The Ride for Semper Fi photo galleries
October 19, 2009 by Brad ·
The second annual Ride for Semper Fi was a smashing success. I cannot easily express how proud I am of the terrific men and women who rode, organized, and supported this amazing act of charity.
LINKS
There are a few different galleries of images from the event posted already.
- For small 21 image highlight gallery of the departure is click here.
- For the full 200+ image gallery of the departure click here.
- For the zillion-photo training-rides gallery click here.
- For the ceremony at Chase Field gallery click here.
The images of the arrival in San Diego are still being edited, but they will be posted online soon. An email will go out to John Greenway’s rider email list, and there will be notices posted here. Barring anything bizarre, the arrival photos ought to be posted in full within a week. (I suspect that there may be a small highlights gallery popping up much sooner, and it may be added to as the days pass.)
When viewing the galleries linked to from here, I strongly recommend that you use the slideshow option button in the upper right hand corner at least once.
To order prints, from your desired photo’s dedicated page (after you’ve double-clicked its thumbnail), click the Add to Cart button in the upper right hand corner. After you’ve added your favorites to your shopping cart, buttons in the bottom right give you options to continue shopping or to check out and finish your order. From there, you will be able to select what size print, the type of paper, matte boards, canvas wraps, t-shirts, coffee mugs, cards, etc. you’d like your images to be printed on. (You can also crop or zoom in/out for a custom alignment of each image.)
Prints through my website are much more convenient than downloading, copying, and driving to a local kiosk, and the quality of the prints is much higher and long-lasting. Every photo is checked by a trained human before being brought to life through a developing machine far larger and more sophisticated than you can find at any local drug store or shopping center.
Afraid of messing up your order? Don’t worry. Every order comes to me personally for verification. I will contact you with anything that seems questionable. You can also place an order, then contact me with questions before I verify the fulfillment. My number is 480-302-1267.
FREE DOWNLOADING
Lastly, as a part of my service to support the RFSF and its selfless riders and supporting families, all of these images may be downloaded at no charge for any non-commercial use. To download a photo free, just click Add to Cart and then roll your cursor over the image. A few download options will appear on the left edge of the image. Choose to download the one image, or the whole gallery. So long as you’re not planning to sell them or publish them (Facebook posting, etc. is okay), you don’t need to ask permission or arrange for a copyright release.
·Totally geeked up!
October 13, 2009 by Brad ·
The new Nikon D3s is supposed to be officially announced sometime late today (tomorrow in France). I’ve pretty much set my mind on it as my new primary camera. Getting the official specs will be nice and all, but I really hope they announce shipping/availability dates. (In other words, when will it be here—in Arizona—in Mesa—in my hands???)
Why a new camera? Isn’t the D300 enough? Well, the D300 will make a fine back-up camera. I’ve been needing a nicer back-up, because weddings are no place for being held back by equipment failures. What I want from something like a D3 or D3s is better low-light performance. At weddings indoors and at wedding receptions, I often have to use flash to get enough light on the subject. Even with the D3/D3s‘s amazing low light abilities, I’ll likely continue to use flash in such settings just for the aesthetic and the ability to freeze motion or drag the shutter. But having the ability to increase the ISO setting will allow me to expose more of the background, the environment around the subjects, without things getting noisy. I don’t like my brides or other subjects swimming in a sea of darkness. I want them, even when bathed in the photons of a flash, to be seen in their natural setting. A D3s will allow me to do that.
A D3 or D3s will also provide the security of dual memory card slots (both CF cards, too). That way I can have the camera write the same photo files to each, providing an instant in-camera back-up for failsafe photography. Weddings only happen once. Every step I can take to ensure that no photo gets lost is a step worth taking.
There’s also the full frame sensor, dual battery life, and more tech stuff that would bore you to tears. (And no, I’m not going to switch to Canon. Sure Canons are cheaper, but… four Nikon keys: 51-point 3D continuous servo Autofocus system, ISO, ease of use, the great Nikkor lenses I already own.) Just know that I’m getting really excited about make a (big) new investment in absolutely the highest quality images for my wedding and portrait clients!
·D minus one
October 12, 2009 by Brad ·
The Ride for Semper Fi bicycles will roll out of Scottsdale tomorrow morning. I’ll be there to photograph the departure. Last year I was a rider, but some injuries kept me off the bike for a while and got me out of my riding routine. So, this year I’ve been the team’s official photographer. I’ll be there to take photos of their arrival too, at the Naval Medical Center next to Balboa Park in Sand Diego on Saturday.
Here’s a video that I made for the RFSF that was shown on the Chase Field jumbo-tron in a ceremony before a Diamondbacks game. Half the pictures are mine. And just to be clear, it was ride chairman John Greenway who selected the music (wink/nudge). It’s just 1 min 34 sec so you really should check it out.
UPDATE: Whoops! It’s not tomorrow. Well, it’s tomorrow now—now that it’s past midnight. The RFSF leaves Wednesday morning, not Tuesday.
·Getting posting again
October 11, 2009 by Brad ·
Whew! Things have been busy. The event at Chase Field before the Diamondbacks game was awesome. I can’t believe they included me in the handful of guys who were honored for their service (I was in the Marine Corps back in the Desert Storm era — most folks are shocked to learn that shaggy-headed, easy-going me was a Marine). It was humbling.
Things have also picked up business wise. I’ve shot a few weddings in the last three weeks, in Peoria at the Cibola Vista Resort, in Ahwatukee at Wild Horse Pass Resort, and I assisted Keith Pitts and Cia last night at Paradise Valley’s Montelucia Resort.
One of the best parts of the last few weeks was getting invited to the party to celebrate Sam & Laurene’s engagement. I shot their engagement photos in late June, on the hottest day of the year. Good thing they agreed to start at sunrise! It was an honor to be invited to their lovely party and it was a joy to deliver their book of photographs from that session.
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