Event

1st Birthday Party for Brooks - St. Petersburg Birthday Party Photographer

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1st Birthday Party Nemo balloon chase! - f/2.2 ISO 400 1/400th SB-600 @ 1/4 power hotshoe mounted - St. Petersburg

One of the most significant birthdays of one's life, the first, is one that is impossible to remember.  Thus, 1st birthday party photographs provide a significant visual window for those curious to see what theme their parents chose for such an important day.  Sitting here now I cannot recall what mine was, and I do not have any photographs nearby to remind me.  The theme for Brooks' party was FINDING NEMO related.  How easy or difficult will it be for him to remember that when he is 36 years old?  I wonder . . .

1st birthday cupcake smash - f/5.6 ISO 200 1/80th SB-800 @ 1/4 power hotshoe mounted - St. PetersburgI have spent a very limited amount of time around babies having none myself and always living far from relatives.  I was aware though that babies seem to have a hard time putting an optimal amount of food into their mouths.  In this case, in Brooks' defense, he was given no fork so frosting covered fingers are perfectly understandable.  This solved some of the mystery surrounding babies eating abilities for me.  

custom underwater cake - f/4 ISO 400 1/200th SB-600 @ 1/4 power hotshoe mounted - St. PetersburgNow this cake remained pristine the entire 90-minutes I was in Brooks' home shooting.  That also means, unfortunately, I never got to taste it myself.  Therefore, I cannot vouch for its flavor.  

Brooks chewing his mom's necklace - f/4 ISO 400 1/100th SB-600 @ 1/4 power hotshoe mounted - St. PetersburgNow, I do know why babies put everything into their mouths thanks to a college professor who in addition to the subject he taught, was also extremely knowledgeable on baby behavior.  Babies put things into their mouths for a very simple reason, the nerve endings inside their mouths are fairly well developed from birth, but the ones in their fingers are not.  So what sensory data adults can get with fingertips, babies need to mouth to find out.

emerging from the deep! - f/5.6 ISO 400 1/800th SB-800 @ 1/4 power hotshoe mounted - St. PetersburgThe challenge of photographing this birthday party was largely due to going indoors and outdoors repeatedly.  This meant a whole sale change of settings and use of flash, on two cameras!  This is why I tell my DSLR photo students they need to be able to change all their settings in under five seconds if they want to start doing paid photography work.  

It was a fun afternoon photographing Brooks on day 365 for him. 
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    • Home Instead Senior Care Ribbon Cutting Event St. Petersburg

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    Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for an event at Home Instead Senior Care St. PetersburgThere is a certain timing to photographing a ribbon cutting event that I have learned from experience.  Here is my methodology:  first, get everyone's attention and say look here (at your lens).  Take that photo with the scissors raised to the ribbon as a just in case shot.  Then say, "ok, cut!"  Wait half a second, then shoot away and you can capture the ribbon in free fall as seen above, which is my preferred shot, rather than just everyone standing behind an uncut ribbon.  Waiting half a second allows time for the ribbon to fall, and just in case the person has trouble with the big, ceremonial scissors which tend not to work that well.  No troubles cutting at Home Instead Senior Care of St. Petersburg this morning though!

    St. Petersburg event photography - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/8 ISO 400 1/100th SB-800 Speedlight on hotshoeOne corner of Home Instead Senior Care felt like the Price Is Right with its spinning prize wheel.  Someone working there has good crafts skills!  The woman above won the largest prize available.  I heard (very) faint rumors of a car being a prize, but since it was not a Ferrari 458 Italia, I had no interest in plying my luck.

    Home Instead Senior Care of St. Petersburg ribbon cutting ceremony cakeAlas, I was not on site long enough for cake cutting time.  Though this was a win for my sugar intake for the day, it was a great loss to the large portion of my mind that is ever searching for the next piece of cake, or pie, or pastry, or donut, or . . .  

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    • Women's Symposium 2011 featuring Liz Smith at St. Petersburg Marriott Clearwater

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    Sheila Tempelmann won Community Service Woman of the Year 2011 - St. Petersburg Marriott Clearwater

    The 2011 Women's Symposium is one of the biggest events of the year for the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce.  This year the event was held in the strangely named St. Petersburg Marriott Clearwater.  There were over 450 people in attendance.  That made for a very enthusiastic atmosphere.  Sheila Tempelmann (above) won for Community Service Woman of the Year.  Naturally, she was all smiles after winning!

    Bridgette Mill won Business Woman of the Year 2011 - St. Petersburg Marriott ClearwaterUpon hearing her named called for 2011 Business Woman of the Year, Bridgette Mill was overwhelmed with emotion.  She apologized for being so emotional, but I found it refreshing and genuine.  Also, from a photography perspective, it makes for more powerful images.  She runs the Tampa Bay Business Journal.  

    Left to right: Chris Steinocher, Liz Smith, Bridgette Mill, Sheila Tempelmann, Bart Valdez - winners & presentersThe most important shot to get at this event was the one above of both winners and the keynote speaker, Liz Smith.  This one appears on the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce website, and almost made it into the St. Petersburg Times.  It was nice to have the tall red velvet curtains behind the stage to use as a background.

    Liz Smith of OSI Restaurant Partners giving entertaining keynote speech - St. Petersburg Marriott ClearwaterAfter the winners were announced Liz Smith gave a very well received keynote speech summarizing her own personal business career.  Some of what she said was surprising to me.  She described how she had no real plan for her career, it kind of just happened.  Most of all she just used her instincts to know what was best for her and the when was the right time for her to make a change.  What she said about if you are comfortable with your life, it better also be extremely satisfying.  That made the most impact on me.  I have been in some comfortable situations before, but always ended up blowing them up and trying something else, for better or worse.  

    Liz Smith speaks before an audience of nearly 500 people - St. Petersburg Marriott Clearwater

    60th Birthday Party Photography at Pane Rustica Tampa

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    Pane Rustica Bakery event room - 60th Birthday Party CelebrationI had the chance to photograph a 60th birthday party at the Pane Rustica Bakery (restaurant) in Tampa recently.  I wondered what it would be like?  I can recall my own grandfather's 60th birthday party long ago.  We were all in Cape Cod, Massachusetts and were heading to the go-kart track, one of our favorite summer activities.  Naturally, some bumping of karts took place.  Well, on his 60th birthday party my grandfather was thrown out for bumping!  It is a very good memory of him that I have put in the vault.

    Pane Rustica Bakery event room - birthday cakeThere were no go-karts inside the restaurant of course, and to my knowledge no one was thrown out.  It was a formal, adult birthday party.  There was one very nice homemade decoration on display, however.  The photo posters showing family history were very interesting to me.  I really like to look at old photos, especially family ones to see what places used to look like, to see what photo prints used to look like.  Also, it took me some time to realize that the poster on the left did not in fact say "HAPPY GOTH" but rather "HAPPY 60th."  I was really wondering where the goth connection was . . .

    The birthday boy receiving kisses from his daughters - Pane Rustica Bakery event roomThe event space was exceptionally dark, but one good thing it did have going for it was a very tall and wide room dividing gray curtain that could be pulled out and extended as necessary.  It made for the perfect photography background.  Whenever someone wanted a photo, I just pulled out the curtain and was able to get both a good exposure and a clean background.

    The 60th Birthday Speech -- Pane Rustica Bakery event roomI have mostly successfully avoided having an organized birthday party since I was 12 years old.  Even as a kid I forbid the singing of the happy birthday song at my party.  The cake was brought out in silence.  Perhaps on my own 60th birthday party, should I be lucky enough to be able to attract such a large crowd of fans as seen above, I will yield and give a speech myself, though never to the birthday song!  However, I am a big fan of birthday party games like pin the tale on the donkey, musical chairs, etc.

    Family Birthday Celebration - Pane Rustica Bakery Tampa event roomI wonder if any of the above photographs will end up on a future birthday poster for him, perhaps for his 75th birthday celebration?  If I could, I would like to contact the person(s) who took the photographs on his 60th birthday poster and tell them that they did something valuable and continue to contribute to this person's life.  

    freeFall theatre company ribbon cutting St. Petersburg Florida

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    St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster helps Eric Davis of freeFall theatre company do the ribbon cutting in St. PetersburgOn a bright and sunny Tuesday morning the new freeFall theatre company of St. Petersburg, Florida had its ribbon cutting on the front lawn with assistance from St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster.  As you can see by the direction of the shadows, I had to shoot almost directly into the sun, which of course meant having to definitely use manual settings to insure the exposure was long enough to be able to see some details amongst the group and try not to just totally blow out the sky.  Using my Nikon SB-800 Speedlight as fill flash, I was able to produces a satisfactory exposure.  

    St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster addresses a packed freeFall theatre before the ribbon cutting.Before having to deal with too much light, I had to deal with far too little light inside the darkened theatre itself.  The purple hues are due to the colored lights being used to light Mayor Bill Foster and the packed stands of attendees.  This was not a situation where flash was allowed so that meant cranking the ISO up to 1600, setting the aperture to f/2.8 and using a steady a shooting stance as I could in the crowded conditions as I let shutter speeds dip to as low as 1/40th of a second making sure to shoot when the mayor froze his stance, otherwise even just a slow walk would lead to a blurred image at 1/40th of a second.

    freeFall theatre company interior "Frogs" set - f/2.8 ISO 1600 1/40th handheld no flashSeveral people spoke and had the crowd quite energized.  I was ready to see a full performance!  We were treated to a small performance showcasing the current, impressive cast of The Frogs.  Long ago when I was a USF student there was a brief period where I frequented a number of Tampa playhouses.  I would like to again, but it seems ticket prices have gone up significantly since the 90s!

    freeFall theatre company Eric Davis shakes hands after the ribbon cutting ceremonyIt is certainly not often one shoots in such extremely different light conditions in a span of five minutes.  That is just part of being a professional photographer, being able to adapt to wildly varying shooting environments in minimal time with the ability to produce consistent results regardless.  Lots of shooting experience in lots of situations gives one the confidence necessary to do this.

    American Momentum Bank St. Petersburg Ribbon Cutting Event

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    Ribbon Cutting for American Momentum Bank in St. Petersburg EventAmerican Momentum Bank is located at a great corner location in downtown St. Petersburg.  I photographed the ribbon cutting ceremony sponsored by the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce.  It was a very well attended Thursday evening event.  The marketing team did their jobs well.  It was one of the liveliest crowds I have seen at a networking event too.

    New St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce CEO Chris Steinocher addresses the attendeesI am normally quite shy at these networking events, but even I talked to at least five people at length.  It helped that I met the manager of the bank a few weeks earlier at another networking event and he took a liking to me.  He was very generous with introducing me to people at the event trying to help me get new photography clients.  It was greatly appreciated.

    I was glad these people requested a photo because I loved that lady's glassesThe crowd was a mix of the regulars you see attending Chamber networking events, bank employees and their guests, as well as clients of the bank (pictured above).  It was a very fun, productive, and tasty (sweet dates) event to photograph!

    Urban Style Flats Apartments St. Petersburg Grand Opening Ribbon Cutting

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    St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster helping a young girl at the ribbon cutting ceremony for Urban Style Flats Apartments

    A new innovative style of apartment living was launched this evening as Urban Style Flats of St. Petersburg had its grand opening.  Besides being an affordable rental option for people wanting to live near downtown St. Petersburg and directly across from Tropicana Field, it will be home to visiting MLB teams playing the Rays.  St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster was on hand for the ribbon cutting ceremony helping a young girl with the traditional giant scissors used at such events, which despite their enormous size have poor cutting ability.

    Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens @ f/5.6 ISO 400 1/60th Nikon SB-800 Speedlight hotshoe mounted in TTL modeDue to the long history of the newly renovated building, there were many people in attendance who had great past and present involvement in creating that community history.  I spoke with one woman who's grandfather had lived in the building and she showed me the exact unit on a large photograph placard.  I find when I attend such events, people tell me their stories.  I do not know if it is because I am holding a large camera, or I have some other intangible trait that draws out such stories, but I am always interested to hear them.  I like to learn about the history of places via people's own personal tales.

    Celebratory spirits were high at the Urban Style Flats grand opening, even for the mayor. 

    For a Rays season ticket holder wanting an urban lifestyle, I can see these apartments being an absolutely perfect place to call home.  You could walk door to stadium seat in minutes.   

    Jason Collin Photography for Events