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So Phannary and I had been trying to work a photo shoot into our schedules for quite some time now. Phannary trains at the Fit Factory in Modesto and has placed in several bodybuilding competitions recently, including winning first place at the Orange County Classic this past summer.

Since I’m already friends with Phannary I wasn’t too surprised when she showed up about an hour late to the shoot, … but to her credit she kept me posted I have to admit. But the funniest line of the day was when she pulled up into the parking lot and said, “I’m hungry… you just wanna grab something to eat first?” Ha, ha… all I could do was laugh at that point because it was already 6:30 and we had less than an hour of light before the sun went down! I started explaining this to her without panicking too much… and she replied with, “wow… you sound like such a photographer”. I was highly entertained by Phannary’s jokes right from the start.

Originally we were thinking we were going to do a ‘fitness’ type of shoot, but Phannary decided to go for some variety and add a few more “fashion-type” shots to her portfolio. We did a few shots inside for about 20 minutes, then we drove off down the road, I set up a light in the middle of nowhere and our shoot was done within an hour. That being said… I was pretty happy with what we got in that amount of time. Usually it takes about 15-30 minutes before people start to get comfortable with the camera. But Phannary went into work mode and before I had time to blink… it was already time to eat.

But for anyone who is interested in getting some training, feel free to check out the Fit Factory online at: www.thefitfactory.net , or you can also “like” them on Facebook by going to the following link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Modesto-CA/The-Fit-Factory/183136065830

CSU Stanislaus finally concluded the celebration of their 50th Anniversary by hosting Founders Week this month. I was working morning, nights and the weekend to cover a variety of events… so I’m looking forward to relaxing now that I’ve built up some extra hours. Oddly enough my favorite event of the week was the first one I photographed when I shot a faculty vs. staff softball game. A decent sized crowd showed up to watch the trash-talking, error-filled softball which made for some fun photos. A gallery of photos can be found on the school’s website but here are a few shots from throughout the week.

I’m a little late getting this blog posted, but I figured it was safe to make a late post about Fresno State’s football program since they had a bye week this past weekend. But the Bulldogs opened their season with a win over the Cincinnati Bearcats on September 4th.
The game didn’t start off too well for the Dogs as they fell into an early 14-0 hole. After that… The Bulldogs defense shut down the Bearcats and the offense scored 28 unanswered points and cruised to a win.
Being that I was born in raised in Fresno… I’ll always be a Bulldogs fan… But I have to admit it felt like awhile had passed since I last shot a game there. It hurts me to say this since I’m a graduate of Fresno State, but I don’t think there is a worse football stadium to shoot at — in photography terms — than Fresno State. The lighting is horrible, they have advertisements on the field of play which make for horrible backgrounds, there is almost no room to walk behind the team to get to the other side of the field, the wireless signal doesn’t reach the field so I can’t transmit photos without climbing the steps up to the press box… And well,… the list just goes on from there. So if you ever see a good shot from Fresno… The photographer either got lucky or probably worked pretty hard to get it.
My favorite shot of the night came on a touchdown pass to Bulldogs wide receiver Devon Wylie. The shot is a closeup for the most part and after looking at the photo I’m amazed that Wylie was able to hold onto the ball. It’s interesting how photography works sometimes because I saw the replay of Wylie making the catch and I had no idea that is what the catch actually looked like. All I remember is watching the quarterback’s eyes, and then when I saw where he was looking I turned my lens downfield and found Wylie and took about 3 shots of him going up for the ball. My first shot only captures his face and cuts off right under his chin as he first leaped for the ball, it wasn’t very good at all. My second shot is the one posted in this blog, and my third just didn’t look as good as the second. After that I took a few jubilation shots and then I watched the replay on the giant screen and saw that he made a pretty impressive leaping catch.
When I analyze the shot now, I realize I was in the right spot to create I nice background with no disruptions, and I did a fairly decent job of finding the receiver who made the catch… But I definitely got lucky that Wylie was facing my direction otherwise I wouldn’t anything half as nice as that shot.
But hopefully the Bulldogs keep up with their winning ways. I don’t go back to Fresno until mid-November so hopefully they’re still undefeated by the time I go back.

Last month I did a post-wedding shoot with Gary and Kristine in San Francisco. We made the trip over to the city on a weekday after Gary got off of work and drove up to a spot I had scouted a couple months earlier. We didn’t have too much time on our hands so we knew going into it that we were only going to be shooting in one location,… but sometimes that’s a good problem to have because then no one feels too rushed and has to worry about making it over to the next location before the sun goes down. The only problem we ran into this night was that it was freezing outside! The weather in the city is often unpredictable to say the least, … and I originally had visions of shooting the pictures at sunset with an orange or pink sky as my backdrop. Instead we had to deal with the fog rolling in and had to try and keep Kristine as warm as possible in between takes… (but I don’t think Gary was too bothered with the idea that he had to hold her close most of the night). When it was all said and done we came away with some great shots… and I’m really looking forward to do another ‘post-wedding’ shoot on location in the future.