Weekend shooting and snoqualmie pass

Well after my last post was cut short due to what I was told was a house on fire, turned out to be a shed not the house. But Ive got to go to those things, you never know when your going to get a great shot, not that I like to see peoples things on fire, just part of the job. Well to finish off Friday evening, after heading to the fire, I went to EHS basketball, I shot the second half of the girls game and the first half of the boys. Here's what we ran from the girls game.

Ill get to Saturday in a sec, but a quick complaint about the cold weather here. After getting back into my car on Friday evening from the fire, my hands were hurting even with gloves on. I started the car and it promptly said -4 on the temperature read out. That's ridiculously cold. I know its off probably a bit, but still a little chilly to be working in. Makes me feel for those who are always outside in these temps working. Ok, I'm done with my little rant about the temperature.

Saturday morning was good, I got to see one of my best friends, whom I haven't seen in a while. Casey and his brother Tony and their girlfriends came to eburg for some portraits, for a Christmas present, for their madre. We did some very informal shots with a black background, consisting of two sheets, super high tech I know and som strobes. After shooting the two of them, They each wanted shots with their significant others, which we did. It went well, then came time for shots of the dogs with them.

They had two small dogs, one was a English Bulldog, Casey if your reading this I'm gonna steal him from you, and a Chiuaua (the yo quiero, taco bell type dog). The first couple shots we got were ok, then I was informed of how to get the animals to look at me which is helpful. I have used squeaky animals toys for dogs, shaking oats in a bucket to get a horse to look, along with string to get a cats attention for pictures. We had none for the above.

To get these two to look, the key words for Napoleon, the bulldog I'm going to steal, the key word is "hungry" in a high pitched voice. He perks up like a champ at who ever says it. The yo quiero dog's key word is "pupperoni" also said in a high pitched voice, which I'm am suited well for, thanks dad. yes its pupperoni, not pepperoni. I'm guessing thats a treat for the yo quiero. Anyways said in tandem, Pupperoni and hungry can roll right off the tongue, and get the animals to look. This made the photos better, getting them to look that is, and causing considerable laughter in the room every time I said it, myself included. I wish It would have been on video.

Anyways, after that we went to a local park and got some outdoor shots with the snow. Other then the fact it was cold, hence the snow, it was fun. its always nice to photograph people who are comfortable in front of the camera, three of the four were. Tony got better toward the end. It makes my job easier, when people are comfortable, things seem to flow better, it lets you capture those candid moments that wouldn't normally occur if someone is not comfortable.

So after all this I was ready to head to the West side, plan was to go home and pack quickly and grab some food and leave. Well "was" was the key word. Remember how its been freaking cold here, well I'm about to leave and look over at the kitchen sink and it should be dribbling slowly. Its not, I accidentally turned it off after getting some water the night before. I turn it on and nothing. I check under the sink and see some ice, Awesome, the pipes froze. Call the landlord, he really cool, we put a heater on under the sink and he tells me to head out if I want to, after making sure he is ok with that I head out. I guess he had to crawl under the house to put another heater there too.

Then comes the pass which wasn't so bad, had to do about 45 miles an hour most of the way, visibility wasn't great, but oh well. I made it to my friends house in Bellevue, where they were having a Festivous celebration. It was me and the four of them, others were invited but stayed home because of the weather. We had the airing of the grievances which was hilarious, kind of got to roast each other while we were at it. Its something that I hope continues. We then went out and had some fun in the snow with the football. We threw it around the street, in between cars.

The next day it was the Seahawks game, I shot it and Ben and Arron went to it. It was cold but the snow made for a cool atmosphere especially with the photos. Ill get some up here in the next day or two. it was Mike Homgren's last game as the coach in Seattle, so he did a lap around the stadium, which was a circus trying to get a photo of, but I got one. Another thing that made the game different then usual was all the snowballs flying from the stands onto the field. The last 5 minutes of the game they were flying from every where you looked, being on the sidelines I got nailed a couple times.

Following the mess of snowy roads surrounding Qwest Field we made it back to Bellevue and then I headed back to Eburg. The pass was again alright, just took it slow and made it. As far as today, went in to work for a bit this morning and then a whole lot of nothing, which has been nice. Ill get som photos up from this weekend soon.