Holi Festival 2011

Driving up to Spanish Fork, Utah, a place that I had never even heard of prior to this weekend, to photograph the U.S. version of the traditional Indian Holi Festival that marks the coming of spring each year... I really had no idea what to expect to from anything.

Now called the "festival of colors," the celebration in Utah has taken on a feel of a Grateful Dead concert reminiscent of the days of Woodstock. That's truly the only way I can describe it.

Throngs of moving bodies packed shoulder to shoulder dancing, covered in colored chalk, singing Indian hymns of hare hare krishna to the beat of traditional Indian music, against a backdrop of traditonal Krishna temple smack in the middle of conservatist Utah ... The whole experience seemed utterly surreal.

On ice

Between a class team assignment and shooting for a sports action assignment, my photo life the past week has been consumed with nothing but ice hockey.

& to be frank, I hate the cold. Loathe it, actually. I hate cold fingers and chattering teeth more than anything. I grew up in the heat of Las Vegas, cold is virtually nonexistent there. & when it is, 65 to me is freezing... But you don't get the hockey without the ice. Needless to say, I've sucked it up and dealt with it like a man.

A really great thing about shooting ice hockey that I've noticed is the extreme (well, to me at least) temperature forces you to work through that factor and perform anyways.

One of my biggest hindrances I encountered while shooting in Madison was the cold. I was frozen solid, and viewing my edit now.. I can see where my own laziness due to the cold cost me photo composition. Rather than working through the weather, I gave up quickly and said '@#&^ this' and ran inside to the warmth of the Capitol.

Seeing this now in my own photos and feeling rather embarrassed about my own pansy behavior, it's something I'm forcing myself to work through.

Flash.. failure?

Had the privilege of photographing Buena High School volleyball with a strobe-d gym... Failure? Maybe.. Interesting? Absolutely.

A movie I'm excited for?

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/thebangbangclub/

A rare occurrence to be excited for a movie... but nonetheless, a film I'm looking forward to seeing to further discover the background behind the infamous 'Bang Bang Club'

PAC10 Gymnastics Competition

Taking a Sports Photojournalism 101 class this session, I've never really understood the joy in covering sports events as anything more than a chance to make a difficult situation into great photos. A friend has always quoted Thurgood Marshall saying, "I only read the sports pages because they report man's accomplishments. The front page is man's failure..." But I never truly understood the joy of sports photography until today... finally.

I'm by no-means an athlete, I danced. I rode horses and did things in the non-traditional sense of athleticism but mainstream, team sports have always been beyond my realm. So experiencing a team dynamic is so new to me, but I've begun to fully embrace it.

Having the privilege of assisting a friend working for a huge sports publication covering an even bigger event at UCLA, I think I've finally begun to wrap my head around the idea behind the unity of team sports that drives so many of my friends to continue to photograph sports. There's so many quiet, inspiring moments that move me as a storyteller behind a lens. I love having the privilege of witnessing the highest highs and lowest lows in competition.

I'm truly falling in love with sports photography.

sublimely leah

This photo sums up my entirety in one image, hands down. Everything about this picture makes me sublimely happy... One of my favorite past times... walking my puppies around my house.

Tattoos & puppies, for the win.

journalism math

spanked + critique
(in the same sentence)

= success.

definitely the best damn thing I've heard all day...

Best Friend

nothing says "best friend" like your watermark on the photo on her facebook....
hilarity with a punch of pretentious.

SBCC Baseball

someone once told me, if you come back from baseball without at least 3 contact photos per game, you've failed as a sports photographer...
guess I'm not failing anymore.

Is there such a thing...

as too much baseball?
Spent Friday night at Cal Poly's Baggett Stadium,
Beautiful field. Beautiful light. Couldn't have asked for better...

angry inbox

sad, empty email inbox.

(new) old edits. pt 2

speedlights are my love.

(new) old edits

it's amazing what sorting through your hard drives on a long, miserable layover trapped in Denver with no WiFi will find...
oh boredom.