"Three Generations"

My wife's grandfather recently passed and her dad was down from Saint Louis helping his mom with family matters. His mom lives locally in Thousand Oaks and them both decided to come down and visit and have lunch. So after a wonderful lunch we went to a local park for some much needed family pictures.

Three Generations, my wife's father, her grandmother, and my beautiful wife. A picture that needed to be taken.

My wife's dad and her grandmother, who recently broke her foot.

My wife's dad with a friend of his from Saint Louis.

I love this picture of my beautiful wife and her dad.

Merry Christmas

From the Cayer family to yours I wish you a very "Merry Christmas"

Twas the Night Before Christmas

Well, it's been another year and time for all of us to get together on Christmas Eve. Each year we get together for Christmas Eve for dinner and gift exchange, which is usually a white elephant style gift exchange. This year was no exception. It was nice to getting together with my family and spend some time with them. We are very close and tend to get together throughout the year with BBQ's and birthday partys.

This first shot is a picture of my brother. I need to give a little bit of a background. If you have read my "About Me" on this blog then you know that I'm a Detective with a local Police Department. Well my brother is an ex-con. Have a lot of problems with how my brother has lived his life but will say that he appears to be on the right track now. He is pictured here with his new wife and child. I hope things work out for him.

Don't ask, just my sisters being themselves.

If you are asking yourself, "Is he wearing a thong on his head", then you are right. Each and every year when we get together for Christmas Eve we have a white elephant gift exchange. The gift usually tends to be unsual gifts, such as this thong, which he decided to wearMy two kids, who are growing up so dang fast, with their cousin (left side).

My sisters and I. Not quite sure why my eyes are partially closed, maybe I had gas or something (LOL).

Here's a shot of all of the kids with their grandma. I look at his picture and am just amazed how they are growing up so fast. The young man wearing glasses standing in the middle is my oldest nephew and currently in his first year of college. Where does the time go.

I got my Wings

If you have been following my blog you know I play an online game called 2moons. For most players, including myself, getting your wings is like a rite of passage. When a player attains the level of 102 he can perform a quest. At the completion of the quest you get wings. Now each player gets different wings, with the bagi (my character) getting these black demon wings. For me it was a big day, sort of like getting off probation.

So here is a screenshot of Alric Majir with his wings.

Long Beach Middle School Girls Track - Champions

If you wish to veiw and purchase any picture from this event, please just click on the above title.

Tonight was the Long Beach Middle School Girls Track All-City Finals for the track events.

This event didn't start until 5pm and it was getting dark quick. So instead of focusing my attention on the action I focused on the various winners of days events. I also stayed until closing to take the team shot of the two winning divisions. I used my on-camera flash (580ex) with a diffuser. I also had my quantum 2x2 battery pack to keep my flash charged and ready.

Newcomb Middle School

Long Beach Middle School Division II Girls Track Champions.

Hughes Middle School
Long Beach Middle School Division I Champions.

This is the third year in a row that Hughes has won their division and I have had the honor of capturing the action of all three of those years. Congratulation to the girls of Hughes and I look forward to seeing you out there next year and possibly a forth win.

Long Beach Middle School Girls Track Meet - Field Events

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Long Beach had their girls middle school All-City Finals today for field events at Lakewood High School. The events covered during this were the high jump, long jump, and shot put. Since I pretty much captured all of the girls throwing the shot put during their league meet, I spent my time shooting the long and high jumps.

Due to budget cuts with the school district the All-City Finals were held after school. The field events were held today (Tuesday) with the track events being held tomorrow. Today the field events started at 4pm with a face setting sun.

These two shots were taken from the back side of the high jump and while they were competing.

I did take various shots of the girls doing the long jump, but my focus was on the landing. I wanted to capture the sand as it sprayed up and outward. Now I was shooting at a much higher ISO (1000-1600) to give me a decent shutter speed. Also for these I was kneeling very low on the track to capture the right angle of the landing.

Family Pictures

As Friendships go this is a great friendship my family has with this family. My son was good friends with the young lady pictures here, which lead to him becoming good friends with her older brother followed by the family. As parents, my wife and I do our best with knowing the kids my son spends time with and if he goes to their home then we will get to know the parents.

They are a great family and have great kids, all with their own special personalities.

Now I don't shoot portriats and actually try to avoid it, but I am occasionaly asked to take various family / friends pictures, which I never turn down. I understand that most photographers will gringe when I say this, but my family and friends get their pictures for free. I have no problems spending my time taking their pictures or attending their sporting events and capturing them in action and giving them a cd with all the pictures. So when I was asked by this family to take some shots of the kids and didn't hesitate. I always have problems with posing but thought I did pretty good considering that I normally shoot sports action.

Long Beach Middle School Girls Leagues Track Meet

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Went out early Saturday morning to shoot the Long Beach Middle School League Track Meet at Lakewood High School. Although I was still tired from our CIF Semi-Final Football Game last night, I enjoyed the morning. It was a great day for some track.

As all middle school track meets they started out with the field events, which consisted of the high jump, long jump, and shot put. The field events go from 7:30am to about 9-9:30am and are followed by the track events, which can go to about 1pm.

My son decided to come with me and spend some time with the shot putters to help them out. He throws the shot put for Lakewood High School and one our league last year with track. Once the field events were finished he assisted the timers during the track events. I know he doesn't realize it but it was great to spend that time with him. We talked off and on throughout the morning and joked around. It saddens me to see how fast he is growing. Well back to the track. Here are some of my favorites during this meet.

CIF Semi-Finals Lakewood vs Poly

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"What a game"

I'm sure the Poly Jackrabbits expected to come into this game and just dominate the Lakewood Lancers, but that didn't happen. Instead Lakewood mounted a tough defence and an offense that moved the ball, but in the end, Poly's experience with games on the line prevailed.

I can't tell you what was going through the players minds but I can say that as far as me, I was very excited and nervous about this game. No matter how it ended, weather in our favor or not it was going to be a tough game and not won easily.

The Lancers started with receiving the ball and although they didn't score, the defense held the Jackrabbits to minimal yardage during the fist quarter. At the start of the second quarter the Lancers moved the ball to within a few yards of the goal line. After failing to score a touch down they kicked a field goal for a 3 point lead early in the second quarter. The Lancers kicked the ball off to the Jackrabbits and stopped them. After receiving the punt, the Lancers moved the ball to the goal line and scored with a touch down pass making it a 10-0 lead in favor of the Lancers. The Lancers continued to hold the Jackrabbits until late in the second quarter when the Jackrabbits, who were stopped by the Lancers defense were able to kick a field goal, making it 10-3 going into the half.

Going into the second half the Lancers were able to stop the Jackrabbits until late in the third quarter when they were able to score a 1 yard touch down run tying the game. With both teams tied going into the fourth quarter the Lancers threw two interceptions giving the Jackrabbits the momentum they needed to take the lead. The Lancers fought to the end but were unable to put the ball into the end zone ending with a 10-20 loss.

I do have to say that the Lancers played a great game and even though they lost should hold their head up high. So with that said, here are some of my favorite shots of the game, which was played at Cerritos College. I used my 300 f/2.8 and had my camera set to manual with an ISO of 3200, f/2.8, and a shutter between 1/320 - 1/500 depending on field position.