Edwin Villanueva

So I just got done looking through the pics I took from the UC Irvine International Tournament. Considering this was only my second attempt shooting indoor volleyball, I’m okay with how the pictures came out.

Indoor volleyball is regarded as one of the toughest sports to photograph due to the combination of (typically bad) lighting and speed at which the game is played. ISO’s of 1600-3200 and shutter speeds of 500 and greater are usually required to “stop” the action. Fast lenses of f2.8 and below are a must. My poor Canon 50D was pushed to the limit and quite honestly it shows in the quality of the photos. Because I had to shoot at ISO3200, there was quite a bit of noise in all the pictures I took. I’m starting to realize if I want to continue shooting sports and indoor volleyball, I’ll have to start saving for better equipment.

Anyways, here’s a few of my favorites from the tourney this weekend.

The US National Men’s Volleyball Team played their second Red/Blue scrimmage in as many weeks as preparation for the World Championships later this month in Italy. The Red Team were victorious winning 3-1 over the Blue squad. Most of the players that suited up today are part of the 19 player preliminary roster that will be trimmed down to 14, including two liberos, with 12 being chosen for each match. The team leaves for Italy in the following week and will be playing in the Pool with Mexico, Venezuela and Argentina. Best of luck guys. GO TEAM USA!

The following are some shots from the scrimmage today held at Golden West College in Huntington Beach, CA.

It’s incredible how good cell phones are now for taking pictures. Given the proper lighting and processing, they can produce some amazing pics. This was taken with my HTC EVO just a few days ago. Not too bad.

I don’t even know where to begin. This past month has been extremely busy. First, I’ll start off with work. A couple of my co-workers were on vacation at various times this month so I had to step up and cover for them. This of course meant long hours at work. Although on some occasions, I had to stay late at work, it wasn’t as bad as I initially feared. With both of them back, it’s back to normal starting tomorrow since I took the day off today.

This past month, I also traveled to the Bay Area quite a bit. Three times to be exact. Once was personal, the other was for a wedding and third time was for AidsWalk SF.

After going home at the end of May for personal reasons, I wasn’t planning on returning to the Bay Area until July 18th for AidsWalk SF. I found out that my Mom, Dad and two little nephews were part of the wedding entourage for my cousin Edna’s wedding. My family wanted me to be there so they paid for my ticket so I could attend the wedding. I’m glad that I did. The wedding ceremony was beautiful and I had a great time at the reception. It also gave me the opportunity to use my DSLR, which as you’ve noticed by my lack of blog posts, I haven’t used lately. Below are a few of the images I took from the reception which was held at Hiddenbrooke Golf Club in Vallejo, CA.

The Bride and Groom – Edna and Jay

Maid of Honor Speech

(Yes-She’s reading her speech from her iPhone. )

Dad, Tobey, Joshua and Mom

Fairway at Hiddbrooke Golf Club

You can see the complete set of pictures that I took from the wedding here.
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A couple of weeks ago, a coworker and I headed over to Oceanside to take some snapshots of the Pier during sunset. I realized I hadn’t been back since moving to Carlsbad last October, which is weird considering it’s just a short 10 minute drive from where I live. Anyways, it was my coworkers first time taking photos there so I was happy to show him key locations to be at as the sun was setting.

Here are a few of my favorites that I took. Enjoy!