The surface of the sun....(a taste)

We werent on it, but sure felt like we might as well have been on it. Photo nerds young and old gathered for a day of photolicious awesomeness at the Salton Sea........it was broughten!!!! More pictures and details to come.......for now let your eyes feast on this.

The full scoop:

Ok so by now you know that i got together with some homies and we dumped an awesome bomb on the Salton Sea. It was a sweet time out there, with Jack and Jamie (who i have known since we were wee ones) and then a few of Jamies photo nerd friends Sly the photo guy (super funny and apparently paranoid of mosquitos and west nile virus) Cindy ( who if im correct is one of Jamies brookie friends) and then 2 young ones Chad ( who jamie did a family portrait for his fam) and Jordan.........i hope i got that right. Seriously this is how dumb i am with names, poor Jordan i kept calling him Jason ALL DAY LONG!!!! Anywho, the whole group of us went out to the Salton Sea for some phototastic shooting. The place was well.......like walking on the surface of the sun, it was ridiculously hot and we went through a ton of water. Im actually surprised we lasted all day, because we were all getting dizzy cus of the heat oh and did i mention the smell? yeah. i know the salton sea is a rank place but dang, this time took the cake!! Just imagine the worst fart youve smelled in your whole life, yeah the one that smells like rotten eggs and throwup. ok take that, times it by like a billion oh and add the fact of it baking in stagnant air in 108 degree heat and you have a fraction of what it smelled like out there. There was dead fish EVERYWHERE and dead birds and probably dead people out there too, but it was all good because the place had lost none of its creepy charm. Not a cloud in the sky which was a bummer but it just added to the challenge of shooting, i really want to go out there when its cooler and take some sweet engagement photos or do a trash the dress sesh out there. The place just lends itself to portraiture its flippin awesome, this trip was really cool because i got to see more of the area. Sly had been out there before with his GPS and tagged some sweet locations. I could go on and on, but ill stop here since ive written to much already. Heres some photos.



























i have a few more that i will post up tomorrow so stay tuned!!

An afternoon of realization...

I recently had an assignment to shoot the Self Realization Fellowship (SRF) center in Encinitas. Ive always wondered about this place as ive driven by it many times so i was excited to get the opportunity to photograph it. I was very surprised when i arrived as it was not at all what i expected. As you drive by it on coast highway you see this really big cool looking building surrounded by a wall covered in vegetation. I had expected to see some really big temple on the other side of the wall or something like that, but as it turns out its just a couple of buildings and a big open field.........i was a little confused and a little disappointed. Soon i found out though that the open field is used for big meetings and that part of the big draw to the place was the meditation gardens which was just a little ways up the road. The gardens are truly beautiful, and the monks work very hard to keep it a quiet and serene place where people can come and meditate. As a result of these efforts the gardens are not open to commercial photography, its a real shame for other people who want to shoot there........but lucky me i was shooting for an article and got to shoot a little. I was also taken to some private areas that had some AMAZING views of the coast. It was a real fun experience but the biggest highlight was talking with one of the monks as he showed me the gardens. We got into a nice conversation on the importance of family and started to talk about God and the importance of spirituality and faith........i wont get into details but will say that it was a nice talk. The sun set and the light began to dim so i ended my afternoon there with a short shooting session of the front building at dusk. Heres some photos. Enjoy!!

Instant BFF?

Last week i did a sweet engagement shoot with Tiffany Duffy and her fiance Sam, coincidentally Tiffany is the sister of one of the coolest people i know, the man the myth the legend Scott Duffy aka Fluffy Duffy. That could be a post all unto itself so well skip the details, anywho this shoot took quite a while to get done since we would pick a date and something would always come up on the date that we had to shot. We finally were able to get together to shoot these photos and it was ridiculously fun, we shot at the old Bonsall Bridge and got some sweet stuff. Im always blown away at the adventurous spirit of couples especially when i ask them to follow me to a place that overgrown with weeds and what not. So the title, well while we were shooting there was a point were Tiffany had to get something out of the car. So while went to get that Sam and i had a chance to talk and we started to talk comic books and movies, we got to the subject of spider man and somehow we were comparing those movies to the new batman movies and the difference in styles. I said "well its not that surprising since it is Sam Ramie who directed them and coming out of the evil dead series its not surprise" sam says " oh yeah army of darkness is one of my favorite movies" WHAT?!?!?!?! DID WE JUST BECOME BEST FRIENDS!!!! hahahahahahaha it was a lot of fun, and found we had just a few things in common. I think Tiffany was scared........thank you guys for a fun afternoon and for being so patient. Heres some photos.