Event

The Commodores Performing on New Year's Eve 2009

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The Commodores really brought it for what to them must have been an extremely small show.

RESERVE THE BEST EVENT PHOTOGRAPHY FOR YOUR NEW YEAR'S PARTY THIS YEAR!

I never imagined I would ever hear "Brick House" performed live on New Year's Eve, or any other eve for that matter, but I was lucky enough not only to see The Commodores in concert on New Year's Eve, but to be paid to photograph them as well.  I was really, really impressed by the energy that Walter "Clyde" Orange, William "Wak" King and James Dean "J.D." Nicholas brought.  I mean they really brought it and rocked and funked up the whole Treasure Island Yacht Club.  

I got to shake hands with James Dean "J.D." Nicholas at the end of The Commodore's performance.

The stage was small so there was no space for me to shoot from there, and there was no barrier between the stage and the crowd either.  So I had to basically carve my own space in the front of the crowd to shoot from.  Besides the usual lighting challenges there was a video team with a huge light coming off their video camera making my job all that much harder as this huge video light really made hot spots in my still images.

William "Wak" King blowing on his trumpet at the Treasure Island Yacht & Tennis Club New Year's 2009 celebration.

The aforementioned crowd was totally into what The Commodores were jamming out.  It is a testament to The Commodores' broad appeal that a crowd of older skewing yacht club members could feel the music the way they did.  

Walter "Clyde" Orange pointing at someone in the Yacht & Tennis Club crowd no doubt to their great delight.

People were constantly reaching up to try and high five and shake hands with Clyde and Wak and J.D. while they were performing.  I could not imagine being that hands on with the crowd, but The Commodores were very accommodating shaking hands and pointing to people in the audience, even continuing to play on when one woman forced her way on stage and started shaking her booty!  

A fan getting the hands on treatment from The Commodores

If The Commodores ever asked me to go out on tour with them as their photographer, I certainly would not say no!

   
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    • DJ Joey Jam Performing on New Year's Eve 2009

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    DJ Joey Jam at the Treasure Island Yacht & Tennis Club on New Year's Eve 2009

    RESERVE THE BEST EVENT PHOTOGRAPHY FOR YOUR NEW YEAR'S PARTY THIS YEAR!

    While photographing the grand New Year's Eve party at the Treasure Island Yacht & Tennis Club, I saw this energetic person in a white baseball cap buzzing from room to room.  I did not know who he was.  Maybe someone who worked for the club?  Maybe just a popular member of the club?  Maybe a celebrity MC I was not familiar with?  All I knew is that anytime I pointed my lens at him he was definitely ready to be photographed and always pulled the people around him into the shot as well.  It turns out he was a DJ, to be more specific DJ Joey Jam.

    DJ Joey Jam performing his craft in the post-midnight afterglow

    DJ Joey Jam is an endlessly friendly person, and to use a Japanese word, genki!  I was impressed by his ability to liven up the party, and still have the energy to spin well into the late hours of New Year's Eve.  

    DJ Joey Jam likes to get at eye level with his turntables

       
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    Treasure Island Yacht and Tennis Club New Year's Eve Party 2009

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    Dancing on top of a pool at Treasure Island Yacht & Tennis Club on New Years' Eve 2009

    This was only the second time in my life, and first time since high school, that I worked on New Year's Eve.  From 7pm December 31, 2009 to 2am January 01, 2010 I was photographing the Treasure Island Yacht & Tennis Club's lavish New Year's Eve Party featuring John Secada and The Commodores.

    No expense was spared to impress guests as they arrived at the Treasure Island Yacht & Tennis Club on New Year's Eve 2009

    The Treasure Island Yacht & Tennis Club's New Year's Eve event was my highest profile job to date.  It was also my most prolific job too nearly filling to capacity three 8GB memory cards.  Over the course of the 7 hours of shooting I literally only stopped shooting for four minutes as I ate half the sandwich I had packed away in my stowed camera bag.  Ultimately, I delivered over 700 edited images to the client in just a one week turnaround.

    There were three different dinner areas all very well decorated.

    There was no lack of activity during the New Year's party as there were three distinct areas for guests to dine, dance and party in.  In the yacht club building itself there were two floors of entertainment.  The second floor was an intimate setting with John Secada performing, and the third floor was a large and lively dining hall with The Commodores rocking the place.

    2010 made it easy to fashion eyewear of itself.

    The third location was actually right on top of a pool (see top photo), covered in a $90,000 system of plexiglass sheets that formed a see-through dance floor--that could only be used once as it would be too scratched to use again!  Here a cover band called Stormbringer provided rock and pop stalwarts.   

    There were many chances to dance cheek-to-cheek.

    While it was great to have three areas to find candid event scenes to photograph, it made for a lot of stair climbing and grounds walking!  Also, since I never took a real break and always had my Nikon D300 with a Nikkor SB-800 (thanks Pedro!) mounted on it around my neck, not to mention a Nikon D90 with Nikkor 50mm 1.8D lens too, by the end of my night my right arm had never been so tired from shooting before!

    Romantically ringing in the new year on the dance floor at the Treasure Island Yacht & Tennis Club

    Despite the endurance challenges, this was by far my most exciting photography job.  The guests, yacht club staff and the entertainers were all very friendly and made my job easier with their help.  The guests were all in a really good mood and mostly loved to have their photograph taken.  The staff was fun to talk to and get behinds the scenes info from (like suggestions to shoot from behind the bar).  Special thanks to Sara for thinking of me for photographing this event.  I could tell she put a tireless effort into making this a great event.

    Philosophy of Antiques in the Park Gulfport Florida

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    Lots of glass items at Antiques in the Park. It seems Cs were in short supply in 1945.

    I recently put on Facebook this statement that popped into my mind, "Only things that are old have any value."  One person commented, a 40+ year old guy, "tell that to my wife."  I meant it to be a serious statement though on the extremely disposable and commodified nature of all items, goods and personalities being created in 2010.  In 40 years will anyone admire a 2010 Toyota Camry the way they would a 40-year old Shelby Cobra today?  

    All wonder over air travel has now been replaced by fear and routine, making a trunk like this one all the more valuable.

    How is this for you?  iTunes DJ has just selected a classic song from the Amelie soundtrack to play.  The most modern form of playing music choosing a classic tune from before computers even existed while I write about the past on a wireless keyboard in front of two digital screens.  Perhaps this is the way of the future . . . using modern technology to help preserve the value of the past.

    Hard to imagine a world only as big as the distance a wagon wheel could take you.

    And by no means do I believe technology is advanced at all right now.  Computers and the Internet are still very much in their infancy.  How rough is it to use a computer still?  Not even my Mac "just works."  

    This collection of old circus tumblers fascinated me. If I had $39 cash on me I just might have purchased them.

    While browsing the tables of Antiques in the Park in Gulfport I came across the very green glass goblets my mother used to fill with pudding and jello when I was a child.  I had a very strong reaction to seeing them.  So strong I did not even thing to photograph them.  I was probably going to purchase them as I passed back by the entrance/exit on the way out.  I did not even have the chance as someone else, perhaps wanting to eat pudding from them once again, had already bought them and carried them cheerfully home as I would have done.

    Nothing made now will rust like this oxidized tractor.

    This was the first antiques show I went to in the south and I was surprised to see the legacy of slavery and racism in explicit messages on several antique decorative plates and even old 8x10 advertisements.  One recurring theme I saw was black people being pursued or victimized by alligators, suggesting I guess that white people would never be attacked by these apparently discriminating creatures.  It was a bit surreal and uncomfortable to see these items.  

    I plan to visit a few more antique shows in the near future and I hope to find perhaps another set of those pudding goblets and maybe an old camera or two for decorating my desk with some photography history.

    Birthday Party for Olivia and Christian

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    Birthday Party wishes being made captured with candid photography in Tampa (c) 2009 Jason Collin Photography

    Besides being a professional photographer, I also teach Mac & OS X lessons.  Carlos is a longtime Mac student of mine who hired me to photograph his children's birthday party.  It was a unique experience for me to have a client that I already knew well and to shoot on location at his home in Tampa.  His family could not have been more friendly and his backyard could not have been a better outdoor location for photographing a birthday party.  

    Birthday Party activities can be potentially hazardous to your health! (c) 2009 Jason Collin Photography

    Olivia was both not camera shy at all and also able to act totally naturally despite a long lens being pointed her way most of the party.  Again, I could not ask for a better combination!  She also was a very active birthday girl making for a wide variety of candid action shots.  A large rubber ball and a helium balloon are great props!

    All the birthday cupcakes a boy can eat! (c) 2009 Jason Collin Photography

    The birthday boy was a bit more reserved, showing wisdom beyond his years in securing direct access to some scrumptious birthday cup cakes.  I can testify to their deliciousness myself having eaten one.  

    Thanks to Carlos, Olivia, Christian and the rest of the family for making it a great afternoon of birthday photography!

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    Setting up for my haikyo exhibition

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    The gallery space in RAW Vibes as we bring the very first haikyo photographs in.This late night RAW Vibes owner Jeff and I worked tirelessly for as long as our eyes could stay open to get up all the 16x20 prints for Friday night's haikyo exhibition.  It was fun, but tiring, but we made good progress.  I am writing this with an exhausted mind....so just enjoy the sneak preview photos of the exhibition for now.  I'm going to sleep.....

    With all the haikyo photographs catergorized and put next to their respective wallspace, we were ready to start hanging.

     

    Jeff has good hanging skills and we got the haikyo prints all within a single millimeter of each other.

     

    All the 16x20 haikyo prints up! I left after this, but Jeff may have labored on as all the 16x9 and 24x36 and 8x10 images still needed to be hung.

    Tampa Children's Birthday Party in Black & White

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    The birthday girl thinks of something to wish for - location: Tampa, Florida

    This past Saturday's birthday party shoot was in a near ideal photographer's location:  backyard with lots of shadows but still bright with lots of play space for the kids.  My specialty is candid photography, and the kids at the party obliged that style greatly by mostly ignoring me and going about their play naturally.  However, some of them loved to pose without any prompting, which will be the subject matter of a future post.

    The birthday boy chooses a cupcake over birthday cake.

    There was a lot of great food at this birthday party, and the hosts graciously let us eat anything we wanted to.  I, myself, sampled one of the above cupcakes and the touch of lemon in them made for a very tasty cupcake.  

    No sibling jealousy despite having birthdays very close to each other's.

    The brother and sister's birthdays were only separated by a few days allowing for a two-for-one birthday party scenario.  As long as his sister continues to love him as much as she does now, I foresee no sibling squabbles about who may or may not have gotten a better birthday present.  She was always hugging and kissing her brother, as seen above.

    The birthday boy's grandfather siphons a beverage into his mouth.It's always great when there can be three generations (or more) at family gatherings, such as the case at this birthday party.  I wonder what grandpa's childhood birthday parties were like?  No doubt he doesn't have as many photographs from his childhood birthday parties as children will have of their birthday parties nowadays.  Blowing out the candles on her birthday cake.

    If you would like the candid moments from your child's birthday party captured by a friendly and professional photographer, then make your reservation today.