Hoop Dancers Visit PVCC

Paradise Valley Community College played host to six time hoop dance champion Derrick Suwaima Davis and company on Thursday 7 November 2013.  

Suwaima, who represents the Hopi and Choctaw Nations, started and directs his inter-tribal dance group, The Living Traditions Dance Troupe.  

He also serves as artistic director and choreographer for Native Trails presented by Fort McDowell Yavapi Nation and produced by the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts.  

I photographed their visit with my Canon 5D Mark III and Canon 600EX-RT (hand held) for fill flash. I edited photos using Lightroom 5.

Jim Patterson

Here are all of my photos from the hoop dancers!

Phoenix Halloween Lighting by Manfrotto

The little ones showed up in force at our north Phoenix home on 31 October 2013.  

I decided to photograph them with my Canon 5D Mark III and for the first time, use the Manfrotto ML360 LED light.  It is pretty light weight with 36 little LED's.  It takes four AAA batteries.  You can also adjust the amount of light with a dial.  And, you can attach it to your camera's hot shoe lengthwise or widthwise.  

I just checked with B&H and they list it at $119.  I'd say an inexpensive way to experiment with LED continuos lights.  

For this, I held the light in my left hand and ran my camera with my right hand.    

It's a pretty bright light I found out and some of the youngsters didn't like having that in their eyes.  I don't think a bounce card would have done much good, but I supposed I could have put an orange jell over the face of it.  

I'd say this light is perfect for video and for doing some of the things you see here.  It would also work nicely for macro photography.  

Also make sure to visit Manfrotto Imagine More for tips and tutorials.

Jim Patterson

Here are more of my photos from Halloween!

Horses Help Benefit

Horses Help is an organization involved in helping people through therapeutic riding. 

On Saturday 2 November they held a benefit to raise money.  Housing and caring for horses isn’t cheap.   

To donate and/or volunteer, visit http://HorsesHelp.org

It was nice to see my PVCC colleague and friend Dina Preston-Ortiz with her band entertaining at the event!

These are a few photos from the event.  I took them with a Canon 5D Mark III and the Canon “L” 28-105mm lens without flash. 

Jim Patterson

And, here’s a slideshow of photos from the event…