Erin and I decided at the last minute to go to the workshop and also check out the Photo Plus Expo at the Javits Center in Manhattan.  We got plane tickets and a hotel reservation just a couple days before we left. (!!) Jason recommended the Belvedere Hotel and it was perfect, just 3 blocks from Times Square, we walked to lots of cool sights.  Manhattan is another world, even the short buildings are 10 stories, the taxi drivers really are crazy, the sights, sounds and smells are intense!  We got in Monday afternoon and took a taxi into town from JFK - had dinner at an Italian place in Hells Kitchen and then headed to Jason’s studio for a pre-workshop meet and greet.

At the workshop on Tuesday we spent half the day talking business and then headed out to shoot.  Jason had lined up two sets of bridal models (they were great to work with!).  We did two shoots, one in the afternoon where I was carrying the cameras and Erin was working the lights and one after the sun went down in Times Square where we traded off and I worked the lights while Erin shot.  It’s always a little crazy shooting with a large group of photographers but we got some fun stuff - check it out:

These are from the night shoot with Erin shooting, the first one is down in the subway with one of the subway cops.

I love this one! Great job honey.

Here’s a shot of the instructors and the models - great job and a huge thanks from both of us!

We spent all day Wednesday seeing the sights and doing SO MUCH walking! It’s such an amazing city. We started with a bus tour through Times Square heading south, we got off at Macy’s and did some shopping (we both needed warm hats, it was cold on top of that bus!). Macy’s is more than 2 million square feet of shopping (ya, I said million)… Then we got back on the bus and rode it to Greenwich Village. We had lunch and walked through the campus of NYU and then walked 40+ blocks back up to Times Square for a drink at the Hard Rock Cafe. After that we walked to the Rockefeller Center, rode the elevator up the tower and took in the view from 68 stories up. After that we took a horse drawn buggy ride through Central Park and back to the hotel. After all that we headed to Jason’s famous yearly party. He had over 200 photographers from all over the country at his studio - it was packed - we got there a little late (about 10pm) so it wasn’t super crammed but there were still lots of people there - it was fun to catch up with people I’ve met before, meet new people and get to introduce Erin ( ).

Here are a few pictures from our sight seeing:

Times Square from the top of the bus

The Bus Tour Guide - a character for sure

It’s good to be home. But we didn’t even come close to seeing everything, we’ll just have to go back.

2008 Mason County Dodge Truck Rodeo

The gallery is here if you’re looking to order some prints.

Looking forward to the summer season.

~Bill

Check out the full set of images in our new gallery system here: NW Fight Challenge VI

For the camera geeks out there: it’s amazing to me that these are all taken at ISO 2500 with the Canon 1DmkIII and I’m actually adding grain to them in photoshop to get the gritty feeling I want in the final images. crazy (good crazy!)

I was glad to see my friend Joel win his match, his was the grand finale title fight of the night - good job man!

Can you tell he’s happy about in?

Be sure and check out the rest from all 15 matches.

~Bill

The whole set of images and print ordering can be found here: Budd Bay vs Eugene (last years are still available too)

They have a new sponsor, Ballyhoo Pub and Restaurant, so the jerseys are new this year.

I also shot 10 games at a middle school aged girls basketball tournament. The gallery is here.

A couple of my favorites:

My calendar is filling up and things are starting to get busy for the new year, and I like that

Have a great afternoon ~ Bill

On to the pictures. I don’t know anything harder to test new equipment than fast moving subjects in the dim fluorescent lights of a high school gym, so I went to the first couple games of the girls basketball district finals in Tumwater last night. These were all taken at either ISO 2000 or 2500, and they are very clean files.

The full set is here: Evergreen 2A district finals

Update: I just posted the galleries for the GU16 Soccer game, South Sound Futbol Club (SSFC) vs Synergy and also for the  Boys 2A basketball district tournament.

I started out at Tumwater High School for the Black Hills Wolves vs the Mark Morris Monarchs and then went over to the Black Hills High School for the Tumwater Thunderbirds vs the Elma Eagles.

That’s all for now, I’ll add some more later from the boy’s games I’m going to today (their tournament starts tonight).

Tomorrow Erin and I are going to a fund raising auction for a friend of her’s that has cancer and needs the community’s help with all the huge medical bills, we’re donating a little something to the cause.

“What’s that? What’s that you say? You say it’s Saturday? Goodbye, I’m going out to play!”

~Bill

The gallery is here: Girl’s Basketball

The JV girls played with intensity too.

That’s all for now, I’m off to do some portraits…

~Bill

Click here to view the complete gallery of images and buy prints

This next one is all about North Thurston player Will Sharp, he was everywhere, it was no surprise that a lot of the better pictures I got were of him… I saw Olympian photographer Tony Overman at the game and he was covering Will for this article in today’s Olympian.

It’s gonna be a great season

~Bill

My iBlog blog links dating back to February 2006 will continue to work, you can find the catagories here:

Portraits

Weddings

Sports

Outdoors

GOYA

Events

Family

If you don’t see the catagory you’re looking for, just click one and look to the left to find the others.

~Bill