Alumni Rival Football

First let me apologize for this being late.

Last Saturday a few of our local high school held their first Alumni Rival Football game at Veteran's Stadium. There were initially three games scheduled, but on game day there were only two.

The first game was Lakewood High vs Millikan High and the second game pitted Banning High vs Poly High. This was a great day for football as I got to shoot Lakewood High, which I've been covering for four years now, and Banning High, which is where I graduated from in 1982. It was very nice seeing Banning on the field again.

Lakewood and Millikan kicked off at 3pm, which was sweet. The only thing I love more than shooting football is shooting football during the day. The second game started at 6pm, which wasn't bad, but I had some terrible shadows during the first half due to the stands. The second game was very disappointing as Poly pretty much dominated the field.

So here are some pictures from the two games.

MMA Project

I thought I'd share a project I'm working on with my two brother-in-laws. Don't really want to say what it is until it's a bit further along.

I will say that we got together this last weekend and took some pictures of one of my brother-in-laws and nephew, who both take jujitsu. These are pictures of those them displaying jujitsu holds and movements, which with a bit of photoshop magic (magnetic lasso / magic wand / and multiple layers) I ended up with these.

This is the first time I've tried to do this and have to say that I'm rather please with the results. I'm thinking if your into Martial Arts these would make some nice wall prints. Hummmmm, you never know.

El Dorado Park

Really not a lot to say about this post. Last week I decided to get out to El Dorado Park and see what was out. Although I was a bit dissapointed with what I found, I still enjoyed the being out and walking around. It's always very peaceful in the evening hours at El Dorado and is perfect for just being out.

Even though the wildlife was limited, I was able to come away with a few shots that I liked. So with that said enjoy.

Sarah

Yesterday I took my daughter out for some practice senior portraits. I am really trying to perfect, or in my case simply get better with using flash as fill. There is so much for me to learn and I'm not sure what direction to go in.

I wanted to capture my daughter's beauty and how I see her. I think I accomplished this with these shots.

Love you sweetheat.

Lakewood High Class of 2010 - Graduation

This is way over due, but I didn't want to just post some shots. Rather I wanted to speak from my heart about my son's graduation.

On June 17th, 2010 my son graduated from Lakewood High School, an event that I really didn't think was going to happen. It wasn't until a few weeks before graduation that I finally knew that the big day was actually going to happen. My son is a very intelligent kid, but then again I'm sure most parents would say that about their kids. In this case it's very true. My son and I have argued over the last 7 years about classes, grades, and homework. You name it and I'm sure we've argued about it, but what's important is that I believed in him and never gave up. I made sure that he truly knew that I would always be there for him and help him in any way I can. As a matter of fact I think it made us so much closer, more than just a dad and son.

So needless to say when it was real, when I knew that my son was going to walk on that stage and receive his high school diploma, I was very emotional and wasn't sure how that day was really going to effect me. Lakewood runs a program that allows those parents who volunteer their time throughout their child's high school career and accumulate enough points to go on stage with their child while they receive their diploma. Initially this was for only one parent, but we found out just prior to the start of graduation that both my wife and I would be given the opportunity to go on stage with our son. What a wonderful experience that was.

I initially thought that the day would be very emotional for me, but I have to say that I was running around like a little kid taking pictures of my son and his friends. It was the best experience having such a great opportunity to be so close to all the excitement and on the field with my son.

Now on with the pictures, which of course has to start with shots of my son.

These next three shots are of my son's girlfriend.

Now for some of his close firends.