October 30, 2010

Cal Women's Soccer vs Stanford


Photographed Cal Women's Soccer vs Stanford today.


I felt silly for going a few weeks ago thinking it'd be an awesome chance to shoot in the rain, because pulling up to the game it was pouring!


Thankfully by game time, it stuck to only an occasional drizzle


Full set up at: http://www.goldenbearsports.com/2010-2011/womenssoccer/vsstanford

October 29, 2010

Cal Field Hockey vs Stanford


A bit last minute had a request to shoot Cal Field Hockey vs Stanford Friday at 7pm.


Normally, this is no problem (no hot dates to go on) and I try to accomodate Cal requests whenever possible. Only problem is, the lights at Maxwell Family Field make night games nearly impossible to photograph night games there.


But, I showed up and I did what I could =)


Full set up at: http://www.goldenbearsports.com/2010-2011/fieldhockey/vsstanford2

October 28, 2010

Kayaking to McCovey Cove



The start of my birthday weeks kicked off with a BLAST! Here's some photos taken by me, KC, my mom, and other kayakers. KC and I had it all planned out, it obviously didn't go as planned, but turned out even better than we could have hoped!


We had done some research on where to park, where to launch, how to get there, working with coast guard. Thankfully we had my mom to drive us and my mom and dad to pick us up! We planned to leave Berkeley at 3 but my photo shoot ran late and we didn't leave until after 3:30. Yet somehow there was NO traffic getting into the city. We avoided King St, took 8th out to Mission Bay and found the public boat ramp. There was 2 hr parking right in front of the ramp!


So we loaded up, packed up with our twelve layers of clothes (mainly snowboard gear) paddles, food and water rations, flashlight, radio, emergency whistle, glow sticks, and of course our posters.


We launched from the pier and had to paddle past the GIANT military ships. We got around the dock no problem, curved around the first vessel, but then we caught the wake of a boat that was speeding by and it not only dumped water all over KC but also pushed us into the second ship. The current was ripping around the second ship and pushed us backwards in between the ships, and we were trying to paddle out before we slipped farther back and into the 3ft wide gap between them and got stranded there. We were paddling like crazy, and KC goes to throw the posters from her lap overboard in this hardcore moment of "WE GOTTA TOSS THE POSTERS!" I go "NOOOO, we can't lose the posters!!" and I took them, then we paddled like maniacs and finally escaped what seemed like near death at the time, got back on track and had a good laugh of "what in the world just happened?!"


Then we made it to McCovey Cove! Coast Guard, SF Police, SF Fire Department and Oakland Police were all out keeping everything under control but were really relaxed. People were drinking, BBQing (on a raft) smoking, you name it! There were even some water polo players in wetsuits, but they were definitely shivering and didn't make it past the second inning.


It was crowded but wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Everyone was in a good mood, nobody was worried about you bumping into them, or blocking their spot because no one could see anything anyways! We all just got to enjoy the atmosphere.



We had our Brian Wilson face with the beard, along with speech bubbles of his quotes "FACT." and "Screw it, Red Bull time" and good thing we didn't abandon them because they were a hit! =)


On the way back (in basically complete darkness) we were careful to go very wide around the ships, back to my mom searching for us at the edge of the pier and my dad waiting with the truck. My mom had heard of a kayaker who got into trouble in the channel, flipped and had to have a rescue boat come get him! Needless to say, she was happy to see us paddle back in.




Was an awesome experience! And now I can say I was there in McCovey Cove for Game 1 of the World Series when the Giants defeated the Texas Rangers 11-7!! Go Giants!!!

October 27, 2010

Birthday Week!!

*Not photo related*


I love all holidays, especially my birthday, and considering my birthday is on a holiday, even better. After a crazy and fun October, it's almost my birthday!!!!

I'm getting so big!

As a kid, it was awesome because I received presents AND candy and EVERYONE celebrated my birthday, even if they weren't aware of it. When I was born, Stacey was not only big sister that day, but was also Big Bird haha.

My BIRTHday

I like to celebrate my birthday all month, all week, and obviously all day. With my birthday falling on a Sunday, I'm claiming two weeks of Halloween/Birthday fun. =)

taken by Mary Candace my birthday '07

Sunday my friends came over and we made these awesome pumpkins for our going-to-the-World-Series Giants! Middle pumpkin is Brian Wilson... and this brings a whole new meaning to "fear the beard" =)


Tonight my friend and fellow blogger, KC, will (attempt to) kayak to McCovey Cove for the Giants game.

last time I kayaked with my dad, taken by Colleen Cox

I am filling my birthday weeks with lots of photo assignments too. Women's Swimming Head Shots, Men's Swimming Head Shots, a cover shoot for the Cal Sports Quarterly, Cal Field Hockey vs Stanford, San Jose Earthquakes in the playoffs against the New York Red Bulls, Rugby head shots on Monday and then next Friday heading north with Cal Football for their game against Washington State on Saturday. And who knows what else I'll throw in there! Hopefully I can catch up with my blogging and then stay on top of it.

Me and my college roommate Lina my birthday '05... neither of us actually had iPod's, those were styrofoam and shoelaces

Intermixed in all the photo fun will also be some family and friends fun!

with my family, birthday weekend last year

In spirit of that, I'll be celebrating my birthday this Sunday at Raleigh's in Berkeley. Welcome to join me for food, drinks, watching the Giants, and good times =)

Cal Men's Swimming Head Shots


The National Champions photoshoot was immediately followed by team photo of Cal Men's Swimming and Diving


Then just swimming


Then swimming and diving head shots


Then a men's diving team photo


Then a men and women's diving team photo


Then I packed up as quickly as possibly and ran off to my mom who was so kindly waiting with the truck and the kayak to pick up KC and head to McCovery Cove for our Giants in Game 1 of the World Series!!

Full set up at: http://www.goldenbearsports.com/2010-2011/swimmingdiving/mensheadshots

Cal Sports Quarterly - Men's Swimming National Champions


I had an opportunity to shoot something I'd really like to shoot more of, creative posed portraits! Only problem was, this was for 6 guys. It's hard to coordinate a portrait with one guy, let alone 6. And more difficult when 6 guys have to fit into a vertical image for a magazine.


But when the guys are all National Champions, super nice, and I have any opportunity to do posed portraits, I'm not complaining! It's not many people that can say they've photographed national champions, olympians, gold medalists!


They also wanted some in the water shots which would be sweet with one guy, just below chest deep, water reflecting, complete water as background, but with 6 guys that turns out to look either water polo and a little awkward.


After they got in the water, we tried to do some "just out of the pool" shots. It was chilly for them but they were troopers.


Before all the guys were out, the SID asked for some solo shots of Nathan Adrian.


Nathan is a great ambassador for Cal because he's a smiley, pre-med gold medalist. But he's one of my favorite Cal athletes because he was on mythbusters! He was on a episode about swimming in syrup. How cool!!!!!



Full set up at: http://www.goldenbearsports.com/2010-2011/swimmingdiving/nationalchamps

October 25, 2010

Women's Swimming Head Shots


Today I headed to Spieker for Women's Swimming Head Shots. We didn't do a team photo (will be taking one in January) but I was surprisingly still in and out within about a half hour.


The day was perfect to make the water look beautiful, but we had to battle sporadic and slow moving (though likely faster than me) rec swimmers who were using the pool and creating waves.


Still, overall pleased with the head shots and looking forward to great season by these lady bears. Full set up at: http://www.goldenbearsports.com/2010-2011/swimmingdiving/womensheadshots