RE: How to Take Great Race Photos @Healthontherun.net

Since my sister-in-law had a funny post about marathon photos, it inspired me to do a quick search through the several marathons I have photographed for family and/or friends. I sifted through and found a few good ones (embarrassing ones) you know - the usual. And from a photographer's perspective, it is pretty difficult (especially towards the start) to catch your friend or family member, often times a marathon is just a sea of faces.

But to respond to a few of the questions posed like "Can you ever really have a good marathon photo?" -- I would say "Yes! But only when you know it's coming." Check out the last photo in this post - it is definitely helpful having a photographer in the family or a close friend because they can be recognizable and you can end up with a frameable photo for your home or office (like my dad is requesting for a Christmas gift this year). Enjoy these in the meantime:

I'll leave the caption up to you... 

 Can you tell who has run a few marathons? Dave (far left) is a sub-3 hour marathoner smiling away,
my sister (middle-left), my dad (middle-right) making a great straining face towards the finish, and
Dom (far right) seems to be concerned with someone on the sidelines.

 Just an all around good shot - dribbling water, great facial
expression, extra water dribble on her thigh, nice tattoo on
her abdomen...and more I'm sure!

My dad and sister near the finish line (left) - I love the guy right next to
my dad (in blue) - funny expression and so exhausted!

 My sister making a face - one that exclaims "How are
you there AGAIN" - since I caught them twice on
this bridge alone!

Thanks Lauren for sharing your funny photos! It was fun seeing yours and searching through mine to find some best of's! Here is a posed shot - where it is so helpful knowing a photo is coming!!

National Coffee Day...is TODAY!

Yep, that's right. Today is National Coffee Day 2011! Althought some places said it's International Coffee Day 2011. Not sure many are celebrating - although Caribou is offering buy one get one free, 7-11 was offering free coffee until 11am, and Krispy Kreme offered some sort of free coffee as well. The Washington Post Blog had a little snippet here.

I'm not sure that Americans need a "special day" to drink coffee, right? Most people that drink coffee have it most days and those that don't aren't going to drink it on this nominally special day. But hey, since I drink coffee most days, might as well celebrate...

In honor of NCD (that's what celebrators call it nowadays obviously) here are some places where I have enjoyed a memorable cup of coffee (that I can remember)...

Costa Rica - enjoyed coffee at a hotel, bought 2 lbs of coffee in a market in San Jose, and 3 years later enjoyed Costa Rican coffee on my Honeymoon in Papagayo...

Kenya - big tea drinkers/producers but I enjoyed both in Nairobi...

Haiti - strong and sweet, almost syrup-like sometimes! Gives you enough caffeine for 3-4 days. My friend Thony said he doesn't like to drink it everyday or else he gets a little crazy and then gets headaches.

Go celebrate. Drink some coffee. Most of you already have and/or were already planning on getting your second or third cup today probably. I might go enjoy one cup today, since I've noticed that two cups gives me a headache! At least at Starbucks...

Some Magazine-Like Photography: From New York

So here they are - a few of the "model-y" shots.
Erin is a GREAT model, huh?! Let me know if you have any favorites - use the comment box!

 Have a great weekend! New posts will be coming soon...that's a GUARANTEE!! Good news is coming too...

Senior Portraits - Erin - taken in Sea Cliff, NY Part II

I wanted to post a few more photos from Erin's photo-shoot, but I caught a fever on Sunday and it seems to be finally gone today, so now I can sit up straight and post!

Here is the link to the first post for Erin:
Senior Portraits - Erin - taken in Sea Cliff, NY Part I

I am thinking I will do one more post of some Erin favorites, she is my cousin after all! The next post will be more of the "artsy" ones that look more like magazine shots than senior photos (in my opinion), but ya never know! Maybe out there in Washington, "artsy" is "in" for senior photos. Hope you enjoyed the photos!

Senior Portraits - Erin - taken in Sea Cliff, NY Part I

Senior Portraits 
This is my cousin, Erin - she lives out in Washington state, but was in New York with her family for my brother's wedding and a nice vacation visit and asked if while we were both there I could take her senior portraits - to be used for her yearbook and to give out to friends and family and such.

I only was in New York from Thursday night to Sunday evening, so Erin was a little nervous we wouldn't be able to get her pictures done...but fear not, we did! We took the photos on Friday in Sea Cliff, NY - a nice, quaint, older Long Island town that is just 1 square mile. Lots of Victorian era homes and buildings. I love Sea Cliff and my camera does too. This charming village has SO many great photography spots to choose from and since this was my cousin, we chose any and all we had time for! She and the girls (my wife and sister) had to get their nails done afterwards so we had quite a bit of time, but not unlimited. 


I loved how a lot of the photos came out, but in the end had to choose some favorites. There are ones that are more "Senior-photo-y" and then ones that look more like magazine shots. As you are about to find out, Erin is quite photogenic! Most of the magazine shots are not in this post and I actually haven't edited them yet. As always, I am a "light" editor, meaning I don't use photoshop and put crazy effects and made-up sunlight or anything like that. Just some minor tweaks using Digital Photo Professional by Canon. However, I am looking forward to upgrading to Adobe Lightroom.

Enjoy!

Stay tuned for a few more "best of's" from Erin's photo shoot!

New Blog Header...Yes It was FREE!

I was trying to redo my blog header a week and a half ago, and I didn't like what I did to it at all...in fact, I know I made it worse! But anyways, I was trying to search for correct sizes and possibly how to make a good header without the use of photoshop - since I don't have PS - and I came across what you now see above from the website you now see below:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/03/05/blog-headers-for-free-download/

I think it looks great! Of course, you are entitled to your own opinion about it, and you can also make a joke that it looks like the beginning of "The Simpsons" on FOX. Yeah, I just saw that, but putting that aside, it's great and will work out well until I go super custom and make my own blog header - that is nice to look at of course.

So there ya go, a few totally free, "unrestricted use" blog header designs. Free. Haha okay, now I can feel good about my next few posts! I'm very excited to share my favorites from my cousin's Senior Portrait photo-shoot from last Friday. It was a busy weekend in New York, but now we are back in sunny Florida and I edited a big handful of photos so far today. So stay tuned!

Thursday Means New York Bound! Long Island Technically...

 We are heading to NY today - Long Island that is. Usually when I say New York people either assume the city (New York City of course) or upstate. Well, we are going to Long Island! My brother is getting married on Saturday - so you can expect a few things:

1. Senior Portraits of my cousin Erin
2. Photos from the Rehearsal dinner on Friday
3. Some photos from the wedding, but it will be tough since I am IN the wedding
4. Some photos of my family!

So you can all be so excited for a few posts next week full of photographic fun. In the meantime, have a wonderful Thursday and Friday and weekend!

Here are a few photos of my house (an old Victorian built around 1900):

 House (Left) and Garage (Right)

 Accent door (left) and the awesome front porch (right)

 My brother's golden retriever, Bodie!