Monday, March 28, 2011

Irvine Trip Pan American BJJ 2011

Took a trip with my brother and his girl to watch some Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competition in Irvine this past weekend. Tons of eating and great competition. makes me wanna train again.


Kettleman exit off I-5. I always stop here to gas up whenever I head down south.

Nice arena in UC Irvine Bren Events Center.

Cute and calm brown belt who can beat up most men

Pirate entertaining the crowd

Sergio calling out instructions

Pirate making his opponent think twice about competing

game planning

game planning paid off

UFC fighter Cole Miller out the 1st round.

Bro and his girl in Irvine Spectrum

Quick shot of fountain at the spectrum

Galvao wins again

Ready to rumble

A focused Sergio

Major underdog

Game face

numba 1

Mike Nickels MMA fighter took 1st in his division

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Photoshoot with Cheska

My niece Cheska needed new Head and Full Body shots since she cut her hair short. Rather than spend however much for professional shots, I was able to take some good photos with my Canon SX130. It was a very good experience for me, eg. figuring out where too shoot, how the model should pose and what settings work best for the shot I'm looking for, etc. 

I've been researching a good entry level DSLR to purchase in the future and the Canon T3i is up there for me. The T3i isn't much different than the T2i so I can prolly go for either one. I won't be getting it anytime soon but I will keep it in mind but for now I love trying to get used to the different shooting situations I come across with my camera. 

Here are some of the pictures. I'm glad it was overcast. It made it easier for me. I didn't do much post processing. I only resized and corrected the contrast and level a bit. 











 Notes to myself for future reference:
-Try to limit distractions in the background
-shoot the same shot but w/ different exposures
-using longest focal length comprises image quality so find a "sweet spot" focal length
edit. not so much focal length but more so at smaller apertures like f5.6
-direct model more in specific poses
-make model more comfortable/natural 
-if i'm not too far from subject, try incorporating fill flash to reduce shadows
-invest in 6 in 1 reflector/diffuser thing 


collage of danika