Treasure Island has to be one of my favorite places to take couple's photos in the St. Petersburg / Tampa Bay area. So when Maddey contacted me requesting a couple's portrait session of her and her girlfriend, Katelyn, I knew Treasure Island would be perfect. The bright colors and recently renovated Beach Walk, and the fact that there was an Ice Cream Shoppe at the end of the Beach walk made this location even sweeter.
As I write this post I look back at my previous blog posts and realize it has only been four months since I photographed my first professional soccer match. A couple of weeks ago I was approached by the Tampa Bay Rowdies and the team's photographer and offered to be the official photographer for Saturday's game against FC Edmonton as he headed up to Jacksonville to cover the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Jacksonville. I accepted and here's the photo highlights.
A week plagued with late afternoon and early evening thunderstorms showed mercy on Friday night as Jonathan dropped to a knee in front of a small crowd of beachgoers to ask Jessica to marry him.
After a couple of weeks of planning and a careful eye on the hourly precipitation chances, we planned for a Friday evening around 7:30 PM on Lido Key. Our primary focus for the evening was capturing the proposal, followed by a mini engagement session to give Jonathan and Jessica some teasers for their friends and family.
There's something about wedding proposal shoots that always make me a little bit nervous. I'm one of those photographers that like to remove as many of the unknowns as possible. For example, I am checking the weather report a week in advance of a shoot. I send out client info packages on where to park for beach shoots because I don't want them driving around in circles as the sun sets on me and my camera alone. So naturally when I shoot a surprise proposal I am introducing an unknown...will she say yes?
Canada, eh? Oh yeah!
Snow covered mountains with crystal clear lakes at the base, we've all seen these majestic photos floating around Pinterest or your Facebook feed on Monday mornings, you know the photos that make you reconsider all the jokes you ever told about that guy living in his van down by the river. Well it just so happens I got to visit the birth place of so many motivational posters, the west coast of Canada. Besides the awesome landscape scenery we also have the city of Vancouver, a city that took hockey so seriously that they rioted after losing the Stanley Cup a few years ago, my type of city!
The Tampa Bay Rowdies hosted the New York Cosmos at Al Lang Stadium in St. Petersburg on Saturday night in a game that started off making me question why I sold my Counting Crows tickets (which was also last night) but ended with me chanting with Ralph's Mob.
The Rowdies were coming off last week's 3-0 win over Puerto Rico FC and an amazing bicycle kick goal from Joe Cole (which I missed the shot on) so I expected a similar level of excitement, however, the first half was a bit disappointing. After the coin toss I positioned myself on the Cosmos goal line hoping to catch a "play of the week" type goal similar to the shot I missed last week.
After the first 20-25 minutes I realized New York had their stuff together! Every time the Rowdies pushed into the Cosmo's zone they were overpowered by a strong and physical New York defense.
Intro:
I start this article as I sit at an overcrowded charging station at Oakland airport getting ready to board a flight back to Tampa after spending the better part of a week in the San Francisco area. I am going to structure this post into multiple parts based around the day's activities and the photos from them. I'm also going to explain a little bit of my thought process (if there was one) and my approach for each day's photo opportunities while piggy backing on the normal tourist activities like sight seeing, bike tours, and restaurant hunting. If you are looking for things to do while visiting in San Francisco this might be a good guide for you, if you also enjoy taking photos, this might be a great guide for you.
When I was in 3rd grade I played soccer for a single season, I have two memories of my soccer days.
1. I was playing as a defender and the ball was kicked down to our side and rolled out of bounds...or so I thought. The ball actually rolled outside the penalty area line, which I took as the end of the field, it was still in play as I stand there wondering why the whistle wasn't blown and as the other team came in to take the ball to a goal.
and...
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so why would a photographer's website need a blog?
This is a question I asked myself countless times before, and until now I have always listened to the reasons why not versus why I should start a blog. I sit here a little after midnight starting a blog instead of packing for a week long trip to San Fransisco which I leave for in the morning, great timing. So often I put off things I want to do for...
A couple of times a year I am flown out to Las Vegas to support conferences with photography, mostly taking photos of the speakers and attendees, however, this trip I was flown out to provide professional headshots to the participants as a sponsor package for one of the exhibitors. This trip was to support the Industry Summit at Paris Las Vegas with my Mobile Headshot Services.