Sunday, June 6, 2010

A Bar Mitzvah in Salinas, CA? Yep - Really!

Yesterday was another first for me. I shot a Bar Mitzvah in a small Temple located in Salinas, CA. It was the smallest Temple that I have shot in, but very nice looking and really cozy. The only problem is that the front of the Temple faces right into the morning sun, so it was much better to do all the family photos inside. Luckily, they had this great backdrop at the back of the synagogue. I loved that!

Not only did Mitchell do a great job, but the family was awesome to work with. All smiles and having a great time all day.

These kids cracked me up. The DJ crew (Alan Waltz Entertainment) kept dressing these two in more and more stuff and I couldn't help myself. I shot a ton of images of these two, but when they were peeking out the front door of the venue (in San Juan Batista, CA) I grabbed this shot, which is one of my favorites.

Always looking for a new and creative way to shoot images during a party. I asked this young lady to shoot one more picture of her friends and I made sure to focus on her camera (at f4.0) to give a new look to the "kids table" shot. She looked at the back of my camera and exclaimed "That is the coolest picture I have ever seen!" I love kids.

This is one of my favorite images from the evening. I saw the kids dancing in a circle and wanted to get a unique shot of this. I ran to my camera bad, changed to a 16-35mm wide lens, popped on my flash diffuser and ran back to insert myself into the middle of the dancing. Laying on the ground, I focused on their faces and blasted off 3 or 4 shots. So cool! This is what I love about photography - endless options and trying new things.

Gotta do the kids group shot!

And then as the night crept in, I went back out side where a bunch of the kids were playing with their glow ropes. I set up my camera on my tripod, set my flash for TTL, set the exposure for 1/2 second and asked the kids to swing the ropes around.

I am not sure who was having more fun with these images, me or them. :)


And then as the party was winding down, I tried the old "spinning the camera while firing" trick and got some cool shots of the last remaining guests. Why do I shoot events? This is why!

2 comments:

Robert Starkey said...

Great Photos Jeff!

A resource that your bar/bat mitzvah clients might find helpful is a book of 36 tips I wrote (80 pages) available in eBook Digital Download AND/OR Printed Paperback available on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, iTunes and direct from http://www.Bar-Bat-Mitzvah-Tips.com

Jeff Cable Photography Blog said...

Very cool. I never knew that this existed. Email me your contact info and lets talk.