Cal Women's Crew Head Shots

Headed over to Cal Women's Crew head shots today.

Had been trying to coordinate this since the men's head shots in February so was great to find a day that worked for almost everybody. Shout out to Google Calendar for being the most useful desktop and on the go tool for keeping track of my schedule so I can coordinate everything.

GBS intern Lara Brucker also stopped by and when it was slow, I was able to let her take some of the head shots and give her feedback. Hopefully next season we'll get her out for some outdoor "environmental" head shots, which are a totally different beast than these indoor, white background, two lights, head shots.

A fun tidbit, I was able to meet Rachel, the daughter of one of my photo buddies, Richard Ersted. She was such a sweetheart and knew who I was right away... as KC and I say jokingly, celebrity status!! ;-)

Full set: http://www.goldenbearsports.com/2010-2011/womensscrew/headshots

Cal Men's Crew Head Shots

Headed over to Cal today for Men's Crew Head Shots.

Normally head shots are about an hour, but we gave them a 1-4 window to come through. Thankfully it's also a basketball game day so I have a permit in the RSF garage!

I like that on men's crew the coxswain, or cox (my name!) can still be a girl.

Full set: http://www.goldenbearsports.com/2010-2011/menscrew/team

Men's Crew Head Shots Interrupted

Ha! So we scheduled the Cal Men’s Crew head shots for 9-10:30 April 19 on April 6… who knew the bizarre events that would interfere with our plan. I woke up early to beat bridge traffic parked by 8am, left my car at 8:30 (I’m a notorious car sitter) and started getting set up by the baseball field, Evans Diamond. The grounds guy told me I can be on the dirt but not the grass… ok, no big deal. Then a police officer came up to tell me I needed to evacuate, the area needed to be cleared by 9:30 because Bill Gates was going to be landing by helicopter on the field! Crazy! When he landed I text my dad the tail number. The helicopter was owned by a corporation in Alameda which means Bill Gates must have flown into Oakland, then taken a helicopter from Oakland to Berkeley. Seems a little ridiculous to me, but, who knows, maybe if I had all that money I’d do the same! Except I’d have my dad be the pilot =)

Thankfully Tim had also reserved the club room, and the club room had a pretty nice solid white wall!

Packed up and headed to my car… only to find another crew guy roaming the halls of Haas lost at 11:45… so I did the fastest set up in my history and got his head shot as well. Even though he didn’t have a polo. Must have missed the memo haha!

Full set available: http://www.goldenbearsports.com/albums.php?albumId=827

Cal Women's Crew

The week got away from me with Golf, Gymnastics, Mexico vs Bolivia, Men's Basketball vs ASU and just general life. But I didn't want to leave out the Women's Crew head shots I took Thursday.

These were basic, not even a team photo. But it was still a challenge because we were shooting outside with the baseball field as a background. The weather kept changing between overcast and outrageously sunny throughout the 2 hour shoot. Thankfully I was shooting in RAW so I was able to adjust post processing to make them look consistent.

Beyond head shots, to put life in perspective... cancer patient, Jill Costello

Jill Costello, a senior who was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer after NCAA Championships. She came to head shots straight from a treatment! You can read her story at: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/jillcostello. (Watch out, it's a tear jerker!) They also had the 1st annual "Jog for Jill" for donations to the Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation. Thoughts with her and her family while she goes through radiation and fights this. She is unbelievably strong!