Travel Blog: Week 9 - Denver at Oakland

Travel Blog – 2011 Week 9: Denver at Oakland

By Andy Lopusnak, AndysPictures.com

November 3-6, 2011

Though this week's game was in the Bay Area and I didn't have to travel, it was super busy with two photo workshops, a hectic workweek and the Broncos-Raiders game.This blog isn't going to be very detailed, but I wanted to get it out with lots of photos and some insight.

Back in the spring when I began working with models to build my portfolio, I noticed that there was going to be a huge model shoot in San Francisco sponsored by American Photo magazine and Sigma for the first weekend of November. I hoped that I'd get the Broncos-Raiders game to attend and lucky for me I did. As the date drew closer, I also saw that Calumet (a camera store in SF) had a day-long one-on-one workshop with New York fashion photographer Lindsay Alder. I attended both, learned a lot about fashion photography and took over 1,200 shots.

FASHION WORKSHOP

Thursday was the fashion workshop with Lindsay Adler. In addition to learning lots of tricks of the trade from Alder, I had the chance to shoot three different models using strobes and strip lights. Alder was fantastic as an instructor.  I learned a lot about the fashion world and bought her book that gives even more insight (click here to get it from Amazon). 

Here's a few shots from Thursday (both with the constant strip lights).

PHOTO FREE-FOR-ALL

There were 14 different models on Saturday's shoot (12 women, two men). The lighting was constant set to daylight or tungsten. There were about 40 photographers and though I got some great shots and hopefully will be setting up shots with a few of the models, it was chaotic. 

I'm accustom to getting amazing shots with almost ever snap, so weeding down to the very best photos is a lot harder than I thought. I'm not even close to editing all the photos from this and the fashion workshop, but here's a few of my favorites. I'll be posting more on my site, so click here to check them out.

THE GAME: Broncos 38, Raiders 24

This game marked just the sixth time in NFL history that Heisman Trophy winning quarterbacks started against each other. 2002 winner Carson Palmer made his first start for the Raiders after a midseason trade from Cincinnati. For the Broncos, 2007 winner Tim Tebow made his third start of the season. Palmer finished with 332 passing yards with three scores, but was picked off three times. Tebow tossed two touchdowns and ran for a career-high 118 yards on just 12 carries. With Tebow over 100 as well as Willis McGahee, the Broncos became just the fifth team in league history to have a QB and a RB over the century mark rushing in the same game (first since 2006). Denver scored the game's final 24 points.

THE TIME LAPSE

Sunday's time lapse of O.co Coliseum marked my 37th different sports time lapse as well as the 15th different NFL home venue (not including Wembley in London). I placed my camera on the 300 level next to the CBS fixed wide shot (beauty camera). It was attached to a flimsy wooden barrier as you can see in the photo below. I was scared that it might fall so I secured it with a lock. However, it was anything but flimsy for the time lapse and it never moved.

The Black Hole is a terrible venue, but thanks to the cloud cover and sunshine, it looks pretty good in the time lapse. Next week, I get to add Seattle to the mix and in two weeks will be Philly.  

OTHER PHOTOS

On Wednesday, I shot a huge spider with a macro lens outside of work. The wind was blowing pretty hard and at times, I thought the spider was attacking me because I was so close to it with the macro lens. 

Saturday's shoot was next to were the Occupy San Francisco people were camped out by the Ferry Building. The camp smelled of pot, urine and feces.

After Thursday's shoot, I drove over to Treasure Island to get photos of the Bliss Dance sculpture that stands more 40-feet tall and weighs more than 7,000 pounds.

BEST PHOTOS FROM WEEK NINE