Gambling on having a great Bar Mitzvah

Yesterday I had the good fortune to spend the day with another family celebrating a Bar Mitzvah. I arrived at the Temple early in the morning and, for the first time ever at this Temple, we had rain coming down from the skies. It wasn't heavy rain but it was just enough to make it uncomfortable for the family if we were to try to shoot photos outside. But, when I saw the amazing fall colors in the tress, I knew that we had to get some images with this as the background.

I found a great spot in the entryway to the Temple. I opened both doors, and we had an area that was covered, but open to the trees. And there we shot for the next hour. I shot some of the images at an aperture that blurred the background...

...and sometimes I would narrow the aperture to show the background in more detail. (Photographer note: In order to bring out the family members, I used an on-camera flash at one stop under, to light them evening but not blow them out. If I had not done that, they would have been silhouetted by the bright background. )
 

After shooting some additional family pictures in the front of the Temple, I walked back in to find Ethan practicing for the big moment. He was just finishing up as I walked in, and flashed me two thumbs up. I love this moment!

For the first time, I decided to try the new Sigma 85mm 1.4 lens for shooting the sequence when the child walks with the Torah. I really like the way that the wide aperture separates Ethan and the Rabbi from the background. (Photographer note: The disadvantage of using a prime lens in this situation is that I could not zoom with the movement of the child. The advantage of this lens is that, not only did I get great depth of field, the wide aperture gains me shutter speed, letting me shoot at 1/400th at ISO 1600.)

I always look for those key moments during any event that I photograph. This was one of those moments when, in the middle of the service, Ethan's parents made him crack up.

And then, later in the evening, it was party time. This was the first time that I have photographed a "casino night" theme for the kids and it was fun. There is nothing like watching 13 year old kids playing roulette, craps and poker. 

The kids were having a great time and I had a great time trying to capture their intensity. Here again I used the fast Sigma lens to grab the fast action even in the low light.

 

I got down on my knees, low to the table and focused on the child's eyes and waited until the child was ready to throw the dice. Right as they threw the dice, I hit the shutter to get the dice in the air in front of them. Fun stuff for them and me! :)  

(Photographers note: Any time you are shooting with a lens at 1.4 or 1.2 and your depth of field is very narrow, it is critical to get the focus on the subject's eyes and let everything else fall into place.)

A.J. (the DJ) was breaking the kids into teams for a challenge, and I saw them standing around in groups of 8 or 9 and thought that this would be a perfect time to shoot up on them. So I switched to a 16-35mm lens, put on a flash diffuser and convinced the kids to huddle above me as I laid down on the ground. I tried this a year ago at another Bar Mitzvah and loved the end result, and it continues to make me smile.

Mexican cruise - Part III - Cabo San Lucas

As you can imagine, when taking a cruise, there is a lot of time spent on the ship (which means that there is a lot of time to eat and drink). We did our best to resist the temptations of all the food in the buffet area and, as per my mother's request, we had dinner in the formal dining area every evening. I took my camera for a couple of the evenings and shot some images of the family.

The toughest challenge of being a photographer is taking a good picture of my mother. She usually hates every picture of her, so when she says "hey, I actually look good in your pictures", that is a big deal. This is one of my favorite images of her.

And speaking of favorite images, I like this one of my wife. Usually, whenever I point my camera in her general direction, I get a goofy "please don't take another picture of me" look. But here she was nice enough to grace me with a "real" look and she looks great!

The toughest part of having dinner at 5:45pm was juggling the meal with the sunset. We had a couple of really nice sunsets during the week, which required me quickly excusing myself and running out to grab some shots and run back for dinner.

The last stop on our Mexican cruise was Cabo San Lucas, which is a really cool place with great rock formations and beaches. We have been to Cabo a couple of times before, but not in the last 10 years. There was some great wildlife surrounding the marina.

I had our water taxi driver go right up to the rocks to get this shot. There were at least 40 of these guys on the rocks but I really liked the grouping in the middle since they were all looking up, sunning themselves. I also like the little guy on the left who is using the first sea lion as a pillow.

It wasn't until the end of our water taxi ride that I realized that there was a ladder onto the roof for a better viewing area. We all went up to the top to get a family picture.

And...you can not go to Cabo San Lucas without having a drink at Cabo Wabo. This is the bar that is owned by rock singer Sammy Hagar (and I am a big fan of Sammy). I ended up drinking both of these drinks since they were too strong for Annette...and...well...let's just say that I was very happy for a while. :)

As we were pulling out of Cabo, I had sobered up enough to run up to the top deck (front of the ship) and shoot these sunset images. It was just me and one other guy with a Nikon DSLR grabbing shots from up top. You can see the famous "El Arco" (The Arch) to the left of center.

This was my last shot of the trip as we pulled out of the bay and into the open waters of the Pacific. It was a really nice relaxing week away from phones and email, but now I am back to the rat race. :)

Cruising to Mexico - Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas - Part 2

On the third night of the cruise, we had our first formal dinner. Yep, it was times for all of us to get dressed up.

Since we rarely get formal, we took advantage of this and took a family picture at sunset from our balcony. You probably know the drill...set the camera on a tripod, set the timer, and run into the picture.

Every time you get off the ship, you are hounded by people trying to sell you something. Ali really wanted her picture taken with this parrot so we sprung the $1 and got the shot. :)

As we walked away from the Oosterdam on the way to our excursion, I saw this nice shot of the ship with some interesting foreground.  

In Puerto Vallarta we decided to take the family zip lining. This trip started with a short boat ride, and then a one hour ride in the back of a truck, in order to get to the mountains. As we proceeded to get on the boat, we looked down (by the rocky shoreline) and saw a bunch of iguanas sunning themselves.  

 

It was fun to see these guys in the wild and not behind a pane of glass in an aquarium.

We got to the zip line place and I had to turn over my camera (since we really did need both hands for the ropes). And I almost brought one of my GoPro video cameras on the trip. Bummer! Before handing over the 5D Mark II, I did get this picture of Dean, Connor, Blake and Ali (my kids and their cousins) with their bandannas on.

As we were hiking through the forest, from one zip line to the next, we saw a bunch of these giant spiders. Once I got my camera back, I made sure to capture a shot of these creatures.

We then left Puerto Vallarta and cruised on the Cabo San Lucas. We arrived at port early in the morning. I woke up as we were pulling in and saw me wife out on the deck, enjoying the view. I took this one with her knowing that I was there. An unspoiled moment for her. :)

More images to come....

Cruising to Mexico on the Holland America Oosterdam ship - Fun times!

We have just returned from our family cruise to Mexico, with stops in Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, and Cabo San Lucas. We departed from the port of San Diego on Saturday evening for a week of fun.

As we pushed away from the dock, the tug boats swung the ship around and I thought that it would make for a cool photo. I leaned my tripod against the railing from our balcony and shot this image. I made sure that the shutter was slow enough to show some turning motion in the city skyline.

We made our exit from San Diego, leaving a behind rain and cloud cover (which is very rare in this city at this time of year). Shortly after leaving the port and heading out to sea, I looked back and saw that the moon had risen and was lighting up the clouds.

We had a couple of days at sea before getting to our port. I really enjoyed the view from our balconies and was transfixed by the cool patterns in the water below. Much like shooting smoke or water drops, no two shots are alike, and the colors are really beautiful.

On our 2nd night at sea, there was an announcement that we had to make an unscheduled stop, just outside of Cabo San Lucas, to offload a passenger who was having heart problems. I joined the kids who were watching the boat-to-boat maneuver, and shot this image of the security boat when it intersected the moon reflection.

The next morning I woke up just as we were pulling into Mazatlan and shot this image, of their well known cathedral, from the boat.

We departed the ship and hired a driver to take us around the city. We visited all the standard touristy areas and even watched some cliff-divers doing their stuff. These guys are crazy, diving more than 50 feet into water that is only 5-8 feet deep.

We visited the cathedral in the center of the old part of town. As we walked around perimeter of the building, I saw this pretty tree and thought that it would make a nice foreground for a photo. (Photographer note: Any time you are shooting an image of a building or landmark that is popular with tourists, you should try to find a unique perspective so that it is different from the "typical tourist snapshot" photo.)

More photos from the trip to come...

Photographing a very fun wedding (with a stop at a bar in between)!

On Friday, I had the opportunity to photograph the wedding of Shannon and Mar in San Jose, CA and it was an amazing day. They were the perfect subjects to photograph; really nice, great looking, and most importantly, they had fun and made their special day their own. Sure...they did many of the standard wedding day rituals, but they also spiced up the day with some planned and unplanned moments. And if you know me, you know I live for those!

The day started at the De Anza Hotel in San Jose and we photographed the couple getting ready for the wedding. Annette, my awesome wife and acting creative assistant, suggested that we borrow the bouquets for some outside shots. I liked this one the best.

Shannon wearing her veil for the first time.

 Just after seeing each other for the first time of the day, we got the couple together for some photos.

For this shot, I stood on the nearby fountain so that I could shoot down on Shannon. It makes for a really nice composition.

I mentioned that this couple likes to have fun (which was very apparent at the reception), and that they do things their way. Well...after shooting some images in the downtown area, we had a little extra time so they thought that a local bar would be a good stop before the church. Love that! It isn't often you can get a picture of the bride and groom doing shots at a bar before the wedding.

Luckily I had hopped into the limo with them and so I was there to capture this part of the day. If I had missed this, I would not have captured who they really are.

I had just finished shooting a couple of images of the bride and her sister when I noticed that Mar was watching from the back of the bar. I quickly refocused and got this shot.

And because I am a crazy photographer who will do anything for a shot, I climbed on top of a couch and then onto a window ledge and shot this image of the wedding party.

We arrived at the church about an hour before sunset and, as I shot some images of the wedding party getting out the limo, I saw the flower girl walking down the street towards us. I saw this amazing sunlight behind her and asked her to stop and hold out her dress. I leaned down low to make sure that the sunlight was directly behind her head and shot this backlit image of her. She was SO cute!

This is one of my favorite shots from the wedding since the angle of the photo helps to accentuate the flow of the wedding gown.

And then it was time to party, and they did! They had people fly in from all over, but there was a large group who had come in from Hawaii and they set a whole new standard for partying. They were an absolute blast.

Towards the end of the evening, Mar surprised Shannon with a song. I knew that this was coming and also knew that this was going to be a key moment to capture. I put on the new Sigma 85mm 1.4 lens and grabbed these shots of that very special serenade.

As hard and exhausting as it is to shoot for an entire day, it is capturing the emotion in the images like this one and the one above that make it all worthwhile! You can see the absolute love and happiness in their faces. Nothing is better than that!

Congratulations to Shannon and Mar!

A rainy day photo opportunity: A little one playing in the puddles!

Last weekend we had a house full of family members for my wife's grandmother's 95th birthday party. Along with all the grown-ups, we had my niece's two year old son, Silas, who flew in from Texas. Before their flight home, we all thought that it would be good for him to run around and get his energy out of his system (and he has A LOT of energy). The problem was, it was raining outside. And then we figured...so what...lets let him be a boy and have fun in the rain. So the fun began.

He started out relatively dry as he explored the street. I had just come back from shooting portraits of some friends at the local park and had all my camera gear in the truck. I saw Silas in action and quickly grabbed the 5D Mark II and the 70-200mm lens.

 Puddle jumping - you gotta love that!

And then he decided to plop down and become one with the gutter. There is nothing better than capturing images of an innocent child just being a child. No direction, just following the action.

 He was watching me watching him.

And then he was back to playing with his little toy. (Photo hint: When kids are playing, just let them play and capture the moments as they unfold. If you have a mother behind you trying to get them to smile or get their attention, politely ask them to refrain from the cues and try to get the real emotions of the moment. Trust me, they will appreciate this later when they see the final images.)

This is one of my favorite images for two reasons. First of all, I got down on my knee and shot the image at his level, which helps to bring us closer to him. (Photo hint: When photographing children or pets, try getting down to their level to really see them in their world.) Secondly, I love the concentration on his face as he trudges through the water.