Girl Watcher at The Oscars Part 1

The 82nd Annual Academy Awards, also know as The Oscars, was held at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood California for 2010. This was the first year I went to see the event live as a fan on the street surrounding the event. Like many people who live near a place where a lot of people would love to go, I never had any thought of going to the event in person in the past. This was something that I always watched on TV. There was no way I was ever going to get inside, so why go? The Kodak Theatre is only maybe a 20 minute drive from where I live and since I can record the show on the DVR, I decided that I would go down and see what it was like to be there in person.

It turned out not so easy to get there as I had thought. I drive through this part of town quite often so I thought it would be pretty simple to get there. I often go to movie premieres at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre (next door to the Kodak threat) and know where to park and how to walk to the event. I though I could walk up to Hollywood Blvd from Sunset Blvd and stand across the street at the El Capitan Theatre like I did at the movie premieres. Boy was I wrong on every account. Entire blocks all around the event were blocked off. They had more security than the President would get. Traffic was at a crawl and it took me nearly and hour before I could find a place to park. I had planned to get there around 2:30pm as the Red Carpet Shows were to start at 3:00pm.

Any hope of getting close was dashed when I got a block away from Hollywood Blvd. There I was met by a wall of LADP. They said my best bet to see anything at all would be to go about a 1/2 mile down on Hollywood Blvd east of Highland Blvd. This was quite a hike with all the camera gear. It turns out that Highland Blvd is used by the the VIP stars and Nominees being delivered in limousines. Hollywood Blvd was used by the friends and families and special guests. The entrance to the event is at the junction of Hollywood Blvd at Highland Blvd.

By this time it was pretty crowded on the sidewalks but entrance to the area where you could see the arrivals was blocked and first required a metal detector screening. I got in line to be screened when it started to rain. The rain lasted only about 5 minutes fortunately. I was just about ready to advance up to the prime viewing area when they shut it down and would not let any more fans get any closer.

It ends up that the closest I could get was about a block away on Hollywood Blvd. This was the street where the friends and families drove up to the event. I was thinking I would see a lot of fancy cars and limos but instead I got buses and Prius's. It turns out that there really isn't a lot of stars at The Oscars besides the nominees and presenters. Most of the audience consists of friends and family members and all the VIP's at the studios. It turns out the place to see a lot of stars on Oscar Night is at Elton John's Charity Ball or Vanity Fairs Event in West Hollywood.

Event Photography always seem to turn into a mini adventure for me. This event was no exception. I could not get very close and the only actor that I recognized from the distance I was, was Jeff Bridges who ended up wining Best Actor. The surprising thing was that several of the Academy Guests arrived on foot walking past me on Hollywood Blvd in their fancy dresses and Tuxedos. I got a few more stories that go along this Oscar Event adventure but I will save those for Part 2.

I made a complete set of downloadable High Resolution images from start to finish that I took at this event. All images in these sets are checked full screen on a 23" 16:9 flat screen monitor for clarity and sharpness before being made part of the set (HD images are available ONLY in these sets). This is a large photo album so I divided it up into 8 parts so that each download is around 100MB. Separate sets by model or subject will be complied and posted in Part 2.

Set1: http://depositfiles.com/files/xbulgp2as Over 85 images in HD

Set 2: http://depositfiles.com/files/7uhepl332 Over 85 images in HD.

Set 3: http://depositfiles.com/files/7w3bok9wk Over 60 images in HD.

Set 4: http://depositfiles.com/files/xqxvcgyxt Over 45 images in HD.

Set 5: http://depositfiles.com/files/cfec2evz9 Over 65 images in HD.

Set 6: http://depositfiles.com/files/s4uhnm1n1 Over 70 images in HD

Set 7: http://depositfiles.com/files/e5y5kbqkp Over 70 images in HD

Set 8: http://depositfiles.com/files/boev61mi1 Over 110 images in HD.

 All of the images in these zip files are not posted to any of my albums Ipernity or anywhere else on the Internet.

These files range in size and quantity of JPG files. All image have edited, cropped and adjusted to give better skin tones and less noise. These are big files, many over 2MB (not the usual 100-200k ones posted here by most). Depending on your download speed they can take between a few minutes to 1/2hr to download. Be patient at the start of the download. Do it in the background as you surf the rest of my albums!

Note: Ignore the request to be a gold member before the download. Just wait one minute, then press guest download start. It's like watching a commercial before you download the file.

Remember this download is free. It is not a trick to get you to buy or join anything.

I would like your feedback on these downloads. I put much more effort into these images to make them the highest quality I can. You can use them for any personal use you like but do not reproduce or post anywhere else without my permission first. This is a new service to provide the best quality I can for my friends and fans. I will not continue with this service if you are unhappy with this new option for HD copies.