Memorial Day at the Golden Gate National Cemetery

This morning I made a visit to the Golden Gate National Cemetery for Memorial Day. 

It always daunting to be in a military cemetery with 145,000 grave stones. On this weekend every year, they decorate each stone with an American flag. Families also come to pay their personal respect for those who served in our armed forces.

I have been to this cemetery numerous times in the past, but this year I made it in time for the ceremony. The San Bruno fire department had their ladder truck flying the American flag in the background.

At the beginning of the ceremony, the Coast Guard did a fly-by over the site. I slowed the shutter of my camera (to make sure that I did not freeze the helicopter rotors), and waited for the chopper to fly by the ladder.

Since I know many people will ask me about the settings for getting the helicopter shot, I had the camera set to ISO 50, aperture set to f/22, which gave me a shutter speed of 1/30th second. I panned with the chopper as it passed by. This shows the spin of the rotors, which is much more visually appealing than freezing them in place.

I walked up the hill to show the crowd and part of the expansive cemetery in the background.

Since I have photographed this cemetery many times and posted in the past, I decided to keep the shutter slow (showing the movement of the flags) to capture this differently from the past. 

As I was leaving, I spotted this by one of the stones. I thought it was interesting and worth a photo. 

As all of you are enjoying your barbecues, I hope that you take a moment to think about the people who sacrificed their lives for our freedom. 

__________________________________________________________

• Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!

• You can now purchase Jeff Cable Photography images from my new fine art site at: https://fineart.jeffcable.com/

• If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.

• Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Africa Costa Rica and more. And Canon will loan you any gear you want for FREE for any of my tours.

 _________________________________________________________________   

65 Days Until the Olympics in Paris - Opening Ceremony Challenges!

I am just about two months from my departure to Paris and there is still a bunch of planning going on. First and foremost, before the Summer Olympics I am leading a photo tour to Costa Rica in 2 weeks and then come back for a couple of weeks before heading to Peru to lead another tour. Then I can make the final plans and start packing for the three week trip to France. 

Am I excited? Yes!

In the mean time I have been on numerous calls this month, with the Paris Organizing Committee, Team USA, Canon and others. One of those calls was an informational presentation regarding the Opening Ceremony, and this call left me a little more unsettled than calm. 

As I mentioned in previous blog posts, I have been very excited to cover an Opening Ceremony like no other. With the teams floating down the Seine River as opposed to walking into a stadium. But along with the excitement in that, comes a lot of challenges. Let me explain.

First the first time ever, ALL Olympic tickets (for spectators and press) will be delivered digitally. Although I really love the thought of this (since it might save me having to make the trip back to the USOPC offices in the main press center to get my tickets for the High Demand Events (HDEs), it also could be a nightmare if there are any digital snafus. And the first event that will be trying this new format is the Opening Ceremony with 650,000 people attending. Yikes! 

I also found out that there will only be 250 photo positions at the Trocadero, with a view of the Eiffel Tower in the background. Getting one of those is going to be very difficult! Remember, there are approximately 2500 photographers from around the world who all want one of these spots. So I am already working on plan B and plan C.

The 6km route will be sectioned off into 6 different working zones, so it will not be possible for us (or anyone else) to move along the entire route. This is great for security purposes but less than ideal for photographers trying to capture images from different vantage points. And, for the first time, I will not be able to capture all of the ceremony, since different things will be happening along different sections of the river.

Some of the photo positions are standing only, which will be difficult because we are typically in place for about 9 hours. And to make it even more challenging, most of the positions are not under any cover, so we have to deal with whatever weather is presented to us that day. It could be really hot or it could rain. neither of which would be fun. At least in a stadium, we can duck for cover.

Don't get me wrong. I am not complaining, as I am lucky to be going at all! And...covering the Opening Ceremony is more of a choice than a requirement from the team. As is everything at the Olympics, it will be a challenge to navigate it all, but interesting nonetheless. Sometimes good photography requires a balance of luck, preparation, and skill. We will see how that all works out.

More information to come.

__________________________________________________________

• Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!

• You can now purchase Jeff Cable Photography images from my new fine art site at: https://fineart.jeffcable.com/

• If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.

• Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Africa Costa Rica and more. And Canon will loan you any gear you want for FREE for any of my tours.

 _________________________________________________________________   

The Canon R1 has been announced!! (Well...kinda)

If you were up late last night, you may have seen that Canon announced the development of the Canon EOS-R1 camera, which will be their flagship camera for the foreseeable future. They did not divulge many details in their press release, but the tease does reveal some really interesting things. 

Canon says that the new EOS-R1 camera will have some major performance improvements for both still and video. Adding a new DIGIC Accelerator to the DIGIC X processor and adding "deep learning technology" which is going to provide some major improvements to focusing and image capture. When Canon says "deep learning", is that their way of saying AI? 

The press release talks about high speed and high-accuracy subject recognition, using examples of locking in on a primary athlete and staying with that subject. Fast focusing is a huge factor for me, and I look forward to seeing how this translates to real-world images of wildlife and sports. 

The camera also has in-body noise reduction which supposedly competes with the software solutions we are using today. That would be really cool. 

For now, that is all that they have said. 

You may remember that I wrote my wish list for this camera way back in January of 2021. I am hoping that they addressed most or all of these things.

I have already had numerous people reach out to me asking if I am using one of these now, or will be in the near future. And my answer to that is and will be...🤐

I am excited for the future and look forward to using the EOS-R1.

__________________________________________________________

• Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!

• You can now purchase Jeff Cable Photography images from my new fine art site at: https://fineart.jeffcable.com/

• If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.

• Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Africa Costa Rica and more. And Canon will loan you any gear you want for FREE for any of my tours.

 _________________________________________________________________   

The latest presentation at B&H is now online!

Last week I did a presentation called "Photographing the Olympics Over the Last 15 Years: How Technology Has Changed Everything". It was a totally new presentation that I created for this event, and while I was building the presentation, even I was amazed at how much has changed from my first Olympics in 2008 until now.

And even though most of you won't be photographing the Olympics, all of this information is pertinent to everyday photography.

You can see the video HERE or by clicking on the image below.

I hope you enjoy the presentation!

__________________________________________________________

• Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!

• You can now purchase Jeff Cable Photography images from my new fine art site at: https://fineart.jeffcable.com/

• If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.

• Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Africa Costa Rica and more. And Canon will loan you any gear you want for FREE for any of my tours.

 _________________________________________________________________   

UCSF Hospital Prom - Getting back to Pre-pandemic festivities

Last week was the annual UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Prom, and once again I was thrilled to be a volunteer at this amazing event. If you have been following the blog for the last 10 years, you will likely have seen my post from this event in April of each year. Well...the pandemic changed that over the last 3 years, as they moved to online prom and other activities.  As you can imagine, these kids are more susceptible to infection and diseases, so protecting them from COVID was even more critical than for the average person.  But, the in-person prom is back once again!

This year was the first in-person prom since 2019, and it was still scaled back a little, as a cautious restart. Normally they would have many of the San Francisco 49ers show up to party with the kids, and that did not happen this year. But the dancing and festivities were back and the kids were thrilled to be there.

Now I will share some of my favorite photos from the prom.

Before the kids arrived, I checked out the decorations and met some of the other volunteers. They had a roving magician, so I had him play with his cards in front of the decor, for fun and to determine the best exposure settings for this area.

ABC was there to interview some of the kids. I caught some of that in camera. You can see the ABC piece HERE. And yes, you can spot me a couple of times in the background.

It is always inspirational to see these kids who are battling so much, let loose and have fun for a night.

I even got to hang out with Johnnie the therapy dog. 

There were definitely less people on the dance floor (and less boys) this year, but everyone had a ton of fun.

The caricaturists were a big hit with the kids.

And I think the caricaturists were having as much fun as the their subjects.  

For this shot, I got down low and put the one young lady in between one of the ring lights.

Many of the attendees got their outfits and makeup done by volunteers. 

And yes, it would not be a prom without selfies.

They raffled off a bunch of cool prizes, including Apple AirPods, a Nintendo Switch, cool headphones and gift cards. 

I love the smiles.

For the whole night, the roving magician was working his magic (pun intended). 😀

It was fun capturing the reactions of the kids.

The prom always includes in-patient and former patients, this year was more of the former patients.

You will see one of my remote lights in the background. I used three flashes for this prom. Two of them were on light stands and one was diffused (with a MagMod Sphere) on my cameras. 

Here is the camera equipment I used for the night:

* Canon R6II

* Canon R3

* Canon RF 24-70 f/2.8

* Canon RF 15-35mm

* Canon RF 70-200 f/2.8  

As I have done every year in the past, I waited for all the kids to return to their hospital rooms or be picked up by their parents, and I took a photo of the hospital volunteers. I then rushed off to get home to recharge all my equipment for my full day shoot on Saturday. As tired as I was, I knew that this was nothing compared to what these kids go through on a daily basis.

I hope that you are as inspired by these youngsters as I am.

__________________________________________________________

• Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!

• You can now purchase Jeff Cable Photography images from my new fine art site at: https://fineart.jeffcable.com/

• If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.

• Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Africa Costa Rica and more. And Canon will loan you any gear you want for FREE for any of my tours.

 _________________________________________________________________   

A NEW B&H presentation next week!

It has been a while since I have done a B&H Event Space presentation, but the wait is over. Next week, on May 8th at 3pm (EST) I will be presenting on a new topic. This time around I will be talking about how technology has changed since covering my first Olympics in 2008 and how that affects the way I capture the photos, the way I work, and the overall images.  

I am really excited to share this presentation with all of you, as I think it is fascinating to see how fast technology has changed in the past 16 years. 

You can thank ProGrade Digital for sponsoring this presentation, which means that it is FREE for you to watch. All you have to do is register HERE.

I hope to see you next week!

Jeff

__________________________________________________________

• Subscribe to the Jeff Cable Photography Blog by clicking HERE!

• You can now purchase Jeff Cable Photography images from my new fine art site at: https://fineart.jeffcable.com/

• If you are interested in purchasing ANY equipment, please click here to go to B&H Photo, as I get a referral from them if you enter this way. It does not change the cost to you in any way, but it helps me keep this blog up and running.

• Check out my upcoming photo tours to amazing places around the world. I have photo tours to Africa Costa Rica and more. And Canon will loan you any gear you want for FREE for any of my tours.

 _________________________________________________________________