Congrats to Tiffany & Sam (coming soon)

and another one goes down.....

well it is official, yet another single man takes a step forward and commits to a better life. My buddy Kerry popped the BIG question a few weeks ago ( yes i am far behind on blogging ), it was all real casual and laid back and surrounded by friends. All the guys knew ahead of time and i was instructed to bring the camera to document the momentous occasion, i was happy to oblige of course. Liz was COMPLETELY clueless about the whole thing wich made it even better and after he asked and she gave her very enthusiastic yes came the excited cheer from all the girls. you know the one......"aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!! omg omg omg omg omg" they are all struggling to breathe because they are so excited they can hardly contain themselves and then the phone calls to all the other gils that werent able to be there......more struggling to breathe. It was awesome, of course this is all a stark contrast to all the guys who show very little emotion and say "cool dude" and quickly get back to their beer........i love being a guy. Anywho, we are really excited for the two of them, me especially since i get to shoot the engagement photos at a very DEEELICIOUS location and then shoot the wedding which will be off the hizzle!!! Kerry and Liz we are so excited for you guys and look forward to the days to come, we love you both.

And im back in the game!!!!

So after an extremely long break from updating the blog i am now back trying to slowly bring it up to speed. While somethings have started to settle other things have begun to surface bringing with it busyness and its share of stresses. Yet we press on and look forward to overcoming these future challenges. Im hoping that in the coming weeks i will be able to get out more and more to shoot some photos and also with all the things that i have been learning with editing and shooting i might release some old photos with new edits and you might notice some changes in the shooting style. For now here is the 1st post (with photos this time) these post will not be in any chronological order as there are some that i will post that the photos are several moths old, but i hope that you enjoy them. I am currently in San Francisco shooting an event for a friend of mine, yesterday i flew in and we shot some photos with his family. After i had all day to myself, so i took the BART into SF and walked around ALL day and shot many many photos. After walking all day long with a 40 plus pound bag on my back i am extremely exhausted and sore. It was a blast though and it was great to get out and shoot some photos for me. It was an incredibly refreshing experience. As i walked around i didnt really have any set agenda for what i wanted to shoot, but i will say that these photos are not what i usually shoot. I seem to have gone more for patterns or textures than anything else.......really i just shot what looked good to me or what i shot was cool. So there you have it, now im off to bed to try and get some sleep not sure if i will head into the city again today but i will try to if i can get some time. Enjoy!!!!






















Of course no trip into the city would be complete without a shot of Alcatraz!!

On hiatus.........

Well its been over 2 months since my last post and a lot has happened. This wont contain any photos but it is a massive update for whats been going on with us. First off let me say thank you to all of you who sent emails or left a comment here and there asking for new updates on the blog. It is very reassuring for an "artist" to know that his work is appreciated, i will admit that i have contemplated many times just dumping the blog as it is time consuming and i get very little feedback so i never know if anyone reads or even likes this thing, but i thank you all for your support. Ok so why so long and no updates? One word can sum our life right now......chaos. Many things have happened in the last several months, some good and exciting and some not, while others sway back and forth. Some great things that have happened, i shot a wedding with my friend and photographer whom i respect very much Jamie Moore, super fun to shoot but i think that she may have had a hard time editing my files as our shooting styles are vastly different. Ill post some pictures from that soon even though it happened several months ago now. More work from the magazine, this of course has been really fun and of course stressful with the amount of stuff going on lately. Im not complaining though as i got to shoot and thats always fun, plus i got the cover for the Encinitas Magazine holiday issue and just found out that i will have the cover for Carlsbad Magazine in january. That one is really exciting for me as i have been trying to get that cover for a while so this is my first one. On top of that i also did the photos for the feature story in the Encinitas issue and the last issue of Carlsbad and the upcoming issue as well. Exciting thing number 3 is.........we opened escrow on a house!!!! While this has been a source of excitement in our lives it has also turned into a stressful thing lately. We are close to closing escrow, but found out recently that the house was appraised at 11K less then what we offered. This means a lot of things and none of them are good, so we went from a smooth ride and being on track to getting the house to now not knowing if we will get it at all. Ok so on top of all that what has gone not so hot........well one major event took place that really turned our lives upside down. We had a little run in with our neighbor at 3 am, it was not pleasant. Long story short is that when they moved in we had problems from day one, the biggest thing was his band and them practicing at the worst times of the night and to top it off they drank a ridiculous amount of alcohol. We had always been able to solve these issues peacefully in the past despite repeated problems. but there comes a point when enough is enough and this last time it was 2 in the morning, i told them to stop, they did not and continued till 3 am. i figured i had been patient enough and decided to leave a note on his front door saying that i would be calling our land lord...........it went south from there. Pounding on my door at 3 am he proceeded to yell at me and threatening to "f" me up, of course we called the cops and when they arrived they went to talk to him and he decided to slam the door on the cops face. he was arrested and it all escalated from there, after that we no longer felt safe there and the decision was made that we should move and the need to find a house was heightened. Tired and both of us having a great deal of work to get done we began the process of packing everything up and relocating, we did it in about 4 days. Of course we had a huge amount of help from friends and family.This all happened at a very bad time for us, as we were trying to get ready to have our booth in the Carlsbad street fair in a couple of weeks. Our lives became very hectic from then on, and that brings us to the present.........despite all that has happened, all the stress, the unknowns, the frustrations the heartache and tears when your world crumbles and nothing seems to go your way. Despite all that all i can do is be thankful and looking back i realize how incredibly blessed we are, we are forever indebted to a huge amount of people. From those of you who were there at a moments notice and helped us move no questions asked you were just there, to our friends who helped us at the street fair and despite the fact that we didnt have many things for you to do you were there cheerful and excited for us and willing to help. To our families, words cannot express how thankful i am for all of you and can only hope that someday we will be able to return the favor. Now we are just here and moving forward, what tomorrow will bring i do not know, but i have peace for i know that God is in control and all that i can ask is that we seek his wisdom and the HE gives us strength to endure. For without Him we are nothing but if we live in His perfect will we can have not everything that we want but everything that we need. Sometimes it takes our lives being turned upside down to have our eyes open and see that we are blessed beyond all reason and we are richer that we could have ever imagined. I pray that i would be wise enough to see that in the good times and in the bad until the day that i draw my last breath..........

Congrats to Troy and Lucy

Shot a super rad wedding on the 21st, really nice and casual down at moonlight beach. The weather was beautiful albeit we had super harsh sun teh whole time. But i dropped kicked the crappy lighting in the head and made it submit, the whole day was awesome. Troy is actually Shelleys older brother and Shelley (whom i have know for years and years) is Josh's wife......so basically we all know each other well. It was great to be there with close friends and see some that i had not seen in a while, Troy and Lucy where so laid back about everything it made the day fly by and easy to shoot. Thanks both of you for letting us share your special day, you guys are awesome. Heres a few of my favorites......Enjoy!!!














and of course no wedding would be complete without a healthy dose of cute babies. heres one of the cutest ones around........it just happens to be my buddies little girl Rebecca.

The amazing Thad Nakao...

Very few times in life do you get to meet a true artist, not just someone who has incredible talent but someone who is always in the constant pursuit of perfecting their craft. Thad is one of those few people who i would consider true artist, hes a tattoo artist that i met on Kauai a few years ago. At that time it was just a chance meeting as i was looking at getting a tattoo done and Thad came highly recommended. I had no idea at the time that over the years we would develop an ongoing friendship, Thad also loves photography, but the bond we share goes beyond similar interest in photography. I came to find that made us good friends was our similar views when it comes to our work. We both relentlessly pursue more knowledge in our fields, are never satisfied by what we do, are constantly experimenting and devote enormous amounts of time to what we do. This last trip to the island was great because i got to spend a lot more time talking with Thad and getting to know him and what drives him and came to appreciate his artwork all the more. I could go on and on like this, but i will say this, by far he is one of the most talented tattooist that i have met. His devotion to his work and the quality of it is uncanny, if you want someone who will not just give you a tattoo then i highly recommend that you go and see him if youre ever on the island. Truly what makes Thads work special though is that he makes you feel like you are special and unique and truly makes getting the tattoo a memorable experience. Check him out, I guarantee that you wont be disappointed. These few images are quite dark and in black and white, as we both enjoy the simplicity of B&W and love making things dark. Enjoy!!!

P.S.
Check out Thads MySpace to see more of his work.

The return.....

Yes as you already know (if you read the previous blogs) i returned to Kauai for a week, while it was still fun this trip was more oriented towards shooting more images for my portfolio. I spent a lot of time driving around looking for places to shoot, made some connections that will hopefully prove to be advantageous, shot some photos for the resort we were staying at and got a free week there (that one is thanks to dad and his never ending and amazing networking skills). On top of that i had a blast in the process, got to hang out with many local people, hung out with my buddy (and tattoo artist guru) Thad Nakao and i went scuba diving for the 1st time.........i think i might have found another expensive hobby....hahahahaha. So basically it all means i went to bed very late and got up early for some morning light........the latter part of that sentence didnt happen all to ofen but when i did it was extremely difficult. My wife was unable to join me on this trip, this proved to be much more difficult to endure than i had anticipated, so this time i got to go with my mom and dad. Had a nice time shooting with my dad at a botanical garden close by, he made a joke that i would probably only move 5 feet and find something cool to shoot for the next half hour.......i proved him dead wrong when i moved 20 feet and spent the next 45 minutes there. All in all it was a very productive trip, and as always it was very difficult to leave. Now im back and looking the mountain of editing that i have to finish square in the face........BRING IT!!!!