Happy New Years Eve.

(my last photo of 2006… right outside my door last night)

As time ticks down here (approx 12 hours left) on New Years Eve 2006, I would like to wish everyone a happy and safe New Year.

Looking back on 2006, I did a lot of things I wanted to do, a lot of things happened I didn’t except to happen, and a lot of things happened I hope would, but over all, I had a great year. If 2007 is half as good as 2006, I think I’ll be alright.

Thanks for visiting my blog this year! See you next year!

Remote Attempt #1

Tonight I tried out my first [REMOTE SETUP]. I can’t say it was a total success, nor can I say it was a complete failure.

I got to the Towson Center around 3p.m. and made sure it was OK to run. I got the go-ahead from three different sources and came back around 5p.m. to set-up. Being my first time, I feel like I rushed setting it up. I also was on my own, so setting the hyper focus distance was a one deal shot.

It seemed to be working flawless the entire game. Shortly after the game, it seemed if I had gotten at least two decent shots. (One above and one [CLICK HERE] .)

I am happy, but I guess I forgot about the ISO setting in my rush and it was left @ 640. I don’t know if the strobes were synching with the remote or not because of my exposure (underexposed). If you look at this picture of [TIM CROSSIN] from tonight, you can see its exposure is near perfect (1/250 f/2.8 @ 400ISO).

In closing on the night, I am not totally happy, but there is always tomorrow. I just have to remember to: A.) get more of an angle B.) place the remote a bit higher C). Set my exposure extra carefully D.) Maybe go wider (fisheye) E.) Take my time!

NOTE:I got an e-mail saying, "I never knew the bracketed names were linked pictures; maybe you should make a note about that." ARE YOU CLICKING THEM?

What's in the Bag?

With some recent purchases and gifts, I've realized that my photo bag (in this case Lowepro Mini Trekker book bag) has started to overflow.

Although I like the convenience of traveling with a good amount of my gear, I never carry it all on assignment, as it is too heavy. But, with the question I normally get ("What do you have in there?") here is what I carry on a daily basis to and from the office/sporting events/leisure/etc.

Inside:
- Two Nikon D200 DSLR Bodies
- Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 VR
- Nikon 17-55 f/2.8
- Nikon SB-800 & SB-600 Strobes w/gels
- Two 77mm UV Filters/One 77mm Cir. Pol Filter
- Pocket Wizard Cables (Three PC to female, One HH to female)
- Memory Card Hard Case w/ Two 2GB,Two 1GB CF Cards
- Two Extra D200 Batteries
- Cleaning stuff (e.g. micro fiber cloths, cleaning tissues/liquid)
- Thumb Drive
- Cardboard Snoot
- SB Table top stands
- Extra lens/body caps

Front Two Pockets:
- Three Pocket Wizard Plus Transceivers
- Leatherman All-in-one
- Wires: Battery Charger, USB Cord, Card Reader
- AA Batteries (Rechargeable and Duracell)
- HH to Hot-shoe adapter
- Nikon 10-pin remote cord
- Digital Audio Recorder w/ear phones
- Note Pad and pens (red/balck)
- Credentials
- Lowepro winter gloves
- Rosco Gels
- Money: Quarters for parking.
- Papers: Photo Rights, ID, Business card (cell #/email)

Trunk of Car:
- Silver (black backing) Westcott 43" Umbrella
- White Transparent Westcott 45" Umbrella
- Bogen Magic Arm w/super clamp
- Bogen Monopod
- Bogen Tri-pod
- Lowepro Photo runner waist-pack
- Gaffers Tape (a must!)
- Compact Five Hour power box (6"x5"x2")


And with that... back to reading Harrington's book. Also here is an interesting quote, "Only twelve percent of the people who pick up a news-paper read a story on the front page if no picture accompanies the story." -- Kenneth Kobre

Merry X-Mas & Happy New Year!

Amazon.com

I wanted to say Merry X-Mas and Happy New Year to everyone. Hopefully Santa brought you some desirable items. As for me, I got a bunch of little photo things, which now makes me realize I have way to much in my bag and will be making a post "What's in my bag" in a couple days.

As far as other things, I got [John Harrington's] Best Business Practices for Photographers which I am about 1/4 way through. Thus far it has been an interesting read and worth the money.

Did you say remote?

Finally, it’s here!

I’ve been combing the internet for the ten-pin-cord I need to run a remote camera for what seems like months now. I couldn’t convince myself to buy a new one for $170. I eventually found this one used for $60 on SportsShooter classified about a week ago, and it arrived today. Good thing I am a member!

I’ve been playing all afternoon with it and wanted to share. It feels so cool to press the PW “test” button to fire pictures! I have plans to run remote set cameras for sports and whatever else I can find applicable after the holiday. My first test will behind the glass basketball remote in combination with the arena strobes.

Early AM.

Today was an earlier morning than need be. I woke up at 7a.m. so that Kate could follow me in to the automotive shop for my suggested 30k mile service. After I dropped her off at school I went and had her windows tinted on her new 2006 Honda Pilot, since that’s what she wanted for Christmas.

When I got back home, I went to snap a picture of her truck and my nephew Travis was very interested in that “big lens.” So, I snapped a picture of him typing away on a calculator.(waits of roar of "Awwwww!")

Alma Mater by Two.

Tonight Kate’s brother, [Chris Panos], who coaches Parkville high women’s varsity basketball, played my alma mater North Harford.

Since I had nothing better to do, I shot the game. It was a close match, but Parkville lost by two in the last two-minutes.

Now that I look back at the game:
A.) I am thrilled I don’t have to shoot in prep school dungeont-like-gymnasiums daily. (Although, I may have to one day if I work for a larger newspaper, in which I will then be strobing.)
B.) High school kids are so immature, however, so was I probably.
C.) High school sports are NOT college sports... so slow!

70 Degrees > Snow

I was trying to hold off posting a picture of my new car (August 2006) until it snowed. I planned to venture out with the AWD and get nice snowy scape shot somewhere. But, figuring that global warming brought us a 70-degree day today and I haven't washed my car since I got it, I thought I’d give it a bath and snap a couple pictures.

It's a 2005 Subaru RS Pro. Fun little car until I graduate college and gets great gas mileage for driving back and forth to Towson.

No Photos.

©2006, Kanji Takeno

I would say that I am extremely busy or something to that extent. But in reality I have just been relaxing since the semester wrapped up.

I missed the Temple game due to car problems. I sat in the auto repair shop for approximately 3+ hours as they tried to fix the exhaust on my car that conveniently got ripped off on Friday. Missing that game basically ruined my weekend.

Anyways... I appeared in one on Kanji’s photo shoots my last day on campus. As I walked out of my last final, he was shooting a guy on a motorcycle and he told me to jump in. Thanks for the picture, Kanji.

One year ago today...

I know this shot is as cliché as you can get, but I was going through some old photos and it was taken exactly one year ago today. Pretty cool if you ask me. I randomly decided to look through some old stuff just now and there it was.

The cool thing about photos is that you can always look that them and remember exactly where it was taken, what time of day it was, who was with you, etc. For this shot, I remember I picked up my brothers car and was driving around mindlessly, and was well, bored.

Anyways, last final is tomorrow, woo-hoo!

Towerlight. Done for 2006.

I am bit happy-sad.

There will be no more Towerlight's this year. Why? Because our last issue of the 2006 year came out today. On Friday students will pack up their stuff and move home for winter break and won't return until late January.

This means no photo assignments, no late Wednesday and Sunday nights, no last minute photo assignments in downtown Baltimore, and no fun Towerlight office times, etc. Sucks. But at the same time it will be nice not to have class and a bit of free time to relax and make some extra cash (if I feel like working). I am sure I’ll do some online updates, but still...

Anyways, here is our last cover. I borrowed a snow globe from my nephew (Cars the movie) and did a quick lighting of it. I than cloned out the inside parts and then the wording/embossing on the base of the globe. Changed the base from blue to yellow and sent it over to production where Laumann combined the two images, added snow etc.

Unless something else comes up, I'll be back on Saturday with the Temple game update.

Don’t Fret, I’m Back!

One week since my last post. Where have I been you say?

Well let’s see…
First: Busy. School has been hectic with last minute assignments and final projects; the last issue of the TL is today, in combination with final exams this upcoming week. Almost done my first semester at Towson. Exciting.

Second: Not Home. I was in New York City for my annual family trip the past three days. Funny thing about the small trip, I didn’t shoot one frame the entire time. I wanted to, so I could upload some stuff on here, but it was absolutely numbing. I never took my gear out of my bag once, which was nice at times, however I wish I had carried it around.

For today, this shot is a random picture from the last “official” TL sports coverage of the year. (Except Men’s team Vs. Temple on Saturday for an online update). It’s nothing special, but I was excited to have finally figured out the arena strobes in the Towson Center.

Other than another photographer who didn’t understand simple photo etiquette, things went well (he would have never gotten to use the strobes without me). It’s really nice to shoot basketball @ 400ISO @ 1/250 rather than 1250+ISO and struggling to get 1/250. Now I need to get my glass remote camera up. (evil laugh)

Winter is here..

Today was a lot colder than it has been and covering the dance department's Winter dance show made me realize (whether I like it or not) that winter is finally upon us. I am a bit excited however, now that I have an AWD vehicle to get around in.

Anyways, I can't bear to look at the computer screen anymore today. Not to mention, my arm is killing me from the game I invented entitled "Throw-Hard." Once we get some rules in stone, I'll have to document a game. I don't want to post pictures of it yet, as someone might steal my idea. (haha)

Pockets Empty-Pocket Wizards

I am very good with my money; being called cheap at times. However, when I want something bad enough, I have to buy it or it will eat at my brain for weeks. In this case, these Pocket Wizard radio slaves have been eating at my brain since I started this blog.

With that said, I picked up two Pocket Wizard Plus II’s with hope of the third being here soon. These are awesome (yet expensive) little slaves. I have wanted to explore my photography with remote cameras and advance my strobing to the next level (no more Nikon CLS for me... woot!) and these do just that. These units allow me to place my strobes further away than 30-feet and trigger remote cameras.

I can’t wait to play with them some more… watch out Towson Center.

Tubbs Feature

Today I shot a feature for Darnay of Winstonn Tubbs. Tubbs is a senior forward standing at 6'6" is known for his very gritty defensive play on the Tigers basketball court. Not a big scorer, but plays a with a lot of heart and is a strong rebounder. Tubbs brings a lot of pride to the team.

The other shot we used can be found [HERE]

Tigers Down Vermont, 67-54

"Towson broke from the gate and never looked back, powered by a game high 29 points from senior guard Gary Neal and a defense that blocked 12 shots, one short of the school record, in a 67-54 victory over Vermont Friday night in the Towson Center." -[Towson Athletics]