2012 Scottsdale Polo Championships – Horses and Horsepower

I have never attended an actual polo match before, except for the polo scenes in the movie “Pretty Woman” so when I heard about this event to be held on October 20, 2012 at the Scottsdale Polo Fields I made the necessary inquires for a media credential. What a great event, all kinds of interesting things to photograph, although covering the actual polo match proved to be difficult and would require very long glass with very shallow depth-of-field to help with very, very distracting backgrounds. I didn’t feel like lugging big heavy glass around with me on a warm day in October, so I took an f5.6 lens which didn’t cut the mustard as they say.

I was a bit disappointed with most of what I got, with the difficult lighting conditions and me not having a long enough and fast enough lens I tried to capture some reasonably good images. Have a look and feel free to let me know how you think I did.

Covering a polo match is, as I said is all new to me, I sure had a good time and found the event very interesting. I look forward to the next event where I can apply what I learned at this event and try to capture more compelling images.

To see more images from the 2012 Scottsdale Polo Championships, click the continue reading link below:

PGA Golf — 2013 Waste Management Phoenix Open

I know golf is not hugely popular on my photo blog, but I thought maybe if I had some images of one of the most popular local players, Phil Mickelson and some brightly colored images I might get a few extra viewers. Here are a few shots from round 2 action, I hope you enjoy these.

February 01, 2013: Phil Mickelson on the 9th green during round 2 action of the Waste Management Phoenix Open at the TPC Stadium golf course in Scottsdale Arizona.

To see more from the 2013 Waste Management Phoenix Open, click the continue reading link below:

PGA Championship Golf, wait . . . What? Really?

Yes, PGA Golf is a thing, and a big deal thing at that, well at least for some people.

Photographing professional golf is so much different from photographing something like football, it’s an entirely different skill set, but many of the same concepts apply. I like the challenge of photographing professional golf tournaments because of the rules involved with not firing your shutter before the player strikes the ball and dealing with challenging lighting conditions out on the course.

Golf is an exciting sport to a great many people, well at least that is what the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) would like us all to think. I don’t know a whole lot about golf but I enjoy the challenges of trying to make nice photographs during the tournament, so off I went.

02 November 2012: Jay Don Blake hits up onto the 18th green during the second round of the Charles Schwab Cup Championship on the Cochise Course at The Desert Mountain Club on November 2, 2012 in Scottsdale, Arizona.

To see more from the Charles Schwab Cup Championship PGA Golf, click the continue reading link below:

2012 Tour de Scottsdale bicycle race — First Set

First let me say that these images have big watermarks on them, the reason for this is image theft. Yes, I used the word theft as in stealing something you are not supposed to steal. There are some individuals who don’t believe they should pay to license images or purchase prints, and for some odd reason road cyclists seem to think either because of their status or just some other reason that they are immune to copyright laws. The only other group that steal more images from the internet are high school age kids.

OK, now that is out-of-the-way let’s get down to business. I am selling prints to help pay for the cost of the fancy cameras, my photography skills and the time and effort to cover these type of events. If you think I should give you photos from this event for any reason, including you were just diagnosed with some incurable disease and you only have 3 days to live, well I’m sorry but you can find more information on purchasing prints here: Request Prints.

If you would like to see and inquire about prints from the 2009 and 2010 Tour de Scottsdale you can find those here: 2009 Tour, and 2010 Tour 1, and 2010 Tour 2.

Ref. 1067

To see the rest of the set, click the continue reading button below

2012 MLB Spring Training from Arizona

Baseball is almost a religion for a great many people, and I’m sorry but I just don’t understand it. There, I said it. I just don’t get it. Sure I love baseball, I just don’t make it my religion.

As a kid growing up in Oakland California I can remember a nice old man who lived next door who would sit in his backyard during those warm summer days and listen to the Oakland Athletics baseball games on the radio. I would hear the sounds of the game on the radio drifting over the fence and when I am covering a spring training game I am reminded of my childhood and the warm summer days hearing A’s baseball on the radio.

I love to cover spring training games because the atmosphere is so relaxed and both the fans and the players just seem to be having fun. You also get to see the young upstart players and the iconic players get out there and enjoy the game of baseball before the long season begins.

Let’s start the show with some pitcher images.

MAR 14 2012: San Francisco Giants pitcher Brian Wilson (38) on the mound during a MLB Spring Training game against the Cleveland Indians at Scottsdale Stadium in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Brian ‘fear the beard’ Wilson takes the mound during a San Francisco Giants game.

To see more spring training baseball click the more link below:

Phoenix Fashion Week – Wed. & Thurs. – The Disappointment and Shame

And now for something completely different, runway fashion shows. I like to mix it up a bit so when the Phoenix fashion Week shows are presented I usually enjoy covering them. It turns out there were a number of issues with this years shows.

To see more of my coverage of the Phoenix Fashion Week runway shows click the more link below.

PGA Golf: Waste Management Phoenix Open 2011! (part 2)

Shooting PGA Golf is so much different from other sports, for one there are no helmets like football or motor sports, so that’s good, but almost always hats which means shaded eyes, so that’s bad.

When a player is standing there on the tee or the green they have no pads or protection and are separated from thousands of fans by only a small rope-line, well that and maybe a dedicated caddy but little else so for the most part the player’s personality can show through if they let their guard down just a tiny bit.

Getting a feel for a world-class golfer and celebrity’s personality is a good thing and can endure a player to his fans. It seems some of these guys are really down-to-earth nice guys, while others might be just a bit full or themselves. I’ll leave it up to you to figure out which ones are the nice ones.

Because of the lighting conditions this shot of Phil Mickelson from 4th round action almost seemed like a graphic, with the exposure causing the sky to go all-white and Phil wearing a white shirt everything just sort of merges together.

See more the the Waste Management Phoenix Open by clicking on the more link below.

PGA Golf: Waste Management Phoenix Open 2011! (part 1)

I’ll be the first to admit that I know very little about golf. I don’t understand the subtleties of the game or many of the traditions so when tasked with covering the Waste Management Phoenix Open I knew I was going to have to do a little bit of research to learn about what the unspoken rules of photographing golf are. I knew the biggie’s like not clicking the shutter until after the player has struck the ball, don’t make noise and don’t move around when the player is getting ready to hit the ball.

Beyond that I was a little fuzzy on what kind of shots I was trying to get and how it all works. There are so many aspects of how a tournament is run, the pairings, who goes first, how you tell who you are taking a picture of and so many others that I wasn’t really sure I could do a good job with this event. I tried my best and learned a few things along the way.

I thought golfers were these old guys in plaid paints and generally not very hip dudes. Yep, I was wrong here is Rickie Fowler in fourth round action of the Waste Management Phoenix Open at the TPC Stadium golf course in Scottsdale Arizona. As you can see Rickie is young and very stylish with tons of young hot female fans. That is not what I expected from a golf tournament.

To see more of the images from the Waste Management Phoenix Open Golf Tournament click on the link below.

Scottsdale Fashion Week 2010 – Thurs.

Scottsdale Fashion Week’s Thurs. night event was titled Community Night for the emerging designers and local talent from high school fashion and college fashion designers to local accessory designers. Here are a few standouts.

I loved the makeup job on this model, outstanding work.

You know there is more to this story right? You realize that if you click the more link you can see, you guessed it more stuff (images and story).