Project 365 - Week 20 "Capoeira"

Hello again. I have to apologize for my delay in 365 posts. This past couple of weeks has found me back logged in photography. But over the next several days I will be updating with posts to get us all caught up.

A couple of weeks ago, I had posted about a West Valley Arts Council event that was held in Surprise, AZ. I posted several photos of the Quetzal Guerrero portion of the event, but only teased about the Capoeira portion. For those that are unknown to Capoeira here is a brief excerpt from Wikipedia on the martial art:

"Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian art form that combines elements of martial arts, sports, music, and dance. It was created in Brazil mainly by descendants of African slaves with Brazilian native influences, probably beginning in the 16th century. It is known by quick and complex moves, using mainly kicks and quick leg sweeps, with some ground and aerial acrobatics, knee and headbutts."

Berimbau

The show was put on by Group Axe Capoeira located here in the valley and based out of Chandler. The group was amazing and performed amazingly well. If given the chance it is definitely recommended that you see one of their demonstrations. As you can see from the photos, it is not just a martial arts demonstration but one of music as well. I personally enjoyed the martial art aspect as I have practiced other arts myself, but have always enjoyed the rhythmic moves, fluidity and dance aspect of Capoeira.

Drums

To photograph the performance I used my 70-300mm telephoto and shot in JPG which is a rarity for me as I usually shoot in RAW. The reason for this is that with such fast movement and constant changes, I had my camera set to its fastest drive mode. This allowed me to capture several photos all in 1 second. By shooting in JPG, my camera could handle the mass of photos entering it as well as store tons more than RAW, as JPGs are considerably smaller in size. The first photo line is for one such moment (the move looks to be a reverse 540 kick). The remainder of the photos are simply stills from such scenes, ranging from single performers to dual performers, "sparring."

Day 134 - Aerial #1

Day 135 - Ground #1

Day 136 - Sparring #1

Day 137 - Aerial #2

Day 138 - Aerial #3

Day 139 - Sparring #2

Day 140 - Sparring #3

Choose Wisely

Last week I posted a couple of photos and asked your opinion on which was the better of the two. It looks like you were on the same page as I was, because the photo that I submitted to the local paper was the same one that you chose. One comment really nailed it on the head as to my thoughts on the photo, " I like how it looks. Very sweet, like he loves his violin and is happy to be playing. It shows a relationship between the two." Thanks Renee. Anyways, here it is.

Now for this week I have another pair of photos. Same rules apply. I'm curious to know what your favorite of the two is. Leave your choice and any comments/thoughts that you have.

Quetzal Guerrero and The Warriors

Quetzal Guerrero & The Warriors

This weekend my wife and I made our way out to the concert and exhibition put on by the West Valley Arts Council. The exhibition was the of Group Axe Capoeira based here in Phoenix (yes, I got photos of this as well) while the concert was that of Quetzal Guerrero and The Warriors. It was a very well done event for both groups and we had a blast.

I was especially excited that I got to try my hand at some concert photography. It was a rather small event, but it still gave me some experience and I got to learn from both my achievements and mistakes. It was a beautiful day and the lighting was awesome. Being mid winter, the sun was already low which, added to the late afternoon light, was perfect for lighting the stage.

I am happy with the photos that I got, but could not choose my favorite between the two below of Guerrero playing his violin. So as a little involvement from you, I'm asking that you leave a comment as to which of the two is your favorite: #1 or #2. I will then announce the winner next week. I hope you all enjoy the photos.

Guerrero #1


Guerrero #2

Project 365 - Week 19 "Mystery Box: Part 2"

Hey there everyone. The holidays are done and my backlog of photos will commence once again to pour forth. To recap, the last weekly series was a set of surprises, literally. Given a "mystery box," I was to photograph whatever items that I wished of the selection inside the box. Needless to say, it was a huge hit. Since everyone loved it and there was still more treasure to be found in the box, I decided to conclude the series with a second week.

So here we are. What follows are items that were originally found in the box, nothing was added. I hope that you enjoy.

Day 127 - Pebble in the Sky

Day 128 - Sand Dunes

Day 129 - MBSL

Day 130 - Not Going Anywhere for a While?

Day 131 - Oh, Snap!

Day 132 - Optics of the Fiber

Day 133 - No Longer a Mystery

Project 365 - Week 18 "Mystery Box"

Well this week was certainly a fun week for photography. The theme this week was actually thought up by my wife, Samantha. She wanted to challenge me a bit by giving me a box full of random items that I then had to photograph. I had no knowledge of the items before they were given to me, thus the "mystery." I actually had fun trying to figure out how I could photography each item so as to make them appear interesting but also give each its own unique flare.

I always enjoy and appreciate these themes as they push me to move further into studio work and experiment more with lighting and composition. I must thank my wife for such a fun theme as well as such a fun and exciting set of items.

Day 120 - Sneaky Slinky

Day 121 - Wine Supreme

Day 122 - See the Sea Glass

Day 123 - Liberty

Day 124 - Misty Peacock

Day 125 - Exposed Rose

Day 126 - Blue Flame

Project 365 - Week 17 "Fruits"

Seventeen weeks ago when I started Project 365, I took a photo of a lime. Since then, I have received a lot of positive feedback on the photo. This week I decided to take that photo and elaborate more on what I had done for it. I chose to make the focus on fruits and decided to continue with the same method of photographing each one, focusing on a cross section of each rather than the whole.

At times it was tedious, slicing a thin sliver off of a blueberry is not easy. Photographing each piece was a bit tricky as well. I opted to work without a tripod so as to move around trying to see if there was something different I could achieve for each shot. This set me back some, as sacrificing stability led to some out of focus photos and some that weren't framed appropriately. The difficulties were small however and I really enjoyed the whole process, especially the part in the end when I got to eat all of the fruit.

Day 113 - Orange

Day 114 - Strawberries

Day 115 - Bananas

Day 116 - Tomato

Day 117 - Lemons

Day 118 - Pomegranate

Day 119 - Blueberries

Project 365 - Weeks 15 & 16 - The Body

Well, after a two week "vacation," I'm back. I'm posting this week with a double week to make up for the missed post. The subject I got for this post has been one drifting around in my head for a while and it wasn't until now that I decided to attack it. No better time than a two for one special at BE Photography.

The subject for this post is the human body. In my recent ventures into black and white work, I've noticed more and more how amazing the body can look, especially when the light falls on the curves in just the right ways. I've chosen to number the images as "Abstracts" to leave them as such and not spell out what they are, some are obvious and some are not. This was definitely a tricky assignment, especially when trying to pick different parts of the body. It all came out in the end and I am happy with the results.

Also, with this weeks post I have reached 100 photos so far. I'm excited that I made it this far and am happy to keep on going. It would be a lie if I didn't say that it got a bit shaky there. But we are still here and going. With that said, keep and eye out for a special post.

Day 99 - Abstract 1

Day 100 - Abstract 2

Day 101 - Abstract 3

Day 102 - Abstract 4

Day 103 - Abstract 5

Day 104 - Abstract 6

Day 10 5 - Abstract 7

Day 106 - Abstract 8

Day 107 - Abstract 9

Day 108 - Abstract 10

Day 109 - Abstract 11

Day 110 - Abstract 12

Day 111 - Abstract 13

Day 112 - Abstract 14