Event

Historic Roser Park Art Festival 2009

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Historic Roser Park - a surprisingly nice area for an art festival.

I thought there were no hills south of Brookesville.  So it took me a minute to realize what exactly was different about the Historic Roser Park area of Saint Petersburg.  My eyes were focused on the stream at first, until a sign told me I was in a ravine.  I looked up and saw houses on hills, like San Francisco or somewhere like that.  This was enough for the art festival to be a win in my book.

Booths stretched down along a small stream and actually contained many unique items beyond the usual festival fare.

The festival was not crowded so we could amble in and out of booths at our ease.  There were several photographers with booths there.  I always like to check out the competition.  As always I thought, if I just had my own booth...but if there were any money to be made from having a booth then surely the best photographers in the area would have booths as well?

 These were ingenious crafts that can transform from a vase into a pretty women's hat! For $15 I was tempted to buy one.

Beyond the fine art on display were a good variety of crafts.  I always find myself very interested in crafts, but never quite buying any.  There were sculptured wooden bowls that could flatten by lowering their handles.  I was impressed with the craftsmanship.  

I first saw a living statue artist on a fell day in Zurich, Switzerland many years ago.

Not to spoil the secret, but under the heavy makeup is actually a friendly woman.  Aya gave her a dollar tip and got a handshake from her, as well as two lollipops and for me this photo chance.  She was good.  I could not see her ribs moving at all.  I would like to know what she thinks about to maintain her concentration?  Maybe nothing?  I should have tried to ask her.

HISTORIC ROSER PARK MAP


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Breast Cancer 3-Day march in downtown Saint Petersburg Florida

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A very enthusiastic and dense group of people march down Bayshore Drive NE in Saint Petersburg, Florida.

Other business brought me to downtown Saint Petersburg this afternoon, but fortunately it was photography business so I had my Nikon D300 with me and even my Nikkor AF ED 80-200mm f/2.8D lens attached as I surprisingly witnessed great waves of participants in the Breast Cancer 3-Day event.

The participants were very friendly and not at all camera shy as many who saw me turned and waved.  As I left the area I could hear in the distance the rousing closing rally.  At this time an old woman said to me, unprompted, that they had raised $3 million over the three days.  It made me think, "wow, is St. Pete rich as the population here is actually small."  

Haikyo - Urban Decay from Japan Exhibition

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The flyer for my first exhibition in Florida. Exhibition opens November 13, 2009 at http://www.rawvibesart.com

On Friday November 13th at 8pm at RAW Vibes Art and Performance Space I will have my first exhibition in Florida!  The photographs I will be showing for this exhibition will be my haikyo photos from Japan.  I must admit I never expected this collection of photographs to be the first images I publicly showed in the U.S., but I became very fast friends with the owner of RAW Vibes, Jeff Henriquez, about a month ago and he was a very big fan of the haikyo images.

Over 60 photographs will be on display in prints ranging from the standard 8x10 up to the gallery standard of 16x20 all the way up to a few selected pieces at 40x60!  Prices will vary accordingly with many prints available at very reasonable prices for all budgets.  For those with no budgetary concerns, the 40x60 prints will make a striking statement in your business, home or office.  Orders can be placed on site for any piece already sold that you wish to also purchase (25% deposit required).  

I will be present the full 3-hours of the opening night to answer any questions about the haikyo images.  I will also give a brief presentation on the collection of haikyo images in general, including what exactly haikyo is, how they were found, and what it is like to spend the night in an abandoned hotel!

Admission on opening night is $7.  If you leave a comment below, I will choose at random one person to receive two free passes to the opening (you and a guest).  Refreshments will be served at no charge.  

Please RSVP for the opening on Facebook or by leaving a comment below.

Thank you for your support and I hope to see everyone on the 13th!

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Haikyo - Urban Decay from Japan exhibition

  • RAW Vibes, 2109 Central Ave, Saint Petersburg, FL, 33713 -- 727-557-8266
  • Friday November 13, 2009 
  • 8pm-11pm

"A Night of Fashion" on USF Tampa Campus

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A jabbawockeez inspired performance. I am a big fan of this style of dance. See Shaq with the jabbawockeez.

Last night's fashion and dance event at USF Tampa campus fully titled, "OMEGA PSI PHI presents 'A NIGHT OF FASHION,'" was quite the challenge to photograph.  Very little light.  No overhead light at all.  The little lighting there was, was in the form of hot area lights at basically eye level.  This translated into having to wait of dancers and models to body block the lights before pushing the shutter, or just choose to use the lights and get an effect like seen in the above photograph.

The leader of the Titans step team was very intense and thus a joy to photograph.

For one whole performance, the men's Titan Step Team was right in front of me the whole time.  The leader (above) had great charisma, and of course dance skills too.  After each portion of their routine, the men would stop and strike a self-fist bump pose.  It was not all serious though as they broke into a Bell Biv Devoe "Poison" breakdown that I could appreciate since that song was right from the heart of my time.

Of course there were plenty of ladies on the fashion runway too.

I quickly realized that my best of the bad light shooting spot was not on the map for a majority of the fashion models that strode out.  So in order to get some head-on shots I had to scamper around a bit, hither and thither.  Even then, I just could not get a totally sharp shot.

The performers, dancers and models all brought their "A" game.  The energy in USF's lower gym-cum-runway was palpable.  The Faces Modeling Troupe got the loudest response of the night.  I look forward to the next challenging to shoot fashion show and will take what I learned from this experience and hopefully have a higher success rate the next time.  But who knows what the lighting situation will be then?

Most of the fashion was very urban, from urban street to urban business attire.

Prepping for another fashion show shoot at USF Tampa

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A model in the FACES Modeling Troupe of USF TampaI first met Roseanne and Fonso a few months back.  We did a shoot together at Sunken Gardens and had a great time.  They have since invited me to photograph events for FACES Modeling Troupe on the USF Tampa campus.  Tomorrow night is the next event:  Omega Psi Phi presents "A Night of Fashion."  (UPDATE: photos here)  These events are always very high energy and a lot of fun to photograph.  In between models on stage I like to chat with the crowd who are always very into it.  

Tonight I am going through my usual pre-shoot preparation by charging up all batteries, cleaning lenses, and last but not least securing contact numbers and directions to the shoot location!  I'll also reset the settings on my camera to insure I didn't forget to turn off bracketing from yesterday's sunrise HDR shoot, or the focus mode from shooting action shots of Kiki, etc. The last thing I'll do is format my memory cards.

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Performance: Vanessa Cerallo-Wainwright - professional dancer

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Vanessa Cerallo-Wainwright performs at the grand opening of RAW Vibes in Saint Petersburg, Florida.

I met Vanessa Cerallo-Wainwright at the grand opening of RAW Vibes Art and Performance Space.  She gave a dynamic flamenco dance performance that not only gripped the crowd emotionally, but also physically as some members of the crowd could not help themselves from joining Vanessa on stage toward the end of her performance.

The crowd in RAW Vibes watches Vanessa Cerallo-Wainwright's flamenco dance performance.

The art gallery space in RAW Vibes is capable of being quickly transformed into a performance space complete with a small stage.  With a packed house it provides for a very intimate atmosphere between performer and observer.  There was hardly any space for me to squeeze in to and make these photographs!

 Vanessa changed gears in her performance using a fan and costume twirls.The performance space in RAW Vibes makes for a dramatic setting with its deep red velvet curtain backdrop and high, recessed lighting shining directly down on the performers.  I am becoming a big fan of the red velvet background as it also served well as a backdrop for scary dolls.

I used a combination of flash and non-flash shots to photograph Vanessa's performance. This one of course is using flash.