Micah and Megan....

Did an engagement shoot with my buddy Micah and his fiance Megan, Micah and i go way back to when we were wee ones. We have the same weird imagination and warped sense of humor so it was constant laughs all afternoon.It was a blast doing the shoot, we started at the flower fields and went to the beach to close they day. I feel fortunate to be able to do what i do, i can truly say that i have the best job in the world. I get to play and spend time with great and fun people.........who could ask for more?

Sand Blasted........

So North County was hit by a wee bit of a wind storm yesterday, most people stay indoors when stuff like this happens but to a photographer crappy weather is a gold mine. Called my buddy Mike and we headed down to Cbad and shot at the beach, you dont appreciate just how windy it is until you go to a place that has a lot of dirt flying around. Man is was like having your face sand blasted, it was so cool though cus all the sand had this really neat smooth texture to it. Trying to shoot against the wind was a stupid idea though, cus not only does your eye dry up in like a fraction of a second and then it freaks out cus its all dry so it starts to tear up in a frantic effort to keep itself moist but you also get about 30 pounds of sand in your eye socket......no lie. Im still clearing out the sand out of my eye, its was way fun though. Didn't get any "wow" shots but we did come away with some ok ones. I tried to get some seagull shots but it was just not going to happen, my buddy Blaine got some cool stuff and a cool seagull shot............well seagulls would be a lot more accurate. Youre lucky you didnt get pooped on dude, and make sure you check out Mikes page on MySpace, if he ever gets off his lazy butt and post's his shots. And lasty you can check out more pictures from yesterday on my MySpace page. Heres some photos. Leave a comment or two. Enjoy!!

A fun afternoon.....

Well today ( actually yesterday now......geez time flies by!!!!) was a fun afternoon. Took a nice little walk not to far from my house to do some exploring and see what i could find. Ive been pushing myself lately to "look" for pictures and try to work the scene as much as possible. Wether doing better compositions, using my strobes to work the lighting or just not shooting a picture at all im just pushing myself as much as possible to see things differently and improve what i do. So it was a trip of experimentation and i had a ton of fun. Got to test out the 17-55mm that i borrowed from a friend, im pretty sure that i will buy it as i loved shooting with it. Funny story: I was shooting in a grass field looking for bugs and got yelled at by some crusty old guy telling me that the field was not my personal campground. I tried to be polite and not be sarcastic and told him i was just taking pictures, he proceeded to tell me that "this city has enough crime because of people like you".........at this wonderful remark i ran up the field and performed a flying kick to his face. As he was trying to get up i proceeded to keep him down with a wonderfully executed HADUKEN!!! and used my indian voodoo to call eagles from nowhere to peck his eyes out, problem solved.........ok so it only happened in my mind. I actually remained quite calm and polite and he kept being a jerk, he said that he was going inside to call the cops.........i stayed for another hour, no cops showed up, i laughed. Just so you know, there weren't any NO TRESPASSING signs anywhere i checked twice. Anywho, heres some photos. Enjoy.





I did 3 variations of the next shot...
Available light:

One strobe:

Two strobes:


So as i walked by this railroad crossing thing there were a TON of bees flying around. I thought to myself "what the heck is up with all the bees?" well i found my answer when i looked under the crossing arm because there was a HUGE hive under there, it was pretty cool. I will admit though i was praying that they were not killer bees....



So thats it, there are some pictures that i did not post on here. If you would like to see those then visit my MySpace

Soft furry things....

I thik that God likes to have fun at my expense, seeing as how HE made me HE knows that i "try" to come across as a "manly" kind of guy. Yet for whatever reason i have a soft spot for small furry defenseless animals, this is probably the reason why i keep finding kittens that have been left to fend for themselves around the house. Why does it have to be cats though? I hate cats......why cant it be a litter of German Shepards or some other cool dog? Oh well, last year i found a small black kitten that was stuck in a ditch by our house. My wife and i saved it from certain death for sure, we gave it away cus my wife is allergic to cats. Well today i found a whole litter of little furballs, i went bug hunting last night and kept hearing these little squeaks. I emmediately knew what they were but dismissed them as "my brain playing tricks on me". Alas i kept hearing them and knew that it was little kittens somewhere around the house, i looked at the heavens and asked "why me". Well today i went back and looked for the wee ones, their mother doesnt seem to be around anywhere, and they still havent opened their eyes. It seems to be my lot in life to find these little guys........oh well i guess theres nothig you can do. Ill be keeping an eye out for the mom, if i dont see her around then ill call humane society or something. Anywho, took some pics so here they are.

Bugs aplenty....

Went out to a grass feild on Thursday to get some bug shots, ive gone to this feild for the past couple of years cus there is always something to shoot. This time was not exception, i didnt get a ton of shots since i got there late in the day but still got some fun stuff. When youre shooting bugs you always end up shooting lying down, i had forgotten just how sharp and itchy grass can be. Plus, you would think that shooting while laying down would be tiring at all, but man i was exhausted and driping with sweat when i finished. You just forget how tiring it is to shoot this kind of stuff since youre at weird angles and your holding your breath and flexing muscles that dont get used all the time. Youre doing that and holding strobes focusing and about a hundred different things all at the same time and trying to hold still.....let me tell ya it gets tiring. It was a blast though, it a whole different world that you get to see and its really neat to see a whole ecosystem that consist of these tiny creatures. I didnt get much, just a flower and a cool looking grasshopper i found on which i consentrated all my efforts once i discovered him. Man was he tough though, he would move without fail as soon as i was ready to take a picture, it was very frustrating. I will be returning this week to see what else i can find, heres some pics. Enjoy.

The wee hours of the night.....

Like an insect im a nocturnal being, totally useless during the day.......but once the sun goes down thats when i get the most productive. Since i got that focusing rail (see previous post) i want to shoot all things macro. What is it about new gear that makes you want to shoot photos of everything that comes your way? Anyways, i went out tonight, was out for hours and came back with one picture. No thats not a typo.......just one photo, everything that i tried to shoot was just moving all over the place its like these insects were given caffeine or or crack or something. The worst is when i got it all set up so i could shoot, and just as im about to trip the shutter the bug decides it wants to go for a stroll. Well thats what my night consisted of, it wasn't a total loss though. I scoped out were this HUGE black widow is living, so ill be stalking that area now, plus while i was out shooting this possum comes out of nowhere and is traveling along the fence next to my house. I hate possums, they have to be the ugliest creatures on the face of the planet. I can find beauty in almost anything, even bugs, but i cant seem to find any redeeming quality in these things. You ever wonder if GOD just ran out of ideas? I mean dont get me wrong, i have nothing but respect and admiration for the almighty creator.........but come on you would think that he would make the possum somewhat more appealing. When i die i have a list of creatures that i have questions on.....among them are the mosquito, the kangaroo, the possum and the duck billed platypus and many more. Im tires and im writing to much, heres some pics from tonight. Enjoy.

Eyes ablaze in red like the fires of hell itself....


and the one and only successful photo of the night...

It finally arrived!!!!

For many months now i have been longing to get a macro focusing rail from a company called Really Right Stuff. Well after a long time waiting i finally ordered it last Friday and today the UPS man came knocking on my door. It was an exciting time had by all.........well by me anyways cus the UPS man couldnt care less. As it is when i get new toys i went out and did some testing of the new piece of gear, i will admit that it was a lot more difficult to use than i 1st anticipated and at times i wondered if it was worth the money i had spent on it. Well after many pictures shot i started to get used to using the thing and began to appreciate its value. To be able to set my lens to the magnification that i want and then fine tune its focus byt twisting a knob is FANTASTIC!! It sucks that it was so windy today as that only complicated matters, but i was able to use the strobes and get some shots. With it being so windy you have to make sacrifices when it comes to the backgroung, i would love to have some soft green backdrops but had to settle for almost black as i had to se flash and a fast shutter speed to make sure i got a good image. Alright enough of my blabbing heres some photos. Enjoy.

Oh heres a picture of the rail.......mmmmm

The Desert Rat Experience......

This weekend was incredible, i went out to the desert with my old church for a few days of mantastic fun. The weather was gorgeous, good company, yummy food...............DIRT EVERYWHERE!!!! Going off roading was a blast, and there was over 170 guys out there for this event. Not to mention that there was an off roading "convention" out there with tons of vendors and they must have had about 3,000 people out there......no lie. I went out with my buddy Josh and his father in-law Ray and some of Rays family. It was awesome getting to hang out woth those guys and truck around the desert eating and inhaling dust. Took lots of pics and since im going to post a ton of photos i will shut my mouth.........heres some pics.