When opportunity presents itself

You need to take it and run…

As I arrived to work yesterday I saw the epic storm clouds looming over Cincinnati and I just had to set up an HDR shot:

MLG Bound?

I might have an opportunity to be an event photographer for Major League Gaming! I recently attended MLG Columbus and I caught up with Linds, the guy in charge of event photography and social media for MLG. I introduced myself to him and talked about photography and all the stuff I’ve done over the years. After our conversation I asked him if they were ever hiring people to come help shoot events. He said I seemed pretty cool so he gave me his email to send him some of my work and talk about possibly coming on board to help with photography.

I sent him my dA account and also uploaded some of my better pictures I’ve taken at various events over the years for him to take a look at. He got back to me today and said if I come to MLG Raleigh they’ll provide me with a list of shots that they have their photographers take and at the end of the weekend I’m supposed to send them my best stuff from the event as a kind of try out. If they like my stuff they might bring me on board! This is my current goal in life, I’m going to kick some ass!!!

Chase Jarvis 12 tips for making awesome pictures on a budget!

This is right up my alley as I definitely don’t have the kind of resources that people like Chase Jarvis have, but I have the same ambition as they do: make awesome images. Chase has been working with SanDisk on a project where they asked him to shoot pictures with every kind of camera from a simple point and shoot to the top of the line DSLRs. Here’s a little video he put together with some awesome tips!

And those are what I call results!

My buddy Javier has been working away hardcore on the images from the shoot and I can’t be anything but excited! The following are 2 examples of those shots and you can catch the rest of them on his Flickr.

It’s all about the experience!

I do have to say that tonight I got a taste of what I want to do for the rest of my life. I was invited to a professional shoot by my buddy Javier. He was doing a shoot of 4 Dodge Challengers (3 SRT8’s with various mods and an R/T ),  Dodge Charger SRT8,  Jeep Cherokee SRT8, and a Chrysler 300 SRT8. The guy who hired my friend wanted some images for his shop he owns which specializes in Dodge, Chrysler, and Jeep vehicles.

I arrived a little late because of work and the shoot was going full steam when I got there. It was very laid back with people going back and forth with lighting and other equipment. People here and there would move cars into different positions. I got in on the action as well. This went on for a few hours until the sunset came…that’s where the fun began. It had been raining most of the day and the sky was beyond amazing with the clouds. At this point it was only myself and my buddy. Everyone else went to the shop to pick up and drop off cars.  So we had a sunset that was fading, only 2 people, and 5 different cars to move around at this point….I have never run around so much while I was doing photography!!! With my D300s, a huge light or driving cars around it became very exhausting.

Our hard work paid off though. I got a few nice shots, but the gold was in my buddies stuff. I’m actually going to his house tomorrow while he edits them. From what I saw from his camera they are going to come out very nicely. I got some good experience today and even a little extra cash too. Expect some updates including photos AND video soon!