Last night I had the honor of being an official photographer at The Good Foot’s 2nd Annual 4TheLuvofit B-Boy/B-Girl Jam. One of the organizers found my jumping photos on Flickr and asked me if I would be willing to volunteer to help shoot the event. After watching the video of last year’s show, I was sold. Plus, who could argue with getting into breakdancing battle for free and having full access to photograph anything and anyone I wanted.
The put it simply, the show was amazing. The dancers were super talented. The crowd was totally into it. And there was just generally good vibes going around. I was assigned to shoot the battles (there were 5 photographers working the event) and had a great spot up front and center to capture all the action. There was so much energy and excitement that I almost got lost watching the show and had to remember that I was actually working and not just in the audience.
The night would have been absolutely perfect except for a couple of things. First of all, my D70’s shutter died half way through the battles. I recently went past 60,000 actuations, so I really should have expected shutter failure soon, but it just never crossed my mind while shooting. Luckily, there was a 2nd photographer shooting the battles with me, and I borrowed one of the other photographers’ Digital Rebel XTi for the remainder of my shots. Still, I was devastated that my beloved camera had finally failed me.
Second, while shooting the semi-finals with the borrowed XTi, one of the dancers lost track of where the dance area was and kicked me in the head and hit the lens. My glasses went flying, and I was seeing stars for a moment, but, luckily someone retrieved my glasses for me, and I kept on shooting. However, the lens on the XTi wouldn’t auto-focus anymore. I didn’t have time worry about it and switched to manual focus until the next break. It was already awkward enough using a different camera in the middle of a shoot, so I did what I could to make the best of it (I still got some great shots, thankfully).
During the break, I checked the lens, and it appeared that the front element was knocked loose from the AF mechanism. A bit of forceful nudging pushed it back into place, and the lens was auto-focusing again. I’m not sure how much actual damage there was on the lens, but the owner didn’t seem to care too much (it was the cheapo kit lens). He saw me get kicked and totally understood that it was not my fault. I still didn’t feel good about putting someone else’s gear at risk, but I am thankful that he offered up his camera so I could finish up the job.
All in all, though, the night was a blast. I got to see an awesome show. I got some really nice shots of the dancers (which will be processed later this week after the organizer reviews them). And I made some new friends and possibly recruited a couple of new people into the Seattle Flickrites.
Now I just need to figure out what I’m going to do about my busted D70. It’ll cost about $300-$400 to replace the shutter, and I’d be out a camera for 3-5 weeks. I don’t think it’s worth the cost, since that’s the going rate for a used D70s online. If I replaced the shutter, I’d still have a camera with a sticky AE-L/AF-L button, a top LCD screen with a busted backlight, and a sensor with a couple of scratches on it (yeah, my fault completely on that one). I might as well put that money towards a new body.
The dilemma here is I’m on a waiting list for a D300, but it’s likely that I won’t actually see one in my hands for quite some time. I could look for a used D70 or D70s, but I was planning on upgrading gear anyway, so it would almost seem like a waste of money. I don’t really want a D80, because it’s basically an incremental upgrade for me (megapixels don’t matter to me, it’s more about the control setup). I could also just bite the bullet and get a D200, which was my original upgrade plan before the D300 was announced, and wait for a while until the D300’s are a bit easier to get. The D50 is not an option, because it lacks a lot of features that my D70 has. The D40x is definitely out of the question, since it won’t work with my older AF-D lenses.
Decisions, decisions. This is going to take some thinking.
Here’s a kickin’ head shot I got of Chelsea at my shoot at The F-Stop the other night. She was a blast to work with. She took direction well. She could improvise. She hit her poses and adjusted the little details as needed. Her experience definitely showed. And, of course, she’s absolutely gorgeous.
You can see more from our shoot in my Flickr photostream.
Here’s one of my favorite shots of Kristye from a recent photo shoot at The F-Stop. I was off to a bit of a slow start, so I kept the lighting really simple on this. It was just a clamshell setup with two umbrellas, one high and slightly to the left and one low and to the right. It ended up working out perfectly for Kristye’s strong facial features.
Also, this was Kristye’s first modeling gig ever, and I think she’s off to a great start. I’ve already got a few ideas for future shoots I can do with her. You can see more from our session in my Flickr photostream.
So, I can shoot more stuff like this. I just might have to steal Rick's lens next time I see him.
So, here’s a recent self-portrait that I shot for 365 Days. I took this one on Friday night and posted it on Saturday morning sort of expecting it to get a couple hundred views and maybe a handful of favorites (my jump shots usually get decent responses). There usually isn’t much Flickr activity on the weekends, so I didn’t think much would happen with this photo.
I was wrong.
Within the first couple hours of posting it, I got nearly 100 views and 10 favorites with a few comments thrown in. I left to go to Oktoberfest, and a few hours later, when some Flickrites showed up, they told me it had hit #1 on Explore. Hitting #1 that quickly usually means that there was a sudden rush of activity on the photo, and that normally doesn’t last very long. I figure that by the time I got back home later that night, it wouldn’t be anywhere on Explore.
Again, I was wrong.
Just about 12 hours after I posted the image, it was at 770 views, 74 favorites, and 61 comments. It was sitting firmly at #3 on Explore at that time. However, I figured that it was a slow weekend what with all of the end-of-summer activities happening and that it would be off Explore by Sunday morning.
Way off.
Overnight, the views shot up past 2000, there were over 100 faves, and I lost track of the comments. I watched the numbers on it throughout the day, and views, faves, and comments just kept increasing. It bounced around the top 10 on Explore, peaking at #2 and usually sitting somewhere between #8-15.
As of this writing (almost 1am Monday morning), it’s at 4070 views, 142 comments (a few of those are my responses), 260 faves, and #11 on Explore. It’s also become my “most interesting” photo. So much for my theory about slow weekends on Flickr.
What better way to spend the last day of summer than to get drunk and goof off with some friends at the annual Fremont Oktoberfest. As usual, there was kick-ass beer, some fun costumes, and lots of good cheer. The weather threatened to go sour on us, but the rain stayed away, and the sun even peeked through for a little while.
I kicked off the fun day with the Texas Chainsaw Pumpkin Carving Contest. I managed to squeeze myself into a 3rd row spot just outside the “pumpkin zone” and got a great vantage point for the show (and within splatter range). There were only 4 competitors on Saturday, but they were a blast to watch. Some of the competitors went for pure carnage. Others put a bit more finesse and style into their work. In the end, everyone had a great time watching pumpkins get cut up by chainsaws. I could’ve done without the smell of gasoline, but the beer soon killed that.
After the pumpkin carnage was done, it was time for beer. For $25 I got admission into the beer gardens and 8 tokens to sample any of the 70+ featured beers. Being from the Pacific Northwest, I was already familiar with most of the beers on tap (I do drink a lot of beer), so I was on a mission to find something new and different to try. Some of my favorites included Rocktoberfest from the Rock Bottom Brewery, Mothership Wit from the New Belgium Brewing Company, the 8-Ball Stout from Lost Coast Brewing, and, of course, the good ol’ standby Mac and Jack’s African Amber (that one’s not new but always good).
Oktoberfest being what it is, even though you get 8 tokens with your admission, you can almost always get free tokens and drinks from generous friends, other drunken attendees who just can’t drink anymore, and the always-friendly servers at each tent. I ended up getting 4 additional drinks during the day. Three of those were extra tokens from my friends. One was a bonus pour from the New Belgium gang. I asked the lady pouring the Mothership Wit if she would give me a free pour if I pounded one right in front of her. She said, “Sure.” So, I pounded the little 5 oz mug of beer, and she poured me a new one right there. It was awesome.
This year’s Oktoberfest also turned into a mini Seattle Flickr meetup. There was talk on the group forums about coordinating a meetup there, but nothing was firmed up. People just mentioned when they might be there, and numbers were exchanged. I was already planning on hanging out with Scott and Tim for the day, so any extra people would just be a bonus. A few Flickrites did show up, including Rachel-B, tulipchain and her friend, and Fuzzirella and PunkJr, whom I didn’t even know were going to be there, but they just happened to see me as I was pulling out my camera. As expected we drank lots of beer, ate a bunch of junk food, and took a million pictures the entire time. I’m surprised we didn’t damage any camera gear.
I only did one day of Oktoberfest this year, but it was a great day. I’m not sure I can handle more than one day, actually. I drank a bit more than I should have and ended up dozing off for a bit at Benn and Brittney’s place (I parked my car there to avoid hunting for parking), and I’m feeling a bit off today. It was totally worth it, though. I had a blast hanging out with my friends, meeting new people, and getting some fun photos. You can see the shots from day in my Flickr photostream. Obviously, these are the shots I got before I was too drunk to hold a camera. I was wise enough to put my camera away once I had trouble standing up straight. :P
A couple of weeks ago, I attended the 25th anniversary celebration of Herbert Bayer's Earthworks in Kent, WA, as part of a small Flickr meetup to photograph the event. The afternoon celebration consisted of a walk-through of the art exhibit inspired by Bayer's artwork, speeches from city council members and visiting artists, an interpretive dance performance through the entire park, and some live jazz to close out the day.
You can check out some of my favorite photos from the event in my Flickr photostream.
Trying out a different look and feel for one of my self-portraits. Not quite my normal goofy, happy, cheery material. I like it, and a lot of people have told me they really like it as well. I just might have to continue work along these lines some more later...
MSN Messenger (or Windows Live Messenger or Microsoft Messenger or whatever the hell it wants to call itself) is being sucky to me right now. When I tried to login earlier tonight, I got a system error message from Messenger that some upgrade to the network required that I change my Windows Live ID before being able to log in again. I thought it was just a weird error, so I just closed out Messenger and waited a few minutes. Tried logging in again and got the same message. Tried a different account, same thing.
So, I clicked through to the Windows Live help pages and found out how to change my Windows Live ID. It wasn't completely clear why I would ever have to change it. It just gave me directions to do it and assured me that all of my account information would remain intact. I tried it on one of my alternate accounts to see if anything would go wrong. The ID change was simple. All of my contacts were still on my list, and my account settings were the same. However, all of my contacts were now offline, which almost never happens. There's always at least one or two people online.
I decided to give it an hour to let the network update and went to get some dinner. When I came back, everyone was still offline. I IM'd one of my friends on another IM system to see if they could see my MSN account online, and it turned out I was gone as well, even though I was actually signed on (managed to add one of my other accounts to the list). I searched through MS's help pages some more, and it looks like it can take up to 48 hours for the ID change to propagate through the network and into my contacts' lists. How annoying.
I tried switching back to my original Windows Live ID to see if I could get my contact list to behave again, but the system sent me the same error message again. I finally gave up and changed the ID on my normal Messenger account. Two of my contacts finally showed up, so maybe they have to re-login to see my changes. I guess I'll just have to wait it out and hope everything transitions smoothly.
One thing I find very interesting is that my two main Messenger accounts are both using .Mac email addresses. No one else I know ran into this issue ever, and they're all using Hotmail or Gmail accounts. I wonder if that has anything to do with the sudden change... [/me enters conspiracy theory mode]...
On Sunday, I was one of the official photographers for the 6th Annual Buskers’ Festival at Pike Place Market. The festival featured over 35 Northwest street performers on 3 stages over the course of 7 hours. There were singers and dancers, magicians, storytellers, and a slapstick comedy act that nearly destroyed one of the stages. Most of the performers were based in Seattle, but several traveled in from around the state and one even flew in from Paris.
As was expected, the weather was less than optimal, being overcast and dull most of the day with a few light showers mixed in. While the gray skies made photographing the event difficult, the weather did not dull the festivities one bit. The performers showed off the best they had to offer. The crowds hung around in the rain to cheer them on. Everyone was just in generally good cheer all day.
The good cheer definitely had its impact on me. I was a bit annoyed with the horrid lighting conditions and nearly gave up shooting early into the event, but seeing the happy crowds and talking with the excited buskers gave me motivation to stick around and make the most of the situation. I didn’t get my best work out of the event, but I sure did have fun shooting it.
I got to hang out and chat with many buskers I had not met before. I had total freedom to shoot wherever and whomever I wanted. I had some great conversations with locals who attend the event every year. I was even sucked into participating in one of the comedy acts during which my 20mm lens was kissed by a performer, I had water spat at me (in jest, of course), and a trick raining umbrella dumped water all over my head. Definitely a fun and memorable day.
Some highlights from the festival are available in my Flickr photostream. If the Pike Market Performers’ Guild likes my work, one or two of those images (and others that I have not uploaded yet) might make it into press material for next year’s festival.
