Latest and greatest...

I feel like it's time for confession. Bless me father, for I have sinned, it has been one month since my last blog...

Seriously though, I've been busy with my other life. My other life? Well, when I'm not wielding my camera and capturing the souls of my sometimes unsuspecting victims, I'm subjecting others to bright and hot lights. My other 'profession' is Lighting Design for production. These productions range from private parties to corporate events to rock and roll concerts. As slow as business has been for us in this economy, April ended up being pretty busy with several small jobs mixed in with a few big one's including lighting India.Arie for a concert at Fantasy Springs Casino (sorry no photos for that one) and Mary Wilson for another Evening Under The Stars concert benefiting the AIDS Assistance Program of Palm Springs.

Somewhere in there I managed to also keep busy shooting photos for Palm Springs Metromix, a company whose website is your one stop local entertainment guide for the Palm Springs, CA area, at least once a week. I'm still trying to figure out how I want to link to the photos on the Metromix.com website although, in the El Dorado Desert Rock Festival and my recent gallery for The Point After do include links to the photos I took for Metromix in what I consider the main gallery for the bands.

This brings me to a new change that I'm going to do. I think visitors to my site who may have been trying to find their photos that I took while shooting band photos are having trouble finding their photos. I like the idea of creating a main gallery for the date and venue that the bands have played and using links to get to the individual band galleries for that evening. Within the list, I will include a separate candids gallery, what I now consider part of "Around Town". You can find an example of this with my most recent rock and roll gallery here.

If you've visited my website and have had trouble getting around or if you have suggestions to how I can improve getting around my site, please let me know here.

Thanks for following.

-Anthony

Sleep is for the weak...

Last week ended up being fairly busy for me. I finished processing the remaining photos that I took of the El Dorado Desert Rock Festival which took a little longer than planned because I was experimenting with upload sizes. It turns out that if I upload the files below a certain size, my web host won't allow me to sell my small downloads. With that, I had to re-upload all of the galleries for the bands.

I managed to finish just in time to head out for my Metromix assignment for the weekend, the 2009 White Party over at the Palm Springs Convention Center. The folks at the party told the Metromix producers it would be happening at 9PM but unfortunately, that was not the case. On the plus size, since I was there and had a experience shooting concerts, I was asked if I wanted to shoot some photos of the evenings star performer, "Lady Gaga", for the Associated Press. Who was I to say no? While Lady G managed to stall her start to an early 1:30 AM (or maybe it was a little later) and we could only shoot for the first two songs, we both stuck it out and in the end I was really happy with the photos.

By the time I backed up all of the photos from the evening and gone through, processed the photos of Lady Gaga and uploaded them to my website, it was about 5AM. Just in time to take a four hour nap before my busy Easter Sunday.


I was happy to see by the next day, not only had the AP picked up the photos, but several papers across the U.S. grabbed them for their websites. Here is a link to the Orange County Register's website. I have to say it's really cool to see my photo and name credited with the AP. The Washington Post and a couple of others also used some of my shots. I'm pretty happy with the photos, a little to much noise for my taste, but overall ok.

What's up Palm Springs!?

Whew... What a day! I got in a little late to the office, did a little of this and a little of that, came up with a set design for India.Arie (lighting is next week) and grabbed a quick dinner and off to Indio for the El Dorado Desert Rock Festival (Benefiting ACT for MS) to take pictures for Palm Springs Metromix and myself.

I had a great time! I met a lot of new people and saw some familiar faces from the first time I went out and shot photos for Metromix and I believe I got many good photos of the bands that played this evening.

So you're probably wondering by now, who or what is Metromix? Metromix is a cool new website geared towards 21 to 34 year old adults who are looking for something to do. It's "your one-stop local entertainment guide on where to go and what to do in Palm Springs, from the hottest restaurants and bars, to the latest in events, music, movies, style, and TV". An opportunity came up for me to take some photos for them last weekend and I couldn't refuse. I basically take pictures of people having a good time out on the town, which is basically what my "Around Town" gallery is all about. You can see pictures that I took at the Red Barn in Palm Desert here and pictures from McCormick's in Palm Desert here.

The pictures from the rock concert are now up on the Metromix website.

PSCC 2009 Autocross Photos...Posted!

Hello everyone,

Thank you for your patience. The photos from this year's Palm Springs Corvette Club are officially posted online. From the main gallery, you will be able to access the two track photos galleries and three candid photos galleries.

If you are looking for pictures of your car, head over to the track photos and you'll see that the photos are grouped and sorted by car number. Remember to check out both days if you drove both days. There is a link at the top left of the galleries that says "buy" if you wish to purchase a download, print (there are many sizes to choose from), or merchandise such as t-shirts or mugs. Remember all products, except for downloads, purchased through the website are satisfaction guaranteed for 30 days. If you are not satisfied with your product, you can return it for a new print or get your money back.

If you have any questions, please send me an email.

RE: PSCC AutoCross Photos

Thank you everyone for your patience. I'm just about ready to start posting photos and will be doing so this Sunday. Unfortunately, I'll be at a job site all day and night Saturday so I won't be able to get to them until then. I'm hoping I'll be able to get internet access to at least start setting up the galleries.

Also, if you pre-purchased downloads, I will start emailing those Sunday too.

I'm really happy with how the photos came out and I can't wait to share with you!

-Anthony

I'm beat!

What a weekend. Thank you to all the drivers out there who purchased photos at my booth for the Palm Springs Corvette Club 10th Annual Autocross. It was a great time for all who participated and I'm looking forward to next year.

I should have all of the photos posted in at least a week (I have a few other jobs this week and I have MANY photos to go through!) and this includes any downloads that were purchased. Once the photos are up, you'll be able to order prints of almost any size as well as merchandise such as t-shirts and mugs. If you want, send me an email or go to my MySpace page and add as me as a friend. I'll email you when the galleries are posted.

I would like to thank my friends, Tim, Sarah, Steve and his family Erin & Malissa for helping with sales and marketing. I could not have done this without them. I would also like to thank Howard and Real Assist for the graphics now on my truck and of course The Palm Springs Corvette Club for allowing me to take photos for the autocross. Last but not least, I would like to thank my customers for their purchases. Nothing can be more flattering than someone willing to spend their hard earned money on the memories I capture with my camera.

With that, on this lovely Sunday evening... I'm going to pass out!

March Updates

Greetings!

I've been a little busy these days getting ready for my favorite Coachella Valley event, The Palm Springs Corvette Club Annual Charity Autocross. This two day event put on by the club helps raise money for the Riverside County Support Group for ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.

So what's an Autocross? The quick and easy explanation is that's an event where a make shift track is created in a large empty parking lot primarily using traffic cones. There is a start and a finish and the idea is to make it through the track as fast as you can... without hitting any cones or going off the course. Typically if you hit a cone, a time penalty of one second is added and if you go off the course you get a "DNF" or "did not finish" and your time doesn't count. Only one car runs at a time or if the track is big enough and if it's safe, two cars can be run at the same time. Vehicles are broken down into different classes to keep competition fair.

Anyhow, I like to bring my truck out and give the Corvette guys a run for their money :-) A truck you laugh? Well, some of those guys aren't usually laughing by the time I make it past the timing lights. My truck happens to be a 2000 Ford F150 Lightning plus a little driving experience helps a little. Honestly it's a really good time for all and it's for a good cause.

So this year, I get to spend the weekend with two passions of mine. Autocrossing and photography. I volunteered my services to the club to take photos for them and I will also be selling photos to the drivers that will be there. I'll be donating a portion of what I make to the club. So in preparation I've had to put off processing photos from the past week or so including the Low Low Car Show (3/1), the Hot Air Balloon photos I took the same day and a few recent productions I've worked on.

Thanks for you patience and if you live in the area and want to check out the fun, we'll be at the Indio Fairgrounds this weekend, March 14th and 15th, 10AM to 5 PM.

Take care,

Anthony