Two Days Of Shooting In The O.C.

I’m cautiously optimistic by what I see, but I am by no means a portrait photographer.

IMG_0080.jpgWelcome to California. I am 536 photos into my trip! Long day.

Cousin Melissa and her son Cousin Max met me at the Orange County Airport. With a larger than life bronze statue of John Wayne as a sixshooter wearing cowboy in front of a larger than life American flag there was no forgetting the conservative rep The OC has claimed through my lifetime.

This is a trip all about photography. Melissa is running for office and I’m her shooter. All I can think about are the stories I heard about the friend who shot my parent’s wedding and never produced the photos! My folks have no wedding photos. Please–don’t let that be me.

The idea was to find a bunch of setups where Melissa would interact with her potential electorate. I had been schooled by my Cousin Michael who sent links to some political websites featuring candidate photos. Without naming names I can safely say some of them used a friend with a point-and-shoot or got horribly ripped off.

We took dozens of pics yesterday afternoon and then restarted the process this morning. With friends and relatives in tow we went to parks and schools and other picturesque and/or identifiable spots.

IMG_0180-1.jpgI’m not posting any of those photos. Not yet at least. We need to go through a photo culling process and some minor post processing. I’m cautiously optimistic by what I see, but I am by no means a portrait photographer.

My biggest concern and constant shot-by-shot problem is controlling the Speedlight. I’ve been using my friend Steve’s “pope hat” made of Ikea plastic shelf liner to soften the light. I’ve probably taken more flash augmented outdoor shots in full sun today than in all my previous uses of the flash!

I can tell you this. Orange County is beautiful. Though this area was desert a few decades ago it is lush, green, full of people… and vacant office space. Orange County is ground zero for America’s financial meltdown.