Summer at the Center 2008

These are images from this year's Summer at the Center show, held every year at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. It's an amazing show with kids who have had it rough in life. The Young American's Director and Choreographer, Bill & Robyn Brawley, teach these kids confidence, performance, compassion, peace, teamwork, discipline, and above all, love. It is an incredible show to take in!

Flash Slideshow

Fireworks

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July! I certainly did. It started off with the La Verne 4th of July parade, then off to my father-in-law's birthday party, then back for the La Verne Fireworks show, then friends came over. Quite a day! Here is an image of the fireworks we watched.



Things have been really busy for me lately. I have many blogs to post on recent photography activities so stay tuned!

-B

Mike & Dalisa

What a beautiful wedding and couple! They are great friends and we had a great time that day! Here is a slideshow of some of the images from that special day.

Enjoy!

A new day

After a pretty tough week and a half (personally), I decided I wanted to go out and watch and photograph the sunrise. Using beauty that God created to inspire me and put things in perspective.

Some people would go to a local park or trail for a nice view, but I decided I needed to see it from a really spectacular place. So, last night I decided I would wake up at 2:45 and make the 2+ hour drive to Joshua Tree National Park to watch the sunrise. Might as well go all out, right?

So it took a little longer than I anticipated and I ended up in a different spot than I had originally thought. I hadn't been to the park for maybe 14 years, so I did not know where a good spot might be. Maybe I should just call this a scouting trip for next time.

By the time I got up to a decent spot, the sun was just about to come over the top of the rock formations on the horizon. I was able to get a few shots that I am currently working on in photoshop.

I then drove on to another part of the park and got some other early sunlight shots.

Here are a few of the images I captured. Joshua Tree National Park is truly a spectacular landscape. If you haven't ever been, I encourage you to go there. I think a camping trip is in the future. Then I can have another go at the sunrise.

It sure was beautiful.

Recent Shoot

Here are some photos from a recent shoot I did with a friend of mine who was in town from New York city. She and I used to sing together in the Young Americans. You can check out her music at her myspace music page here: Marnie Buckner.

We had a great time shooting these in downtown Orange around the circle (a great place to shoot).

Some of these will definitely be making it onto the Brian Black Photography website.

Sometimes when life throws so many things at you, it is nice when God gives you a sunset to remind you of the beauty He can create. This was Sunday night's beauty. I was out shooting a large format assignment (more on this later) and the sky just kept getting more and more spectacular.

It was an important reminder to me that when life is rough you need to keep your eyes open. There is beauty all around you.

Hooray!

Brian Black Photography has it's website up and I have to say, I like it quite a bit. I hope you do too. I have to give a big thanks to Steffan Snodgrass for designing the logo and site. You should check out his company Blue Ember Creations.

My birthday is March 9 (tomorrow) and having the website up with some of my pictures is kind of like a birthday present. It is really nice to see it all come together. It is just the beginning!

You might be wondering (or maybe not) what I asked for for my birthday. Well, many photography related things. Mostly money towards a good tripod. Right now I think my choice is a Feisol 3442 for the legs and a Markins M10 ballhead. There are quite a few good comments on this combination on the Nikonians forums.

Feisol is a Taiwan company that makes carbon fiber tripods for less than the Gitzo's. I'm sure the quality is not quite as good, but the price difference for equivalent features is pretty substantial. If I decide to get this, I will post a review here.

Another request was one of Steve McCurry's books. I love his work.

That is it for today. Let me know what you think of it!

brianblackphoto.com