December 31, 2010

Happy New Year!!


Happy New Year!!! A glance back at 2010:

Mavericks! Man, what a ride! Not only for the surfers but for me. Despite the dramamine, I was yakking over board but got some of my all-time favorite images and had a blast! (At the time, the only sport my sister cares about... recently she started working with a new engineering firm and suddenly participates in fantasy football!)


Did an independent assignment for USA Water Polo covering USA Women vs China in two separate games. Not through an agency but directly through and for KelleyLCox.com =)


Witnessed Cal Rugby win it's 25th National Championship in the last 30 years. Can't say enough about this program! And this photo of mine was published in the NY Times!!


Covered local Women's Professional Soccer Team, FC Gold Pride, all season and saw the magic of Marta and the rest of the team win the WPS Championship!


Photographed the Earthquakes and saw Chris Wondolowski, an otherwise friendly and easy going guy (who turns out is the nephew of one of my photo buddy's Mike Wondolowski) turn into a possessed scoring beast to lift the quakes into playoffs and himself to the MLS Golden Boot!


With the Cal Football charter flight to Reno full, I had what could have been an 8hr train ride turn into an incredible opportunity to photograph the scenic ride from the bay to the mountains, abord the California Zaphyr, Emeryville to Reno. Cruising along the Truckee River captured this image of the bypass named after my grandpa, CHP Officer Glenn Carlson.


Ventured into shooting other sports including some MMA, yikes!


Drove from California through Arizona and New Mexico to Texas for my cousin's wedding for a most memorable trip with my mom and grandma. Fast food for every meal, driving for hours and hours, seeing the most random tourist attractions, and catching beautiful sunsets!


Moved into my new apartment, loving life back in the east bay, about to reach a record for the longest I've lived in one place in last 5 years. Now instead of a view of the building next to me IN the city, I have a view OF the city =)


Wishing everyone a happy, healthy, and most awesome new year! Here's to gettin it done in 1-1!

December 30, 2010

Stanford Women's Basketball defeats UConn - 71-59


Ladies and gentlemen, the streak is over.


Stanford played Connecticut tonight, took the early lead and held it the ENTIRE game to defeat UConn 71-59 at Maples Pavilion ending UConn's NCAA record 90 game win streak!




Having a feeling Stanford was going to pull it off I shot UConn the first half, then Stanford the second. And I was right!


I also had a feeling Stanford fans were going to rush the court... but I was wrong. With students gone for the holiday break, the fans at Stanford weren't exactly the type to rush anything. But with a sold out crowd, they certainly made a difference!


... Yes, a women's basketball game, sold out! That's awesome!


I feel so happy thinking about how happy the Stanford players must be!


Also a quick shout out to my new blog followers, for more game coverage of Stanford Women's Basketball check out: http://fbccardinalnews.blogspot.com/ part of Stanford Fast Break Club.


Go bay-ers =)

December 28, 2010

Stanford Men's Basketball defeats Yale 60-44


The women's game ended at about 3:00 and that gave me 4 hours to kill time before the men's game at 7:00. Was a great chance to work on my new website (January 1!!) and chat with my photo buddy Kyle Terada about our big dreams for photo studios and trying to convince him to be my neighbor in the East Bay.


Time flew by and then it was tip off for Stanford men's basketball vs Yale.



I was pleased to get a lot of blocked shots thanks to my 300mm across the court.


What was "supposed" to be a win for Stanford looked questionable after Yale leading 27-26 at halftime. 



But Stanford was able to lock it up and get the win 60-44. Go bayers! ;-)


Afterwards, my photographer buddy Kyle Terada who has a parking spot in the lot near Maples was nice enough to give me a ride back to my car parked on the street since it was pouring rain. He also checked in with me to see if I made it home ok driving through the storm. I know my mom really appreciates this, and so do I =)

Stanford Women's Basketball defeats Xavier 89-52


Well, holidays are over and back to work! Headed over to Stanford today to shoot the basketball double header for Southcreek.


Stanford defeated Xavier 89-52. That's a pretty big split for #3 (Stanford) and #5 (Xavier) ranked team.


Stanford was able to put in bench players early with the comfortable lead but even they were able to drain some 3 pointers.


What might otherwise be considered a big win for Stanford, beating a top 5 team with ease, the talk is all about Thursday.


Thursday Stanford women will face UConn. The same UConn that's ranked #1, the same UConn that beat them 53-47 in last years NCAA Final, the same UConn that just passed up UCLA's 88 wins for the NCAA consecutive wins record with their 89th wins exactly one week ago. But their most recent loss was to Stanford in 2008, and Coach Tara VanDerveer, with 800s wins under belt seems prepared for the challenge.


UConn plays UOP tonight in what's predicted to be a lopsided #90 victory warm up for their game at Stanford. I think/hope Stanford will benefit from playing a #5 team as their warmup. But we'll see in Thursdays sold out game.


For those who might be shocked, yes, I am hoping for a cardinal win. It may seem strange to be a Cal alum hoping for a Stanford victory, and though I am a bear for life, I'm now becoming, as my photographer buddy Nhat Meyer pointed out, a bay area fan. With 2 NFL, 2 MLB, 1 MLS, 1NHL, 1 NBA, a couple NCAA D1, and tons of minor sports teams it's easy (though sometimes painful) to be a bay area fan!


Go bayers ;-)

December 22, 2010

Kansas defeats Cal Men's Basketball 78-63


In what might be one of Cal Men's Basketball's biggest games this year. GBS photographer, Michael Pimentel and I double covered the game against #4 ranked Kansas for the Pete Newell Classic.


What had glimpses of hope of a huge upset turned into a 78-63 win for Kansas, but not without a fight... literally.


Jorge Gutierrez and Thomas Robinson went for the loose ball.


I don't know what happened in the mix, but the battle for the ball turned into a bit of a brawl.


Referees couldn't control the game, and Mike Montgomery had to step in!


The youtube clip:


This was all par for the course in a game that went almost an hour longer than usual with multiple stoppage to determine the fouls, including a flagrant foul, against Kansas.


I think the referees felt a little overwhelmed.


Though most coaches would be publicly upset with a player who wasn't able to avoid an altercation, I loved Montgomery's quote on Jorge after the game: "Gotta love Jorge. He's the greatest. He's a stubborn son of a gun. If you attack him, he's going to come back at you. That's his nature. You're not going to change the nature of who he is, but we need him on the court."


Gotta love Montgomery. He knows his players, and he knows you don't mess with Jorge!


Full set up at: http://www.goldenbearsports.com/2010-2011/mensbasketball/vskansas

December 19, 2010

Blogger and Stylist KC Fox


Any regular followers of my blog are familiar with my friend, K.C. Fox. She is a blogger, stylist, and someone who inspires me to prevent my apartment from looking like a tornado hit every room catastrophically and wear outfits that go beyond my standard jeans and tshirt.


One of my business ventures that I intend to roll out for 2011 is focusing on offering head shots with my company Get A Head Photo. I cannot even count the number of head shots I've taken for Cal, but let's figure Cal has over 900 student-athletes and I've been shooting all their head shots for the last 3 and 1/2 years... that's 2,700 head shots, not including coaches and staff. Plus non-Cal head shots for: Bio-G, Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, US Soccer, San Jose Earthquakes, Women's Professional Soccer, a couple friends and even of myself!



In efforts to develop this business, I need more head shots that I have full copyright of so I can post them on my site and K.C. is my first official client. In addition, we did some fun more posed full/partial body portrait shots for her about.me page. Thanks to her active blogging and hob-nobbing in the up-and-coming world, I'm up on the trend and have an about.me page too! And it doesn't hurt to have my first client be a 5'10" blonde volleyball player!


Matt Brown, a photographer I look up to so much, told me at Sports Shooter Academy '09 that I need to photograph my family and friends in order to really learn how to direct a portrait session and now that I'm no longer editing for ISI, I have time to explore this more creative side of photography and develop as a photographer ... and I'm excited! =)