The UPS man came with gifts....

So I have been ordering stuff like crazy lately and today the last of my new toys came in. Back in the days of shooting film I had and still have a 15mm fisheye, I love that lens and gives such an extreme perspective on the world. Well when I went digital you would think that I could use the same lens right? Not so, see with digital there's a little cropping factor going on and while I wont go into technical details it simply means that my once glorious 15mm fisheye was not so glorious anymore. While I can still use the lens the angle of view is a lot more narrow, and it is not so wide anymore what was once a 15mm is now a 22.5mm on my digital body. Canon addressed this issue and decided to put out full frame cameras, Nikon went the other direction and made smaller lenses, this can be very annoying since I have to spend more money to have what I once had........but such is life. Well today was a very exciting day, cus I've been tracking the progress of my package like every 20 minutes. Maps strewn about, compass in hand and indian spies across the country telling me where the UPS truck was I was able to triangulate the exact location of the truck........who needs satellites and the internet when you have indians tracking your crap. OK not really, anywho the package finally came, I laughed I cried hugged the UPS guy......it was a very emotional moment he ran after that. I now have fisheye capability back and it is sooooo glorious, expect new pictures up soon. In the mean time here's a little view with the new lens and some of the lens itself. Shalom.

ZO

Job NR......

Well for all of you digital photographers out there, you probably know what that means. If you don't then don't feel bad, it simply stands for Noise Reduction. So what the heck does it mean? Well in the days of shooting film you could do a 1 hour exposure or longer and have not problem if you used a low ISO film, you could do star streaks and it would look great. Now with digital you can still do long exposures at low ISO's, the only problem is that the longer you leave the shutter open the more noise or grain builds up on the image. With my D1x I could do 3 minutes tops, any longer and the image would become useless......but now I have my D200 and I have been dying to do a really long exposure with it. Yet the weather has sucked it up lately and we have been having this overcast crap hanging around........CURSE YOU MARINE LAYER!!!! The last couple of nights we have had pretty clear skies at night, so yeap I was at it again tonight. I went to the font yard and pointed the camera towards the sky and then the marine layer started to roll in......whatever. I did manage to pull off a 12 minute exposure though and although the image itself sucks because of light pollution and power lines in the frame I am still excited. 12 minutes and the image looks clean, I cant wait to try some longer ones. On an even more exciting note my fisheye lens is coming this Wednesday, I'm hoping to be out and about the next couple of nights to take some images.......here's hoping that the skies remain clear. Here is the image from tonight......good night to all.


ZO

The smelliest place on earth...

No not Disneyland!!! Although it very well could be but that is a topic for another blog, I mean the Wild Animal Park. My wife and I love to go to the Zoo and Wild Animal Park, its always fun and good practice for shooting. So why is it the smelliest place on earth? Well just think about it.....all those animals living there well they gotta eat. Over the course of the day their meals turn to CACA!!! and it decides to make it debut to the world. Oh its always an adventure walking along and all of a sudden that nasty aroma and I do mean nasty just greets your nostrils. It hits you like a friggin semi, a semi that's carrying poo!!! Aside from it smelling like caca we love to go there, so we were there yesterday. Still getting used to the camera so its a learning process. So today there's 2 post, just because pictures are fun. Enjoy and Shalom.

ZO

more pics for your ocular enjoyment....

New night for the Jordan.....

Yep, if you had not heard the Jordan (college group at NCC) has moved to a new night. They now meet on Thursday nights instead of Sunday and they meet in the Edge instead of Live. Last night was our 1st Thursday night. Everyone seemed to have a great time and have good time of worship, the worship team did a great job leading everybody. I wasn't to happy with the mix but that always depends on the engineer behind the console, oh well, I know I'm a big perfectionist. It seems like it should be a good night for the college group to grow into, I'm sure that it will be a good growing experience for me as well. I don't really mix in the edge and so it will take some time to get used to how the room sounds. Patience is always key and I have very little of it so I pray that God can grow me in that area, I'm looking forward to seeing how it all comes together and being a part of the lives of the many great and Godly people who attend. If you've never been to the Jordan you should check it out, just click on the Jordan and get times and directions. Its a great place to meet people and worship God, here are some pictures from tonight. Hope you like them and feel free to comment on them. Shalom.

ZO

Stormy weather....

I love stormy weather, it creates such drama and lets you get some fun images. My wife and went down to Tamarack beach tonight, only got a couple of images off since I'm an idiot and I forgot some gear at home.I only liked one of the images I took so thats why theres only one up for today. I'm exhausted now so I leave you with the image from tonight, hope you like it and feel free to comment. Shalom.

ZO

Bug porn....

Yes its a weird title, no I'm not some creep that's into porn. So why the title? Ok well, about a year 1/2 ago I bought my 1st digital body the Nikon D1x. Well, I like to do a lot of macro photography (that's extremely closeup photography for all of you who are not photographers) and what better thing to take closeup photos of than bugs. So I go out to this field on the side of the road on Melrose and I start looking for bugs to photograph. To every one that's driving by it looks like some big fat hairy Mexican is out on this field doing something weird, like drugs or something. While I am a big fat hairy Mex and I was doing something weird I was not doing drugs. So there I am, my head sticking out over the tall grass, and I'm having a blast taking some pictures of all these bugs. As I'm about to pack up my gear I look at this bush and what do I see? 2 bugs going at it!!! So I took some pictures, right as I'm doing this my wife calls and asks what I'm doing. I answered the only way I thought how and said "I'm shooting some bug porn" silence..........ummmmm ok. So I had to explain what I was doing, it was funny. Anywho, I went out last night at 2 am (yes 2 in the butt freakin morning) and I went looking for bugs......what can I say I'm weird and I get bored easily. I'm looking through the front yard found a spider to take pictures of, and then moved on to this pine tree. I'm looking around and what do I see? 2 moths going at it!!!! So I took some pics.........for the record I am not a weirdo well maybe I am but if the Discovery channel can broadcast this filth then so can I. Must be over 18 to view pics.........ok not really. Enjoy........sickos.

ZO

I like bugs...

Yes I know 2 post in one night, I'm addicted what can I say. So, Sunday night I was doing sound for the Jordan and after I was done I was going to my office to put away some stuff. Well I was about to open the door to go in and I realize that there is something REALLY loud out here and the noise is coming from the bushes at my side. Now being a nerd and reading books about bugs I know that certain hopping insects (such as crickets) make loud noises at night, but this thing sounded like it had just taken some speed or crack or something. So I did what any curious person would have done...........I decided to look for the bloody thing. There I am a 6' 0" 200 plus lbs looking through these bushes trying to find some weird insect so I can take pictures of it, all the while people are walking by looking at me like I'm an idiot. They were like "did you lose your keys" and I would say all excited "NO I'm looking for a bug that's making noise" at which point they would look at my like I'm some psycho who has no life. Ok so I find this thing and it realizes that its been found because once the light hits it he decides to shut up. Its like a dear into headlights "OH crap!!!! I'm in danger so I will sit totally still and hope nothing happens" no you stupid bug, maybe you should have kept your butt quite so I couldn't find you in the 1st place. If I had been a hungry bird he would have been dead!! To make a long story short, I found the bug, took pictures, and got made fun of by people walking by. All of those people are now dead, dropped kicked in the head by my loyal illegal immigrant ninjas, because you know if you mess with one bean you mess with the whole burrito. With that said here's some pics.


ZO

Roosevelt......

No not the president (although he was one cool dude) but the band Roosevelt . I went into the Studio a couple of weeks ago and shot some pictures. Why am I posting pictures that are a couple of weeks old? Well I have no good reason besides that I'm a lazy Mexican, so I finally got off my fat can and finished them. These are actually the very 1st images that I shot with the D200, it was a lot of fun. I was really excited because I can now take the flash off of the camera and fire it off wirelessly.......Yeah I know you dont care. This is huge for me though because now I can put the flash wherever I want, it gives me so much more creative control. The best part is that I can have I think 4 groups and each group can have 6 strobes (that's a flash for all of you non photo peoples). Yeah yeah yeah I know I'm a nerd, I drool over the possibilities of what I can now do with my new camera. The recording studio is called Ground Level Sound and is operated by the master of sound himself Alan Dicato. This guy is a GENIUS and if you ever need to go back in time then call him because he could probably build you the flux capacitor from a stick of gum, some led lights and a toothpick..............alright he cant build the flux capacitor but he can make you a killer recording. If you are a band or know of a band that needs recording then you should call him up and hire him, he is pretty reasonable. Anywho here are some pics, hope you like them.


ZO

Gradumation from higher edumication...

So my wife gratuated from Cal State San Marcos it was exciting. Friends and family were all there, while i was excited for my wife i was not excited to wake up at 6 a.m to be there early. I am not a morning person by any means, sooooooo i wasnt the most cheerful person there but i made it through and was very happy for her. The actual ceremony? BOOOOOORING!!!!! It took all of my will power just to keep myself out of a coma!!! Speaker after boring speaker, and it dragged on and on and on and on........."hi im so and so and im part of the faculty, now let me bore all of you by telling you how great we are" i mean come on!!! why do any of us care to hear about the greatness of the faculty!!! yes you taught them and now they are done so just give yourself your little pat on the back and call out the names, cus thats what we are all there for. So after drooling on myself (because that was the most entertaining thing to do) they finally get to the diplomas. What happens? They cant pronounce her last name!!! its very simple people me-nen-dez.......whay is that so hard?!!!! she was like "jennifer mechimichangadez" she trailed off after that, i then proceeded to run up to the stage find the culprit and beat her over the head with this HUGE scepter that they had on there. she tried to fight back, but little did she know that i have been playing Mortal Kombat and i then proceeded to freeze her with my ice powers and perform a fatality...............sooooo yeah my wife graduated, it was an exciting day. Im very proud of her, and heres some pics. ENJOY!!!


ZO

Fun at Vinakas..

So I drink coffee religiously and as so my wife and I love to go to coffee shops. Right now we frequent a coffee shop in Carlsbad called Vinakas, its got a great atmosphere and a great staff so go check it out if you ever get a chance. Anywho, my wife an I were there this afternoon so I decided to do a "photoshoot" of her at Vinakas. While these pictures are not of the coffee shop itself it was still lots fun to shoot pictures of my pretty wife. It just goes to show you that good picture opportunities are wherever you make them. Hope you like, more pictures coming soon.


ZO

New Camera......

well as i said before i bought a new camera..........thanks so much to my lovely wife who let me use our money for it. I have been shooting a lot trying to get used to it and it has been a blast. In case you are wondering , i bought the Nikon D200. I have been shooting with the Nikon D1x for a long time and with the Nikon D70, this new camera doubles the reoslution so i now have a 10.2 megapixel camera.........the files are huge!!! Anywho, i had some fun shooting at the Jordan on Sunday night, here are some images for you i hope you like them. If you are reading this and have never been to the Jordan then you should try it out, its a great place to go and learn, fellowship and an amazing place to worship God. If you have any questions about it feel fre to email me at zonager@gmail.com. Shalom

Welcome

Well this is my very 1st blog ever, so i guess ill just introduce myself. I am Lorenzo Menendez, i currently work at North Coast Church in Vista California as a sound engineer and oversee their weekend operations. I have been there for over 9 years now and i love what i do, but all good things must have an end. I will be done at North Coast in October of this year, at that time i will begin to pursue one of my biggest passions............photography. I hope to make a living at it and God willing i will, so soon i will be venturing into the great unknown. For now i am still at church and they keep me busy, but i am looking forward to moving on and beggining a new chapter in my life. Ok so more stuff about me, i am HAPPILY married to a BEAUTIFUL woman named Jennifer. She has been a great encouragement to me and the only reason why i am able to pursue my passion, she is the best friend that i have a nd a great inspiration. I love the Lord without Him i would not have my wife and for that reason i am eternally greatful. I think im done for now, i will use this blog to post many of the photos that i have taken i just bought a new camera so i am shooting a lot and i love it. You can also visit my site if you like fluxphotography.easysite.com or if you want to just chat then email me zonager@gmail.com or find me on myspace just look for zonager, i would love to talk to you. Well shalom for now, keep checking back for updates i will try to keep them as current as possible.


ZO