Monday, January 28, 2008

Storms come to SoCal.......

Yesterday i was in Encinitas shooting an event for a local magazine, i was incredibly exhausted since i had not been sleeping well and was running on a few hours of sleep for two days. After my shoot i decided that it was time to go home and get some much needed rest, i love to drive the coast so i took Coast Highway. It had poured the night before and there were puddles everywhere, as im driving i glanced over at the ocean and there they were HUGE storm clouds!!! Well i got really excited and all of a sudden my exhaustion seemed to disappear, the wind was howling, trees bent to one side. Everything looked just dark and gloomy.....i knew exactly where i needed to be. A while back i had shot a photo of the coastline with part of this cool looking tree in the foreground, the tree is dead so it never grows leaves........but its bare branches i knew would make a cool silhouette against the ominous storm front. So i made a u turn as quick a i could and doubled back to find the tree, there at last i grabbed my gear, opened the door and was almost knocked over the wind was so strong. I had an incredible time so much so that i forgot to call my wife and tell her i had stopped.....she was worried sick but was gracious to me when i got home. I got the lensbaby out for this one too, and will report that im more pleased with the results this time around. Anywho, heres some photos. Enjoy!!













Thursday, January 24, 2008

Jordan & Katelyn

Yesterday i had the great pleasure to shoot some engagement photos with my friend Jordan Groth and his fiance Katelyn. It was a lot of fun, since they didnt want anything to "lovey dovey" for the photos we shot in Oceanside. I got there early and checked out some locations that i thought were cool. It was actually really funny because earlier in the day Jordan text messaged me and since there were clouds in the sky he asked if the clouds endangered our shoot to which i replied "only if it rains".Those were famous last words because as i was scouting around i felt a drop on my head, i looked down and saw a drop on my camera screen. For the 1st time in my life i found myself hoping that the drop was either my own spit or to be completely gross snot from my runny nose.......it wasnt. Shortly thereafter it began to rain pretty steadily, all is well though and we still shot some photos, we ended up shooting in a parking structure in Oceanside. Apparently the structure is monitored to because we had security guards come up to check out just what the heck we were doing it was pretty funny and awkward at the same time. Despite the weather we managed to get some cool shots, were going to shoot on another day to get some stuff that we didnt get to do today.....let hope the weather cooperates. Jordan and Katelyn you guys were awesome and such good sports, thanks for putting up with me. Only one photo for now, as i am tired and need to get to bed, but more will come soon. Enjoy.

engagement session with Jordan and Katelyn



Wednesday, January 23, 2008

As i promised....

Here are the latest Lensbaby photos that i have, yes i know that they are not that great.........but enjoy them if you can.













Tuesday, January 22, 2008

New toy update.....

This Christmas my brother gave me the coolest present!!! He surprised me with a Lensbaby 3G, if youve never heard of it then follow the link and it will teach you all you need to know. I have always thought of getting one for myself but could never really justify spending the dough. Well now i have one and i will let you all know that i am very very humbled, i always saw these cool pictures taken with Lensbabies and liked the effect. But of course i never thought that it would be that hard to you use the lens.......well Lorenzo has foot in mouth syndrome right now cus holy cow!!!! It has been a bigger learning curve than i expected, everything is manual and when you 1st use the lens it feels like theres about a million things that you have to keep in mind before you even take a photo. Focusing has been the biggest challenge by far, getting my metering down was a piece of cake but man focusing this thing is going to take some real practice. Just when you think you got it you take the photo and look at it on the screen and you realize that you were just a little off. Progress is really slow but im getting there, i want to play around with the different aperture rings that it came with but of course me being the moron that i am i keep leaving them in a different bag when i go out. So far all the photos i have taken with it have SUCKED!!! Ill be brave and post some that i have taken in my next post......be gentle. Its going to take a while.....but im up for the challenge. I absolutely love the lens and the possibilities that it presents, i look forward to mastering it. Thanks David it was an AWESOME gift!!

Friday, January 18, 2008

Some final thoughts....

We have been back from our little road trip for almost a week now, it always amazes me how time just flies by because it already seems like it was forever ago. Being back has been nice, i never realize how much i like to work until im away from the office but while i work it has also given me some time to reflect. This was my 1st road trip ever and while it wasnt a very long one i loved EVERY minute of it. I have also come to several conclusions/realizations: 1) No matter how long you spend in one place it will never be long enough, thus is the blessing and at the same time the curse of photography. For no matter how much you photograph one place you know that it will not look the same if you come back the next day, i think it is this that drives us because you want to come back as much as possible and capture that place from every possible angle. What an amazing blessing it is to have a job that i know will never get boring. Many times i will spend time at a certain place and think "man if i only had 2 weeks or even a month" but i know that even with that much time in one place at the end of it i would say "its not enough, i have to come back" 2) Small was the amount of road that we traveled in relation to the rest of the country and yet even in those few thousand miles there was incredible diversity and unbelievable beauty! It is almost incomprehensible to fathom that there is even more and more beauty in our country......and that just one continent. It blows my mind to think about that and cannot begin to imagine of the endless possibilities and unending moments that are out there to capture. 3) I learned that the open road is like a second home to me. 4) For many years i prided myself on not having a license or car to drive even in my 20's, it set me apart from the rest of this world and I never really saw it as a necessity. I finally got it last year and during this trip i found myself for the 1st time wishing that i had gotten it sooner. 5) And finally, all things seen or captured....what would they be without someone there to share them with? Blessed am i to have found and amazing woman that is my companion in life. That i can not only share those moments that for some reason just cannot be photographed and so can only be taken in and shared. But she also shares my passion for photography, with camera in hand learning as she goes along she puts up with waiting for me long after she has been done. All in all i realized that even though i long to have certain material things i really lack in nothing. for what more can a man ask for than air to fill ones lungs, food to eat, a companion who sees the best despite the worst, family who loves, and greatest of all a God who is bigger than anything we can comprehend who shows mercy and grace and creates such beauty that sometimes all you can do is shut off the camera close your eyes say thank you and allow the breeze to caress your face.

Here are some photos that i have not posted yet from our trip:































I await our next trip with great anticipation......

Sunday, January 13, 2008

The Dam that Hoover built...

On the way to our last stop on our little trip we passed by the Hoover Dam, i had never seen it before but it was way cool. It is amazing to see the ingenuity of man and all the things that people have accomplished.......and then to realize that it all pales in comparison with the many beautiful things that God has created and that He can take ill all way in the blink of an eye. We arrived in the afternoon and stayed a little past sunset, it was so much fun to hang around and shoot. After we were done there we embarked on the last part of our trip and headed to Vegas for a couple of days. Vegas was a blast but by then i was so tired and burnt out that i didnt shoot a thing while i was there. We are now back home and relaxing i will post some final thoughts on our 1st road trip soon. Heres some photos.













P.S.

In case you are wondering, yes this is where part of the movie Transformers was filmed and yes the 1st thing i did when i got there was figure out where Starscream stood and where he fired his missles. I must say that the dam is now back to normal and you cant even tell that it was attacked by the Decepticons.......wait.....it was just a movie..........

RED EVERYWHERE!!!!

After leaving auntie Beth's house we made the drive to Sedona Arizona where we stayed for 1 night, Sedona was incredibly beautiful. All the dirt and rocks is this really intense red color that only became more vibrant as the sun set, i found it unfortunate that there was road construction EVERYWHERE limiting what photos we could take. There was also buildings all over the place which to me is a real shame as the scenery is so incredible but there are buildings everywhere you look making it difficult to compose good photos. There are a lot of hikes that you can take though to see some of these incredible rock formations, but we were only there for one night and did not have the time to take some for the longer ones. We decided to do a really short trail and we had a blast walking around taking photos. We were out all afternoon until after the sun went down looking for photos to take it was an awesome day and our 4 year anniversary. What incredible blessing to spend the day with the one i love doing what i love to do the most and even more incredible that she also enjoys the same thing.......i cant ask for anything more. Heres some photos.

















Not every day can be a good day......

After 3 days of incredible days and awesome shooting we had our 1st downer. It was our second day n Arizona and we decided to visit a place called Tonto Natural Bridge State Park. We had found some sweet photos on their website so we figured why not, unfortunately there were 2 things that worked against us. 1) The park was over 2 hours away 2) Arizona had a rain storm 2 days earlier. We made the drive which was beautiful but of course we were driving at the worst time of day so lighting was really flat and there was no place to turn of and stop. After over 2 hours of driving we finally arrived only to find out that all of the trails were closed off due to high water levels in the river that goes through the park. So we stayed until closing and tried to shoot as many photos as we could given the limited nature of our stay, sadly it wasnt as great as the previous days of shooting but all you can do is try. So here they are.......enjoy as much as they can be enjoyed .