After getting out of a meeting late yesterday I was quickly informed by multiple people that a rainbow was outside. Now… we all know how quickly those things can disappear, so I’m just grabbed my camera and ran outside. I probably should’ve planned my attack a little better though… because the next thing I know I was getting soaked by the rain. I guess I just wasn’t expecting the rain to go along with the rainbow because usually rainbows are more intense after the rain has left and the sun is out. In this particular case… the sun was out and it began to pour. After taking pics of the rainbow over the bookstore… I turned around and decided to shoot into the light because it’s not everyday in California that you have a chance to shoot heavy rain with light in the background. Oddly enough… I got a photo I liked more than any of the shots I took with the rainbow in them. It’s a simple shot that really doesn’t say much unless you are able to see it in a larger format… but for some reason I like it. It’s nothing more than two black umbrellas in the distance with a red umbrella in the foreground. I think it was worth getting a little wet for.
Unfortunately as it turned out I was only able to shoot one day of golf at the Pebble Beach Pro Am after weather conditions on the day of the final round forced play to be cancelled on Sunday. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of Clint Eastwood on the final day… but maybe I’ll get a chance to see the the guy next year. Since my assignment was to shoot most of the professionals on Saturday, I didn’t get a chance to see all of the celebrities on hand… but the ones I did see put on quite a show for the fans. I caught a couple of silly moments when Comedian George Lopez momentarily pretended to be a mime with pink gloves before putting on the 18th green… and another when musician Justin Timberlake decided to he would take an easier route to finishing the tournament by placing the ball in the cup with his hands instead of using a putter. I have to admit It was really fun to see the celebrities embarrass themselves out there… and I really thought it was great that they enjoyed it! I’m sure we all know that some celebrities can be a little cocky and arrogant at times … but most of the ones at Pebble seemed to be pretty approachable. I would highly recommend fans to take a trip over to Monterey next year to watch the tourney if they have a chance. (Though I’d check the weather report before making any reservations).
It’s been a long time since I’ve photographed a meaningful golf tournament. The last one I shot was years ago when I lived in Florida and I shot a Jack Nicklaus golf tournament. But when I got the call to shoot at Pebble Beach I knew I had my work cut out for me this weekend. Even though it’s probably one of the slowest sports to shoot… golf takes more energy out of you than any sport. There are no golf carts for photographers and it’s really quite a workout considering photogs have to carry a giant lens and equipment while they walk around the courses. It’s really like hiking except that you have no idea where you are going because we end up shooting so many different players and never know where their ball is going to land until after they have hit it. That being said… golf courses have some of the most amazing views I have ever seen. My favorite hole from yesterday was of the 10th hole on the Poppy Hills golf course (there are 3 courses that the players play at Pebble Beach). Currently we’re in a weather delay right now… so I’m hoping I’ll get to see all of the Pebble Beach golf course today when the final round starts… but if not,… I’m happy with what I was able to see yesterday (which was half of Poppy Hills and the final three holes on Pebble). We’ll see if the weather clears up soon, though it’s not looking too good at the moment.
This past Tuesday the school held it’s first successful Observation Night. I was curious to see if the event was going to take place or not after too much cloud cover has prevented the event from taking place in the past. To my surprise there was a huge turnout and no clouds in site. It was fun working with my tripod and taking some timed exposures outside. I tried a few different angles… and at one point even balanced my camera on my foot to get some cool shots from underneath the telescopes as people looked at the moon. I liked this shot because it gives a good feel of what it was like to be on the roof that night. Hopefully I’ll be able to set up some shots of some students up there soon.
Funny how blogging works. It’s been quite awhile since my last blog due to the sole reason that I’ve just been so busy. But… that’s probably the best time to blog since that means there is so much going on. So I’ve made a few changes to the layout of my blog page… I don’t know how long I’ll keep it this way since I’m still playing around with the site… but it’s much better than it used to be. The main change is simply that the photos will run larger. I was getting a little tired of how small the photos ran due to the fact that this should be more of a “photo blog” than anything else. So with that being said, I’ll start off the new blogs by posting an image that recently placed 1st under the “campus environment” category in a monthly competition I entered for the University Photographers Association of America. Enjoy 