RHPB HAS MOVED!!

After about 3.5 years and 378 blog post, RHPB is moving over to WordPress so that this blog can be directly connected to my website. You know more web traffic, text content, SEO, blah blah blah. Enough is enough of trying to explain to my mother the difference/location of my website/blog. Seriously though, it's gonna be the same thing just gonna look a little different. Big thank you's to everyone who has tuned into this page for the past few years. Much appreciated. Hard to believe I have been blogging for this long. Most of my friends have begged me to stop. Anyway, I hope you will all continue to follow me at:


WWW.ROBHAMMERPHOTOGRAPHY.COM/BLOG

WWW.ROBHAMMERPHOTOGRAPHY.COM/BLOG

WWW.ROBHAMMERPHOTOGRAPHY.COM/BLOG

Kristen Mann

This is Kristen Mann. She played ball in the WNBA for a couple years and now plays overseas. You wouldn't know it by the ice grill in these images, but she's really sweet. Awesome to shoot with. We shot these for DIME Magazine up in Venice Beach like 5 months ago in a hotel room. Challenging to say the least. The room was very small (for a studio) and had 8 ft. ceilings, which causes light to bounce all over the place. For all the shots on white I actually used a king sized bed sheet from Target and pushed a bunch of light through it and back towards the camera. It gives a soft edge light all around her that I like for this kind of thing. The ones on black were also a black sheet with some subtle stripes. Kristen was very generous with her time, so we got a bunch of different lucks in the room, on the roof, and on the Venice basketball courts. What a circus it is out there. Bunch of freaks. Not sure how, but that was my first time in Venice. I'll be back....

Thanks again Kristen. You rock!

On a different note, this is the last post for RHP on this site. As of tomorrow my blog will be found directly on my website at www.robhammerphotography.com/blog





Out on the Venice courts about 30 seconds before we got kicked off.





A bunch of my fav's that didn't make the cut












MORE ATHLETE IMAGES ON MY WEBSITE

TAGS: WNBA Photography, Kristen Mann, WNBA, Woman's Basketball Photography, Portrait of Kristen Mann, Portrait of Professional Basketball Player, Basketball, Basketball Player, Studio Portrait of Kristen Mann, Commercial Photography, Advertising Photography, Rob Hammer Photography, DIME Magazine

Happy Halloween

Great times this past Saturday night! Halloween is always one of my favorite parties of the year. Everyone lets loose.....as you can see. I brought some gear for the much needed documentation.











TAGS: Halloween, Happy Halloween, Halloween Party, Halloween 2011, Party, Rob Hammer Photography, San Diego, California, Halloween Photos, Photographer San Diego

John Wall

Went up to LA about a month ago for this shoot with NBA star John Wall and Dime Magazine. Any time I get to shoot a professional athlete it's exciting. However a lot of these shoots also seem so up in the air and last minute, which is tough for a few reasons. First is because you don't have much time with the athlete at all. And second, because you don't have much say in where you shoot them. In this case we were put in a small gym in LA. Ideally I would like to take these guys out somewhere gritty and industrial, but that just can't happen. Their schedule won't allow it and neither will their agents. So sometimes you get stuck shooting them on a seamless. You have to take what you can get though! Not gonna complain. I don't mind the seamless if your in a closed off set where you can talk to the subject and pull some emotion out of them. This wasn't one of those times. There were probably 30 other guys in the gym playing basketball. You couldn't hear anything over that noise. I'm still fairly happy with some of the shots and John was a cool kid to shoot with. Very accommodating. Good times. Thanks DIME. Always a pleasure!











A couple shots that didn't make the cut. I love these first two and was surprised that Dime didn't run them. It's always interesting to me seeing how different my opinion is to that of an art director/photo editor.





TAGS: John Wall, NBA, National Basketball Association, Basketball Player, Professional Basketball Player, Portrait of John Wall, Sports Photography Portrait of John Wall, Washington Wizards, Basketball, Men's Basketball, Elite Athlete, Studio Portrait of John Wall, Commercial Photographer San Diego, Advertising Photographer San Diego, Los Angeles, San Diego, California, Rob Hammer Photography, Dime Magazine, NBA Photography, Washington Wizards Photography, Photographer San Diego, Sports Photographer San Diego

Kettlebell-Fitness Photography

Watching the World Series right now and don't feel like writing much. Albert just hit his 3rd HR of the night. Crazy.

These shots basically came out of a last resort location. We originally planned on doing some running shots on a track with a chute and some other stuff on concrete stairs. Location fell through. Couldn't get into the stadium, so we ended up in a parking garage.













TAGS: Kettlebell, Kettlebell Workouts, Fitness, Fitness Photography, Fitness Model, Male Fitness Model, Portrait of Fitness Model with Kettlebell, Athlete, Sports, Body Builder, Body Building, Muscle, Strength, Endurance, Power, Commercial Photography, Advertising Photography, San Diego Fitness Photography, Rob Hammer Photography, San Diego, California

Jacqueline-Fitness Photography

Jacqueline

Mini Vagabond-Review

Recently got some new equipment from PCB. Most importantly was the Mini Vagabond Power Pack. For my style of shooting there really isn't a better option (for the price) then to have portable power. I like using big gridded light modifiers which knocks speed lights out of the equation. Most of the shooting I do is outdoors in bright sunlight, so it would take a bag full of SB's to over power the sun. For a long time I have been using the old model Vagabond which is like carrying around a concrete block. It's heavy, awkward, and TSA hates it. That thing was a constant headache when trying to go through security at any airport. In the past 2 years I have blown through 3 of them. Even had one light on fire when I was on a shoot. That was awesome! That being said, it has provided me with a lot of power in a lot of different places and been (for the most part) very reliable. In the end though, it is just too bulky and heavy. You can't check it in your luggage because it will take up almost 20lbs of your 50lb max. Also, the bag it comes in is a total piece of junk. The clips that hold the shoulder strap always break, as does the zipper. To make the decision easier, PCB has discontinued it. So the only places you could get one are CL or ebay. Anyway, on to the new model......

By far the best thing about the Mini Vagabond is the weight. The old one is almost 19 lbs. The mini is 3 lbs. You could carry around 6 mini's to equal the weight of the old one!!!!! Of course there is a flip side to that. One of my favorite things about the old model is that it doubled as a sand bag. I put mine in a mini LowePro backpack and hung it off my C-Stand. Now I will have to carry a sandbag to replace the concrete block battery pack. The next positive is the dual outlets on the face of the Mini. You can plug two lights (or whatever) directly into the pack. On the old one you needed an adapter to plug in multiple power cords. Something that almost everyone will love is the USB port! Right on the face is a USB port, so now all you tech geeks can plug in your IPhone, Ipad, Ipod, or any other device that has a USB hook up. Great idea! Take it on road trips and charge your phone. Take it on the plane and run your computer off of it.

The obvious Con is the amount of power it gives you. Doesn't seem to last as long as the old model. Although I am probably harder on it then most people. I like to overpower the sun with a White Lightning X3200 on full blast, so I'll usually be around F/16-20. If you just like to use your lights as fill then you'll be able to shoot all day. For my first test I ran the X3200 off of it and after about 150 full power blasts, the pack was at 1/4 power. Another positive of the Mini; it will tell you how much power is left in 1/4 intervals. Ultimately I think the old model lasts a little longer, but I would have to shoot until the Mini really died to be sure. Another thing I don't like is the power button on the face of the Mini. It can very easily be knocked into the ON position. IF you throw it in a backpack or Pelican Case and things get shifted around, the pack could be turned on and all your juice could be gone when you arrive at a shoot. The last thing I dislike about the Mini is the charger attachment. Doesn't seem all that sturdy. I can see it breaking at some point.

All in all it is hard to even complain about either of the Vagabond's. Especially for the price.The Mini is going for $239.95 which is a joke compared to ProFoto, Ranger, Etc. The Mini is a fantastic piece of equipment that I will probably buy over and over again unless I find something better. The best part about buying ANYTHING from PCB is their customer service. They are FANTASTIC! If something breaks and it's under warranty they will have a new part in the mail that day! I bought a used Vagabond a while back and it shit the bed on me after a ton of use. They looked up the serial number on it and because it was still under warranty they sent me a new one. Who else is gonna do that?

These are the some of the shots I took to test out the Mini Vagabond. Had the Mini powering the X3200/3ft Chimera Octa and the old pack running the x1600 w/bare high output reflector. Location is the Ocean Beach Skate Park in San Diego. There are some talented skaters/bmx'ers down there.

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TAGS: Paul C. Buff, White Lightning, Vagabond, Mini Vagabond, Lighting, Lighting Equipment, Professional Lighting Equipment, Power Pack, Portable Power Pack, Mini Vagabond Power Pack, Review of Mini Vagabond, Equipment Test, Equipment Review, Commercial Photography, Advertising Photography, Rob Hammer Photography, San Diego, California, Ocean Beach, Ocean Beach Skateboard Park, Skateboard, Skateboarding, Professional Skateboarder, Portrait of a Skateboarder, Portrait, Dramatic Portrait, Portrait of BMX Biker