WWU sports with a new body

I worked for the Welcome Back issue for our student newspaper, which came out Tuesday. It was a 52-page edition, which was much smaller than usual because less ads were purchased [story of our lives]. Four of us decided to take on the task and we all did everything—wrote articles, edited articles, took photos, edited photos, layed out pages, copy edited, etc. It was a fun experience and not as stressful as everyone made it out to be beforehand.

I also recently got a new body—the d700. Amazing. Carver Gym is the sports photographer's nightmare. It's so dark and there is always a yellow tinge to your photos despite what you put your white balance on. I shot volleyball in there [which even with my high school varsity letters in the sport, I've surprisingly only shot a couple times] with the new body and my photos were so much better color-wise. Still a little off but no where near what it was before.


I also shot women's soccer for the issue. This was the first time I had ever shot soccer—women or men. I love that my shutter speed can go up to 1/8000 now. Doesn't make that much of a difference, but the fact that it can do it is awesome.



I am done working for The Western Front forever. It's a little strange not having assignments to shoot or being in the newsroom every day and on production nights. It's just another step towards graduation [which seems to be approaching all too fast—March]. This quarter I'm writing for Klipsun and taking some photos too. I'll have to change my mindset and go out and shoot more on my own since I won't have those daily assignments. I'm also looking for an internship for winter quarter. I was trying to put together my portfolio and realized so many of my portfolio-worthy photos are sports, so I'll try to be stepping out of that comfort zone as well in the next couple months.

Giddy-up!

I photographed the Lynden Rodeo Saturday. It was one of the most difficult things I've shot in a really long time. The lighting was horrible - they only had a few spot lights. I cranked up my ISO [graininess can sometimes be cool, right?] and even then couldn't get a fast enough shutter speed. Hopefully when I get my new body, I won't run into this problem quite as badly. I also had difficulty with getting access to places around the stadium but I worked the smile and eventually got to where I wanted to be. To top it all off, I only had a 1 GB memory card with me [long story] and my computer, so I was being really selective of what I shot. I would love to shoot another rodeo but maybe one that's during the day or in a venue with better lighting.

Over the mountains...

Visited a friend in Eastern Washington for a few days. Being a desert climate, it's definitely a different kind of pretty from Western Washington, which is lush and green. Had fun exploring the rural areas near the Tri-Cities.

Jumpin'

My friend Nick asked if I wanted to make a soundslide of people jumping off Whatcom Falls when it was EXTREMELY hot up here in Bellingham. I thought it would be fun, so I agreed. Here are some stills I liked. [And yes, I jumped too.]





To view the soundslide, visit Nick's blog.

Nature.

I took a week-long nature photography workshop for a couple credits at school. I didn't really learn all that much but it was fun. And I got some pretty pictures out of it.










To see more, visit my Flickr.

Summer So Far

Long post. Here are a bunch of photos I took over the course of the summer for The Western Front. Enjoy. Would love to hear feedback.

The Bellingham Bells:


Fly fishing class:



Gay pride celebration:


Lake Padden Triathlon:


These next few photos I was working on blurring to show motion. Not quite there but I still like it.


This is a little better because the biker's face is in focus and not blurry.


I like the angle of the biker in this photo.


Fight Night:


Mud Run: I had a lot of better photos from this event but somehow I lost them. Maybe/hopefully they'll show up when I organize my photos that are on my external hard drive.

New Heights

Sorry for the lack of posts. I've been horrible at keeping up with this. I will be updating with a bunch of stuff I've been photographing over the summer.

My cousin came and visited from Chicago in July. She asked if I wanted to go on a hot air balloon ride with her, and being the try-anything woman I am, I agreed. I made the mistake of looking up 'why hot air balloons crash' on the internet the day before, which came with some scary videos. I don't know why I decided to do that - I wasn't really thinking I guess. But throughout the trip I did fine except for the one time when we were a couple thousand feet in the air and I thought about that video. I quickly thought of something else and the rest of the trip was amazing.

Making Your Mark

This past quarter was a little different. I didn't photograph as much as I would have liked to. I spent some time making a documentary about graffiti in Bellingham, Wash. Enjoy. I would love to hear your comments.

SSA VI

I attended sportsshooter academy recently in L.A. where I got to photograph a bunch of different sports. I received advice and got critiqued from some of the best sports photographers in the country. It was an amazing experience. I want to give Nikon a HUGE thank you for paying for my tuition and letting me use top-of-the-line gear. I didn't know it was possible to fall in love with an inanimate object, but I definitely fell in love with the D3. I also want to thank all of the staff, especially Robert Hanashiro. Check out my sportsshooter site for my favorite photos from that week. Here are some other selects: