Breaking News

So living in the Bay Area has really shook my life up-literally.
The San Jose Mercury News is reporting a 5.6 earthquake somewhere around 10 miles from San Jose. Pretty damn close if you ask me.
Now you might be wondering where I was while the earth decided to move. I was on the fourth floor of Ducan Hall, hiding under my mini-desk, before busting my butt down the four fights of stairs.
This earthquake wasn't that bad, but it's pretty scary when your in the middle of a critique on the fourth floor. It was my first one here in the Bay Area, which seems notorious for earthquakes, but in actually my roommate who has been here for over three years said it was his first.
The irony of the situation is that I just recently read in the Mercury News that the "Big One" is due to make an appearance anytime now. This was just a little reminder.
But a question I ponder is how the media will respond to this. It is obvious a big deal, but no one was really hurt or not much damage. We have electricity, and my cell phone still works (though AT&T users were experiencing trouble with theres). The news jumped on the story, but quickly returned to regular programing. The Mercury website had a quick blurb about it, but it wasn't very prominent. But that was only about half an hour after the quake. I was quite impressed with the amount of info they had coming from all over the Bay Area.
All in all a crazy experience, lets hope that we keep those kind of experiences to a minimum.

So for the longest time I have been wanting to do this technique that gives the photo a cool edgy look. I don't know that I nailed it, but I am getting close. Photoshop is full of neat little tricks, and I am at the very tip of the iceberg. If you know the look I am going for, do you think I got it? Do you know any tricks yourself?

What a game...

San Jose State put on a-hell-of-a show against Hawaii on national TV. The Spartans took the Rainbow Warriors into overtime, but weren't able to pull out the "W". They had a two touchdown lead with four minutes left, but Hiesmen hopeful, Colt Brennan, led Hawaii to the victory.

I was able to shoot the game, my first time shooting in the rain, and got some very good shoots. I definitely learned somethings from shooting in the rain, one being were clothes you don't mind ruining, and will apply those lessons-learned in the future.

You can check out my shots from the game here.

Tell me what you think.

Printing

So I have recently found the need to send-out some prints for customers. Like anyone else out there, I am looking for the best quality I can at a great price.

I am also looking for someone that will print similar to what I modify my prints too. I know a lot of that lies in the calibration of my monitor, which I have calibrated as much as I can. It's also difficult to work off a laptop, but it isn't impossible to get similar prints.

I have tried two places up here in the Bay Area, one local shop in Downtown San Jose called Foto Express and a semi-professional lab in San Francisco called Photoworks.

It's kind of funny, I use to work for a photo lab called Photo Express back in Hanford, Ca.

But the prints I get at Foto Express in San Jose aren't too bad, but they print a lot darker and a little less contrast than what I expected. But the service and turnaround there is excellent. It is ran by a SJSU Graduate, who is one of the nicest persons around.

The above shot was printed at Foto Express, but it was printed a lot darker, and with less contrast.

Photoworks printed rather well. I don't know that I was wowed by the quality, but I got what I wanted. The only problem was that it took a while to get to me. I had them Fed Ex-ed, but they didn't get sent out the right day and ended up taking over a week to get to me. All I had was three 8x10. Granted, when I called and asked where my prints were, they overnighted them and were cool about it.

I would use Photoworks again, as well as Henry at Foto Express, but where do you print?