadow detail.

Much to my surprise, the StubHub Center has fixed all the issues. I could immediately tell by the even light across the field (see below). They even fixed the angle of the lights, so that when you are shooting across the field you are not getting glare into the lens. Thank you StubHub! Here's some samples from the game.

Full frame with the 400mm

Ps. - for those who have shot at the StubHub/Home Depot Center, as you are walking out the tunnel to the field, to your left they have built a nice lounge. Looks pretty sweet!

Nice Grill

I was running through some old film shots this evening and ran across this one. One of my favorites from Bodie captured in 2013. Shot with the Pentax 67 II and scanned with the Nikon Coolscan 9000. I think this one will be hanging on my wall soon.

Queen of the South

SEATTLE, WA (August 7, 2016) - I arrive in town just in time for Seafair Weekend at Genesee Park. A fun time of boat races, tailgating on Lake Washington and an airshow. The highlight of the weekend is the U.S. Navy Blue Angels flying over Lake Washington. The only problem is I didn't plan ahead. We decided to head downtown after the airshow had already begun. It's a shocker that there was no place to park! So years ago I remembered finding a neighborhood on the South side of Seattle with a nice view of the city. I didn't remember exactly how to get there, but knew the general area. Without too much trouble we found it. In my mind I thought I had an original idea. As it turns out, about 100 people had the exact same idea. Keep in mind, the airshow was happening on the other side of the city. I was just kind of hoping to get a glimpse of the Blue Angels flying over the lake. As everyone stood around talking, without a sound, the Blue Angels came banking around the city from left to right. I swung my camera up and laid on the shutter. I would say about 95%+ of the people missed it. It was that quick. Anyway, here's the image I captured. Thanks for looking.

The Blue Angels

Cityscapes

August, 2016 - I've always thought that Seattle and Bellevue have some of the most interesting and beautiful architecture. On my latest trip to the area, I spent some time photographing the city. Most of the images were captured via iPhone from the car. The black and white images were captured with one of my favorite apps called 6x6. This is a photo app that emulates a 6x6 TLR film camera. The POV is like looking at the ground glass and realistically flips the image. A little tricky at first when framing your shot because left moves right and right moves left. The lead shot obviously wasn't shot with the iPhone. I took a trip into the city at 22:00 on a beautiful summer night. It was still about 79 degrees and crystal clear. I only had a desktop tripod with me, so I had to walk around the railing and set the camera on a power box. I captured the image with the 5D3 at ISO 100, f/11 for 30 seconds.

Little House by the Highway

I was uploading some videos this evening and ran across this video that I thought was worthy of a repost. It's a compilation of images that I captured in 2011 in the Eastern Sierras. The images brought back some memories, but the one that stood out was the weather. While it looks like a beautiful sunny day, it was 22 degrees. With the wind it was a challenge to feel your face after a while. Also included are some images from the ghost/mining town Bodie. Anyway, hope you enjoy it. Music by one of my favorite artists Jeffery Foucault.

Little House by the Highway from Michael Foo on Vimeo.

English 101

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (June 20, 2016) - For Jessica's English final, she opted to create a video to play for the class. It was basically a talking head video where she was relating literature to aspects of her life. To break up the monotony, I suggested we shoot some stills to use as cutaways in the video. So we headed down to the Bolsa Chica Wetlands around dusk.

As we are walking down the trail I see a pretty scene in front of me, but I had to get my camera out of the backpack. Because we are on a dirt trail, I didn't want to set the backpack in the dirt. Thinking swiftly, I see a soft little plant to set the backpack on. I whipped out the camera and quickly threw the backpack over my shoulder to continue on. As soon as I get it on may back, a sharp pain shoots up my spine. I carefully drop the shoulder straps and ask Jessica what's in my back? The backpack had picked up the piece of cactus below. A couple of the long spines were in there pretty deep. As she carefully pulled it out, I could feel the spines hanging on to my skin...ouch! Anyway, I ended up capturing the image below (not sure if it was worth it, lol).

The following images are some from the group that were used in the video. All shot with the 5D Mark III, EF 28-70mm f/2.8L or the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L.

Two Birds with One Stone

I kind of stopped shooting video a year or two ago because of the hassle of shooting on tape. The workflow was so laborious and in the end the cross converted HDV footage wasn't yielding desired results. Recently, out of necessity I shot a couple clips at an open mic night with 5D Mark III and the EF 28-70mm f/2.8L. It was last minute so I shot the footage with the onboard camera mic. The audio turned out terrible, however, I was so pleasantly surprised by the quality of the video footage. No cross conversion necessary, it just dropped right in to my editing software.

So this got the wheels turning...if I could improve the quality of the audio, I could produce some great live videos. So I went digging in the closet and dusted off the field mixer. With this I can take a feed from a sound board or use an on-camera shotgun mic, but bypass the built-in camera preamps. The Sound Devices preamps are pretty highly regarded in the film industry. After gathering the necessary cables and adapters I have the rig working. Here's a few images of the setup.

Canon 5D Mark III, Canon EF 28-70mm f/2.8L, Rode NTG-2 Shotgun Mic (phantom powered), Sound Devices SD-302 Field Mixer and an Edirol R09 Stereo Recorder

(2004 Fender American Deluxe Telecaster, lol)

Love the SD-302 meters and limiters!

So the way this works, the mic runs through the SD-302 preamp (bypassing the camera) and then outputs its clean signal to the camera. As a backup, I output the main mix from the SD-302 to a stereo recorder in uncompressed broadcast wav format. In addition, I can monitor the audio being sent from the SD-302 to the camera by plugging into the camera's headphone jack.

I recorded this video of a band called Blind Innocence from Orange County, California. The audio was not recorded with the new rig, but with a shotgun mic connected directly to the camera so the camera's preamps were still used. The song was written by Angelyn Iturbide (on vocals) and the band consists of Angelyn Iturbide on vocals and guitar, Brandon Shelton on guitar (hidden) and Kevin Celinder on guitar.

Disclaimer: embedding the video got cropped, so click the link below the video to see it full screen. Also, the venue is really small and was packed so I didn't have too many choices for camera angles.

Blind Innocence - Words Made of Hate from Michael Foo on Vimeo.