2 posts from June 2009

So it looks like the stars might align and I will find myself in Seattle for the weekend of July 18th.  (North Bend to watch sight hounds compete on an open field).

If things go well I am going to be doing a photog shoot with the Rat City Roller Girls.

They kick ass.
Their photogs are extremely talented.

Here's to hoping the stars align.

This last weekend I had a terrific opportunity. My photography saga continues along solving some problems, throwing money at others (bought a flash).  But this last Sunday I had one of a good day. 

For a while now I have been following a flickr group, "Marking Portland". This is an effort to capture pictures of people
in PDX with tattoos.  I looked through the shots with some fascination as I always have been interested in tats.

But then I was hit with an idea, another of my recent passions, roller derby, has NUMEROUS participants with a wide array of ink.  I've been taking pictures for them since January, why not, instead of action shots, stretch my reach a bit and do portraits?  (I am sure any experienced photogs are laughing at me right now). 

So I bounced this idea of the president of the league and she LOVED it.  So this past Sunday we made 2 general callouts.. one to the photographers related to derby, the other to the roller girls.  We ended up with 3 distinct "studios": 1 was soft light boxes and a black back drop, the next was a hardcode strobist approach with flashes, focused flashes, etc. The last was an outside studio capitalizing on the natural sunlight.  Add 5 photographers and it was an awesome learning experience.

So this week we are going to assemble the shots, put them in   a restricted access area for the roller girls to all view, select the best and submit.  Even though I am doubtful any of mine compare to the others, the experience and what I learned was well worth being the newb on the block for the event.