Lights, Camera, and Billy V.

July 30, 2010 I got the chance to shoot for Billy V. again at the KCCN FM100 Birthday Bash. Not only is Billy V. a cool guy, but he shows so much aloha to everyone that its infectious. Everywhere we went he greets people with a smile and laughter which in-turn people give back to him. 

Before the live-shoot back to Hawaii News Now he answers email, post updates and gets organized.

Billy V. had 3 live stand-ups to do 5, 6, and 6:30. Each stand-up he needed to update the station with different content. He brought in Augie T, Kelly Boy De Lima, and a few members of the audience.

Backstage, Billy V. and others look over the lineup.

Billy V. announces the next band Natural Vibrations.

During one of the breaks, I was in the photo-trench (photographers' area in the front of the stage) and I just happened to look up toward Billy V. He has this serious look and points to me. "Jay We Are Going OUT". Then he takes off. While I'm running out of the pit, I have to change my lenses on the fly. I have my 70-200mm on my Canon 5D and need to change it while running, dodging people walking and being polite at the same time.... frustrating... So I finally catch up to Billy V and get my wide angle lens on just in time for him to start speaking. My camera is rolling video and I'm out of breath. My camera is shaking and it's even harder to focus because the lighting in the crowd is low. We got the shot and Billy V was great.

9pm Billy V ends his night. It was a pleasure working for such a good man. I thank you Billy V. for giving me the opportunity, bring on the next assignment.

Video Coming Soon!

Billy V: Website

Billy V: Facebook

Photoshoot with Greg Salas

So Tuesday night we (UH Media Relations Dept) are to photograph our top football athlete, Greg Salas. Salas plays wide receiver and will be one of many players to look out for this year. All day Tuesday i though to myself how to photograph Salas. What kind of awkward poses should i put him through... how will this come out... I'm a naturalist, I need something to happen in front of me in order for me to create a picture. So needless to say posing someone is not one of my strengths.

Equipment I used was mostly my Canon 5D... Fantastic camera! My very first full-framed camera and wish i could shoot sports with it... Just a little too slow. Anyway with my 5D I went with my 70-200mm instead of my 35mm. Using my 70-200mm gave me an option to crop in at times and change the look of things. Flashes were 3 Canon 220EX, not the best but they did the job. I recently bought theses little Cactus wireless trigger set. 3 receivers and 1 transmitter. I had a muslin backdrop but wasn't worried to much about the color seeing that the goal was to cut him out anyway, but it helped instead of having a hundred logos behind him

Using the Cactus trigger set went well, they performed very well. As far as the flashes went... i was disappointed that after 1-2 minutes of no activity they would go to sleep. I'd have to wake them up many times... I'm not surprised, I should have used better flashes. Anyway, I got some good images. Some worked, some didn't.

We ended the night with a video shoot for his introduction to his website. I will be posting it soon. The intro was shot with the 5D and 7D. Check it out here: catchgregsalas.com

Aloha,