Sunday, April 27, 2008

Change of plans.....

So today my wife and i were going to go snorkeling at the La Jolla cove, its about the only cool place that we know of around here that you can do snorkeling. Anything else is pretty much many hours away, in anticipation of our upcoming vacation to Hawaii we bought some snorkel gear and i bought an underwater housing for my camera (more on that later). Ok so we were totally excited for today as we had been planning to go for a couple of weeks and this was one one the few weekends we had free. Our hopes were dashed when a unfortunate and tragic event happened the day before last, a 66 year old man was attacked and killed by a shark in Solana Beach and 17+ mles of coastline were closed due to the attack.....this included La Jolla cove. They weren't arresting people if they went in the water, but even as dumb as i am im not stupid enough to go into the water with the possibility of a 12-17ft great white in the area. Not only that but every time i go to La Jolla i see tons of sea lions, yeah theyre cute and cuddly and just HAPPEN to be the main prey for great white sharks. Yeah im not going in the water, still i was bummed as my underwater housing has been sitting on my desk for about a week now and im itching to get out there. So with those plans now crushed we went to Coronado island with Will and Casie and it was a blast!!! Rented a surrey and rode around coronado, went to the beach were the wind was blowing like crazy. It was really weird and cool to see the sand blow across the landscape, plus i met some cool people as well. I got to meet John and his wife and some of his friends who were out there doing sand sculptures. He was way cool and we talked a little bit about why they go out there and sculpt (which is a new hobby that they recently discovered). John is a fellow christian and aside from enjoying sculpting sand he said there an added benefit. People get curious and stop to ask questions and this gives him an opportunity to share the gospel with them.......pretty sweet!! So that was our day today, heres some pics. Enjoy!!

oh and ill FINALLY do an update to my personal blog. its been what 50 years now?!?!









Sunday, April 20, 2008

Something for your visual taste buds...

Ok so i know that i promised a full story and more pictures and i know that its been forever now......but at least i added more photos. Plus we all know thats what you come for anyways is the photos and not my long ramblings. So with all that said i am pleased to introduce you to Jamie and Kasha aside from being ridiculously good looking they are uber cool too. Ive know Jamie since way back when and from the beginning weve had this brother sister relationship. You know the one where im the older brother and anything i say goes because not only am i always right but if you dont do as i say ill kick you in the head........i kid i kid. Anywho, Jamie and Kasha were so much fun to be around, not only did they place their complete trust in my abilities to make pretty pictures but they just were willing to try anything and went with the flow. Plus the whole time we kept quoting movies like zoolander and borat so it was a laugh riot!! By far this was the funnest shoot ive done and the one of the coolest locations ive shot, this is were Jamie and Kasha love to go run and relax and recharge. I can totally see why too the area was gorgeous!!! We went to this cool old adobe ranch looking place and it was a bit of a hike but totally worth it. So there you go thats the full account or at least the highlights. Ill try to post a couple more shots this week, so in the mean time enjoy these. Oh and a huge thanks to those of you who have sent me emails and left comments on here showing your support for what i do it is really appreciated!














Monday, April 14, 2008

H2.......ZO?

Underwater self portrait.....need i say more?

Round 2....

Today i had another go at some water dunking of the camera, i know now that this is going to to take a long time and a lot of practice to get good at this. This usually happens to me when i get cocky and think that "oh it looks so easy" yeah right!!! This is probably the most difficult and physically demanding aspect of photography i have ever taken on. I find myself out in the water frequently asking "how in the HECK does anyone do this well?!?!" still i persist and will continue to do so until it becomes second nature and can get to a point when i can get some sweet images on a consistent basis. Right now any images that i get that are of any use are really mostly out of luck. Still the process is an absolute blast and really how can i complain when i get to go to work and really all im doing is playing in the water. Things that i need to work on: figuring out the best autofocus settings, get some fins, get into shape.....something other than round and practice practice practice. So there you have it, im terrible at it and im having a great time learning. Here are some images from today. Enjoy!!
















Thursday, April 10, 2008

Sea creatures beware.....

for zo has the ability to go below the water with his camera now!!! muahahahahaha, yes i bought a new toy and have now added an underwater housing to the arsenal. I am extremely excited to have this new tool as it will open a whole new world of photography to me. So i got the housing yesterday so of course today you know where i was, thats right to the beach i went to try and get some sweet photos in the water. Now let me preface all of these images with the fact that i have never shot in the water before and it is going to be a very big adjustment to say the least. Still while i didnt get anything amazing my 1st time around it was still incredibly fun and exhausting!! Not only that but the water is FREEZING right now so the whole time im just numb and shivering it was pretty funny. Its going to take a long time to learn how to shoot in the water and get really good at it but i look forward to it and cant wait until i start getting some killer stuff. So whit out further ado heres my little adventure form today. Enjoy!!







Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Congrats to Jordan & Jen.....

Saturday we had the great pleasure of photographing Jen and Jordans wedding up in Long Beach, you may remember that i did their engagement photos a while back. The day was beautiful and it was so much fun to be around friends and family, Jen was so laid back it was incredible. Everyone was a lot of fun to be around which was nice cus it made the day go easier and its fun to joke around with everybody. I will say that Saturday was one of those few moments when i stopped to take it all in think of how it all started and thought to myself "i never thought i would be here". I dont mean that in a bad way but more of a sense of amazement. God blesses us with so many things and incredible moments in our lives, i try as much as i can to identify those and soak it all in. This was one of those moment.....why? Well i wont bore you with long details but when i picked up a camera so many years ago now i never once thought of the incredible journey that one single decision would take me on. A blessed man am i to have had the incredible honor to photograph my brothers wedding and to now have had the privilege to photograph cousin Jennifer's wedding. Not only that but to be there to share it all with family i really could not ask for more. The whole day was great, the ceremony was incredibly short....it was so funny. I kid you not it was like "do you? do you? alright youre done......hahahaha. The reception was a blast too, jens dad put this slide show together that was HILARIOUS!!! Words cannot explain, we also learned that jens brother steven was supposed to be a girl but uncle bob was kind enough to settle for a boy and decided to keep him. Jen and Jordan we wish you nothing but the best in your journey and cannot thank you enough for allowing us to be there to capture such a special day. We hope to get to know you better in the years to come and pray that Gods blessings will be many in your marriage. Heres a few pics....














Wednesday, April 02, 2008

I made a new friend today...

Yes i did, after a late night and an early morning drive to carlsbad to get my oil changed i was exhausted especially after not getting much sleep. So home i went with the intent to take a nice nap, well try as i may i could not get to sleep.......it eluded me yet again!! Frustrated and still tired i decided that i might as well get up and go shooting, i looked outside......grey.....i looked at the clock 2pm which is really 1 pm because of the STUPID time change ( have i mentioned how much i hate the time change ) either way all this equaled to LIGHT SUCKING BADLY. So with everything working againts me i went out anyway because it was better than being indoors and going insane. To the coast i went, check out Carslbad 1st......that was a waste of time and most other places would be the same because yeah you guessed it the light SUCKED!! Still i decided that i would find something to shoot, so further south i went and ended up at Moonlight beach in Encinitas. Not a place i frequent so i decided to do some exploring, theres some sweet looking buildings and some old abandoned buildings that are up on the cliff which by the way are this sweet reddish color that contrast nice with the blue sky. I shot for a bit but was about to leave because the light was just to harsh and i didnt feel like waiting the 50 or so hours that it was going to take to reach sun down. So back to the car i headed and on my way back i saw a group of people looking at something and i found my reason to stay.......












The light was terrible at 1st but as the day drew on it of course got better and made for a very fun afternoon. Makes you want to take one home doesnt it? Yeah theyre all cute with their sad little faces....and then you see them beating the crap out of some meal on the Discovery channel and you realize "hmmmm that could very well be my face if i were to get to close" but he was still cute. He was just a small pup that they think got separated from his mother, eventually he headed back home and went on his marry way. By then i had been there so long that the sun was low enough and giving me something nice to work with. Never having explored moonlight beach i decided to stay and finish out the day. So here you go.....the rest of the afternoon in photos. Enjoy!!