Foot Locker House of Hoop (Daly City)

This past Thursday I was presented with a very unique opportunity for a photo shoot. Nick referred me to a contact of his from Foot Locker, and she contracted me to capture the grand opening for the House of Hoops in Daly City. The event was amazing, and monumental in my growth as a photographer.



Chuy from KMEL and Stephen Curry, runner-up Rookie of the Year, from Golden State Warriors were headlining the opening with a Q&A session. The turn out was great, the staff was helpful, Chuy and Stephen were very humble and approachable guys, and most of all I had fun. For a thorough recap, and to view my pictures, check out these blogs:

Foot Locker Unlocked - House of Hoops in Serramonte Center

Sole Collector Blog- House of Hoops Opens in Daly City





I learned quite a bit crossing into the "for hire" realm. As a hobby, there is hardly any pressure or time constraint, but that gets thrown out the window when a customer is waiting for results. It's a humbling experience that I'm grateful for and I appreciate what professionals have to go through. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to future events like this. Know anyone looking for a photographer?

As with each session, I like to highlight the main learning points. Working under pressure I learned the following,

LESSON OF THE DAY:

1.) A backpack does not work well when you're trying to switch between lenses while smashed by a swarm of sneakerheads. Opt for a small hip pack instead.....or have two cameras :-)

2.) Learn how to program scripts to insert watermarks. Doing this manually is painstakingly long and counterproductive. I wish I could outsource this to Bangalore



Shout out to Nick for looking after my interests and Foot Locker for the golden opportunity.

Sole Collector Air Max Trainer 1s

Before kick starting our traditional Gran Prix weekend in Long Beach, Nick and Aaron came down and wanted to take advantage of the strobist kit by shooting shoes. In case you are not familiar with them, they are complete shoe fanatics. It's amazing how much they know about shoes, it's almost scary. There are times when I giggle to myself when they talk about shoes because it's like watching two "Rainman" reciting their vast database. I swear that if a "Stump the Schwab" shoe edition came out, Nick and Aaron would be the Schwabs.

As a side note, they review shoes for a living. Check them out at f5torefresh.com and solecollector.com



So Nick wanted to experiment with lighting and replicate the pictures featured in magazines. Never working with shoes, I figured it'd be a fun experience. We used a single SB-600 shooting into an umbrella and staged the shoes using a spare bed sheet laying around the house. The creases in the bed sheet were too distracting and the colors clashed since they were brown. We then used the black canvas bag from my fold-able poker table. On the camera screen, the images seem mediocre and nothing impressive. However, things changed when we saw them on the computer. The textures from the canvas bag that appeared on preview suddenly disappeared when viewing on a monitor. The pictures came out much better than I expected and I have to say that I'm quite satisfied with the results.



Just to prove my ignorance about shoes, I did not have the slightest clue about them. After throwing them around like a rag doll, Nick schooled me and said those are special edition. Sole Collector and Nike collaborated on the shoes featured and there are only 10 pairs in circulation.



Considering the shoes were laying on a piece of black canvas with texture, I can imagine how much better they'll look sitting on velvet or something silky smooth. One thing we realized from this photo shoot is that we need a soft box. Trying to direct the light via MacGyver style is time consuming and mostly ineffective.



For the last picture (below), Nick started to get creative with using flashlights to highlight the transparent bubble. To light the shoes, Aaron used his nifty iPhone and my Palm Pre.




And of course, no photo shoot is complete without taking pictures of Freddie. The things he'll do for a treat. Silly dog.

I'll always be a Toys 'R' Us kid

Getting new toys is always fun, but it's much better when the toy is useful. I purchased the 35mm f1.8 lens from Adorama, which is an awesome store by the way, and it is a thing of beauty. As much as I love the 50mm f1.4, I enjoy the flexibility of the 35mm. I no longer have to be an acrobat to take a full frame portrait indoors. The days of hyper extending my arms and neck in a desperate attempt not to cut off someone's head are O-V-E-R.

From Playing with 35mm

Yes, I concur that this post is useless without pics....To test my toy, I opted to shoot one of my favorite subjects, Freddie. I probably have over 500 pics of him already, yet I continue to enjoy snapping away.

"What you lookin' at Willis"

From Playing with 35mm

From Playing with 35mm

Another one of my preferred subject(s)... FOOD PRoN. Kim and I had a few friends over yesterday and we cooked up a nine course meal. More like Kim cooked. I made black bean spareribs and for the very first time...Peking Sparerib. Yes, you heard right, I can make it like the restaurant. Woot! (Pats self on back). Kim's lollipop chicken were delish as always.

Who needs to go to overpriced Sino's when you got Kimbo's

From Playing with 35mm

Catfish claypot.

From Playing with 35mm

From Playing with 35mm

First Shoot with Strobist

There's a sharp learning curve when it comes to shooting with a Strobist kit.



1.) Make sure you have something heavy to weigh down the stand. Even the slightest fart can send the stand flying. Besides a broken umbrella, you can have a broken flash which is a no-no.

2.) Be clandestine... or ask for permission before setting up. Having an umbrella on a stand attracts unwanted attention. A Fire Fighter asked if I had a permit to shoot since we were on private property. Thankfully playing dumb prevailed.

3.) Know how your flash works. I was going for a darker ambient affect while having the flash light my subject. The ambient lighting was too bright after lowering the ISO and shutter, so I had to turn down the F-stop. Well, if I knew what I was doing then I would have known that the effectiveness of the flash decreases as the aperture gets smaller. If I have to crank down the F-stop that much, then it's probably too damn bright outside.

4.) Black colored material soaks the living crud out of a flash. It made such a difference when I asked Nick to turn his hat around.



I started the session trying to light my car with a single flash. That did not work at all and I gave up frustrated. Not wanting to waste the backdrop and time invested setting up, Nick obliged to be my model. It turned out pretty nice. With a little editing magic, the pictures turned out nicer than I expected.

I learned quite a bit during this brief photo shoot and I can't wait until my next venture. I'm so stoked that I can't stop thinking about what and where to shoot.



Props to Nick for being my model, Aaron for being an awesome assistant, and Vince for the recap info.

Learning to be Ambidextrous

Vince offered to sell me his 17" MacBook Pro at a stellar deal, so only a fool would pass up such a deal. It's like a car salesman offering you a Porsche GT3 at the price of a Civic or your drug dealer offering a pound of chronic at the price of a dime bag or, or, or...... you get the point.

The model may technically be used, but this puppy is in pristine condition thanks to the immaculate care Vince places in all of his toys. Knowing his almost OCD tendencies in how he handles his belongings (i.e., reading comics via thumb on the seam), I have to admit this blew the record. My laptop came in all OEM packaging with the laptop inserted in the original Styrofoam sheet adhered with the original WARNING TAG!!!!





BUT THAT'S ONLY THE ICING ON THE CAKE...... His meticulousness extended all the way down to the plastic tab cover for the power supply prongs.... ARE YOU SERIOUS!!!!!! All I can say is WOW



This machine is a beast, and I'm looking forward to tapping into it's potential. These pics were edited with Aperture, so I'm off to a good start. However, picking up a new operating system is like trying to learn how to write with your less dominant hand. You'll manage, but it sure looks ugly.

Thanks V!!!

Playing with the SB-600 Flash

It's been awhile since I've shot with my camera, but I couldn't resist playing around with my new toys. I bought a Strobist setup from some random guy going to a camera show, and I picked up the SB-600 flash from Craigslist. Even though it's only a single kit, there are endless possibilities. Could this be the beginning of an end to natural lighting for me??? I highly doubt it, but at least this setup adds to the repertoire.

Here are a couple pics of my Mom with Freddie sitting outside in the yard about an hour before sunset.

Got a lot to figure out, but at least it's a start. I never even imagine wanting a Strobist kit, let alone an off-body flash.

From Playing with Strobist Kit

From Playing with Strobist Kit

Raised Flower Bed

So what are you suppose to do with 30 year old wooden shelves made out of 2x4's and particle board???? Make a raised flower bed, of course. I ended up converting the garage shelves my Dad made when he first bought the house into a flower bed. Now that's sustainable living.



Now we can plant our fresh herbs and make Tum Yum soup everyday :)