Tuesday, November 25, 2014

The most special (and possibly last birthday party) for an 18 year old

If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, you may have been following the story of Alex Matlosz-Cox, who is a teenager with incurable cancer, who was recently given 2 weeks to live. My family first heard about Alex on Facebook, reading a post from Frank Somerville, who is an anchorman for Fox News who has a huge following.

Last week I got an email from a friend of the family asking if I would volunteer my time to photograph Alex's 18th birthday party at a local club on Sunday evening. They had lined up a whole bunch of comedians to help Alex celebrate. I really wanted to help the family out, but had my own daughter in the hospital at the time. It was going to be a last minute decision. As it turned out, my daughter was released from the hospital on Friday night, and when she heard about this, she said "Dad, you have to do this!"

Even though I have photographed 4 Olympic Games, the honor of capturing this important moment for the family was just as special. This brave young man will not be with us much longer and I wanted to do what I could to preserve this memory for the family.

I arrived at Charley's, which is a really cool night club in Los Gatos, CA, about 30 minutes before the event started. My goal was to get some photos of Alex and his family and friends. But Alex was not feeling very well and was not up to having his picture taken. I took some other photos around the venue until he had a chance to rest. The television crew showed up and did an interview with Alex. So I took this opportunity to photograph him being interviewed.


Here is Alex talking to the reporter from KTVU.


One of the items on Alex's bucket list was to get a tattoo. Here is a photo of him showing off his tattoo to the television camera.


As I mentioned, we first heard about Alex from Frank Somerville's Facebook page. If you have not seen Frank's page, you should check it out here.  What we love most about Frank's page is that his writing is positive, insightful, and he always has great things to say. Something refreshing on the Internet. After spending time with Frank last night, I quickly realized that he is as genuine and kind-hearted in person as he is on TV and online. Being avid readers of his posts, my wife and daughter were thrilled to hear that Frank was there. He and I even surprised them with a selfie. Here is a photo of Alex Matlosz-Cox and Frank Somerville.


And here is a photo of Bobbie (Alex's amazing mom), Alex and Frank.


At 6pm the comedy show started.


(For those of you photographers wondering what equipment I used, all shots were taken with the Canon 1DX. I mostly used the Canon 70-200mm, 24-70mm lenses, and the 16-35mm lens for the wide shots. I used the Canon 600 EX-RT flash with a diffuser and turned it down by at least one stop to maintain the cool lighting in the room, but add a touch of light to the subjects.)


The family received hundreds of cards with people asking to meet Alex, And he wanted a way to meet as many of those people as possible. So they put together this party as a perfect way for so many people to see Alex at one time. All of this event was done for free, with the club owner giving the space, the food being brought by attendees, and the comedians volunteering their time to make this event happen. Awesome!


And everyone had a great time.


One after another, the comedians kept people laughing.




As well as capturing photos of Alex and the comedians, I wanted to get some wide shots showing all the people who came to support Alex and his mom.




I moved around the room trying to capture photos from all angles.








This is one of my favorite shots from the evening. I worked myself to the front of the stage. I got down low to stay out of people's way and shot this image of Alex and his girlfriend watching the show from the back of the club.




While up at the front of the room, I turned the camera back around to get people reactions.





It was great to see so many people there to support Alex and his mother.


I can't repeat any of the jokes, but trust me, these guys were funny!


At the end of the show, they concluded the comedy and wished Alex a happy birthday.



Even though Alex did not want any attention on him, the crowd spontaneously started singing happy birthday.


I walked over to him to see if I could get a photo of him reacting to this moment (not sure if he was OK with having his photo taken) and he turned and gave me this. I got chills from this moment.


And before I left the party, Alex stood up and let me take this last photo with him and his mom.

All I can tell you is...all of this puts our daily lives in perspective. I was driving over to the party thinking of all the things I have to do, and then realized that I am lucky to have the time to accomplish these tasks. This young man has very little time left with us, but is doing everything in his power to leave his mark in this world.

Alex, I hope that you prove the experts wrong and keep adding to your bucket list!

If you would like to see a video clip of the event from the Fox 2 news broadcast, click here. Towards the very end of the video, you will see where he turned and gave me the hand gesture.

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Photographing a baby - and having fun doing it!

You may remember a blog post from a while back, when my niece came down to our house for me to take pregnancy photos of her.  In that blog post, I said that I was new to pregnancy photos and had to figure out the best angles and poses. Well...once again I was outside my comfort zone taking photos of a 5 week old baby. But, just like before, we just had some fun and tried different things, as you will see in this blog post.

(Canon 1DX, Canon 100mm macro lens, f/4, ISO 640, 1/100 sec)
We started with a white furry piece of material which we put over a stuffed chair. We had Penelope wear a cute little hat and I started shooting some photos. I started with the Canon 1DX and a 100mm macro lens and also used the Canon 24-70mm lens for many of the shots.

(Canon 1DXCanon 100mm macro lens, f/2.8, ISO 1250, 1/125 sec)
With a baby so young, it was hard to position her head. So I just let her wiggle around and took photos when I saw the opportunity. I really love this one with her looking up at me.

(Canon 1DXCanon 100mm macro lens, f/2.8, ISO 320, 1/80 sec)
As you know, I like trying to find good photos taken from a different perspective. With that in mind, I moved my position and focused on her hand, which was up by her ear. I love the way that a simple image like this can say so much.

(Canon 1DXCanon 24-70 f/2.8 II lens, f/4, ISO 640, 1/100 sec)
It was just before Halloween and we had a bunch of pumpkins laying around the house. Being a goof ball, and just messing around, I grabbed a couple of the smaller pumpkins and turned Penelope into "Princess Leia".

(Canon 1DXCanon 100mm macro lens, f/2.8, ISO 640, 1/125 sec)
We then switched the white material for this checkered material and added some color to the photos.

(Canon 1DXCanon 100mm macro lens, f/2.8, ISO 640, 1/160 sec)
Most of the time, I am working to maintain perfect focus on her eyes, but for this photo, I shot at a wide aperture and focused on her hands, lettering her face become part of the background.

(Canon 1DXCanon 24-70 f/2.8 II lens, f/2.8, ISO 320, 1/640 sec)
And for a couple of minutes, Penelope decided to take a nap. I guess my photography lulls people to sleep. :)

(Canon 1DXCanon 24-70 f/2.8 II lens at 45mm, f/4.5, ISO 320, 1/125 sec)
My wife is a little strange and has two mailboxes in our backyard, to keep her favorite tools. We thought it would be funny to put the baby girl in the mailbox so that her mom could have a photo announcing "a new baby has been delivered".

(Canon 1DXCanon 24-70 f/2.8 II lens at 45mm, f/4.5, ISO 320, 1/125 sec)
And here is a crop of the same image. I don't know about you, but this makes me laugh.

(Canon 1DXCanon 24-70 f/2.8 II lens at 39mm, f/4.5, ISO 320, 1/125 sec)
After some good laughs, we asked mom to step into the shot to get this.

(Canon 1DXCanon 24-70 f/2.8 II lens at 57mm, f/5.6, ISO 320, 1/125 sec)
My wife found this old red wagon at a garage sale and thought that it would be a fun prop. Running out of ideas, we decided to put Penelope into the wagon, surrounded by our pumpkins and fall leaves. We actually didn't have good enough leaves, so I sent my daughter 4 blocks away to collect some from a very colorful tree. This photo shoot was truly a family affair. (Photographer's note: My wife was holding the little girl in this position, and I removed her hand, arm and shoe using Photoshop.)

(Canon 1DXCanon 24-70 f/2.8 II lens at 41mm, f/4.5, ISO 320, 1/200 sec)
And for this final photo, we just laid Penelope down nice and easy and I quickly shot this. She is so darned cute!

ONE MORE THING...If you have not yet entered the "Jeff' Favorite Things" contest, make sure you do so HERE. It is your chance to win more than $11,000 worth of the best photo gear from my sponsors!

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If you are interested in purchasing any camera equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. I would really appreciate that.
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Sunday, November 16, 2014

An open letter to Apple Computer

I have been using Apple Computers for more years than I can count, and I am one of Apple's biggest advocates. Our house could double as an Apple store, with numerous Mac computers, laptops, iPads, iPhones, Apple TVs... Yep, I drink the Apple Kool-aid.

A couple of weeks ago I upgraded to your new Yosemite Mac Operating System (version 10.10). I was initially excited to see that the new OS let me use my 4K monitor through DisplayPort with no problems. At that point, I was glad that I made the switch.

But sometimes being on the leading edge can feel more like being on the bleeding edge. For the last couple of weeks I have had inexplicable issues with my wireless Internet connectivity and slow connection with the Chrome browser. I even have a couple of applications that are not running very well. But I expect to have a couple of hiccups when installing a new operating system. But then I hit the big problem. My mail stop sending. Then my mail stopped receiving. And the worst part is that I am using YOUR mail application on your new OS on your new computer! 

I then turned to Google to research this and see if others are having the same problem, and I see that there are a ton of people having this trouble and that this is a known issue. Really? There is no excuse for this. I know that you can not test with every third party application...but this is your own application on your own OS. Was this not tested thoroughly?

I have to repeatedly zap my PRAM just to make my computer work. Ughh.

As someone who runs my entire business on Apple products, I am really disappointed!

Jeff Cable

You can reach me at jcable@jeffcable.com (I can read your response on my iPhone or iPad, since I may not be able to receive the email on my computer)


Thursday, November 13, 2014

Update to the contest - MORE products added


As many of you know, the contest is now live. Well...it went live yesterday and then I had a couple of my favorite companies join in. Acratech has now added their Swift Clamp and Sigma has added their crazy sharp 50mm 1.4 lens!!

The new list is:

* DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ Drone
* Canon 70D DSLR camera with 18-135mm IS STM lens
* Canon PIXMA Pro-1 Printer
* Wacom Intuos Pro Medium
* 32GB Lexar Professional 1066x CF Card or 32GB 600x Lexar Professional SD card (2 prizes)
* Drobo 5D
* Sigma 50mm 1.4 lens
* Lexar HR-1 Workflow Solution w/ 2 Readers
* Gitzo GM5561T 6x Carbon Fiber Monopod
* Photo Mechanic software (2 prizes)
* One year subscriptions to Zenfolio (2 prizes)
* Scott Kelby Autographed Books - “The Digital Photography Book, Part 5: Photo Recipes” (5 prizes) and "Lightroom 5" (2 prizes)
* KelbyOne: One year full memberships (2 prizes)
* LowePro ProRunner 450AW Backpack
* JOBY Suction Cup (2 prizes)
* Epson R2000 printer with Velvet Fine Art paper (8x10), 5x7 pack and 4x6 pack of photo glossy paper
* FotoFusion Extreme software (2 prizes)
* B&H $100 gift certificates (2 prizes)
* Acratech GP Ball Head with lever clamp and a Swift Clamp
* M&M Photo Tours - $750 credit on one of their International photo trips (come with me!)
* BlackRapid straps - CrossShot strap, Sport strap, Yeti strap (3 prizes)

Yes, there will now be 33 people winning these prizes!

Make sure to enter the contest HERE!

I hope you win one of these great prizes!!!

Jeff

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If you are interested in purchasing any camera equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. I would really appreciate that.
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Wednesday, November 12, 2014

It's time for the "Jeff's Favorite Things" give-away, and there are $10,000 in prizes!!!


Remember when Oprah Winfrey would give away her "Favorite Things" to her audience? Once again, I have been working with all my friends in the photo industry to collect my favorite photographic tools to give away to you. Last year I gave more than $3000 worth of goodies and I thought that was so cool. Well...guess what? This year all my favorite companies came through in a big way and the prizes are worth $10,000! Yep, that is $10k worth of the best photo gear, and all for you. These are all products that I use and love every day.

Here is everything that you can win:

* DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ Drone
* Canon 70D DSLR camera with 18-135mm IS STM lens
* Canon PIXMA Pro-1 Printer
* Wacom Intuos Pro Medium
* 32GB Lexar Professional 1066x CF Card or 32GB 600x Lexar Professional SD card (2 prizes)
* Lexar HR-1 Workflow Solution w/ 2 Readers
* Gitzo GM5561T 6x Carbon Fiber Monopod
* Photo Mechanic software (2 prizes)
* One year subscriptions to Zenfolio (2 prizes)
* Scott Kelby Autographed Books - “The Digital Photography Book, Part 5: Photo Recipes” (5 prizes) and "Lightroom 5" (2 prizes)
* KelbyOne: One year full memberships (2 prizes)
* LowePro ProRunner 450AW Backpack
* JOBY Suction Cup (2 prizes) 
* Epson R2000 printer with Velvet Fine Art paper (8x10), 5x7 pack and 4x6 pack of photo glossy paper
* FotoFusion Extreme software (2 prizes)
* B&H $100 gift certificates  (2 prizes)
* Acratech Ultimate GP Ball Head
* M&M Photo Tours - $750 credit on one of their International photo trips (come with me!)
* BlackRapid straps - CrossShot strap, Sport strap, Yeti strap (3 prizes)

Yes, there will be 32 people winning these prizes!

Sign up here for a chance to win!  The more people your refer, the more chances you have to win.


Wednesday, November 5, 2014

New York - Central Park in Fall colors

Last week I was in New York to speak at B&H and for the Photo Plus trade show. Last Tuesday afternoon, after doing my "How to shoot great senior portraits" talk at B&H, I went out to Central Park with the goal of photographing fall colors. I was armed with my Canon 5D Mark III, Black Rapid strap (which I love!), and a Tamron 28-300mm lens (which is a nice light walk-around lens). It was not the peak of color, but still provided some really nice photo opportunities. Come on...let me take you through the park...


I have photographed Bow Bridge many times in the past, but never with fall colors. I went to the far side of the bridge and climbed up on a rock to get this perspective. I love shooting this bridge at an extreme angle to emphasize the architecture. There were many boaters that came into the frame, but I waited for only one boat, with someone wearing good colors, that would fit the scene and reflect off the water.

After shooting this shot, I ventured over to the flowers that you see on the bridge.


I was looking to see if there was a good shot of the flowers, when I noticed this butterfly. I quickly reframed my shot, focusing on the butterfly, but also using the fall colors in the background. I took numerous photos of the monarch butterfly on the yellow flowers, and then he took off. I fired off a couple of frames and got lucky to have a nice sharp image.


While strolling along one of the walking paths, I saw this tree on the edge of a lake. I really liked the way that the orange leaves created a nice pattern in front of the bright yellow tree in the background. I shot this at f/5.6 to make sure that the focus was only on the foreground tree.


This photo shows a different view of the season. Instead of showing a whole tree, I isolated this one branch to show the turning of the leaves. Nature's pallet is so awesome!


For any of you lucky enough to visit Central Park, you will recognize these light posts which are everywhere. I decided to photograph one of these lights in front of a magnificent tree. Once again, I used a fairly wide aperture of f/6.3 with my zoom lens at 300mm to compress the background and draw the viewer's eye to the light.


I saw this reflection and could not help myself. So cool!


At one point, I came across an area with these beautiful flowers. I composed this shot numerous ways, but really liked this one photo the best.


After hours of walking the park, I came around a corner of this lake and saw the late afternoon sun hitting these trees across from me. I took many photos of this scene before the light dissipated, and grabbed this one with the boater in a red shirt (again adding to the scene) and the goose heading towards me.


Ahhhh...so romantic. I had to grab this shot!


The direct sunlight had come and gone, but the flat light helped me get these shots.



I saw this break in the trees and was shooting photos of the distant trees through the larger hole to the right of the frame, when I noticed these boaters through another smaller break in the tree. I quickly refocused on the boaters and zoomed out to include them in the photo. (Photographer's tip: Whenever you are taking photos, be aware of everything around you, as many times you will find more interesting subjects that were not initially focusing on. Look behind you, above you and really dissect a scene to find something beyond the obvious.)


I saw these trees through a small break in the bushes to my left. I could not help myself, so I hopped a small fence, walked through the trees to a clearing, and shot this. (Don't worry - I was very careful and didn't trample anything.) It was just too amazing to pass up!


It was just before sunset when I grabbed this shot near the Bethesda Fountain.


And if you know me, you know that I just can't stop shooting when I am in the zone. The light had dropped and most people had put their cameras away, but I saw this as another opportunity to shoot some motion blur of the passing carriages. I lowered the ISO to 250 and changed the shutter speed to 1/2 second and panned along with the horse and carriages.

I hope you enjoyed our little walk through Central Park!

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If you are interested in purchasing any camera equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. I would really appreciate that.
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