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VTalk Radio Photography Spotlight
Today's Guest: Pat Cubal of SoCalPhotos in Oceanside, California
Today's Host: John Bentley

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Pat Cubal Transcript Page

JOHN: Welcome to VTalk Radio Photography Spotlight. Today's program is sponsored by Morephotos.com. The online total photo sales solution for professional photographers worldwide. I'm your host, John Bentley

JOHN: Today we're in the studio with Pat Cubal of Socal Photos of Oceanside, California. Welcome to the program Pat.

PAT: Thanks, John, it's a pleasure to be here.

JOHN: Can you tell us a little bit about your photography business?

PAT: Yes sir, I can. My photography business; I'm a retired U.S. Marine, and I live just outside the Marine Corp base, Camp Pendleton, and we started our business just shooting the Marine Corp athletic programs there on the base so the Marines that were deployed; their parents could go up and check their kids pictures. Their sons and daughter's photographs from competing in events at Camp Pendleton. It started out as a way to let everybody stay in touch and, you know, know that their kids weren't always out fighting and, you know, doing things that Marines have to do.

JOHN: Can you tell us the types of photography services that you offer?

PAT: Well we do mostly sporting events, but we also do a lot of documentary events there onboard the bases. We also do endurance events, like marathons, triathelons, mountain bike racing, things like that.

JOHN: Can you elaborate a little bit about some of the events you have shot recently perhaps?

PAT: Well we just finished shooting the world famous Camp Pendleton Mud Run and that was this past weekend. It was a two day event, it was actually a three day event; it goes on again next Saturday. It's 4,000 runners running through six miles of mud pits, and mud bogs, and mud hills, and it's just a real fun party atmosphere event and we take photographs of the competitors out on the course and the party afterwards at the after party. Then we put the photographs up online and we sell them off.

JOHN: I see other sports photos on your website. What are some of the other sporting events?

PAT: Well a lot of the Marines that compete in events onboard the base like swimming or basketball, Camp Pendleton actually has 41 different sports programs onboard the base and we're out there shooting every single one of them for them. If there's a sport onboard the base, we shoot it for the base. That's from billiards and darts to the tackle football league.

JOHN: Now I also see on your website a lot of nature photos.

PAT: Those are my hobbies. That's a sub passion. A lot of people just don't figure a Marine to be out shooting landscapes and photographs. When we're showing off those photos, every bodies like, "Well who took these?" But, you know, they're mine. That's just something I just came to love while traveling around the world in the Marine Corp seeing the different places. I just love nature.

JOHN: So is that your favorite hobby in photography?

PAT: It's my secret passion, yeah. But what I love shooting more than anything is sports.

JOHN: Now you also do landscape and portraits.

PAT: Yes sir, we do. I love to go to America's National Parks. One of the things we're getting ready to start doing, is this September, we're going to offer our first tour of the Canyon Deutsche. We're going to try to follow some of the steps that Ansel Adams did and try to recreate some of those shots which, you know,everybody should try to do that if you're a photographer and you have an opportunity to go back out to some of the National Parks that he visited and help make famous and try to recreate some of those photographs.

JOHN: Now, can you name some of the cities and communities you service?

PAT: Yes sir, I service Oceanside, California, of course, San Diego, California, Encinitas, San Marcos, Vista, and Carlsbad. Mostly north county San Diego.

JOHN: Are there any wedding halls or banquet facilities you like to use?

PAT: No, I'm more of a church photographer and the banquet halls and things like that are the ones that the bride and her group have already put together. We'll shoot anywhere. We'll go in early, get light readings, make sure we're going to have everything we're gonna need to pull off a successful wedding shoot for them.

JOHN: Can you tell us your website and contact information?

PAT: Yes sir, my website is www.socalphotos.com and our phone number here at the office is (760) 433-8980 and my email address is pat@socalphotos.com .

JOHN: Can you tell us, how long have you been in the business, Pat?

PAT: We started Socal Photos in 2001. I retired out of the Marine Corp and went on to follow a passion I have a taking photographs.

JOHN: And why did you decide to become a photographer?

PAT: Well, back in high school, it was a passion i had. I had two passions. One was to be a Marine and the other one was be a photographer. I went the easy route I think and became a Marine for 17 years.

JOHN: We are in the studio speaking to Pat Cubal of Socal Photos of Oceanside, California. You are listening to VTalk Radio's Photographers' Spotlight. We are going to take a break for these important messages; we'll be right back.

ANNOUNCER: This VTalk Radio Spotlight is sponsored by morephotos.com. The online photo sales solution for professional photographers worldwide.

VTALK RADIO ... we now return you to VTalk Radio Photographer's Spotlight with your host, John Bentley.

JOHN: Welcome back to VTalk Radio'S Photographer's Spotlight. We are in the studio with Pat Cubal of Socal Photos of Oceanside, California. Welcome back to the program Pat.

PAT: Thank you John.

JOHN: Can you tell us Pat, why did you decide to become a photographer?

PAT: Well, I had a, and I don't want anyone to feel sorry for me on this, cause I think it's the best thing in the world that ever happened to me, cause I broke my back and my neck and I had to start a whole new career over. I was an engineer, kind of a big wig engineer, actually with a really large company, and I got hurt and I reinvented myself. I couldn't get up and down like I used to so I started taking pictures just to stay busy and let some creativeness out. It just went from there. We started shooting for local high schools doing the high school football games and to booster clubs and from there it just continued to grow. We shot for some other odd and end event companies and we just put our own together and we teamed up with promoters and race directors around southern California. We just stay busy pretty much every weekend doing shoots for them.

JOHN: Now specifically when you have somebody in the studio you're doing a session for, what do you do to make them more comfortable. We don't really do those type of shoots.

PAT: We don't have anybody in our studio. We're more of an outdoor sporting event. We'll shoot, you know, like a marathon. We'll pose up the winners of the races of the mountain bike races; we'll go out and some woodsy scene we'll take some strobe lights out there to light them to give a more dramatic effect for the magazine covers or just for the winner itself or the promoter of the race, but we really don't have an in house studio. We're more out in the field type of photography.

JOHN: Ok. What is the most important goal you have when you're shooting an event?

PAT: The most important goal I have when I shoot an event....I really like to capture the emotion of the athletes. You know if you're running through a mud pit, you've just run 6 miles and you've got 200 yards to go and you're crawling through your last 30 foot of mud. There's a lot of emotion on these athletes faces, and I want to capture that for them so they can remember and show these pictures for the rest of their lives and say, "yeah, I ran this mud run or I won this race." I want to be able to capture the drama. It's nothing for me to start crying at a marathon and they got some poor fella built like me coming across the finish line in 6 hours, but he's finishing and he's all happy and exuberant and he's got tears coming down his eyes because he's getting ready to cross the finish line and he's gonna have that title of a marathoner, and I want to be able to capture that for that person so he can always go back and look at that and sometimes I gotta wipe my eyes and I might miss the shot, but you know not very often. I just love to capture the raw emotion of the athlete.

JOHN: Talk about getting into your passion, huh?

PAT: Yes sir, yes sir, when I was in the Marine Corp, I played all types of different sports there and then after I got hurt I started doing the photography and there's just a natural fix between me and sports and photography and it's been a really good mesh since we started doing this.

JOHN: Now Pat, what do you do to market your business?

PAT: I do a lot of door knocking and cold calling to try to establish that first relationship whether it's with the sports production company, or timing company, or the race promoters. Even the surf stores here where I live, in Oceanside, we've got lots of skate shops and surf stores. I'm out there knocking on these folks doors, introducing myself, leaving samples of work I've shot at other events such as Van's Triple Crown or just odds and ends skate parks where we'll go out and just shoot for fun and get some shots we can use as product samples for ourselves. We're out there just pounding on doors introducing ourselves. Working our local Chamber of Commerce the whole 9 yards.

JOHN: Can you tell me what makes your services unique? What separates you from the competition?

PAT: I think it's my passion for just like I was speaking before, about how much I get caught up in the athlete's passion and his emotion. I think it comes out of my photography. I love to be able to show and display that. I think that's what sets me apart. A lot of photographers, a lot of my friends, and I'm not knocking them for being newspaper guys, you know, they're just out there doing it as their job. To me it's in my heart, it's part of what I am now. Yeah, it feels good.

JOHN: Now is there any other kind of photography that you do outside of the sports events, nature?

PAT: We do a lot of military banquets and things like that. We'll do the charity organizations that work with the Marine Corp, like the USO or the armed services WMCA. We do most of their events. Their golf tournaments, the enlisted wive's club down at the Marine Corp Recruit Depot - we do their fashion show for them. We do some odd and end corporate stuff also that also turns out pretty good.

JOHN: Can you once again give us your website and contact information?

PAT: Yes sir, my website is www.socalphotos.com and my phone number is (760) 433-8980 and people can reach me also at pat@socalphotos.com.

JOHN: You have been listening to Pat Cubal of SoCalPhotos of Oceanside, California. This is VTalk Radio's Photographers' Spotlight. Thank you for coming in the studio with us today, Pat.

PAT: Thank you guys very much. It was an experience.

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