Shirts for Havasu

In just a few days we will be off to Havasu Lake for a week. Now I'm not much for the heat but my two kids sure have a blast while were there. We go with my two sisters and their families and spend the week tubing, knee and wake boarding. I do have to admit that I have a blast on the tube, only down side is I'm not taking the pictures.

This will be our third year going and I take various shots throughout the vacation and put together a DVD slide show that I give to each of my sisters. Now the joke between our families is that they only bring me to take action shots of them, which I do and have a great time doing.

Last year we made t-shirts for the havasu trip. These were just symbolic of what each one of us thought important or said something about who or what we did. Well mine had to do with cameras, of course. I made a scene of me holding a camera with a huge lens stretching across the shirt. So this blog entry is dedicated to our Shirts for "Havasu '08", and each shirt tells it's own story. I'll see if I can fill you in as we go. Oh, we used puffy paint that we obtained at Michales. I used to make banners for the youth baseball teams I coached and would use a combination of felt and puffy paint to make them.

So let's start with my shirt. The story with this one is last year I took some great action shots of all of the kids and family members getting some great air with either the tube, knee or wake boards. That is except for my brother-in-law. It not that easy taking action shots on the back of a boat speeding and zig-zaging across the water. So this shirt is dedicated to him. As you can see he has some great air and I"m looking in the wrong direction. Bummer.

This is my wife's shirt. She is a huge coffee person and can you tell which coffee she like the most. Yep, that's right, it's Starbucks. She still gets her daily coffee while were on the lake, it's just not a Starbucks.

Here is my son's shirt. Now what can this shirt mean. Well let's see. Last year during our havasu trip we had a smores night. Throughout the night while everyone was making their smores I was taking pictures capturing every one's enjoyment. It was during this that my son would work his way into many of the pictures, which showed great on the DVD. So this shirt shows him among everyone. Oh, he is the one in the center with the long spiky hair (fro).

My daughter's shirt is last. This is simple and short. She's is always saying how bored she is, so she decided to put this on her shirt. She just used the different spelling for bored.

Sister #1

My brother-in-law's shirt. If you read mine you understand what his stands for. There are no shots of him getting air so basically it's "What Air" with him. This was his idea and I like the way it turned out.

My sister's oldest. He is very athletic and does very well on the tube, knee and wake board. Here he is holding onto the rope with his teeth as he gets air.

Both of my sister's youngest son's have this super speedo hero thing going on and made similar shirts.

Sister #2

This begins my second sister's family. This first one is my brother-in-law's shirt. Last year during havasu he flipped over and almost lost his swim trunks as he was pulled off the tube. This shirt is dedicated to that.

My sister's oldest boy. He has this pose that he does all the time where he puts one hand on his hip and the other pointed high and off to the side.

Down Time

What do I do when I'm not taking pictures or doing things with the family? Well I often find myself playing an on-line game called 2Moons. In the game there are six different type of characters you can play. I play a Bagi Warrior, which is basically a fighter, somewhat like a barbarian. Next is an Incar Magician, which is like a magic-user and relies on magic spells to fight. Then there is the Segita Hunter, who uses either a bow or crossbow, and relies on attacks from a distance. This is followed by the Segnale. The Segnale is primarilly a healer. They have some attacks but mostly have healing base spells and are highly sought after for group parties. Next is the Azure Knight. What can you say about them. They are a Knight in shinning armor and use either swords / axes / or combination of both / or shield or weapon. The final player is a Vicious Summoner, which my son plays. The vicious summoner used twin swords and can cast various attack spells. They also can summon a beast, which gets better the higher level they are to fight with them.

That's just a little background on the game. As I said I play the Bagi Warrior and rely heavily on AOE's (Area of Effect) attacks, which can damage all creatures / monsters around me. I can hit you hard and take a lot of damage before I die.

I've been playing this game for approx 9 months and was introduced to it by my son. My son was playing another on-line game when he found this one, which was free. He started playing and told me about it. At first I resisted because I knew I would get addicted to it. Well now here I am now playing. I may be 44 years old, but I used to like games when I was a kid and now that I'm much older (an adult) I still like games. I like them when I was a kid and just because I'm an adult why should that change. Oh, and I still like cartoons and watch Sponge bob Square pants and Jimmy Neutron as often as I can.

This is my character, AlricMajir, in my costume, which I wear so most won't know what my level is. Other characters will player kill you if they know they are higher than you. By wearing a costume you can conceal your level somewhat with will put doubt in other as to what level you are.

A screen shot of my son (Twinman), who is standing to the left of me (center) and a fellow guild member (SirGib) waiting to be accepted into the Dead Front.

Here is a shot of me all buffed up with spells that help with my defense and attack.

Torrance Recreation Baseball

My niece asked me to come out to her brother's baseball game. There was a possibility she was going to play and wanted me to watch and get some shots of her. So I did what I do and went to the game to get some action shots of my nephew, who was catching for the first time, and my niece.

Now when I go to shoot a game or even one of my family members I will talk to both coaches and the umpires to obtain permission before going on the field. So I make all of my contacts and start shooting my nephew, niece, and their friend, who is also playing.

The second inning just started when I was approached by two Park Rangers who wanted me to exit the field so they could talk to me. So I do what any normal photographer would do in this situation, I started running. No, just kiding, I did what they asked. First they started asking me questions about who I work for or if I'm freelance. So I explain why I'm there and that I have received persmission from both coaches and the umpires. They continue by saying that they had complaints regarding people taking pictures. I asked them if the complaints were specifically about me, to which they said it wasn't. The further said that it was against the law for me to take pictures and attempt to sell them in the city of Torrance. The bottom line I told them I understand my rights as a photographer and that what I'm shooting is not for sale. They then went on their merry way while I went back on the field to finish the game.

I later found out that while I was talking to the two park rangers, who were standing in front of me, a third park ranger snuck up behind me and kept his hand on his weapon / gas. These guys had me surrounded and were ready to take me down if I made one wrong move. I guess it's a good thing I didn't reach for anything quick.

Well with that said, here are some shots from the game.

The Niece

The Friend

Lakewood Football Passing League

I had the opportunity to shoot a few passing league football games today. Lakewood High has been sponsoring a passing league the last few weeks and I finally had some free time to get out and shoot a bit. The action is fast and hard to follow. They play seven on seven with the quarterback and receivers against the linebackers and defensive backs. The action moves real fast and can be hard to follow. I only stayed for two quick games as I had a long day walking with the wife and doing some shopping preparing for a well deserved vacation. I can't wait. So any hoot, here are a few shots to share.

Gymnastic Practice

I have taken pictures of all of my niece's and nephew's in action doing their own special activities. That is except for this young lady. She has taken gymnastics for a few years now and I have not taken any quality shots of her doing this. I have attended one gymnastic event but was not happy with the pictures I ended up with. I knew my sister wanted some shots of her so I finally managed to get to their studio during a practice session to take some shots. I did try to use off camera flash with a soft box but was just not happy with the results and since I was limited in the amount of time I could spend there I decided to just increase the ISO and shoot with available light.

Thanks for letting me come out sis and I hope you and Ashley like what I ended up with.

Ashley is no different than any other kid and likes to have fun. These two pictures will show her lighter side.

Something a bit different. I wasn't too happy with how my lighting was working so I darkened the shadows in this one for something different. Not sure if I like it or not.

Police Soccer

My camera is back and I'm back in action, or should I say I'm back capturing the action. One of my ex-partners on the force is the coach for the Los Angeles Police Department's Soccer team and this last Saturday they had a game against the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Soccer team.

I know it was just a little more than a week with not having a camera, but it sure was nice to be outside shooting some action again. So here are some of my favorites from the game. The LAPD is in blue.

All of these were shot in aperture priority at f/4.0 with an ISO of either 100 or 200. I did have my 1.4 converter on, which is why my aperture was at f/4.0 instead of f/2.8. To view all of the pictures from this game just click on the above heading "Police Soccer"

Just a little bit of holding

What is a soccer game without a few shots of the goalie, unfortunately all of the good jump shots were away from me, but when photographing sports you deal with what's presented to you.