This was incredibly hard to do. Sarah asked me what my top ten pictures were and I felt compelled to figure it out. But here they are in chronological order:
Bunny Goes Flying (7/18/07) – This is probably my favorite picture of them all. I was sitting in the copilot seat of a friend’s Bonanza flying to LA and noticed my shadow on the wing. There wasn’t any question what had to be done, and I started shooting. Gary never questioned what was going on next to him.
Bolex Camera (7/24/07) – If I shot this today I’d get rid of the bright white blown out floor, but I love the image anyways. The picture is a tribute to my dad and the first movie camera I used as a kid, so there’s personal emotions built into this one. Plus I think it’s just purdy.
Windmill (9/21/07) – This image got panned by a judge in a competition I entered it in because it broke the rule of thirds and is totally symmetrical, which is exactly why I took it and why I love it. I use this as my desktop image on my laptop.
Tumbling Dice (12/14/07) – You might think I got lucky to get boxcars on this roll, but I took hundreds of photos to get this one. Just playin’ the odds. I’m especially proud of this because it didn’t use any fancy equipment. Just a flashlight and the built in flash on my camera. This is one of my most popular pictures on flickr.
Game Over (3/25/08) – Lacrosse is a great game to watch, and a lot of fun to photograph. I learned a lot about action photography at Kevin’s games, but this is my favorite lacrosse picture by a wide margin. I like that one of the players is off to the side, the low sun, the vivid colors, and especially the wide crop. I got a 14″ wide print and matted and framed it for Kevin’s room and it looks great.
Magic Hour Stairway (4/10/08) – Taken in the hour before sunset on Treasure Island in the San Francisco Bay. I love the color and composition and the amount of detail that came out. I was using a Canon 40D that I rented for a shoot I was doing for a friend – it went on my wish list that day. That was a great time to be roaming around a decommissioned naval base, I felt like I couldn’t shoot fast enough to get all the shots that were possible there.
Student Team Photos (5/7/08) – There’s a lot I like about this (composite) photo. First off, it’s all my students so that makes it awesome right there. Second, all my studying of lighting paid off. This was shot with a single strobe bounced off the wall to give a softer light, and a long exposure to get the powerpoint slides on the screens. Third, to get them and the screen image in the same shot I had to use this really low camera angle (I was lying on the floor) and I needed them to lean into the camera to get their faces from shrinking – this ended up creating a really fun pose that brings out a lot of their personalities.
Golden Contentment (6/17/08) – This one was a tough call. Shane was my favorite subject and I had a lot of images of him to choose from. Laying on the lawn with tennis balls, sticking his head out the car window, puffy hair after a bath… he’s a star. This image was from a really fun day we had on the lake, and it says a lot to me about what a special dog he is.
Kite’s View of Mt. Tallac Peak (6/24/08) – After 14 years of going to Stanford Sierra Camp, I finally did the hike to the top of Tallac. I planned this one months ahead of time and bought a kite aerial photography kit and learned how to use it, all with the hope that the wind would be right up there to get this shot. I felt great about doing the hike, and being able to get the shot was a giant thrill for me. I beamed about this one for days and still brag about it to anyone who will listen.
The End (7/7/08) – If my last photo of the project wasn’t on my top ten list I would feel like I failed. I tried to apply a lot of what I’ve learned to this shot both in technique and in storytelling. And it made the list.