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Showing posts from January, 2012

After the gym...

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I'm back to my gym regime properly again after a few months of physio for some injuries that came my way. I'm aiming to get back to the shape I'm used to by the middle of March as a birthday present to myself :) I went for a quick walk in the sunshine after my session and encountered dragons in Union Square. Chinese New Year celebrations are well under way and today Verizon was offering an amiable dragon to pose with anyone who wanted to take pictures with him for free. All you had to do was supply your own models and camera.

Putting My 3 R's Into Practice

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In this case "Roijoy Rapid Response". Everyone in San Francisco will not need to be reminded that we have been having some rain. Not the pretend rain where you still nip out in to do errands. No, it's been as if the whole city has set up camp at the base of Niagara falls ! So on Saturday when the sun came out, the streets were filled again as people caught up on their days that had been lost to the wet and stormy weather. It was14:00hrs and my phone rang. "Isn't the weather beautiful today" said the voice at the other end. "Yes it's fabulous", I agreed. "Can we do my shoot now? I'm over in North Beach and it's so great outside." I'd been emailing with this prospect and when he had asked about timings to do his portrait session, I had told him that I could be very flexible. "Yes. Sure." I said. "I'll meet you at Montgomery and Green. I'll be there by 16:15hrs". The voice in my head

Being A 3-armed Parent Without Getting Surgery

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I re-shot a product range and lifestyle images for a company named Mother's 3rd Arm . They are migrating to my photography over the next few months on their website and packaging. I think it's actually a good product and works really well. I got to test drive it in cars, the park, playground, home and other spaces using child models and their parents. The above shots were done in my studio with my main lighting. Most of the location shots were done with speedlites, reflectors and diffusers to cope with the varied lighting conditions and also give me the ability to react quickly as the children did their unpredictable thing and we move quickly from space to space and locations. In the picture above, I'd actually stopped shooting when suddenly the little girl started grinning and I was quick enough to capture this shot which was exactly one of the images my client was hoping for.  The little girl below did exactly the same thing and waiting till we thought we wer

Dancing and Swearing at City Hall

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Last Sunday, January 8, I attended the inauguration ceremony of Mayor Ed Lee at City Hall in San Francisco. Before he was officially sworn in, we were treated to dancing and music from Asia, Latin America, Hawaii, as well as orchestral renditions. I was shooting with no auxiliary lighting and also wanted to retain movement in my images. The dancers were excellent and the costumes were quite beautiful. I'd never been inside City Hall prior to this and was very impressed with the architecture. You can see more of the dancers in a gallery here

Look, No Pants!

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Today was " Global No Pants Subway Ride " day. The weather in San Francisco was very pleasant today which I'm sure was very much welcomed by all the participants here.

End of the first week of 2012...

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The last of the holiday stragglers make their way back home and the rest of the population resign themselves to the fact that there is another year of challenges ahead of them. For many this is an exciting time while others are filled with trepidation. I'm of the extremely excited persuasion! As I expected, my fitness images are outselling my other subject matter at the moment, but I have noticed 2 Valentines type images sold this week. So do you know what you'll be gifting yet on Valentines day? I was doing product shoots for Tez Marble at the end of last year. I shot just over 2500 items for the business. The images are now live on their website under the products heading.

Christmas, done that, been there.

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I stopped in Union Square for a while today watching the giant Christmas tree being dismantled and taken down. Christmas is over and the stores need to start promoting the next shopping event! The whole thing is in sections and hollow on the middle. So it's not really a tree? But I don't want to be picky, and it did look impressive while it was up. There is still a lot of evidence of Christmas in all the stores with the emphasis now being put on window banners and displays that continue to wish us all a happy, and sometimes, prosperous New Year. Well, as soon as you get home from the sales and congratulate yourselves on all those Bargains , you need to rush straight back out and get that Valentine's gift Don't say I didn't remind you!

My First Photos Of 2012 Are Extremely Hot!

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45 minutes ago I looked out of the window of my apartment to see this! There was a fire raging in Masonic and as you can see from the photo, just a few buildings from me. Right now the fire service has got it well under control and have contained it remarkably well. Not the situation of choice, but we also got to wish all our neighbors a Happy New Year face to face as we gathered on the roof of our building to hose it down with water to lessen the chances of the many hot cinders landing on our roof, to take hold and start another fire.

Great Expectation

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2012 has the potential to be apocalyptic or a huge wet squid. It's a year that has so much to live up to for so many people. Many people have already spent millions in anticipation of "surviving" 2012 while others are hoping to make millions from those who want to "survive". For me? It will be yet another fabulous year of opportunity, fun, and excitement :) I woke up this morning and was pleasantly surprised to see that I have already started selling stock images on New Year's day. Well whoever you are working with images today - thank you! First and last image sales of December 2011 I'm expecting a rise in sales of my fitness themed images during the next 2 weeks before themes become more general again. I'll be out and about doing more editorial shots during this first month. Editorial image sales have been good and steadily rising. On the other side, I already have a couple of assignments booked for the business sector. One of the compa