Eric Tom Photography

New Photos Online

2009-04-29T19:19:00.000-07:00

I just finished posting a gallery from my recent road trip. Got some pretty decent photos out of it, my favorites are shown below.

After dropping off my beagle at my in law's house to babysit, we headed up 395. We made better time than I would have thought and got up to Convict Lake before 9 pm. We got a cabin at the Convict Lake Resort, I'd highly recommend this place as they have inexpensive basic cabins on up to ones that include spa bath and a steam shower. Before heading to bed I thought I'd take advantage of the clear skies and see what I could get with a long exposure of the stars.

The next morning I was able to head down to the lake and get a great sunrise reflection on the lake near the marina. Since I had visited the year summer before, it was easy for me to figure out where the best location would be to get some nice calm water.

The next day we made our way up to Carson City. We stopped at Mammoth Lakes to ride the gondola to the top for some sightseeing. The snow was still really good, it looked like the whole mountain was still open for skiing/snowboarding. I was very tempted, I love that mountain. We next drove the June Lake loop and headed down to Mono Lake. Middle of the day doesn't make for great pictures but there were enough birds flying around the tufas to entertain me.

That evening we checked into our hotel and got dinner up in Carson City. The following was the paying gig where I shot 177 dance routines. I'm not talking dancing w/ the stars kind of dancing, I'm talking ballet, hip-hop, and anything between that gets the girls the arts fartsy brownie points. I think I finally have some of those songs out of my head now.

After the competition we headed up to Lake Tahoe and found a great lodge with the only lakeside view in South Lake Tahoe. The next day we explored the town and then took an afternoon sailboat cruise. Hardly any wind so it was way on the side of cruise and not any real sailing. We got up to Emerald Bay State Park for sunset, but it wasn't anything too great. Got nice shot of Eagle Falls though.

It did help me scout a location for sunrise though and I was able to get a few good ones in the morning.

The next day we decided to head out of Tahoe and head back down to Carson City so we could drive across Nevada. (Note to self: don't ever drive across Nevada unless you really really have to!) After driving for most of the day across empty huge-a$$ valley after valley, we finally hooked up with Hwy 375, the Extraterrestial Highway. It was pretty boring like the rest of the highways in Nevada, but we did stop at the Little A'Le'Inn where we picked up our mandatory alien souvenirs. The cowboys in there playing pool were pretty entertaining.

That night we got all the way to Cedar City, UT where we crashed for

the night. I'll never forget Cedar City for the guy at the Wendy's drive through: "Is that Sprite like the drink?", he asked. No, I wanted a little woodland fairy with my meal! lol

Anyway, the next day we spent exploring Zion National Park which was pretty awesome. I've never been to a southwestern sandstone type of park before, and I definitely want to go back sometime. I didn't get any photos that were extraordinary, but really enjoyed the day hiking around the place.

Thanks for reading! Any comments welcome.

1780 miles, 177 dance routines, 13 highways, 6 nights, 4 states, 2 national/state parks

2009-04-23T19:38:00.000-07:00

Just got home last night from a one week vacation/job. I photographed a dance competition for Starr Video and Photography in Carson City, NV. My wife came along with me to have one last trip before our baby is born this September. It turned out that she was able to work the sales table while I was inside the theater photographing the competition.

I'll try to get more photos posted, but I thought the photo above sums up our trip the best. This is a shot of Highway 50, the loneliest road in America, at the junction of Highway 376. We went through valley after valley across Nevada seeing what you see, wide open barren land as far as you can see. I'm glad we did it, but I don't think I'll be heading back there unless I really need to.

Thanks for reading!

Adnan & Sana Wedding Reception

2009-01-04T15:12:00.000-08:00

I recently photographed Adnan & Sana's wedding reception for for AACreation Photography. Adnan and Sana seemed like they had a really great time and I had a lot of fun covering it! I was backed up by Nathan Wauk. The event was held at the Vibiana event venue in downtown LA, which turns out to be a former catherdral dating back to 1876.

Sports Shooter Boot Camp starts Tomorrow!

2008-09-04T10:43:00.000-07:00

I'm very excited about attending the Sports Shooter Boot Camp, a 2-day workshop covering sports photography/remote class (soccer) and location portraits. This is a more condensed workshop compared to their full Academy that they do about once a year.

One of the best things about this workshop is the faculty that will be teaching the classes. The workshop will start out with a presentation by Robert Beck of Sports Illustrated who just got back from the Olympics. The rest of the faculty include photographers/visual journalists from the LA Times, OC Register, USA Today, and some freelancers who work for the top magazines. Should be a lot of fun and a great learning experience.

New Blog!

2008-09-03T09:55:00.000-07:00

Alright, so I decided to start a new blog to allow me to write updates and to show what I'm up to. I'm not promising to update on any sort of regular basis, so don't expect it! But I'll try to update when I can and when I think there's something interesting going on.

For my first post, I thought I would share a photo that I didn't originally put on my wedding portfolio. I changed my mind about it and its now up on my website. This is from a wedding I assisted Ahmed from AA Creation Photography on at the Mission Inn. Also assisting was Sonia and Melissa.