Two Kinds of Portraits

I've always felt that portraits are one of the toughest assignments for a photojournalist. To be able to convey to the reader the identity and personality of the subject is always a challenge. However, I enjoy the challenge. I recently had two different portrait assignments and I approached each in a different manner.

The first image in this blog post is of Kerner Studios Model Supervisors (left to right) Mark Walas and Carol Bauman. Within a few minutes of meeting Mark and Carol I could tell they took great care and pride in their jobs building miniature models. I thought a shot of them looking over a miniature of the Walt Disney's Space Port concept model the studio built for the new Walt Disney Family Museum in the Presidio would show their love of their art. The model was lit up and I like how the light from it fell on both of their faces as they gaze upon the model.

The second portrait is of Dominican University Lacrosse player Tai Sing Hee. The story was a preview of the Dominican Lacrosse team's first season as a Division II program and focused on Hee, their prized recruit for the season. When I arrived on the lacrosse field for the assignment I was drawn to the goal and circle around it on the playing field. I positioned Hee in the center in a strong confident pose to show the possibilities of the player and his team for the upcoming season. Also instead of just using the available light I also threw in a little bit of flash on the right to try and lighten up Hee's face a little bit.

Both portraits present opportunities and I hope these two images work to convey what the essence of each subject and help to tell their story as well.

Recent Sports Photographs

The winter high school sports season is in full swing and I have been covering a lot of basketball for the Marin IJ. There have been a lot of great games I've been able to photograph, and this was my favorite image from the past few weeks.
One of the other sports I photographed was wrestling. Its actually a rather tough sport to photograph. The contestants are constantly moving around the ring and it can be tough to get a shot where you can get a feel of the strength and power some of these wrestlers have. This was one of my favorite images from the Mountain Clash wrestling tournament at Tamalapais High School in Mill Valley

United States Men's National Team vs. Honduras

Like the US Soccer team I started warming up for South Africa by photographing the friendly match between the USA and Honduras at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. on Saturday.It has been a little while since I had photographed a soccer game so I felt a little bit out of sorts at the start of the game, just like the USA team itself.

Had a good group of USA fans but Jimmy Conrad was ejected 20 minutes into the game and it went downhill for the USA after that. They ended up conceding 3 goals.
At least they got a consolation goal back from Clarence Goodson to give them a chance at tying the game up.
But in the end the game was a warm up for me and the team and it was great to be back on the field again. The World Cup will be here before you know it!

Rainy Day Photo on SF Gate

With the rainy weather in the Bay Area recently had a chance to grab a couple of shots of the weather while working.

It appears on the SF Gate Weather Story for today

Tis the Holiday Season!

Covered several holiday stories this season. One was about families spending more quality time together during the holidays. In this photo Ella Slatalla, 18, plays around with a whisk with her younger sister Clem, 12, after they helped their mother Michelle make a meringue crust for a lemon meringue pie.

Another was about looking for more inexpensive gifts to buy this holiday season. Jan VanVlaenderen, an employee at Two Neat, a Mill Valley store that sell inexpensive fun gifts, models a large size t-shirt that Amy Yoger (2nd from right) and Sophie Newman (far right) were looking to buy as Louise Satterfield looks on.


And I covered a story about Hanakauah celebrations as well. Shelly Sagy of Concord, Calif. puts the finishing touches on her flower menorah at The Festival of Lights at the Jewish Community Center in San Rafael, Calif.

Happy Holidays!!!

The fun of photographing high school sports

Over the past month I have been photographing a lot of the playoff volleyball and soccer for the Marin IJ high schools. Its been a great time, with pulsating games, exciting finishes, great action and amazing celebrations afterwards.




All I can say is I wish playoff season lasted all year...

My photo, not MY photo in the NY Times

I always wanted to have my photograph appear on the cover of the NY Times (or its website) and I finally made it!

But not exactly as I thought I would. Its actually a photograph of me cheering the World Cup Draw (I'm the guy jumping out of his seat on the left) at Danny Coyles on Haight Street in SF which has a World Cup Draw party.

Well I must say I really do like the photograph and I am really looking forward to photographing the World Cup this upcoming June!