Day 265/366

"Marine Corp Band"

At the Pleasanton Highland Games they had lots of entertainment. One downside to shooting the athletics, is that they are all day, so I never really get to experience the rest of the Scottish Festival. Not that i'm complaining, would just like to be able to shoot the dancing and bands and people in general.

Luckily at the Pleasanton Games, they had a nice long lunch and we actually had to move locations, so I got the opportunity to shoot some other stuff during the break. The Marine Corp Marching band was there. And these guys were great.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Day 262/366

"Caber Toss on Racetrack"

First off let me apologize for the short image only posts the last few days, I have been having fits with my computer. Apparently it didn't like that I let it for 3 weeks. From failed HD, to corrupted Lightroom Catalogs, to 348 Corrupted images on my CF Card, it has not been a great week for electronics.

But hopefully I have most of it back up and running. My HD is on it's way back to Thailand and the luckily I had backups of the lightroom Catalogs, so it was fixable.

On the Photo side of things, I have been shooting a bunch this week, From Swimmers to football players to Senior Portraits. So that has been pretty fun.

So todays image is from the Pleasanton Highland Games, I am finally back to processing the almost 10,000 images I shot over the last month. That's frightening just to say that and to know that I will be very busy for the next few weeks.

The Pleasanton Games were unique in that the Caber Toss and Weight over Bar were both held on the Horse Racing Track, So I got to be out on the track walking around. It was also great fro the Athletes since they were performing in from of the grand stands with thousands of people. It was also cool photographically to have a Horse Racetrack as the back drop for most of these pictures.

And for those Highland Games Folk, Hang tight I am working very hard this week on the images.

Day 254/366

I apologize for the lack of posts recently, I have been posting regularly on G+ and Facebook.

Here is another from my flight in from Las Vegas. That is Mt. Baker off in the distance. Again I love these clouds. I would love to have an airplane to just fly around and take pictures.

242/366 Sunrise

"Sunrise"

Went out this morning at sunrise to shoot some Desert Landscapes. I am out in Lancaster California. Which is in the high desert so I thought I would go get some cool backdrops for compositing.

I was a little nervous about snakes. Luckily I didn't encounter any. 

This was a shot with the iPhone. And processed through Cross Process.

Day 241/366

"Andy Vincent - WOB"

Hey everyone, I am in LA having a great time. I am trying to get through the last 2 Highland Games, Portland and Enumclaw. That's like 6000 images. This is definitely letting me work out my new Lightroom Workflow. It has a couple kinks that show up in certain rare situations, but otherwise I find it much more efficient. I leave LA on Friday to travel North to Pleasanton California to shoot the 147th Pleasanton Scottish Highland Games.
 
http://www.caledonian.org/

Should be a really good games. So today's image is of one of the Pro's Andy Vincent. He is also a Strong Man and Former Miami Dolphin, which is my favorite football team.

This is catching the weight at the peak of it's height. This is the point at which the crowd goes from cheering to OOOHHHHHHHHHHH. I do like the clouds in this shot but will be very glad to hopefully have some sunshine for the games this weekend.

Take care and have a great day.

Day 238/366

"Blocking"

Had another fantastic day at the beach, I have to pick certain games that I shoot and then games where I just want to sit and enjoy. This is a match featuring Sean Rosenthal and Jake Gibb. They were 1 of the 2 mens teams representing the US at the olympics. Sean is a local boy and has a huge following. As you can see the weather was perfect, which I miss dearly living in the Pacific Northwest.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

Day 235/366

Chariot

Hanging out at the SeaTac waiting for my flight. My chariot is pulling up to the gate.

Should be an exciting 2+ weeks including some portrait sessions, a Drink and Click Photowalk with +Christi Nielsen. The Northern California Highland Games. This is one of the largest in the country and I get to be out on the field shooting. 😄 and then wrapping the whole thing up with Photoshop World in Las Vegas.

Should be a good time.

Day 206/366

"WOB"

For those that don't know this is Weight Over Bar. The Portland Games was the first games I got to shoot at that had a Pro Division. At the other games I've shot there was always one or two pros that would show up mostly as practice.

This was the first time I got to see them go all out. We had world record holders competing and even some new World Records were set, so it was a great day to shoot. I shot over 3000 images and have gotten them whittled down to 400 or so. I will have more to post tomorrow and mostly I wanted to get through them to help me see what I can do better this coming weekend in Enumclaw.

This is one of the Pro's Matt Vincent. I also have a Black and White version, but thought this one was good with color.

Day 199/366

"Sheaf"

As I approach day 200 on my quest to post a picture a day for the whole year, I bring you another image from the Tacoma Scottish Highland Games. It was pouring rain and the athletes had little to no shelter. They were warriors out there.

The "Sheaf" consists of a Rectangular Burlap Sack heaved overhead using a pitchfork. It originated with throwing Hay. But evolved so the hay wouldn't get destroyed throughout the day. But on a day like this the Sheaf slowly got heavier and heavier from the rainfall.

This is Kate Burton, She is a kick ass competitor.

Day 194/366

"Don't hurt 'em Hammer!"

Sorry for the title, I had to do it. Gotta give MC Hammer props whenever possible.

Anyway, this is one more from the Bellingham Highland Games. There is a net that surrounds this event, to protect spectators should the hammer slip out of the hands of the athletes. But all I saw was a distraction, so I figured I would just stick my camera on tripod inside the net and hope for the best.

This location lasted for 5 maybe 6 competitors and I got nervous, since I am not sure if the insurance I have, covers for this kind of accident. Luckily nothing went wrong and I think it made for some pretty cool images. This is Charlie Latt, he was nice enough to not let the hammer slip and smash my camera into smitherines.

I am leaving tomorrow to head out to the Olympics. Not the ones in London, the ones we have here in Washington.

Thanks for stopping by.

Day 193/366

"Bellingham Scottish Highland Games A-Class"

This has been a beast of a job. Mainly because I ran out of Harddrive space and for some reason decided now would be a good time to completely re-examine my photography workflow. Mostly Lightroom, but also my Digital Asset Management.

I have it mostly figured out. I am still waiting for my replacement drive, which will arrive tomorrow. So I can get all the files into their proper location and then finish the final details of the workflow. I am working on a big post and possibly videos explaining everything I have done.

But for now, I wanted to share one of the Final Images. I just need to keyword all the final images so when I upload to my site the Athletes will be able to just search their name and all their images will show up.

This is the A-Class. One step below the Pro's.

To all the Athletes that have been patiently waiting for the images to be posted, the wait is almost over. I will hopefully have them posted by tomorrow night. I will be out of town this weekend and unable to be at the Skagit Games, but will be at both Portland and Enumclaw.

Good luck to everyone this weekend.

Day 192/366

"Trainspotting"

We are finally rounding that corner into what will hopefully be a good summer. I think we have peaked into the 70's once or twice. I know lots of you out there are dying from the heat and I do feel bad for you. But when it's Rainy and low 60's in late June, it just feels a bit odd. And last summer was mainly in the 60's. So I am hoping for some high 70's low 80's this summer.

So I felt I wanted todays image to be all about color and motion. That's one of the great things about photography, it can be whatever you want it to be. And for me I enjoy capturing things that maybe aren't noticeable by the naked eye. Like motion, it is very difficult for your brain to stop and separate one frame from the act itself. Much less a slow shutter version of it.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Tuesday.

Day 191/366

"Water Lillie's"

I figured I would have a little fun with an image I took recently. I was out and there was a little pond full of water lilies. I like the shot but being a huge fan of Monet, he has ruined regular photos of Water Lilies for me. So I though I would have a little fun with the image in photoshop using the Oil Paint filter. This is composed of the image processed several times with the filter, then using masks I had fun painting in more detail and multiple layers of subtle color changes.

Have a great night everyone.

Day 190/366

"Beach Volleyball"

I was looking at dates to head down to Southern California and was happy to see pro beach Volleyball on the schedule in Manhattan Beach. The AVP, which is the "Association of Volleyball Professionals" NOT "Alien Vs Predator" as I am sure many of you were thinking. Well they went bankrupt a few years ago and it looks like Jose Cuervo has stepped in. So it will be great to hopefully get back down there and shoot and play some Beach Volleyball.

Have a great Monday everyone.

Day 188/366

"Mystery Image"

I love when I come across an image and it takes me a second to realize what it is. I figured it out pretty quick, simply because I knew the location I took this image.

But I was interested to see if you guys could figure out what this was. I only did a little contrast adjustment, so the colors are pretty true to what came out of the camera.

So let me know if you can tell what this is?

Day 187/366

"Cargo"

I hope everyone had a safe and fun 4th. I am back to the grind today, was going through my images and still refining my Lightroom workflow. Little tweaks here and there. And still waiting on my G-Drive. It was shipped on Tuesday and wont be here until next Thursday. I have to say I am a little less than enthused with BH Photo's replacement process. The fact that they don't have a Cross Ship option is baffling to me. So i have to wait almost 3 weeks for a replacement of a defective product that I received from them.

Anyway, this got me thinking of the term "Slow Boat from China" And as I was moving around images I came across this image of a Cargo ship. This is how my replacement drive is getting it to me.

Have a great night everyone.

Day 181/366

"Seattle Underground Sign"

If any of you have been to Seattle, there is a tour of Old Seattle, that is currently 2 stories beneath the current seattle, or al least a part of Seattle.
It's interesting and entertaining to do the tour once, but loses some of it's luster the 2nd and 3rd time around. I will probably do it one more time once I get my 5D MK III, just because it's pretty low light down there and I couldn't relly get some of my shots, and it would be great to shoot some brackets down there.

So anyway they had this cool old sign down there. And I love me some cool old signs. :)

Thanks for stopping by, I am getting really close to being half way through this self assignment.

Day 180/366

"Barbwire"

This was shot in Aruba, I was down there on a cruise. While I shot lots of pretty pictures, there was lots of grunge to shoot as well. Which I love to shot as well.

Have a good night everyone.

Day 170/366

I always like to tune into +creativelive and check out what they have to offer, This last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday they had Jared Platt on Lightroom Workflow. He had some pretty compelling workflow concepts. So, I am reworking my workflow using some of his concepts and merging them with my current workflow. Mostly this came about because I was getting close to running out of hard drive space and had to upgrade my storage. So this class came at the exact right time, and lots of his ideas seemed pretty smart.

So during my restructuring, i am coming across some images from many years ago that i am reworking with Lightroom 4 and Nik Silver Effects. This one was shot at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. And it is the only shot that contains a Human element. I just wasn't into shooting people back then. And while i am not ready for full on street photography, I do think that having this person helps this image to tell a story, as opposed to it being straight Architectural.

Thanks for stopping by.

Day 165/366

"Ground Control to Major Tom"