Theater owner Arif Amaani stands in the seats at the Totem Lake Cinemas in Kirkland. The theater specializes in Bollywood films, and was featured as part of an ongoing series on Totem Lake Mall by the Kirkland Reporter. In this series of portraits you find a lot of underexposed (read: black) backgrounds. This is an easy way to clean up clutter or less than optimal backgrounds that I find myself subjected to all the time. It also adds drama and attention to your subject. More photos after the jump…

Islander forward Brian Miller drives to the basket over Sammamish Totem’s John Steinberg during a game at Mercer Island on January 18, 2011.

This week presented a photographic first  for me, as I had the opportunity to mount a remote camera to the backboard for a basketball game. I know this is old hat for some, and the technique  has been around for a while, but it’s like buying a used car — it’s new to me. Continue reading after the jump…

Sergeant Kurtis W. Bennett, looks on as son Austin, 2, inspects his father’s  the Purple Heart medal during a presentation ceremony by Sen. Patty Murray at the Jackson Federal Building in downtown Seattle on January 7, 2010. Sgt. Bennett, of Iron Company, 3D Squadron, 2D Stryker Calvary Regiment was awarded the medal for wounds received in action in Iraq in 2008.

I’ll be the first to admit that soccer is not my favorite sport as a fan, but it is a challenge to photograph. Fast ball movement, limited scoring opportunities and a lack of regularly set plays add up to make it difficult for a photographer to anticipate where the best image will happen. My advice to any aspiring sports photographer is to go shoot soccer to sharpen your skills following fast action with the camera, and then adapt that to any other sport. The image above was made on the closest thing to a set play  in my opinion, the corner kick.

Above, Rebel goalkeeper Niki Fausset, in blue, blocks a shot on goal as teammates Tori Lee (19), Rachel Richardson (2) and Mercer Island’s Tara Nielson (11) work for position during a game at Juanita High School in Kirkland on Tuesday, October 12, 2010. Juanita beat the Islanders 1-0.

Friday Night Lights is upon us, a season that myself and a throng of like-minded folks smell fall in the air and get a little excited.  Above, the Newport High School football captains, from left, Louie Jachim, Matt Murray, James Dupar, Kevin Martin and Nick Clifford happily obliged a location I had spotted AFTER last year’s preview photo. More photos after the jump…

Once the “fastest woman in the world” track cyclist Jennie Reed  has come out of retirement in search of an Olympic medal in the women’s team pursuit at the London games in 2012. Sometimes on assignment you are just plain lucky, as was the case about Jennie. I was photographing the FSA Grand Prix races at the Velodrome in Marymoor Park when I over heard the announcer mention Reed was from Kirkland and had recently donned her race gear again. Reed had won the Women’s Elite class Keirin race that night, just three months after getting back on a bike.  And that’s it… the simple truth of how a story was born.

Nate Robinson, a guard for the NBA’s Boston Celtics and former University of Washington Husky, held his annual basketball camp at the Community Center at Mercer View on Mercer Island this week. I dropped by with Mercer Island Reporter sports writer Megan Managan to check out the scene and this is what we found… a bunch of kids having fun learning the game of hoops as Nate wandered amongst the campers laughing, showing off his dance moves to a blaring music collection of “Jock Jams” and having good time.  More photos after the jump…

Friday night found me on assignment shooting the FSA Grand Prix races at the Veldrome at Marymoor Park in Redmond. Between the beautiful summer evening and a subject matter I had only heard about from friends in cycling circles — but had never photographed — meant I was actually happy to be working a night shift to start my weekend. More images after the jump…

Bellevue-based race car driver Tyler Allen has his sights set on making it as a NASCAR driver. I had the opportunity to meet and photograph Tyler at his home garage recently for a feature article by Joel Willits (who even dropped a behind-the-scenes  blog post on the process of writing a feature article). Check out the two good pieces by Joel to learn more, but I wanted to take a quick moment to share the photos here on Focus Northwest. More images after the jump…

Kenechi Udeze, a former NFL defensive end and first-round draft pick, had his professional football career cut short by cancer, but continues to work around the game as an assistant sterngth coach for the University of Washington football team and hopes to help others with cancer. I had the privelege to photograph Kenechi last week along with the task of converting the Bellevue Reporter office into a “studio.” More images after the jump…