Impromptu model shoot...

On a whim I brought my camera bag to work today. I do this periodically with the "hope" that I am going have a chance to photography something/someone. Well today everything was aligned perfectly and a woman (Julia) I have been wanting to photograph for a while happened to be in costume for Halloween and when I mentioned that we should just do something on base in the not to distant future she said basically, "Too bad not today, I'm wearing my complete Renaissance outfit". So one thing led to another and after work I met with her for a photoshoot. Tom Vanlangenhoven volunteered to be an assistant (without his help with the lighting modifiers the photos wouldn't have turned out as well as they did) we went to town.

I think we all figured it would be pretty quick and a few frames but the location was really working well, as was the lighting. So after 3 memory cards, 506 photographs and an hour and a half we called it quits. It was a really great shoot and we make some really great images and had a lot of fun. Now its just a matter of going through the selects and pulling everything together. The shot above is one of the selects that jumped out at me through the initial cull of images.

Deanna's last game!

Deanna had her final game today! I have only been able to see one other so it was great I was able to get out on time and be there to watch it! If you have never had an opportunity to watch little kids run around chasing a soccer ball in a little huddle it's pretty darn cute. Deanna did get pretty tired during the game and wanted to stop a couple of times but she stuck it out and finished.

They will have a finally "party" sometime in the not-to-distant-future and give out awards so I am sure that is going to be cool to!

I did get asked to shoot a team shot of one of the other teams that wasn't available during the schedule photo shoot day so I did that after the game. That was cool and it also reminded me why you never have the parents behind/near you when you are shooting kids - they all were focusing on mom and not looking at me. I haven't gone through all the shots yet but I think I got what they were looking for.

Costumes...

Denise has done an outstanding job of creating costumes for the kids for Halloween this year. The biggest job was Desirae's "Flash" costume which she make from scratch. It turned out REALLY good. There is also a cape but it wasn't finished before we did the photo shoot. Devin's was pieced together from different things we had plus a borrowed robe and it turned out pretty good too. Deanna was SUPPOSED to be a knight - but she decided she wanted to be a princesse instead.

Devin has been really looking forward to getting into his costume and Denise even made a "wand" for him that worked out pretty good. It was a bit challenging to get him in the pose that he wanted with his cane but I think the ones we got worked out well. So other than the borrowed robe (mentioned about) the scarf and wand are things that Denise made.

For the photos I thought we would try something different and shoot in the front yard with a circular diffuser to modify the light. Other than there was a limited area where the light was good it worked out pretty good.

Deanna has been true to form and is running around all the time wearing this outfit. Denise actually found this at a thrift store in Mojave (I didn't realize that there was one, Denise informed me there are two) and picked it up for like $2. Now we can't keep her out of it. But you have got to admit that she looks pretty darn cute in the thing.

On a more annoying note Denise found out that the male girl scout leader has been saying derogatory things about me and comments about me taking photographs at the girl scout evens. Apparently I am a stalker or something and he doesn't know who this "strange" guy is that is taking pictures with this "large" camera. He is also questioning what I might be doing this these pictures I am taking. Now the dumb ass didn't have the nerve to come up and ask me what was going on, but he will make slanderous comments like that? That kind of made for an irritating afternoon today. Hopefully Denise will be able to resolve this issue tomorrow so it doesn't get out of hand. Denise heard this from someone else who asked him about it (they put something out saying that you can't take pictures at events - or something stupid like that) and he went on to say some of the things above... Pretty cool eh???

California City Renaissance Faire...

It has been a long weekend, but today we headed out to enjoy the California City Renaissance Faire. Every year, that we can remember, this time in October they have this recurring event. We are very glad to report that every year it gets better and better! There are a lot of normal venders/performers, such as the Black Horse Armory, who put on an outstanding show! As you can also see from the image above they did their traditional “fight” with the kids. It was great fun and the this year even Deanna got into it. The rest of the photographs are here!

We also sat down and watched "Out of Control" perform their show which was pretty hilarious. I am not sure if these guys were here last year (I think they were) but they were pretty funny. The really wild part is that they are a juggling act and the wind was NOT cooperating with them. They continue on - mistakes and all - but made it pretty funny and enjoyable.

Probably the one thing that the city needs to do is figure out more ways to get shade up around the area so it's not so darn hot!

More soccer...

Desirae had another soccer game today. There was a chance that the game would be canceled but when we got there we were good to go. As you can see Desirae isn't playing goalie and it appears that she has fill her quota of goalie duties. The girls are getting a lot better and they were running their little hearts out! I have a bunch of pictures and once I finish processing them I will post a gallery of them.

After that we to Claim Jumpers for dinner which was ok and then basically headed home. It was a long, hot tiring day but it was a good day!

Tomorrow it's the ren festival!

UPDATE: I have uploaded the rest of the photographs here!

End of a long weekend...

The long weekend has come to a close. We didn't really accomplish much except for some yard work. I miscalculated and I thought the kids were out of school today but late Sunday Denise informed me of my mistake. We did make the most of it today and Denise, Deanna and I headed into town for some lunch and to run around.

Being that today was a "normal" Monday the Girl Scout meeting was still on. While Denise and Desirae were away I decided to try out some lighting techniques I read about a couple weeks ago. So I set up a makeshift studio and went to town shooting. The shot above was the first part while Denise and Desirae were gone. When they came back I wanted to try a couple of different things and I ended up getting this really cute shot with Denise and Deanna.

All I can say is I really wish I had a studio spot always setup so it would be easier to shoot. For instance when I went to start grabbing the lighting gear; when I popped the Pelican case I almost just said forget it. I am really glad I didn't!

Street Level Narcotics...

Okay, so you're thinking huh, "Street Level Narcotics" what happened this time! Well, what happened is my brother Daren is a published author! His first book is now finished and listed on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. A few months back he was looking at the training information for a patrol officer dealing with narcotics and how to approach it. Seeing a gaping hole, and his desire to write, he decided to do something about it and wrote a book . He put in the time, found a publisher and now it's out there! So if you know anyone who is interested in this subject check out the links above and order the book!

The really cool part about this is that this is something he has always wanted to do and he set his mind to it and did it.

Photo nothing...

Honestly I had a plan. It was a good plan... Even got my insurance certificate in order "just in case"... The problem there was just way too much planned for the same day and everything fell apart. The only thing that did happen is that Tom drove all the way out here for a shoot that didn't happen.

Oh well... We did take the time to do some location scouting and then we ventured to a spot that Todd and I went to a couple of years ago. The place still looked the exact same as it did before... The roof might be in worse shape now but it was still cool to go back there.

The only real problem was the darn wind. It just wouldn't stop blowing. The angle from this shot provided a bit of a wind break so I was able to get this shot. If it wasn't so dangerous it would be a neat place to shoot from the inside.

Oh well...

Today was Desirae's double header soccer game. For some reason her coach thought it was a good idea to have her play goalie for most of both games. He did let her play a regular position for a single quarter. She wasn't really happy and was pretty disappointed about it. Denise also said some of the other parents were also not pleased with the way they would not rotate the girls around. With just enough players to field a team everyone always has to play and it doesn't make sense that he will not move the girls around. Desirae is pretty good natured so when he would come and talk to her she wouldn't really express her frustration. I am not sure what is going to come out of it. The one good thing is that afterward Desirae was happy and she did not say upset about playing the position.

I was also supposed to shoot some park stock photographs today and that fell apart. Tom did come out to help and since the shoot was off we did a location walk to see how it would have been. With the wind (it was really windy this afternoon) it would have been very difficult to use any light modifiers. We ended up just doing a scouting trip and took a few pictures. It was still cool to get out and about though.

Coyote Soccer

Deanna had her first pee-wee soccer game with her team today. It was pretty darn cute seeing all the little kids chasing that ball around a little mini-field. I got there late (to a 30 minute game) and only had a chance to watch the last half. All the kids were pretty aggressive in the game considering how small they are. I did have the opportunity to shoot a few frames; the images can be found here!