Shameless self-promotion

By Clifford Oto | Published: March 12, 2010 | 0 Comments

TidewaterJust a little FYI, The Record photographers, Craig Sanders, Michael McCollum, Calixtro Romias and myself are participating in a dual exhibit with potter Doreen Heath at the Tidewater Art Center and Gallery at 223 E. Weber Avenue in downtown Stockton. The show, featuring about 20 prints of our work throughout the years, will run from March 2 to April 2. There will be an artists reception today, Friday March 12, from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Hope to see you there!

Posted in Art, Photographs | Tagged , | 0 Comments

Put on a happy face

By Clifford Oto | Published: March 11, 2010 | 0 Comments

During the Sac-Joaquin Section Division boys basketball playoff game between Lincoln and Pleasant Grove, one player seemed happier than the rest. In nearly every shot I got of Lincoln’s Alex Enright, it looked like he was smiling.

He smiled while driving down the lane. He smiled as he completed a difficult pass between defenders. He smiled when shooting a jumper. He smiled as a teammate took a shot. Enright was even smiling when a Pleasant Grove defender reached in for the ball and inadvertently fouled him in a rather sensitive place.


Enright is fouled by Pleasant Grove’s Dylan Woodfill (Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor: 70-200mm @ 75mm. Exposure: 1/250th sec. @ f/2.8. ISO: 1600).

Lincoln lost the close, hard-fought game, 59-57, but Enright looked like he was just having fun no matter what the outcome was.
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Posted in High Schools, Sports | Tagged , | 0 Comments

iPhone: circa 1,300 BC

By Clifford Oto | Published: March 8, 2010 | 0 Comments

As we waited for our tour of the Tut exhibit to begin, I saw several undated photographs by English Egyptologist and archaeological photographer Harry Burton lining the walls of the hallway. One in particular caught my attention. It was the side of a wooden box found in Tut’s tomb. On it was a cartouche or Tut’s royal name written in hieroglyphs. What drew me to it was that, due in part to it’s rounded rectangular shape, it kind of resembled a modern day iPhone with the ancient Egyptian symbols looking like the Apple smart phone’s app icons. I guess the Egyptians really were ahead of their time. I wonder if they had unlimited texting?

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Tut tut, my dear

By Clifford Oto | Published: March 6, 2010 | 0 Comments


Students line up to enter the King Tut exhibit at the De Young Museum in San Francisco (Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 17-55mm @ 17mm. Exposure: 1/125th sec. @ f/2.8. ISO: 800).

Every year the 6th grade classes at my son’s school take a field trip to San Francisco to tour Chinatown to learn about the importance of Chinese-American and Chinese immigrant culture to California. This year I chaperoned for my son’s class. Except this trip was going to be different. We still went to San Francisco, but instead of Chinatown, we went to the De Young Museum to see the King Tut exhibition.

Led by a docent, we made our way in groups of about 15 through four rooms of ancient Egyptian antiquities. Each room held beautiful and marvelous artifacts. Although Tut’s sarcophagus and death mask were too delicate to make the trip from Egypt, there were many other wonders on display from intricate gold jewelry to stone carvings and more.


6th grader Jacob Hua is shown a book on King Tut by a docent at the De Yong Museum gift store in San Francisco (Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 17-55mm @ 17mm. Exposure: 1/40th sec. @ f/2.8. ISO: 800).

I was a bit embarrassed because throughout the entire tour Steve Martin’s novelty song “King Tut” kept running like a loop in my mind. Not exactly appropriate for such a seemingly dignified and portentous circumstance. At least I refrained from humming the tune.

Everything was so wondrous that I wanted to take some pictures. Most museums don’t allow flash photography to avoid the accumulation of the tiny bits of detrimental ultraviolet light emitted by the strobes, but allow available light pictures. In the Tut exhibit, photography of any kind was forbidden. I looked for an opportunity to sneak a shot, but there was a security guard in each of the four rooms of displays, and I had to leave empty-handed.


Avani Kelekar, left, and Nikkisha Prassad look at Tut-inspired items at the De Young Museum gift store in San Francisco (Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 17-55mm @ 17mm. Exposure: 1/60th sec. @ f/2.8. ISO: 800).

The guards seemed a bit hard-nosed toward the kids, I thought. In stern tones they told the students “don’t stand there,” “don’t touch that,” “don’t lean up against this,” etc., though there were no previous warnings or even signs informing of us such rules. Although the kids were quiet and well-behaved, it seemed that the guards were treating them like a mob of unruly children. The students were duly amazed at the exhibit and they all absorbed a lot of knowledge, but I’m not sure that they had all that much fun.

At the end of the tour we went into the museum’s gift shop. There were Tut-related knickknacks of every kind. Books on Tut, Tut-inspired headdresses, Tut coffee mugs, Tut baseball caps, Tut playing cards, Tut T-shirts and more too numerous to mention. There were even Ghiradelli Tut-shaped chocolates.


6th grader Frances Divinagarcia, center, tries on a Tut-inspired headdress at the De Yong Museum gift store in San Francisco (Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 17-55mm @ 17mm. Exposure: 1/100th sec. @ f/2.8. ISO: 800).

Steve Martin’s song, still playing in my head, seemed much more appropriate. The kids had a grand ol’ time in the store. Picking up things, trying things on and laughing. They probably didn’t learn as much as they did on the tour, but they had more fun.

Posted in Equipment, Schools, Travel | Tagged , | 0 Comments

A light rant

By Clifford Oto | Published: March 5, 2010 | 0 Comments


St. Mary’s Afure Jemerigbe goes to the hoop against St. Francis’ Beth Balbierz, left, and Aurora Singh during a game at St. Francis in Sacramento (Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 70-200mm @ 70mm. Exposure: 1/500th sec. @ f/2.8. ISO: 1600).

Last month I shot the St. Mary’s girls varsity basketball game at St. Francis High School in Sacramento. The St. Francis Troubadors have a great gym: Large, roomy and very well lit. I thought it’d be nice if St Mary’s had a gym like this, at least for the lighting. St Mary’s has always had great basketball and volleyball teams, and I’ve always thought that if the light at Morelli Gym were doubled, the quality of light would match the quality of play of those teams.

The lighting in most of the high school gyms in the Stockton/San Joaquin County area are at best merely adequate. It’s understandable, for some are older venues, such as Edison and Tokay. It’s expensive to retrofit an existing gymnasium with new lights. But some newer places, such as Chavez High and the newly renovated Lincoln High gym, are just as bad or worse. Even UOP’s Spanos Center and Delta College’s Blanchard Gym are barely acceptable.

One just has to either boost the camera’s light sensitivity to higher ISOs (causing noise) or use a flash, sometimes both. Newer cameras have helped with their relatively low noise to high ISO ratio, but there are some gyms that still test their capabilities.

St. Mary’s Joshua Harper drives to the hoop on El Dorado’s Nick Jemmot during a first round division III Sac-Joaquin playoff game at St. Mary’s High in Stockton (Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 70-200mm @ 70mm. Exposure: 1/500th sec. @ f/2.8. ISO: 1600).

A few weeks ago I shot a Sac-Joaquin Section boys basketball first-round playoff game at St. Mary’s High School in Stockton. I have shot there many times before, so I already knew the exposure there. Walking up to the gym, I adjusted the settings on my camera: a shutter speed of 1/320th of a second with an aperture of f/2.8 at ISO 3200.


St. Mary’s John Smith dirves to the hoop on El Dorado’s Matt Winterer during a first round division III Sac-Joaquin playoff game at St. Mary’s High in Stockton (Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 70-200mm @ 70mm. Exposure: 1/500th sec. @ f/2.8. ISO: 1600).

Once inside, I noticed the game had already started. It seemed brighter than I had remembered, but I attributed it to my eyes adjusting to coming out of the dark into a lit room. I shot off several frames then checked the monitor on the back of the camera. All of the pictures were overexposed. Perplexed, I looked toward the ceiling. There seemed to be the same number of light fixtures as I had remembered. There were even a couple that were out, but somehow there was more light than when I last shot there, only about three months previously.

St. Mary’s Sean Fenner shoots over El Dorado’s Matt Winterer (Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 70-200mm @ 70mm. Exposure: 1/500th sec. @ f/2.8. ISO: 1600).

It was great. I re-calibrated my settings. I was able to drop the ISO to 1600 and bump up the shutter speed to 1/500th of a second. I shot and rechecked, and it was still just a bit too bright. I dropped the ISO down even more to about 1250, and that was about right. The brighter light saved me about 1-1/2 stops, meaning that there was about 150% more light. I was loving it.

A couple of days ago I called St. Mary’s athletic director Jim Brusa and asked him what was up with the lights. Were there more fixtures put in? Or maybe new higher intensity bulbs? None of the above. Brusa answered that there is a second set of lights, lights that have always been there, in each fixture but aren’t normally turned on. He said that it’s always been that way. He guessed that it was due to the conservation of energy and using just enough light for what was needed for the particular event. He didn’t know the reason those extra lights were turned on that night.


St. Mary’s Joshua Harper shoots a foul shot during a first round division III Sac-Joaquin playoff game against El Dorado at St. Mary’s High in Stockton (Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 17-55mm @ 17mm. Exposure: 1/500th sec. @ f/2.8. ISO: 1250).

I told Brusa that the lighting was a great boon for photography and that they should use them for every game, and he agreed. So after my 25 years of shooting, St. Mary’s teams will get the lights that they deserve, lights that they had all along.

Posted in High Schools, Light, Sports | Tagged , , , | 0 Comments

Double take

By Clifford Oto | Published: March 4, 2010 | 0 Comments

It happens on occasion that, when shooting a sporting event, the same athlete appears in most of the photos. Sometimes it happens when a team has only one or two go-to players, other times it’s just coincidence.


Argonaut’s Lauren Godde, bottom, and Colfax’s Michelle Walker collide while chasing a loose ball during a Sac-Joaquin Section Division II girls basketball semifinal at Tokay High in Lodi (Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 70-200mm @ 80mm. Exposure: 1/250th sec @ f/2.8. ISO: 1600).

I recently had an assignment to photograph the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II girls semifinal basketball game between Argonaut and Colfax high schools. When I edited the pictures back at the office, nearly all of the five keepers featured Argonaut senior forward Lauren Godde.

One of the shots was of Godde of the floor scrambling for the ball with Colfax’s Michelle Walker. Two others were of her shooting jumpers over Colfax defenders. Another shot looked to be of a player who wore No. 17, but a quick look at the Argonaut roster revealed that 17 didn’t exist. Upon closer examination the folds in her jersey obscured the number, it was actually No. 13 — Godde once again.

Godde, left, shoots over Colfax’s Michelle Walker (Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 70-200mm @ 70mm. Exposure: 1/250th sec @ f/2.8. ISO: 1600)


The last shot was of No. 22, she looked familiar, but at least it wasn’t Lauren Godde. I looked up the player’s name on the roster. It was Erin Godde, Lauren’s twin sister.

Argonaut’s Erin Godde, right, drives past Colfax’s Erica Heikila during a Sac-Joaquin Section Division II girls basketball semifinal at Tokay High in Lodi (Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 70-200mm @ 80mm. Exposure: 1/250th sec @ f/2.8. ISO: 1600).

I may have gotten more pictures of Lauren than of Erin, and indeed she made more points (26 to Erin’s 13), but Erin made a foul shot at the end of the game that proved the game-winner, as Argonaut won, 54-53.

Posted in High Schools, Sports | Tagged , , , | 0 Comments

Natural light

By Clifford Oto | Published: March 3, 2010 | 0 Comments

Krysta Guerrero, author of the EvilChefMom.com blog cooks dinner at her Stockton home (Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 17-55mm @ 18mm. Exposure: 1/60th sec. @ f/2.8. ISO: 200).

Krysta Guerrero is the author of EvilChefMom.com, a blog about cooking food and her observations of life in general. Though cleverly written, what impressed me was the quality of her photography. She has a instinctutal eye for lighting and composition. Each of her photos has a simplicity and is quite beautiful.


Stuffed mushrooms made by Guerrero (Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 17-55mm @ 55mm. Exposure: 1/60th sec. @ f/2.8. ISO: 200).


A sliced lemon at Guerrero’s Stockton home (Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 17-55mm @ 55mm. Exposure: 1/160th sec. @ f/2.8. ISO: 200).

I had the opportunity to photograph Guerrero the other day. She made dinner for Record online editor Tara Cuslidge, copy editor Christine Teldeschi and me for a Wednesday food story on her. I asked her if she had any formal photography training or classes, and she replied no. As a youngster she picked up her mom’s camera one day, started shooting and never gave it back.


Guerrero stands in the natural light of the laundry room of her home (Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 17-55mm @ 17mm. Exposure: 1/125th sec. @ f/2.8. ISO: 200).


(Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 17-55mm @ 17mm. Exposure: 1/60th sec. @ f/2.8. ISO: 200)

For the pictures of food that she posts on her blog, Guerrero has a couple of built-in studios at her Stockton home. One is a breakfast nook and the other a laundry room, both situated just off the kitchen and both with large windows that let in some great  natural illumination. The light enters each room, reflects off the white walls and fills them with a gentle softness.


A chicken dinner made by Krysta Guerrero, author of the EvilChefMom.com at her Stockton home (Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 17-55mm @ 40mm. Exposure: 1/60th sec. @ f. 2.8. ISO: 200).

Guerrero prepared chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans. A wonderful mouth-watering aroma filled the kitchen, but due to a pending assignment I couldn’t stay (although she did give me a taste of the chicken, which was moist and flavorful), but she made my job easier by artfully plating her meal and allowing me to use the wonderful light that occurs naturally in her home.

Posted in Food, Light | 0 Comments

February’s favorite photos

By Clifford Oto | Published: March 2, 2010 | 0 Comments

Question: “Which month has 28 days?”
Answer: “All of them.”

Here are 10 favorite previously unposted pictures from February.

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2/3/10:


Esther Roche of Lodi holds her 7-month-old son Gregory Roche as she plays the piano for the senior lunch crowd at the Loel Center in Lodi. Roche was filling-in for her mother-in-law Phyllis Roche who usually plays during lunch but was feeling ill (Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 17-55mm @ 17mm. Exposure: 1/125th sec. @ f/2.8. ISO: 400).

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2/4/10:

Joseph Dawes of Stockton pulls his coat over his head to keep warm from a chilly wind while participating in a Delta College walking class around the track at Delta’s DiRicco Field in Stockton (Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 70-200mm w/ 1.7 extender @ 250mm. Exposure: 1/250th sec. @ f/8. ISO: 200).

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2/5/10:


Edison High student Kirklan Spencer talks about fellow student Judhromia “J.J.” Johnson who was shot and killed the night before (Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 17-55mm @ 17mm. Exposure: 1/250th sec. @ f/8. ISO: 200).



5-year-old Haley Lucero of Stockton enjoys a performance by entertainers Greg and Steve during a concert of the Musical Chairs Children’s Concert Series at the Central United Methodist Church in Stockton (Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 70-200mm @ 135mm. Exposure: 1/125th sec. @ f/2.8. ISO: 800)

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2/8/10:


A canopy of clouds greets Delta College track member Martin Jucutan as he throws the shot put during a team practice on the Delta campus in Stockton (Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 17-55mm @ 17mm. Exposure: 1/250th sec. @ f/11. ISO: 100).


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2/9/10:

Delta College’s Chezla Self has her shot blocked by Diablo Valley College’s Vanassa Johnson during a game at Delta’s Blanchard Gym in Stockton (Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 70-200mm @ 120mm. Exposure: 1/640th sec. @ f/2.8. ISO: 2500).

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2/16/10:


With his feet secured in a harness that is hooked to a cable and pulley, Delta College pole vaulter Zack Shallberger inverts himself by pulling on the cable attached to a goal post at Delta’s DiRicco Field in Stockton while teammate Francisco Magana spots him. The device was a part of a strength training exercise during a Delta track practice (Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 70-200mm @ 190mm. Exposure: 1/500th sec. @ f/8. ISO: 200).

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2/19/10:


19-year-old Jason Nobles of Stockton rides his skateboard at the Stockton Skate Park at Anderson Park in Stockton (Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 17-55mm @ 17mm. Exposure: 1/250tth sec. @ f/5.6. ISO: 200).

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2/24/10:


Under party sunny skies dandelions grow at Buckley Cove Park in Stockton (Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 17-55mm @ 17mm. Exposure: 1/250th sec. @ f/22 w/ fill-flash. ISO: 100).



St. Mary’s Joshua Harper is fouled by El Dorado’s Joe Visman during a first round division III Sac-Joaquin playoff game at St. Mary’s High in Stockton (Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 70-200mm @ 70mm. Exposure: 1/500th sec. @ f/2.8. ISO: 1250).

Posted in Month in review | Tagged | 0 Comments

Fly like an eagle

By Clifford Oto | Published: March 1, 2010 | 0 Comments

The bald eagle is a very proud and dignified looking animal. It’s no wonder that it’s our national bird and is a symbol of power and freedom.


UC Davis veterinarian Dr. Scott Weber, left, checks the injured wings of a female bald eagle held by animal care specialists Julie Rosenthal, center, and Anne Metcalf at the Micke Grove Zoo (Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 17-55mm @ 20mm. Exposure: 1/125th sec. @ f/2.8. ISO: 400).

I recently shot the veterinary team of Dr. Scott Weber and nurse Kristina Palmer-Holtry, both from U.C. Davis, checking on an injured female bald eagle, Shaman, on a weekly visit to the Micke Grove Zoo near Lodi.


UC Davis veterinarian Dr. Scott Weber tries to put a leather hood on a female bald eagle at the Micke Grove Zoo (Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 17-55mm @ 55mm. Exposure: 1/125th sec. @ f/2.8. ISO: 400).

Animal care specialist Julie Rosenthal gingerly carried the bird into the zoo’s clinic from its enclosure. It was wrapped in a towel to help keep it calm as Rosenthal securely held its legs. Zoo curator Matt McKim said that most raptors use their talons as weapons, but the bald eagle is big enough to also wield its beak as one, too. That was evident when they removed the towel. Shaman snapped her large beak at any finger or hand that strayed near. It made it a chore for Weber to put a small leather hood over the bird’s head without losing a few digits. After several tries, the hood was finally secured.


UC Davis veterinarian Dr. Scott Weber, left, checks the talons of a female bald eagle held by animal care specialist Julie Rosenthal at the Micke Grove Zoo (Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 17-55mm @ 17mm. Exposure: 1/125th sec. @ f/2.8. ISO: 400).

Shaman, about 26, was a wild eagle brought to the zoo in 1987 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as an injured bird. At her age, she’s been having health issues and had injured her wings in a transportation crate during a recent visit to U.C. Davis.


UC Davis veterinary nurse Kristina Palmer-Holtry, left, and veterinarian Dr. Scott Weber check the injured wings of a female bald eagle held by animal care specialist Julie Rosenthal at the Micke Grove Zoo (Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 17-55mm @ 17mm. Exposure: 1/125th sec. @ f/2.8. ISO: 400).

The team had stitched and bandaged the injuries on an earlier visit and were back at the zoo to check on the bird’s progress. They gave the eagle a quick onceover and then examined wounds on each wing. One was mostly healed, the other, while making great progress, still had a ways to go. The eagle gave occasional loud “skrees” which were all the more ear-piercing in the small examination room.


Shaman, a female bald eagle, is returned to her enclosure after an examination at the Micke Grove Zoo.
(Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 70-200mm @ 170mm. Exposure: 1/400th sec. @ f/5.6. ISO: 200).

After the examination was done, the eagle was taken back to her enclosure and released. A fellow male eagle was waiting for her as she flapped her way to a branch. Although her feathers were a bit ruffled, she perched proudly in spite of some undignified treatment.

Posted in Column, General news | Tagged | 0 Comments

Ironic sarcasm or sarcastic irony

By Clifford Oto | Published: February 26, 2010 | 0 Comments

Here are a couple of definitions from Dictionary.com:

Sarcasm: 1. harsh or bitter derision or irony. 2. a sharply ironical taunt; sneering or cutting remark

Irony: 1. The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning. 2 Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs.


(Camera: Nikon D300. Lens: Nikkor 17-55mm @ 18mm. Exposure: 1/250th sec. @ f/5.6. ISO: 200)

I wonder, was this graffiti-covered sign at the Stockton Skate Park ironic or sarcastic or both?

Posted in Observation | Tagged , | 0 Comments

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    Clifford Oto

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    Clifford Oto, an award-winning photographer, has been with The Record since 1984. Through the changes from black and white to digital photography, he’s kept his focus on covering the events, people and life of San Joaquin county. This blog deals ... Read Full
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