Through The Lens

Victoria: Downtown Melbourne & St Kilda

2012-01-25T18:27:00.000-08:00

Its been almost a week since our return to the states, it still feel really odd. Being home has been an adjustment and it has been a bit disorienting, were still somewhat stuck on Australia time (at least i am) so getting to sleep has been a bit of a challenge. Keeping track of the days has also been a little difficult, living in a camper van for a month you stop keeping track of days so everything starts to blur together. Slowly were getting back into the swing of things and things about our trip begin to trickle into our minds to be processed. In the coming weeks i will be updating the blog with a lot of photos and observations, so i hope you're in somewhat of a reading mood. Australia is divided into 6 different states Victoria, New South Wales (NSW), Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territories. When we fist began planning our trip we were very ambitious and were going to drive all the way from Melbourne in Victoria into the outback in the Northern Territories and catch a flight to Pert in WA and then back to Melbourne for our flight home. As we planned more and more we came to the realization that it would be absolutely impossible especially when we realized that Australia is almost as big as the USA. So to go through with our plan would be utter suicide. The decision was made to only stick to the eastern coast and it was the right choice, so we moved on and after much waiting our trip had finally arrived and after a 15hr flight we found ourselves in melbourne. After what seems like forever we finally got through customs and were on our way to our hotel as we couldn't pick up our camper for 2 days. Obviously the biggest thing to hit us right away was driving on the left hand side of the road........it was weird even as a passenger in a bus. Furthermore the steering wheel is on the right hand side of the car and that was even weirder. Excited to get underway we checked into our hotel, i got my gear ready and off we went to explore the city. 2nd thing to hit us was that for a city Melbourne felt completely deserted! The was no one on the streets, it was really eerie. Part of it was that it was Christmas Eve and the feeling of no one on the streets only got worse on Christmas Day when there was literally no one out in the city. 3rd thing to really hit is was that for a city Melbourne felt tiny, when i hear "major city" i envision a sprawling urban landscape like NYC or Chicago. This was nothing like that, we were in downtown melbourne and it felt open, like you could breathe. Not like NYC were you are constantly surrounded by people and feel like a sardine. It was a nice surprise for us, everything felt really laid back and not stressful. Another thing that was nice was that there were people on a lot of the corners in bright colored shirts and their sole purpose was to give information to travelers. It was nice to just be able to ask questions and get some detailed info which is how we found a place to eat at 1st day. One of the challenges in going to another country is the language and slang, even in a country that speaks english. The lady that gave us info on where to find food told us to look for an arcade and look for the alleyway that has a bunch of restaurants. Well we heard arcade and I'm thinking a loud building full of teenagers playing video games. Turns out arcade for them is really more like a mall, or a place with a lot of shops. So we more or less stumbled upon our destination. We found this alley way that was full of grafity and more of a place that you would envision a mugging than a place to eat. But there it was little restaurants everywhere and full of activity, places like this were quite common actually as was the graffiti. Melbourne sees the graffiti more like art than a nuisance so theres quite a bit of it. Melbourne also has a central area called federation square, they hold all kinds of concerts and events here and there a major train station right across the street so getting to it was easy. Being christmas eve they televised a christmas eve special and there was tons of people there watching it. Our next day we went down to explore the St Kilda area, we were greeted by a nice surprise when we went to catch a trolley to St Kilda. We saw a sign that said "all public transportation free of charge today. Merry Christmas" Jen and i were astounded and had to ask an official just because we didn't think that it was true. Turns out it was, something like that is just unheard of here in the states i would almost expect to be charged more because its Christmas Day here. So with a little spring in our step we were off and began to explore. There was lots to see in St. Kilda, between the beach area to all the little desert shops to Luna Park which is home to the creepy Moon Man. We walked all over the place it was an amazing time. We also got caught in some freak thunderstorm, it would drizzle and then it would pour buckets of rain and then lightning and thunder then clear again. This cycle went on almost all day and it culminated in a beautiful sunset down by the pier where we waited out the storm while watching lots of australians celebrating Christmas by drinking and swimming naked in the ocean during a lightning storm. There you have it, that was our 1st couple of days in Australia. The next day we picked up our camper van, little did we know of what was in store for us. For the time being all we knew was that we had just had a great couple of days and we were already in love with Australia. I could write so much more but it would take forever to write down my observations and stories and no now wants to be here that long :) so heres some photos to go along with my babbling. ENJOY!!

G'day!!!

2012-01-14T01:31:00.000-08:00

Hi! How you going? That would be a typical Australian greeting, took a little getting used to but we got it down in the end. Australia continues to amaze us, its beauty is truly second to none and it is hard to believe that such places exist in the world. Our month here is quickly coming to an end, in some ways it feels like we have been here for years and that this is just home and were on some grand road trip. In other ways it feels like we just got here and it hast sunk in that we are on the other side of the planet, our time here has been some of the best times of our lives, the time we have spent together has brought us closer together. The people that we have met and befriended have changed our lives forever. One thing that i have really taken away from meeting other people from all corners of the world is that we as Americans complain way to much......about everything. Its amazing to hear how people view the US some bad but mostly good and that many still see it as a land of great wonder and opportunity. I for one feel truly blessed to live were we live and despite all the problems we face i think we have it pretty good. Another thing is "no worries", nothing seems to faze the Australian people. While they can be laid back to the point of frustration it is a motto that is rather freeing once you embrace it. I think such thinking comes from living in a place that is constantly changing and is incredibly unforgiving. Theres an understanding that things happen and you can either make the best of it or you can complain to no avail but in the end it all works out. I have not the words to adequately express the grandure and the wonder that is Australia, my pictures don't do it justice by any means. The memories and the emotions that our experiences evoke are forever burned in my mind and in my heart, the photos are really just the icing on the cake. This place, any place and its people really have to be experienced in person with a humble understanding that we are blessed for even being able to be there. Im sure that as the weeks go by and we can look back and reflect on our experiences here the impact of this adventure will become more clear and maybe then i will be able to more adequately convey to all of you our amazing time here. For now i hope that you can catch a glimpse through these photos. G'day mates!

Our Australian Adventure.....

2011-12-31T14:27:00.000-08:00

The end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012 are marked by a historic occasion for Jen and myself, we embarked on our greatest adventure and largest trip to date. We are in Australia for a month!!! We have been driving around this incredibly beautiful country in our little bright green and purple home on wheels. As we spent our 1st few days in Melbourne and drove the Great Ocean Road it became very apparent that a month here was not going to be nearly long enough. In fact i don't think that any amount of time would be enough to explore this amazing place, one could spend a life time exploring Australia and never run out of things to see. So far we've only made it from Melbourne to Sydney and already we have seen so many amazing things. From the incredible coastal beauty of the the great ocean road, to the grandure of the 12 apostles to the spectacle that is New Years in the beautiful city of Sydney it has been an amazing adventure. Then theres the wildlife!! Its everywhere!!! We have woken up to a field full of kangaroos, to walking around and seeing parrots and cockatoos flying free, a cool looking lizard just chilling on a rock at our campground, little furry night creatures and the list goes on and on. Australia's weather is a beast all its own, truly it is an incredible facet of this country and it changes by the second. Thats no lie either, it could be perfectly clear one minute then huge ominous clouds roll in and its completely cloudy. Next its huge downpours, then it clears up, sun shines through, its hot, rains again, lightning, clears again, gorgeous sunset angels sing........aaahhhhhh! Words, pictures, memories nothing absolutely nothing can adequately describe this place, you really must experience it for yourself. If at all possible share the experience with someone you love, as such adventures in fact all adventures should be shared. I am truly grateful to have Jen with me, this experience has stretched us for sure but it makes me realize how incredibly blessed I am to have her. She is my companion to hold as we take that deep breath in appreciation of something beautiful, the other perspective to our great adventure, my navigator, planner, fellow photographer, searcher of vital information, someone to vent to, someone to laugh with, someone to reflect on the days adventures with, our budgeter.............the list is endless. I may get the "pretty" pictures but without her none of this would be possible. Our time here continues, there will be many things that we will see and much more that we won't, some things will be photographed and others are meant to only be a beautiful memory.........until our next trip :) Until next time, there truly is nothing like Australia. G'day mates!!!

The Magic of NYC

2011-12-08T17:02:00.000-08:00

We just recently returned from a short vacation to New York City. Cities are generally not my thing, but there is something oddly enchanting about New York that just makes you want to live there. Most other cities i can usually only stay in for about 3 days before i start going batty and look forward to being home, but i could see myself living in new york. We've gone 3 times now and every time its a new experience, some new food to try an new place to see, more history to soak in.....its awesome! This time around i would have to say that my favorite place by far was the Flatiron District, i loved going back to it and catching sunsets there. Not to mention the building itself is iconic and is associated with NYC, every time we've been to New York i always want to visit there but for some reason never got around to it. This time we finally went and i loved every minute of it. I have tons of photos for you so i will cut this short and let you have at them. ENJOY!

Lake Calaveras......a slightly different view

2011-10-11T14:20:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago i decided to revisit Lake Calaveras, its not to far from our house so it was an easy area to revisit. I usually tend to shoot landscapes but this time around i felt like going for something a bit different. Lately i have confined my shooting to mornings and afternoons, to shoot when the light is soft and beautiful. Some might view this approach and limiting my creativity or that I'm taking an easy route since shooting in those times tends be easier. Contrast range isn't as high and many things that look terrible at different times of the day look beautiful in soft golden light. My theory is: why should i break my back trying to make a photo work in crappy light and hate the experience when i can have a much better and easier time achieving my goals by shooting in beautiful light? At any rate i had a lot of fun, got some exercise and photos i was happy with in the process. Enjoy!

Glowing waters....

2011-09-27T03:39:00.000-07:00

Its red tide right now in Carlsbad, the waves are beautiful and glowing when they crash. I haven't been able to get out until last night, while i have experienced red tides before this was the 1st time that i tried to photograph it. I wasn't out for long as i was pretty tired but i got a few shots off, nothing that I'm all that happy with nut its a start. Im pooped and need sleep so i leave you with 2 of my favorites, keep in mind they are works in progress. Enjoy.

Winter approaches....

2011-09-10T02:12:00.000-07:00

Despite our recent heat wave there are signs that summer is releasing its hot grip and making way for its chilly cousin, winter. Nowhere is it more evident that in the coastal regions where the ocean never ceases its relentless attack upon the coast. Here the waters churn and swirl, they pound into the coast with unimaginable ferocity it is here that winters coming chill can be felt the most. It is but a faint feeling of cold right now, but as the days grow shorter that chill will become a permanent fixture in So Cal. Our 80 degree paradise will give way to a freezing 60 degree nightmare that will send all so cal residents running for their fireplaces and taking shelter in, heaven forgive us, pants sweaters and shoes. It is a nightmarish scenario that none of us want to think about.........but it is coming make no mistake. Yesterday afternoon i got a glimpse of the impending doom when i went shooting at the beach, seeing that the cloud cover was broken up but relatively thick i knew that an "epic" sunset was not going to happen. Still there was potential, it wasn't going to be the suns intense golden light that we all love but a more subdued pastel kind of sunset. Turns out my instincts were right and while that golden light never surfaced there was still a lot to take in and i am grateful i was able to go out. I am a big proponent to revisiting areas that i have already photographed, to think that you can photograph an area once and think that you have captured it is really kind of arrogant. Light is not that predictable or boring, every minute of every day light falls on a subject differently than the day before, giving you endless possibilities to the scene before you. With that in mind i decided to revisit the cliffs, i had photographed them in the golden light of sunset before and it was spectacular. Yesterday though, there was mood to it a dark brooding feeling to it that cannot be described, i knew that the tide would be high and i had never been able to photograph it at that time as it is to dangerous to do so from my usual spot. So i decided to to go and see if i could find a new vantage point from where i could take some shots. Man am i glad i made that decision, everything was there the cliffs in all of their grandeur, dark moody clouds reflecting just a little of the suns color, and the ocean.....violent, churning and relentless. This is what i crave, this is where i lose myself not in pretty colors but in the untamed fury of nature and as the suns rays tried in vane to escape their prison of clouds the heat of summer dwindled away and the chill of winter was there lingering.......ever-present. Reminding me that it is coming........i for one look forward to its return and the foul weather it brings :) Enjoy!

Film!!!

2011-08-31T03:40:00.000-07:00

Several months ago i decided to start shooting film again, my goal was to go out very often and finish it and continue my growth as a photographer. Alas it has taken me a lot longer to finish that roll of slide film and have been trying to finish since January of this year. One of the reasons why it took so long is that with film if you really seek to understand how it reacts to light and how to expose it detailed notes must be kept so that you can compare the images to your notes after the film is developed. To many this is a very tedious and frustrating process, but for me i see it as a way to discipline yourself. It slows you down, you have to study light how it falls on your subject how it hugs its contours and changes in color, you have to think about composition. You have to think about what goes into your photos. Many have said in the past and even now that film is obsolete, that its dead but film is thriving within a community that is alive and vibrant. Unfortunately many of the people who shoot film now do so because it is trendy and gives you that vintage look, it is my hope that these shooters take the time to learn the strengths and weaknesses of this wonderful medium. You might ask what the big difference is between film and digital, some say there is none but in reality there is a big difference. Digital for its many advances and incredible amount of details that it can capture still looks sterile, it lacks depth and for a lack of a better term it lacks feeling and heart. Don't believe me? look at a print one printed from a digital file and one printed from film. Digital looks clean, sharp with lots of detail, while these are good things our brains can only take in so much. Film is an analog medium, its soft, grainy, smooth with a very natural warmth, thats the incredible beauty with film our brains romanticize the look of it. Sort of like the way that one language will sound harsh and another will sound smooth and warm (thats why there area called the romantic languages) we are naturally attracted to one over the other. Consequently it is interesting to to think about how many digital photographers edit their photos beyond belief in order tho add grain and that vintage look, the very things that digital has sought to get rid of we are trying to put back in. Does this mean that one format is better than the other? Not necessarily, they both have strengths and weaknesses but i do believe that we are naturally attracted to one over the other. One thing that i will say is that digital with its infant gratification has bred a shooter that is undisciplined, doesn't understand light and doesn't take the time to learn to strengths and weaknesses of their medium. This is a detriment not just to themselves but ultimately to photography in the long run, Photography is not just art but a fair amount of science, a science that is only understood with effort and discipline. So after all this. What about my roll? 2 things. 1) After 10 or so years of not using it I'm out of practice, so i was a little disappointed. Ultimately i don't take it as a defeat but as a a chance to learn and a stepping stone to greater discipline. 2) i really need to get my incident meter calibrated, many of the shots i took with settings from my incident meter were underexposed. I look forward to shooting more, heres a few highlights for you. Enjoy!

Therapy....

2011-08-29T14:40:00.000-07:00

It had been several months since i had been able to go out and shoot any landscape photos, in the last couple weeks i began to notice a shift in my attitude towards everything. I was easily irritated, felt stressed about even the smallest things, and was just on edge. It was not at all pleasant and what was even more frustrating is that i could not put my finger on it at all, after some thinking i came to the conclusion that the source of the problem was that i had not gone out to do what i wanted to do. Im working at a photo lab in carlsbad at night now, i get there shortly before the sun sets. Most of the time the marine layer obstructs the sunset, but the times that its clear or there some clouds in the sky makes it difficult for me. Knowing that there is something out there in beautiful light that i could be photographing but am not able to is the worst kind of torture. Im lucky to have a wife that understands this and a boss at the lab that also understands this. When i got the go ahead from jen to go out and shoot on friday after i got off at work i asked my boss if i could leave early, with how busy we have been at the lab i really thought that the answer was no. I was pleasantly surprised when i got the ok to leave early, i decided to head to swamis to shoot. I have lived in north county for over 20 years and had never been there, once i got there i looked for a location to shoot from and planted myself there and waited and watched the light. As soon as i got set up there was a feeling of........i don't know how to describe it but everything that had been getting to me just faded away and i got into the moment. Even the fact that i had forgotten my tripod and limited the pictures that i could shoot didn't get to me. While i waited i found this bush of really weird looking but colorful plants, i shot some pictures of those for a little while and then shot some surfers and watched the light. As the sun went down the light became progressively more golden and red. The clouds over the beach reflected all this beautiful light giving everything this ethereal look to it. All the light just spread all over the place, exposures were easy and so much fun to do, on top of that i also finished my 1st roll of slide film. All in all i had a blast, thank you to my wife and to bonnie for seeing how much i need to do this not just for work purposes but to keep my sanity. I look forward to doing it again soon. Enjoy.

P.S.
Ill post more pictures later, the 2 horizontal photos look pretty much the same but one is shot earlier in the afternoon and the other is shot towards the end. I wanted to show the change in the lights intensity and color as the sun gets lower and lower, the transformation is really quite beautiful to experience :)

An untold adventure......

2011-08-11T15:07:00.001-07:00

A while back i had a little grand adventure with some close friends out in the desert, we hung out all into the wee hours of the night taking pictures and shot many guns the next morning. For reasons that i cannot go into i was unable to share this grand adventure with you all, but it is nonetheless worthy of blogging. One of my favorite things to do while I'm out in the desert and at night time is to tinker with lights and take cool unique photos. Night time adds an air of mystery and a certain degree of unpredictability to everything and the deserts desolate landscape completes the package. Thrown in some fireworks and you've got yourself a winning combination! I love having friends that appreciate my obsession for a good photo and will not only indulge me with being in the photos but have incredible patience as i tweak things around to get the shot that i want. Often many wonder if i have any fun at all on these trips since I'm usually documenting things and not shooting guns or heavily participating in the activities. To be completely honest i have a total blast, i love to have the ability to document all our adventures and have good photos to look back on and relive those times. Plus my tinkering nature goes into overdrive and i love to experiment while I'm out there. I hope to have many more trips out there with good friends in the very near future.......but we will wait for when the sun isn't so stinking hot! Enjoy!

Sleepless nights

2011-07-25T01:40:00.000-07:00

On a very recent trip to the desert with the boys i lay on my sleeping bag in the cool 90 degree night. With the moon shinning bright above there i lay covered in a fine film of sweat and dirt, my back sticking to my sleeping bag. Bugs everywhere whispering in the shadows conspiring amongst each other plans on how to attack me once i lost consciousness, with such favorable conditions why in the world wouldn't i be able to sleep......alas my attempts to drift off into sleeps welcoming embrace eluded me. Exhausted as i was it just was not going to happen, so accepting defeat i quietly as i could arose once again the moon was after all still high in the sky and giving off a lot of light and sunrise approached quickly. No use in burdening myself with an activity that would go nowhere, with camera gear and flashlights in hand i wandered. Off to find something that could hold my interest until the sun rules the skies once more, here is what i found. Enjoy!

Hawaii......The underwater photos

2011-06-08T03:24:00.000-07:00

I have many things that i love to do while i am in Hawaii, by far though my favorite things to do is to go snorkel and shoot underwater photos. there are so many incredible creatures that live beneath the waves, some are amazingly peaceful creatures like my favorite green sea turtles and dolphins. others are just downright creepy like eels or mean looking like some of the coral eating fish..........actually now that i think about it most fish are downright creepy. Being out in the water is definitely something that i can lose myself in, i can be out there for hours on end work through hunger and thirst and just keep shooting. by the time that i come back into shore im usually starving and exhausted but always feel such a sense of accomplishment. This year things were a little different, since i have had my underwater housing i have shot all my images with ambient light which has been totally fine for many situations. There are certain situations though that require the use of a flash once in a while, i knew that adding a flash underwater would bring with it some challenges. Still despite knowing this it proved to be one of the most frustrating, exhausting and arduous experiences. Photography already has many variables to take into account shooting on land, underwater that list grows to gargantuan proportions adding a flash is enough to give you a headache. I felt like i was starting from square one all over again, but part of the fun (in the long run that is) is trying new things that will challenge you and help you grow. I shot a ton of images but really only a handful came out being keepers, in the end though despite all of the frustrations i feel like the images themselves have a much better feel to them and i learn a lot and feel like i can do much better next time. For now im spending my time editing through them seeing what works and what doesnt and looking over data to see what settings gave me what results. I am grateful for the experience and love that even after shooting for 15 years i can still be brought down to square one and learn new things. Enjoy!

Hawaii........the detail photos

2011-06-01T03:23:00.000-07:00

The beauty of a place is not always in vast and epic landscapes, beauty is also found in the small and minute details of things. I have always been a big fan of macro photography as it makes breakdown a scene into very small details. Things that are often missed by many can make the most beautiful photos. By now you probably all know that my time on the Big Island was mired by terrible weather, shooting landscapes was just not possible due to constant rains, so i was forced to look for photos in smaller details. Shooting macro photos also proved difficult though as with bad weather comes strong winds and when you are shooting so close youre working with fractions of an inch of focus. Even a slight breeze can throw a composition out of focus.......its very tedious work. In short there were many attempts but few successes, i did try something new this year in the form of a macro panoramic. No thats not a typo its is exactly as it sounds, multiple macro photos shot in a row to make a panoramic photo. These panos are nowhere near perfect but came out satisfactory, suffice it to say that as frustrating as it was to shoot them it will be a technique that i will be working on perfecting. Enjoy!

P.S.
Again, the 1st 4 photos are links, click on them to view the panos larger :)

More Hawaii photos you say?!?!

2011-05-26T18:29:00.000-07:00

Well i can certainly provide :) Heres a small collection of photos from my recent trip to the islands, been pleasantly surprised with the stuff that i have gotten from my trip. I said before that at 1st i was worried since it felt like i had not shot as much as in previous years. I think that the discrepancy is to to 2 big factors 1) the weather on the Big Island 2) Being much more aware and picky about what i shoot and at what times of the day that i am shooting. So while i didnt come back with as many photos the quality of them is definitely better and i dont have to work as hard on them once i get them into the computer. thank you all for following along with all the recent posts, i have several more that i am working on. For now feast on these. Enjoy!

Hawaiian Adventure continued.....

2011-05-24T01:31:00.000-07:00

Well i continue to sort through and process the photos that i took on my recent trip to the islands. So far its been pretty fun looking through what i got and evaluating how well i captured my images and what things i can do differently next time. I came back from the trip a little bummed that i didnt get as many photos as i had in previous years because of the bad weather but i have been pleasantly surprised to see that this was not the case and i have more good photos than i originally thought. As a warning to all of you, i will be posting a lot more hawaii photos in the next few weeks. So if youre sick of seeing hawaii photos please feel free to not follow along, i wont be hurt. They say that every photo has a story behind it and i can tell you that this is very true, and while i could sit here and tell you the story behind every photo we would be here forever. I know youre all just here for photos so here you go. Enjoy!

A new blog post this way cometh.....

2011-05-23T03:54:00.000-07:00

A new post will be coming your way later today with more hawaii photos. Stay tuned :)

Hawaii.....The Panoramas

2011-05-19T18:05:00.000-07:00

One of the things that i have really gotten into and have enjoyed shooting is Panoramic photos. The beautiful landscapes of the Hawaiian islands really lend themselves well to this form of shooting. While i can pull of a Panoramic photo there are still many issues to work out and its an area that i continue to grow in. Here are some of the panoramas that i have currently worked on and are pretty much finished........but im sure that ill go back and re-edit them or scrap them all together. Enjoy!

P.S.
The photos are actually links, please click on them to view them larger

Kauai.....the family photos

2011-05-19T03:10:00.000-07:00

Life has many many blessings, we have been privileged to have experience a great number of them. This year we were blessed beyond measure to once again be able to go back to hawaii, but even greater still we were able to fly out my mom and one of my sisters to join us. My nephew and brother in law came along as well, it was incredible to be able to share such a beautiful place with my family. On top of that i am grateful to be a photographer because it gives me the ability to capture many of our silly moments and great adventures forever. all in all i have very little to complain about, my life is really something like a wonderful dream. even in its darkest and most frustrating moments there is more to be grateful about than not. Here are some of our wonderful moments from our time in Kauai, ill update this post with more photos as soon as i edit more. Some of these are re-edited photos from earlier posts. Enjoy!

Back in the office

2011-05-18T04:36:00.000-07:00

Im back in the office now, no trips are planned until december when we go to australia for a month.......unless we take a spontaneous road trip or something. Anyway, i have been looking forward to being back in my office and spending sometime going through some of my images from hawaii. I have been editing and re-editing some of the images that were previously posted on the blog. I hate to edit on my laptop, but its nice to have the ability to update the blog while on vacation to let people know what we are up to. Those photos are always posted as a disclaimer though, letting them know that they are not the final versions. Now that im back in my office i can edit in a much more controlled environment where i have my monitor calibrated and ambient light under control. So since im pooped and i know you came here for pictures ill leave you with photos from Hanalei Bay on the island of Kauai. Some of these are re-edits and other are new ones. Enjoy!

Big Island........adventures?

2011-05-17T12:03:00.000-07:00

My time in Hawaii has come and gone, i was home for less than a week and we left for South Carolina. Now im back home and trying to settle in. Hawaii was amazing, my wife and i were on Kauai for 2 weeks and my family was able to join us for one of those ( check earlier posts ) My wife has allowed me to have an extra week on the islands the last few times we have gone, where all i do is shoot shoot shoot. Last year i was on kauai and had a blast shooting different places on the island, this year i decided to go to the Big Island. I was really looking forward to the possibility of shooting the volcano once more and exploring some areas on the Hilo side of the Big Island. Alas this was not meant to be, not to long before i left, the floor at Puʻu ʻŌʻō crater collapsed and the lava stopped flowing into the ocean. Still i was hopeful that it would pick up again, once again it was not meant to be. Still it was not a loss, i would still have to opportunity to explore this beautiful island and get some cool landscapes the lava would just have bene the icing on the cake. Apparently i didn't get the memo that mother nature was royally pissed off at something because from the minute i landed in Hilo it was nothing but rain! EVERYWHERE!! I realize that im in the tropics and the islands can get their fair share of rain, im used to that, but nothing like this. Im used to having maybe an hour or 2 of rain or maybe even an entire day with it. This was constant non stop thick gray clouds and torrential downpours everywhere i went. The rain would stop once in a while but the cloud cover was so thick that the sun came through for a total of maybe a few hours the entire week i was there. Even on the Kona side of the island it was pouring and thick clouds there too, the clouds where very beautiful but there was no light to add drama to anything. What can you do though, sometimes you roll the dice and lose. My shooting strategy just had to be adjusted to shoot whatever i could. On top of it all i had a massive and debilitating headache the 1st 2 days i was there, not to mention the countless injuries and mosquito bites i had received on kauai. This is not me complaining about my trip so please dont take it as such, but it was a little frustrating. The rain did bring some very incredible benefits though, not being able to go out as much i was able to focus a lot more time and energy to developing friendships with 2 great buddies of mine on the Hilo side. My attempts to run away from the rain by going to Kona allowed me a couple of awesome days with Blaine and Bethany Franger, 2 great friends that i had not seen in a long time and their beautiful baby girl Ellary. Such moments where an incredible blessing to have. The rain in Hilo also meant that the rivers where going strong and i was able to go out on my last day and get some shots of beautiful streams and jungles. looking back on it and having had a little time to process things i will leave it at this.......photographically it was an ok trip but personally and relationally.......it was one of the best trips i have taken by myself, i wish that jen could have been there to share it with me. Mahalo to my buddy Tom for his incredible hospitality and Bruce for our many times we got to go get some grindz. Love you brothers! To Blaine and Bethany for putting me up for a couple of nights and for just hanging out and Blaine for finally being able to go shoot with me. Had a great time with you all, hope to do it again soon. Aloha

Winding Down.....

2011-04-29T19:35:00.000-07:00

Well our time on Kauai is coming to a close, my family leaves tomorrow and Jen and i leave monday. Jen flies back home to california while i fly to the Big Island for another week. Its always hard when your time here is coming to an end and it hits you that you have to leave this little speck of heaven out in the middle of the pacific and return to the stresses that make you go on vacation in the 1st place. Still we are grateful to have had this time here, to visit with friends and most importantly to be able to share it with family. I think that their experiences here will be long remembered, from remembering just how much sweeter fruit tastes here, to the magic of a sunset in Hanalei, or the beauty of a sunrise at tunnels and seeing the sun drape its golden light upon the green cliffs of the north shore. So many things that we love about our second little home here are now etched in the memories of my family forever. We have had a great time, lots of great memories have been made. Aloha for now :)

New Experiences......

2011-04-27T11:08:00.000-07:00

Yes we are alive, i thought that we didnt have internet access here but just discovered that we do! So i thought i would give you all a quick update. My family (mom, sister, brother inlaw and nephew) flew in on Saturday and we have been enjoying exploring the island ever since. We had the amazing priveledge and blessing to be able to fly my mom and sister (both who have never taken a vacation) in to experience one our favorite places on the planet. it has been a week of new experiences all around, seeing my nephew get so excited when he saw a turtle for the 1st time was something that i wont soon forget, the whole family is enchanted with the "magic" of this place to say the least. For me the biggest thing that is new is shifting my focus from being a photographer to being with my family and being a host, this has always been difficult for me but i am slowly learning. While i have not been shooting as much as in previous years i am afforded some opportunities here and there, Jen keeps me in line when i start to wander of the path. After this i still have a week on the big island that will be nothing but shooting photos 24/7 which i am very grateful for. Overall this has been one of the most rewarding trips so far, its amazing sharing your love for a place with others and seeing their enjoyment of it as well. Here is a collection of various photos taken over the last several day (except for the turtle which is the one i saw at tunnels a few days ago) Enjoy and Aloha!

VICTORY!!!!!!!

2011-04-23T01:30:00.000-07:00

Well sort of.........for years ive had this shot that ive wanted to do. Recipe for success? Take a snorkeling session at tunnels, add one turtle underwater and finish it off with the beautiful cliffs o the north shore in the background. Seems easy enough right? Did i mention that i have been trying to do this for years now? 1st i needed to get an underwater housing, did that and got it with a port for my most used lens. Problem number 1, image needs to be half in half out of the water to get what i want.....must have large dome to displace water. Buy large dome, check. Problem solved. Try again..........problem number 2. Contrast difference between underwater exposure too great, cant record detail above water and under at the same time. Need flash underwater to bridge that gap. Borrow flash housing from friend, check. Problem solved. Problem number 3........need turtle in shot, they come out when they darn well please. 3 days ive been out searching and waiting for these creatures and getting scratched up by random spiny things, and beat up by ridiculous currents and still nothing. Ive been shooting fish and other random things while i wait which has been good because i have used the time to get more comfortable with shooting flash under water. Yesterday i decided to go out on a whim and am so thankful that Jen let me go while she stayed at the vacation rental place and FiNALLY after 3 days of swimming out there for over an hour and a half i got a turtle. I was so excited! Problem number 4.........sun needs to be in the right place. Uggggg! if its not one thing its another, for it to work i need to shoot in the morning which i have been doing but turtles dont like to co-operate. So i will take whatever i can, in the end i did and didnt get the shot that i wanted. The concept is there and im a lot more comfortable using the flash now, but the time of day is wrong. The cliffs need to be front lit which only happens in the morning, so it really just comes down to keeping at it and hoping luck is on my side. I may not get it this year but i will keep trying until i get what i want.........i dont give up easily. Still, i had a great time out there and i didnt walk away empty handed, i managed to get some shots i was happy with. So with that i leave you with the concept shot that i got and some more photos for you to take in. Aloha and enjoy!! :)

spotted moray eel, totally wrong lens to shoot him with but he was to cool to pass up

he looks small, but at night him and his friends make a lot of noise!

Sunrise at Tunnels....

2011-04-21T13:53:00.000-07:00

Enjoyed a beautiful sunrise at tunnels beach this morning, no clouds anywhere which was kind of a bummer so in that sense it wasnt all that spectacular............but really is there anything here that doesnt stop you dead in your tracks and make you feel small? I am not a morning person at all but will say that there is a sort of ceremonial grandeur to sunrise, the transformation from the cool light of the moon to the warm tones as the suns rays begin to bathe everything in light is really quite magical. Just a few quick ones from this morning. Enjoy and Aloha!

Lessons in frustration and patience

2011-04-21T01:50:00.000-07:00

Sometimes in order to move forward you have to take a step back. This year i have added/borrowed a new variable to the underwater formula.......a flash. While photographers have been shooting flash underwater for ages many of those are scuba divers. Shooting in the depths brings its own challenges, shooting close to the surface can be a total nightmare at times. While i love to experiment in order to grow this one addition has really brought me out of my element and to be honest makes me a little uncomfortable. Shooting ambient light underwater is challenging enough, there's weird shadows you cant control, currents that toss you all over the place, wildlife that doesnt co-operate, holding your breath, diving down deep.......and the list goes on, its exhausting. Now add a flash and realize that on top of physical exhaustion youre now adding a lot more mental fatigue as well, a flash underwater brings a lot of challenges with it, water SUCKS up light, theres sand and tons of other particles in water that are not present in the air and shooting a strobe lights everything up like a christmas tree making crappy images, the rig is bulky, the flash sits on top of the camera with no way to move it making light look flat. So right now after a full day of shooting underwater i am a little discouraged, my images are nowhere near the quality that i am used to. So its a little frightening to feel like i might not get anything useful, but like i said sometimes you have to take a step backwards in order to move forwards and learn new things. So i am back to square one ad feeling like that 1st year that i started shooting underwater, but in time i learned and it got easier and the images got better. I am hoping that i am a quiker learner these days and can turn this all around before heading home. Today despite its frustrations was a blast, being around my wife makes things easier and more enjoyable. With that said, i didnt walk away completely empty handed today.............and theres always tomorrow. Enjoy and Aloha!

Adventures in Paradise

2011-04-20T01:48:00.000-07:00

ALOHA TO ALL FROM THE BEAUTIFUL ISLAND OF KAUAI!!! Well its finally here, our what seems to be annual trip to Hawaii, we are having a blast and are thoroughly enjoying our time here. Had a beautiful sunset today, and the waterfalls are running like crazy, we are staying on the north shore for our 1st week and just absolutely love it up here.Ill be shooting as much as i can but wont be blogging much, want to spend as much time with my lovely wife and my family when they arrive. With that said heres a few from today, dont get to used to these as i will be re-editing them them once i get back home and into my calibrated and color controlled environment. My apologies if they look like crap on your screen, but if at all possible try to enjoy them. Aloha!

Times goes by so slooooooow...

2011-04-13T03:05:00.000-07:00

When youre looking forward to something great, on monday we leave for Hawaii for 3 weeks. After months and months of waiting and planning and getting things lined up for people to watch the house and the dogs and endless other things that we have to take care its hard to believe that its finally here.I am BEYOND excited!! Most of the gear is packed and ready to go, hard drives are cleared a long with tons of memory cards. My heart just races thinking about it! We have been blessed to be able to go to hawaii almost every year, some people say that we are Hawaii crazy and to some extent that might be true. My reason for continually going back runs much deeper than that, over the years i have developed a great connection to hawaii. It is a special place to me, i can go there and as soon as i step off that plane it all melts away and i feel like i am truly home. We have been blessed to have developed some great friendships there with incredible people that i keep in touch with. All of them have accepted us with open arms and have made us feel like family..........i always look forward to going back. On top of that Hawaii's beautiful landscapes have been the subject of many of my photographs. Afer many years of traveling there i have developed quite a collection, for those of you who are interested or care here are some of my favorites. Enjoy!

Things that go bump in the night

2011-04-04T11:29:00.000-07:00

Went to the desert for a day of riding and shooting (guns and pictures) last thursday. Sometime in the night we heard this guy:

I love wildlife specially dangerous ones so this was a lot of fun for me, although it was somewhat more of a risk this time since i decided to shoot with a macro lens and got nice and close. My wife really enjoyed it when i told her that part :) Had a blast despite the heat, hope to do it again soon.

Nothing changes your life....

2011-03-16T02:37:00.000-07:00

like adding another life to it and having to take care of it, no jen is NOT pregnant i just want to make that perfectly clear. Im talking about the 2 furry creatures that we brought into our home well over a year ago. It began with Koa, who after 5 years of trying i had finally convinced my wife to get a dog. Ever since we got married she had never wanted a dog, but all that changed and we got our 1st dog and since that chilly morning down in mission bay were he came up to her before anyone else to say hi she was hooked. Since day one koa has brightened up our home in an unbelievable way, he loves without question, greets jen when she gets home with such enthusiasm it one of the best parts of her day and he loves to cuddle. He has an amazing loving and curious personality but can be very mellow, hes been one of the best decisions that we have made. After our vacation to Hawaii last year we came home and on impulse decided to go to Hellen Woodward (this is very dangerous by the way!) to find a friend for Koa who was always crying at the fence when he heard the neighbors dogs. It was there that we met Kai who at the time was called Doritos, we went into the cage and Kai ran up and just about licked our faces off. We fell in love right away, but we almost didnt get him since his first meeting with Koa was and extremely loud meeting and we were worried that they would not get along. After some deliberation we decided to risk it and brought him home and we have never looked back. Going through pictures it hard to believe that it has been over a year and unbelievable how Koa who is now a 70 plus pound beast could have come from that cute tiny little thing that we brought home. It hasnt been without its challenges though, Koa had health issues from the beginning, and being curious loved to eat things that he wasnt supposed to eat. Kai......well Kai has been the bane of my existence at times, he is and absolute tornado and a back talker when he doesnt get his way. He will bark at his own shadow and goes absolutely berserk when he sees another dog which has made it difficult to socialize him. Kai is definitely at the other end of the espectrum and love to bug Koa and instigates a fight all the time, stealing his toys or biting at his legs to get his way. A regular day in the Menendez home is those 2 wrestling and barking at each other, its actually pretty hilarious.I have lovingly dubbed Kai El Demonio Blanco which is spanish for The White Demon or if youre an Ace Ventura fan its equinsu ocha or White Devil. Despite all of the challenges and frustrations we wouldnt trade a single day of it for anything, those 2 lovable fur balls have enriched our lives in ways that we couldnt possibly have imagined. Heres some photos of our furry children, i definitely have a lot more of Koa than Kai but i plan on changing that soon.

P.S.
if you want to read up on one of the most frustrating but ultimately funny days i had go here

Cobian Sandals Redux

2011-03-14T15:23:00.000-07:00

In 2007 and 2008 i did a a couple of shoots for Cobian Sandals, i keep all usable files on my hard drives in case i later see the photo again and get some inspiration and see it differently. Most of the time im working on my nature stuff but recently i have been working on organizing all my files and transferred about 4 terabytes of data from all my external HD's to one 8 terabyte Drobo unit. In the course of doing this i have been revisiting some old files and like the previous post have breathed new life into them. Inevitably the longer i do this the more i learn, and as the years go by new software comes out, new techniques are developed and and trends go in and out. When i 1st did these photos i fell into the whole using photoshop actions and adding textures bandwagon, while i think there is a time and place to use those things i believe that it should be sparingly. Of course with inexperience comes over use of everything, kind of like when you get a fisheye lens. The perspective i so cool and HUGE, you go gaga over the thing, but you find yourself in a dilemma. Instead of looking at a scene creatively and figuring out how to best shoot it you slap the fisheye lens on there and shoot a ton of what turn out to be crappy photos. You rely more on the special effect of the lens instead of growing your creativity and pushing yourself, in the end you become dependent on the lens because you cant see any other way and so all your photos start looking the same. Being a good photographer doesnt mean you shoot everything in front of you or that you can make everything look like gold, a lot of times its knowing when to walk away and not take the shot. Ok back to my thought, yes i was very prone to using things like photoshop actions and textures, something i didnt realize until about a year ago when i started looking at my work and just about died it looked so gross to me. I was looking at other peoples work and the overexposed surreal dreamy look was EVERYWHERE! So thats what i was doing, but in the end i was trying to be creative in a way that is not natural to me. What do i mean? Well im a landscape photographer pure and and simple, my goal always has and always will be to preserve detail as much as possible. Why i ever got into the mode of destroying detail in my portrait work i will not understand, but here we are many years after i 1st shot these photos reaching these conclusions. Knowing me though you will see these pictures again in like 5 years, because lets face it the blessing and curse of art is that theres always a new way to look and do the same thing. Plus i am never happy with anything i do, theres always a better way to do it, truly its never ending............i love this job. Enjoy!

Before: Just way over the top! in the long run the treatment really doesnt add to the photo. it looks dark and grainy, areas of the shirt look blown out and lost are the beautiful golden tones of the sunset.

After: A much cleaner image, theres still detail in the shirt and more depth in the image. there is actually separation between the cliff and the water. Alas the horizon is still crooked.....haha!

Before: This one isnt all that bad actually, it wasnt taken through photoshop. Still, i felt the image looked flat and lacked dimension and when we were shooting everything looked more saturated because of the sunset.

After: This one is much punchier, colors are richer a little bit more detail in her shirt and theres a lot more seperation between foreground and background.

Before: Same thing, looks flat the white shirt is really overexposed colors not as rich.

After: 2nd version im much happier with, one thing does bug me though. i think i brought out to much detail in the waves. seems a little distracting to me.........see im never happy!

Previously unreleased images

Every time i see this one i cant help but smile.....theres just something about it.

You can check out the original posts here and here

Breathing new life into old files

2011-03-10T16:14:00.000-08:00

one of the great things about being a photographer is that you are constantly learning something new, wether its a new technique to shoot, exploring different lenses, different ways to light things or growing in the way you edit your photos it really is never ending. At times it seems like a daunting task but it really can be a lot of fun, lately i have been working on improving my nature photos buy slowing down and paying a lot more attention to light, composition and thinking through what i want out of my photos. Along with improving my shooting techniques i have also been working on my editing techniques as well, this has made me go back to revisit a lot of old files that i look at now and just feel disgusted with what i did to the photos. My portrait work has been my biggest weakness, in an effort to keep up with trends and have my work be up to par with all the other photographers out there i was overusing things like photoshop actions and shifting colors and so on, while i do think that such techniques have their time and place i dont think that they belong on every photo. Its hard to maintain an objective point of view on a photo when youve added tons of filters and have been working on it for more than 10 minutes and when you 1st start out it easy to go to far because the changes from your original to the one with all the filters is so dramatic. I hope that those of you reading this and are photographers dont take this as a slam on your techniques, this really is all just my opinion and for myself i felt i was rallying way to much on photoshop and over editing my work. But i do hope that you will take away from this that no matter how long youve been shooting that the learning process is never ever done and there is always something new to try and to learn. Its an exhausting task at times but dont look at it as a chore, be thankful that you work in a field that never gets old dull and boring. For me right now simplicity is the name of the game, my biggest question to myself now is "how do i make a great image with minimal intrusion from me?" i could go on and on but ill stop and heres some images, some have before and afters others are ones that i had never worked before but all are from the same shoot. I will be posting more examples later. Enjoy!

Before: Sides are way to dark and the color shift is way to drastic and leaves it looking acidic.

After: much happier with this, the image much cleaner. the people are the real subjects not the processing, i like the brightness of the image and while there is a slight color shift its very subtle and isnt distracting

Before: similar to the 1st one, i like the warmth of the image but the softness of it is very distracting to me. i feel like im looking through a tunnel because i darkened the side to much.

after: much much better, simple edits and it took less than 5 minutes

before: tone is to cold and the overall feel of the photo is to dark. im not opposed to a dark feel in a photo but there is a time and place for it.

after: not the same photo but it was close enough that i used it. i like it in black and white it has nice warmth and not pushed to far.

Desert Rat 2011 Panoramas

2011-03-03T15:56:00.001-08:00

Took a lot of Panoramic images out in the desert and one on the way back home. Most of them range anywhere from 25-30 or so individual images which is relatively small after the monster 70 image panorama i did in joshua tree. Anywho here they are. Enjoy!

Sun was going down fast and had little time to get everything ready. Taken at Blow Sands in Ocotillo Wells

I call this one the Rats Nest. 26 image Pano of Desert Rat 2011 Base Camp

Somewhere in Ocotillo Wells, while driving through a river basin the lead Jeep blew a tire. Had to change it so we all got out and played

Lunch stop at Lake Henshaw, over the weekend the mountains go dumped on and there was snow everywhere. terrible time of day to shoot it but i wanted to get something.

Desert Rat 2011

2011-03-01T02:57:00.000-08:00

Went to Ocotillo Wells to an event called Desert Rat thats put on by our church. I was there with my buddy Josh, his father in law Ray and son Troy and a bunch of their friends. We had a blast flying trough the desert kicking up big clouds of dust, climbing large rocks with vehicles, making mud fly, getting stuck in sand, changing tires and overall establishing our manly dominance over the desert and all that dwells in it. I have been on this event before and the 1st time that i went i took a bazillion photos but this time i only shot when light was good and was a lot more picky with my photos and i think i came away with some great stuff. The weather was all over the place, it would be nice in the morning and then it would be freezing at night and incredibly windy but we did get some great clouds and made for some beautiful sunsets. It was a lot of fun and im looking forward to doing it again, im still going through photos but did manage to edit a few (including a quick 27 image Panoramic (i shot a lot of Panos). Ill be posting more photos in the next few days so come back soon. Enjoy!!

Adventures in a desolate land....

2011-02-28T15:59:00.000-08:00

Was in the desert for a few days with one of my good buddies and some people from church. Much conquering of hills and rocks was had and we all had a great time. More photos coming soon, enjoy these for now.

They cant all be a success....

2011-02-24T04:29:00.000-08:00

Went out yesterday in a big hurry after being at the DMV for what seemed like an eternity, had a location in mind but had some set back when i arrived and very little time to shoot. So i didnt come away with as many usable photos as i like but still managed to get some good one so it wasnt a total waste. Full write up and a couple more photos coming later today, you can enjoy this one for now.

Right in my own backyard

2011-02-22T03:03:00.000-08:00

well not my OWN backyard but literally minutes from my house. I decided to go explore Lake Calaveras yesterday, it was a great time but a las the afternoon came with some heartbreak since one of my lenses bit the dust and transitioned into the afterlife. Other than that i considered it to be a very successful afternoon, this was merely an exploratory journey, i took some shots but was more in search of good photos and areas to be in for the next time around. One of the very defining features of Lake Calaveras and the focus of most of my pictures is the center piece of the whole place Mount Calaveras. Its not really a mountain but rather a (and i wasnt aware of this until after i did some research) 22 million year old volcanic plug. A volcanic plug is a mass of volcanic rock that solidified in it's vent and feeding system millions of years ago. When the volcano becomes extinct and starts to erode away, the "plug" is all that is left behind. Mount Calavera is one of only three volcanic plugs in Southern California, so there you go hope you enjoy the photos and hey maybe you learned something too. Enjoy!

P.S.
i manages to pull of a 22 image panorama before the sun went down, hope you enjoy that too :)

ill post some more photos later this week.....

Lake Calaveras

2011-02-21T19:16:00.000-08:00

Took a little stroll around the block today, about 5 minutes from my house. More coming soon.

Washington DC, The Mall

2011-02-20T02:53:00.000-08:00

Last year my wife and i took a short trip to Washington DC, we went in search of some fall color but arrived a little to early to catch it at its peak. We did however do a lot of walking and took in some museums and checked out the sights and great food. We had a blast and definitely will go back again someday, these are previously unreleased photos that i have just recently gone back to edit. These are of the capitol building and some of the National Museum of the American Indian which was architecturally beautiful and lent itself well to black and white. My only disappointment was that i was so overcast and gloomy that there was no way to really add drama to the whole thing and the light was really flat. Ill be adding more photos to this post later so stay tuned. For now enjoy these :)

Plenty of clouds.....very little color

2011-02-19T01:45:00.000-08:00

Thursday i went out to catch the sunset, ive been enjoying visiting the different beaches in carlsbad and Encinitas and plan on making my way further south. So back to the sunset, it was pretty disappointing to say the least i was pretty excited to go out earlier in the day as with the recent storms there were some great clouds in the sky which i was hoping would reflect some of the sunset. Sadly though as the sun got lower in the horizon it hid behind a thick cloud bank and it obscured a lot of the color, i was pretty bummed and not to mention that i had underestimated how cold it was going to be i was out there in sandals and shorts and was freezing my butt off. Eventually i called it quits as i started to get numb from the cold but on my way to the car i saw the moon rising over coast highway and thought to myself "yeah theres a picture here" the moon wasnt clear but was behind a bunch of clouds, the backlight brought out a lot of details in the clouds, there was a good amount of movement in the clouds so i knew it would make a cool long exposure and with cars coming down coast highway it would add some great movement in the foreground. I wanted to capture everything in one frame but the only lens i had that was wide enough was my fisheye lens, i dont normally use the fisheye lens as its very easy to overuse but it was the only thing i had that would pull it off so on it went. i figured out exposure and lastly decided to leave my white balance on cloudy, while most of the time i would shoot night stuff with a tungsten WB to render the scene in blue as moonlight has a very "cool" color temp i liked the color that the warmer WB rendered. Plus when i looked around i could see that the clouds were reflecting a lot of the orange light from city lights in the distance, the cloudy WB showed this were the Tungsten one did not. All in all eventhough i didnt walk away with much its was still a productive evening plus i got a nice 12 shot Pano and found some of the images worked well in Black and White. So there you have it, heres some photos for you. Enjoy!

Moonrise over coast highway

2011-02-17T22:11:00.001-08:00

Last shot of the day before i got back to my warm car. More coming tomorrow. Enjoy!

Return to the Cliffs

2011-02-16T01:38:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago i did a post with a series of photos i took at the Wiamea Pier, in that post i had stated the importance of not only looking for beauty beyond the surface of a place but also the importance of going back to see what different things you can capture. You can check the post out here now this is all just my opinion and nothing more. I bring that up because last night i went back to the carlsbad cliffs, you can check that post out here. The last time i went there i did some shots of the water drops falling off of the wet moss that clings to the rocks, i loved the delicate nature of the drops and how they seemed to encapsulate the sunset within. The golden color of the setting sun add beautiful light to the colorful moss, alas when i came home i wasnt all that happy with what i had shot. The concept was fine i just shot my closeups to late into the evening and didnt like what i had captured. Not only that i went there with the intention of shooting some great landscapes, so i decided to go back with my full attention devoted to getting those closeup shots that i had missed. Along the way i shot some landscapes as well but like i said that just wasnt my main focus this time around, i managed to get some different stuff but ill let you all be the judges of that. So heres some photos from last nights outing. Enjoy!

The marine layer.....bane of my existence

2011-02-09T02:30:00.000-08:00

Against by better judgement i went out yesterday afternoon. I knew that the marine layer was going to be coming in but i was holding against hope that there would still be a great "show" for sunset. Alas i ended up being wrong, oh well maybe next time. All was not a loss though, i actually came away with 3 pictures that im not totally excited about but happy enough that here i am making a blog post about it :) The one with the coaster i have been trying to get for a while and it looks like i will be going back to try again. Everytime that i go out there and try to get the shot it seems that everything is against me! This time it was the stupid marine layer that just gave everything this hazy look, oh how i hate you marine layer! Anywho heres the 3 pictures. Enjoy!

I keep trying to get this shot but whenever try something seems to wrong, all the elements are there to make a good image but i just need some clouds or something in there to really make it great.

An old stump that i found where i was shooting

Had the wrong lens for this but no time to change it, i think it would have worked if the dang birds would have flown lower in the frame

Return to Cardiff

2011-02-05T02:13:00.000-08:00

Yesterday afternoon i decided to go back to Cardiff, i had shot some photos there to start off my challenge a few weeks ago. I got there and to be completely honest there wasnt much that was inspiring me, but it was to late to drive to another location. i decided to shoot small detail stuff instead of shooting landscapes, i love how shooting close up stuff slows you down and let you see details that are so often missed. Still when the sun went down things got really nice and i couldnt help myself and shot a couple of landscapes. I had a lot of fun but i think Monday ill go out and do some location scouting to find some different spots. Enjoy!

Todays outing.....

2011-02-04T19:47:00.000-08:00

Heres one from this afternoons little outing. Full post coming soon so stay tuned. Enjoy!

A painful afternoon....

2011-02-01T14:20:00.000-08:00

Yesterday i ventured out to carlsbad, i left the house a little late and had an errand to run before i headed to the coast. After my errand was finished there was little time to scout so i decided to go to the cliffs and shoot there. I have shot in this area many times before, strangely enough though i had never actually photographed the cliffs themselves which is really the biggest draw to this place.......go figure. So with location picked and subject for the days photos in mind i went on my merry way! I got there and there was still a little time to figure out what i wanted to pull off and i picked my spot by where all these cool moss covered rocks are. The tide was low but i could tell that it would be coming up soon i set up took some light readings and waited for the sun to come down some more and do its thing. I was hoping for more clouds from the recent rain but alas it was not to be, there were just a few and i would have to settle for that. A little waiting around and soon things started to come together, the light was turning this golden color, the red cliffs really come to life in this kind of light, the green moss gives a nice contrasting color, the waves had come up enough that the sand was wet and i was getting a nice reflection of the sky in it. With some of the waves coming up i wanted to pull off some longer exposures and incorporate some of that beautiful movement in my photos. So i went to get my cable release......no where to be found.....BLAST!!! i forgot it at home, oh well i would have to improvise and try not to move the camera to much when i pressed the shutter release. Took a few exposures and noticed two things: 1) the water was not blurring enough so i would need a longer exposure. I was already at ISO 100 and pretty much stopped down all the way so i wouldnt be able to do it that way, not to worry ill just slap my 10 stop ND filter on there and all will be good again. 2) Looking at the histogram, the luminosity histogram looked ok but the red channel was clipping really bad. Those red cliffs reflect a lot of light and digital sensors dont seem to like the red spectrum for some reason, they do funky things. Not to worry! I can use my 2 stop spit ND filter and get the problem under control. So with solutions in hand i went to go grab my tools. PROBLEM! I forgot bot my ND filters......at this point i was annoyed. I could have just remained frustrated but it is what it is, i didnt have what i needed so i would just have to work around it and make a note for next time, i wasnt about to let this ruin my afternoon. So off i went to do the best that i could, it was a lot of fun actually. I didnt really deviate or move locations to much, i knew the cliffs were what i wanted to shoot so it was really just trying to find the best way to show them off and still incorporate all the other elements that were there. After a succesful afternoon and the sun having gone down i decided i wanted to pull off a few more exposures. Other problems presented themselves though, with the sun down light had faded fast so it was getting hard to see and there were big rocks everywhere. Also in my excitement to shoot i failed to notice that the tide was coming up and it was coming up fast! Wait no it was already really high and hitting the base of the cliffs and my exit was at this point non existent. The water was up to my knees at this point and was covering most of the rocks, i grabbed my gear and decided to wait on top of one of the bigger rocks, but as i went to get on top of the rock i pulled my foot out of the water and bye bye went my sandal. Having already lost several pairs of sandals already i wasnt about to lose these. so after the sandal i went, looking like a total idiot carrying thousands of dollars of camera gear in high tide. I finally got my sandal and saw that the waves were getting bigger but there was a lull in the tide......it was now or never! So i booked it out of there, it was dark there were big dips in the sand the water was covering large rocks. in my haste i stepped forward and my foot landed in a big hole in the sand and next to it was a large rock. My knee landed on it bearing all of my weight, it hurt......A LOT!! No time to stop though, i put the pain aside and moved forward but progress was slow and my window had gone. Waves were against the cliffs now, nothing to do at this point but put the cameras above my head and pray to God that one of those waves didnt throw me against the cliff. I made it back the waves had gotten up to my waist but i was still alive and the gear was ok, having gotten back in one piece i stopped to catch my breath. I looked down and hey my sandals were both there not to shabby. Drenched, sandy, out of breath and my knee was killing me, I limped back to my car with a smile on my face. I had both my sandals, the gear was ok, i had shot some good stuff and i guess most importantly i was still alive......not bad for an afternoons work :) I would like to think that i have learned my lesson and would love to say that next time i wont stay so long. Lets face it though we all know that i wont and given another chance to do it again i would probably do it the exact same way. Such are the risks we take being out in the field, but thats what makes the job fun. Enjoy!

Something to wet your appetite.....

2011-01-31T23:25:00.000-08:00

just a little morsel from todays session, full post and write up tomorrow. For now im exhausted and i hurt my knee really bad so im in a bit of pain........but it was soo worth it :) Enjoy!!

The Waimea Series.....

2011-01-29T16:13:00.000-08:00

in the last 5 years or so my wife and i have returned to Kauai many times, Kauai is known as the Garden Isle and it lives up to its name. The island has many beautiful vistas with clear ocean water and lush green backdrops. While i do photograph many of these things i dont always gravitate to the usual. Take for example and presented for your consideration Waimea Pier on the island of Kauai. This area of the island is very dry in comparison to Hanalei on the north shore, the water in the ocean is murky and brown from the nearby river runoff and it leaves you covered in this fine silt that really just feels gross. To get to it you have to drive through Hanapepe and part of Waimea, these 2 places have old run down buildings and most people including myself in the 1st few years would tend to pass it by on their way to much prettier locales such as Waimea Canyon or the Kalalau Valley lookout. In this place of old run down building thought there is beauty, you have to look for it but stay long enough and youll find it. The pier is old, run down and not much to look at. Be there at sunset though and this place comes to life, the skies light up and big beautiful clouds reflect its many hues. The golden light of the setting sun brings out so much character in the old peir, its warm brown tones really shine in these conditions and the sight of people fishing at the end of it transports you to much simpler times where the stresses of our modern life seem to fade away. For photographers this time is a mad dash to get as much as possible and try out different compositions for when the sun begins its decent into the horizon the light changes dramatically and fast. The show never stops there though as after the sun disappears the last remnants of its lingering light still caresses the sky and gives off phenomenal colors.n If you are lucky enough to be there during a full moon then you are in for a beautiful treat, the last few wisps of light hang in the sky and just as everything begins to go dark you look behind you and see a magnificent moon begin its ascension and what really brings it all together is the gorgeous reflection that only the dark wet sand can provide. I suppose my reason for doing this post is to show the importance of looking further than whats on the surface, many times we will pass on to the next thing because it is visibly beautiful and we dont have to work hard to get that reward. There are some real gems though if we can slow down and look beyond what we are just seeing, it is unfortunate that on our way to see beautiful things we pass along many beautiful things to enjoy.For photographer i just want to stress the importance of visiting places you have been to before, no one place is exactly the same everyday. when you are there shooting stretch yourself to see and try other compositions but also to stay past what most people would consider to be the "main event" many times you will walk away with nothing......but once in a while youll be happy you stayed :) Enjoy!

These 1st three were taken 2 years ago on my 1st visit to Waimea Pier

These next three were taken the following year and i was lucky enough to be there during a full moon

Ahh the little things.....

2011-01-27T02:25:00.000-08:00

Those who are close to us know by now that my mom is currently living with us, Jen and i had talked about having her live with us for a while. After much prayer and thinking through things we had decided that it wasnt the time to do so, a few months ago her situation changed and we decided that it was time to offer up our place. The story and reasons as to how this all came about are numerous but we would be here fore ever. Most people when they hear about the whole thing have one universal question "hows that working out for you?" Honestly i have to say that everything is going great! My mom and i have always had a precarious relationship, and we have always butted heads because of our differing points of view. It doesnt help that we are both incredibly stubborn and i am very outspoken on my points of view, but in recent years there has been an effort on both sides to appreciate one another and so far we have reached a point of equilibrium. The other inevitable question is directed towards jen since shes now living with her mother in law and the stereotype is that such a situation would be terrible. Jen has LOVED having her here and they get a long really well, and my mom loves to help out with everything that she can. So all of that to get to my point, but really i couldnt do this without giving you some backstory. One of the great things that has come with my mom living with us is having my sister and her family around. I love my sister a great deal, i appreciate her honesty and bluntness but more than anything i see everything that she has been through and how hard shes had to fight to get were she is now. Since my mom moved in shes been coming over every week and we all hang out and have dinner together, more than anything though i love to see my little nephew and see him grown up. I must admit that i LOVE being an uncle and having him around more puts in the "spoiling"mindset and like to find little things to get him for when he comes over. It also prepares me for when we have our own kids, this year is jen and mines last hoorah before we have kids of our own. Yesterday my sister came over and had to leave with my mom shortly after, this was the 1st time that my nephew Gio said "can i stay with Tio?" i will admit that i loved hearing that. So hearing that i put work aside for a little while and we went out to the field to let the dogs run around and let Gio explore. I loved seeing how smart and curious he is, looking for bugs and running around and enjoying playing with the dogs. We were there for a couple of hours, of course i brought the camera with me and loved taking some photos. By far it was the best afternoon i have had in a while. Enjoy!

Another perfect afternoon....

2011-01-26T01:20:00.000-08:00

The Lord continues to grace SoCal with warm days right smack in the middle of winter, while the rest of the country freezes here we sit in perfect beach weather. We continue to have our own little slice of paradise and its right in our back yards, i continue my journey to grow as a photographer. Trying to go out as much as i possibly can and not go to my typical spots such as the beach or a field or something else i typically gravitate to. It doesnt come without its challenges though, theres work that needs to be done and i have to think a head of time to think through where i want to be and at what time. Along with that i have found it difficult to break myself of shooting all digital files, i have been using my film camera and continue to work through that roll i loaded last week. Its difficult though when you are used to the incredible convenience of digital, i have also found it difficult to keep myself to just 36 exposures, although i will say that because of shooting film i have slowed down considerably and am thinking through every photo i take. This i am incredibly grateful for, the process has been a lot of fun for me but has its moments of frustration (mostly with myself) but i continue to grow and work on getting better. Here are a few from yesterdays outing. Enjoy!

P.S.
oh and for those who are curious i shot 63 digital files, its almost 2 rolls. While its over my 36 shot limit it is still a lot lower than what i usually came back with. So its progress albeit slow, but i continue to be hopeful that i will be able to stray within my limit in the very near future.

Literally just happened

2011-01-22T17:49:00.001-08:00

Well not JUST happened but like 30 minutes ago, i went out to get the mail and found something to photograph in my front yard. The beauty of photography, even going out to check the mail can be an adventure :) ENJOY!

Appreciating what i have....

2011-01-19T03:21:00.000-08:00

I love to travel, right now we are in the planning stages for our big trip to Australia at the end of this year. Sometimes though my desire to travel to faraway lands consumes me and i stop seeing the incredible beauty thats right in my own backyard. Its really easy to see faraway exotic places as beautiful but we easily lose sight of the beauty that we are treated to every day. In these 80 degree days in the middle of winter and while the rest of the country is either being rained on or being turned into an ice cube i hope that we can take a look at the things around us and take in the incredible beauty that we are fortunate enough to have. These images are taken all over carlsbad, some of them are old files that for one reason or another i really didnt know what to do with them before. Years of shooting brings experience and growth and you learn new techniques to edit photos and i now have many more tools to bring out the best in these photos. Ill keep posting some more pictures to this post so keep your eyes open. For now enjoy these!

Working on the basics....

2011-01-18T00:37:00.000-08:00

Yesterday i posted on Facebook that i was going to work on challenging myself and further my growth as a photographer. Oddly enough what i have chosen to do in order to challenge myself is to start shooting film again. The digital age has brought along some incredible things to the world of photography and has given us an incredible amount of latitude and control over our images. One thing that i do believe has been lost along the way though is the discipline of making images, it has long been said that good photographers know when not to take images. this knowledge comes with years of practice, studying light and composition and enormous sacrifice. I say sacrifice because photography really does take a great deal of sacrifice in time, energy and and of course money. The saying above really does hold great truth though, i think that it takes great discipline and patience to keep yourself from taking pictures of everything you see. Film really does bring about this discipline. Why? Well if you think about it there are a lot of factors to keep in mind when shooting film, you have to think what kind of film youre going to be shooting as different brands and ISO's react differently. Cost, professional films are expensive not just at the front end but to develop and print as well. Then theres the fact that you only have 36 exposures to work with, when you take these things into account you begin to think about every picture differently. The questions must be asked: Why did this scene catch my eye? How do i compose this? Is it really worth taking a photo? These things serve to slow you down and think through what you are doing and most of the time you find that what youre looking at really isnt worth photographing. Dont get me wrong, i am not opposed to digital cameras at all, i have used them for many many years and love all of the great innovations that they bring. The discipline of photography though has been lost in many ways, we have the ability to manipulate our images like never before and so fall prey to the mindset of "ill fix it later". Not only that but memory cards can hold hundreds of pictures at the highest resolution now, its easy to fill up card after card and become what one of my good friends calls the "spray and pray photographer". I know that this may all sound like a rant, or that i am judging other photographer but i assure you it is not. These are just my own opinions, i have my own journey as a photographer and everyone else has theirs. As a photographer though i have an obligation to continually study my craft, look at what i am doing, reevaluate and search for ways to improve. Right now i feel that i am undisciplined in my craft, i find my images lacking, and know that i can do better. So i choose to challenge myself and get myself back to a place where every image counts and find that discipline that shooting film brought. So the challenge for myself is this:

Go out a minimum of 3 days a week
Limit myself to 36 digital images
Shoot at least 10 frames on film and write everything down

i went out yesterday for the sunset at Cardiff and had an incredible time, the methodical process of taking out the light meter taking reading, composing, shooting and writing down settings was very therapeutic......not to mention the sound of the motor advancing film really took me back. In hindsight i probably would have chosen a different film though as i like to shoot long exposures and Velvia 50 has horrible reciprocity issues at exposures longer than 4 seconds, of course i didnt figure this out until after i loaded the film and decided to look at the chart in the box. Oh well, next time ill put more thought into it. So there you have it, thats were im at. If youve made this far then i thank you, i know its not easy reading through my posts and i talk A LOT. So to reward you here some images from yesterday, these are all digital images as soon as i finish this roll ill scan them in and post them. Enjoy!

Cant wait to be back here again..

2011-01-11T03:00:00.001-08:00

Our trip to the islands is scheduled for April.........im having a hard time making it till then.

A bittersweet afternoon...

2011-01-08T00:33:00.000-08:00

So right now i have my thursday afternoons back, i was doing sound for the Jordan for a long time but have been asked to take a break. Not having anything to do this last thursday i went out to catch the sunset and lose myself in what i love to do best and thats to be behind the camera. the sunset was really beautiful and the negative tide had left the sand very reflective making for a very beautiful scene as the sun went down. i thank god right now that i have something like photography to take my mind off of everything and help me process through the many conflicting emotions right now. im looking forward to going out and getting back into shooting more and more. theres a couple more photos that i need to process through but i will do that later and update this post with them. for now enjoy these.

Yesterdays sunset

2011-01-07T15:42:00.000-08:00

heres a quick photo of yesterdays gorgeous sunset, more photos and some thoughts coming later tonight. Enjoy!

my brother from another mother

2011-01-06T03:41:00.000-08:00

im not really sure how this got overlooked and didnt get blogged but here we are. anyway, couple months ago i shot ethan and acacia's engagement photos, i had a great afternoon shooting and hopefully they did too. ive known ethan since he was just wee lad, and his family since before i was a christian. we have a long history together and they took me in for a few months after i moved out of my parents and was looking for a place to live. in those few months i grew closer to all of them, so much so that i call Darla and Bob mom and dad and ethan and shane are really like brothers to me. for me it has been a great pleasure to know ethan and it is with a great sense of pride that i call him brother and truly am proud of the man that he has become. acacia i havent known as long but we have an.......well an interesting relationship, shes as blunt and as stubborn as i am and im well im zo so whenever you put us into the same room its like something out of an old western or something. we see each other across a dusty room, catching each others eyes squinting with bitterness at one another and exchanging that non verbal "i see you and i will destroy you before the evening is over!" hahahahaha it really is all in good fun though, i love her to death and can see the positive changes in ethans life because of her. then theres joe, the dog that ethan got as a small puppy that has now grown into a gigantic dog!! and you know he eats EVERYTHING IN SIGHT!! all these things came together and made for a very fun shoot, im really looking forward to their wedding (cool fact: they are having a cigar bar at the reception.....uh YES PLEASE!) tried a few different things on this one too. laid off on the post processing a bit and actually attempted some HDR stuff with it too, pretty happy with them but ill let you guys be the judge. ENJOY!!

Learning new things!

2010-12-30T04:17:00.001-08:00

man i have neglected this blog for a while........ill have to make sure to keep it updated on a regular basis this year. i hope everyone had a great christmas and i wish all of you a great new year. for a long time now i have been reading up on a form of photography called HDR. i have been pretty opposed to HDR photos for a while because they all look very processed and weird to me. there havent been many who in my opinion have been able to pull it off well, still i have been tempted to try and see what i could do with it. i have attempted to do HDR photos a few times but every time i went to edit the photos it just took forever, all the programs i tried had clunky interfaces or were just really difficult to learn. let face it i dont want to be in front of the computer all the time editing photos so doing these had to be an easy and somewhat quick process. well one of the beautiful things of the digital age is that programs are always pushing boundaries and getting better and better. an HDR editing program came out recently that really made the process simple and quick most importantly though it made the process kinda fun. in my spare time i have been trying out some old photos and making HDR versions of them, as with anything its all a learning process and im still learning how to make the process better and learning how to make my photos look more natural. my first few attempts were just gross and really looked over processed so i went back read up on a few techniques and tried again. while im not completely satisfied i think the newer versions look a lot better. heres a few photos for you to enjoy, if you have any questions or have an opinion please email me or leave a comment. Enjoy!

BOOK FOR SALE!!!

2010-11-16T16:33:00.000-08:00

We currently have a hardcover 100 page photo book for sale for 50 dollars. You need to let me know by Thursday the 18th at 5pm so i can put the order through. The book is beautiful with photos on the front and back covers and as i said it is a hardcover book, all the pages are full photographs no writing just cool full color photos for you to sit back and enjoy. Makes a great coffee table book or gifts for art enthusiast. You can email me at fluxphotography@gmail.com if you are interested. Heres some screen captures of the book layout.

coming up...

2010-11-16T02:27:00.000-08:00

keep your eyes i open for a washington dc post and a an NYC post!! Also the spectacle of color post has been updated with a few new photos.

Spectacle of color....

2010-11-08T14:01:00.000-08:00

My wife and i recently took a trip out to the East Coast for 10 days, we spent some time in Washington DC and in New York City. Both places have a lot to offer for people going to visit but as it stands i would have to say the DC was by far our favorite place to visit and 5 days there was not nearly enough time. There was so much to see in our nations capitol and tons of museums to visit, we only visited 2 of them but spend hours and hours in both of them. I will post more on the things that we did in a later post, one of the big reasons why we went there though was to try and catch some fall color. While we do see patches of the magic that is Fall here in California it is nothing compared to the grandiose spectacle that it is on the East Coast. Last year we visited my brother in NC and unfortunately were to late for it, this year we went hoping to catch some more of it. Unfortunately its always a gamble and we were just a little bit to early to catch it at its peak, while this was a big disappointment there were a few patches here and there that we were able to find. Even the small areas of color that we were able to find were amazing, while in DC Jen and i took a whole day renting bikes and riding around DC and through Rock Creek Park it was an incredible time and one of my favorite memories. Most of the images are from Rock Creek Park but i will be adding some from central park and other areas that we saw some color. So without further ado here is some fall color for you to get you in the mood for the holidays, cus lets face it this weather cant seem to make up its mind and sure doesnt help any! Enjoy!!

Stupid things i do....

2010-10-05T03:58:00.000-07:00

A few years ago when we were on the Big Island i was shooting these huge waves crashing unto the side of these cliffs. It was really incredible as the whole cliff would shake under my feet, the sound was amazing and the water sprayed soo high! I was shooting pictures at a safe distance but of course as always i had this uncontrollable urge to get get closer. While getting closer does make better pictures many times it is a stupid thing to do......this was one of those times. I could have easily been knocked flat on the ground or fallen into the ocean. Anyway i got closer saw a big wave coming and got my camera up to my face and got ready, as the wave hit i began to take photos in a fast sequence. Everything inside of me told me to run......but i stayed and i got SOAKED!!! I was drenched and so was my camera, its times like this that i am grateful that Nikon cameras are built like a tank cus my gear goes trough this kind of scenario all to often but they still live to tell the tale. I was able to laugh about it later and looking back on it now i ask the question.......would i do it again? YOU BET I WOULD!

Heres a short animation for you to enjoy and laugh at me. Enjoy!!

Spirituality of nature.......

2010-10-04T03:47:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite things about photography is looking for a way to connect to the landscapes that i am photographing in an emotional and spiritual way. I love to in a sense pour myself into my work, to find a way to not only pull my viewer into the moment but to also find a way to experience that connection that i felt while shooting the photo. Sometimes the connection is made easily, other times i have to really slow down take in my surroundings breathe the air and step back to think about why im photographing what is in front of my camera. This last trip to the Big Island i was blessed to have an experience that was so incredible that finding that spiritual connection came effortlessly. It wasnt so much because i found that connection easily but because this place was so saturated with it that it just hit me like a wall of bricks. I am talking about my visit to the Kalapana lava flow, in 2008 i posted a blog about our 1st visit there. We could do little more that watch it from a distance, but the experience was an incredible one and one that stayed with me long after we left the island. Since then i have dreamed about getting closer, watching documentaries on volcanoes or on hawaii i would always think "i want to be that close!" Little did i know that i would be blessed enough to get that close, to see something that few people get to see. Through a (ill call him a contact, but really consider him a friend) i made on the island who has access to the flow we were able to go out there. Ill leave out all the details about our preparation to go out there, but will say that we left our hotel at 2:30am and hiked for over an hour to get to the flow. Hiking in the dark over sharp and uneven lava rock is grueling work. Halfway there I was tired and already out of breath but we pushed onward, finally after what seemed like an eternity we arrived. I was not prepared, not at all, not for this, it hit me all at once. i had seen this before but from a distance and even then i was not prepared. I was in the presence of something incredible, something so much bigger than me, something that i could not fully understand. That spiritual and emotional connection to this place was instant, i had to stop and soak it all in, i have dreamed about being here.......and now here i was finally and it had overtaken me. How can you do anything else but humble yourself in the presence of such power, how do you feel anything besides tiny knowing full well that one bad step can cost you your life. This place demands your respect as soon as you get there not just because of its destructive power but the knowledge that much of what you are walking on is ancient ground. You cant help but reflect on the Hawaiians that 1st lived here and lived in the presence of the volcano, respecting and even worshipping its power. This place has deep spiritual tones coursing through it and in the few seconds that i had been there it had overwhelmed me. The deep red glow of the lava in the darkness of the night, the sound of it moving and of it crystalizing as it began to immediately cool when it met the surrounding air. The thing that stands out the most though is the heat, oh man the heat! It hits you like a wall, sometimes just carried by the breeze, other times you try to get close for a shot and you hit a wall of pure invisible fire. It feels like your skin is burning off and you just cant keep moving forward. Your body is completely unprepared for it as well as the heat saps away every ounce of water and energy that you have, i have never drank so much water and gatorade in my entire life and still i was dehydrated. The movement and fluidity of the lava is mesmerizing, it captures your imagination immediately and you cant help but just sit there and stare. Most intriguing of all is thinking that this molten material is what is coursing deep beneath the planet and yet here it is flowing on the surface right before my eyes. It claims everything in its path, many have lost their homes to the volcano and yet despite its ability to destroy it also has the ability to create. As the lava cools it creates new land, over time the rock gets broken down and it becomes incredibly fertile soil. Thousands of years from now when the volcano stops its eruptions all that land will be dense jungles, even now there is a new island being formed underwater...........the process is endless and incredible. It was all i could do to contain my excitement and keep focused on the task at hand. Eventually the light of the sun became way to harsh and it was time to go, it was difficult to say goodbye and you have to fight the feeling to just stay and capture a little more. The hike back was long and i was exhausted, finally back at the car we rested for a little bit. In the coolness of the shade we had found i sat and reflected on our journey. It seemed like a dream or a distant memory from many years ago and yet it had just began hours ago. The affects of this incredible place are undeniable, it has sparked my imagination and an insatiable hunger.......i must go back, i must see more, i must capture more but most of all i must prepare myself. I must keep that respect and not lose my wonder, someday soon i hope i will return and be in awe once again in the presence of Pele.

Addendum: Concern has been expressed over this latest blog post that it sounds like i worship the Hawaiian goddess Pele. I assure you that nothing could be farther from the truth, while the tone and the closing lines of what i have written may lead you to believe that i do i can tell you with certainty that it was not what was intended. I believe that we live in a world of ignorance, where we are so focused on making our point or shoving our beliefs down each others throats that we forget that respect for one another and diplomacy are much more powerful "weapons" than the best laid argument. I do not worship multiple gods or nature for that matter, but i do understand that the hawaiian people are deeply spiritual, have ties to their lands and to their ancestors and respect the "spirituality" of their surroundings. I dont believe in everything that they do but i do respect them and honor their beliefs, i think that this above all else has been the biggest reason why so many hawaiians have accepted me or treat me like i am a local while i am there. As for spirituality in nature, i fully understand that i am looking at something that was created, i dont worship this nor do i claim that it gets me closer to God. I do admire the craftsmanship of the creator through it and will say that i helps me to reflect upon my own existence. It helps me to understand just how truly small i am in the grand scheme of things, that i am just a small speck on this world and yet despite this fact i am loved above all else by the ONE who created it all. That......to me is amazing and humbling.......

Rolling with the punches....

2010-10-01T15:55:00.001-07:00

Yesterday.........well it was one of those days. The kind of day where you have a ton of things to do and no time to do them, and to make it all worse things happen throughout the day that just work against you. Yesterday was such a day for me.........it began by being woken up by a loud crack of thunder. It was a weird way to wake up but i welcomed it as i really enjoy severe weather, my 1st concern was Kai our 5 month old puppy. Oh yeah for those of you who dont know we got a second dog, very cute and smart but extremely stubborn and strong willed. Heres a quick photo:

Where were we? Ah yes Kai!He was in his kennel and to my surprise he seemed to ok, no howling or crying nothing. I let him out went downstairs to let him go outside. Well he didnt want to set foot outside and just sat at the doorway, no problem, i figured if he really needs to go he would go out. I regretted that decision 5 minutes later when i found a huge pile of poop on the carpet!! It was the really soft and runny kind too, the kind that dog owners LOOOOVE to get on their carpets. I was ticked! I knew it was going to take forever to clean that up and make sure it doesnt stain the carpet......all the stuff you need to do in order to save the carpet. Anyway, i was pretty upset and not looking forward to this, but i figured i would treat a couple other small areas of the carpet that needed more cleaning after we had shampooed the carpet. So the dogs went outside, and i cleaned away forgetting that i had used the hose and forgot to turn it off. My backyard became a mud puddle and i didnt realize what was going on until i went outside and heard a splashing noise and saw Kai vigorously digging in the puddle! I ran to the backyard and was greeted by this......

I was even more upset now and i could feel it........but i took a deep breath looked at my 2 boys and couldnt help but start laughing. The backyard was a disaster, my day was shot as i now had to clean up the backyard and then clean up the dogs. What can you do though, if i were them i probably would have done the same thing. Its easy to get caught up in this life, to let these little incidents become disasters. Its hard to see past the crisis thats in front of your face, but a lot of times its a crisis because we make it a crisis. I overreact way to easily and let small problems become big ones all to often, it took 2 very dirty dogs to remind me that i should live by the motto i tell everyone else "Life is only as complicated as you make it." Theres times to get up set but for the most part i think life is full of very little problems and a few BIG ones that come a long in our lifetime. I think ill try to to relax from now on, sometimes all you can do is just roll with the punches...

Coming soon....

2010-09-21T03:54:00.000-07:00

Ryan and Katelyn!

Kohala Sunset.....

2010-09-09T03:53:00.000-07:00

Over the last few trips that we have taken to the Big Island i have fallen in love with it more and more. While my favorite island is still and always will be Kauai i have come to have a great appreciation for the Big Island. There is so much to see and do on the Big Island that i have no clue how anyone can be bored there. It has so many climates and different types of beautiful landscapes packed into one place that i just go nuts there going from one place to another. You can be on one side on the island driving through desert and an hour later you will be driving trough beautiful coastline, next massive thick green jungles, or rolling hills that make you feel like youre in the midwest as opposed to hawaii. One of my favorite places on the island is the Kohala area, this may seem a little strange since this is the furthest thing from the tropical paradise that you could possibly see. This part of the island is dry as a bone, lots of dead trees and brown grass fields. The real draw is the huge dramatic clouds that come into the area, with these in the sky it makes for some gorgeous sunset. Its a bunch of elements that by themselves are all that much but here they all come together and at sunset it is breath taking. After a while the images get a little repetitive since the trees are always a part of the compositions, but it is incredibly fun to be there and shoot. So with all that said here some images for you to enjoy.

Hawaii 2010. The Big Island

2010-08-27T13:37:00.000-07:00

Its true........I AM STILL ALIVE! I just havent been posting, i have been catching up on the mountain of editing i have to get done since i got back from vacation. On top of all that we have had some BIG events that have occupied my time lately, but more on that at a later post. You may have known but for those of you who didnt, my wife and i were in hawaii a few weeks ago......i know i know BIG SURPRISE!! Many people think that we are obsessed with Hawaii, i dont see it exactly as an obsession but we do like to visit there a lot and meet new people and catch up with old friends. If you still choose to think that we are obsessed well then thats ok, im obsessed and im happy to feed the habit. This year we went to the Big Island and Kauai, Jen was with me for 2 weeks and i spent a 3rd week on Kauai by myself. Our trip was incredible, we got to meet some great people and experience somethins new on the Big Island that will be with me forever.......but more on that on a later post. I have lots and lots of pictures to go through so posting will be in no particular order, plus right now im editing those photos to take a quick break from all the work i am finishing up so its a slow process. Our time on the Big Island was split between Hilo and Kona, we spent the 1st part of the week in Hilo and finished our time on the Kona coast. Here are some of my current favorites from the Big island, feel free to share the contents of the blog with friends and leave some comments. Enjoy!

Return to Joshua Tree....

2010-06-26T02:09:00.001-07:00

I just got back from a quick trip out to Joshua Tree with my buddy Shawn Mesarra. It was such blast being out there with him driving around and exploring the park for places that we wanted to take pictures of. We arrived very late on Sunday night set up camp at Jumbo Rock campground and since it was so close to sunrise we just decided to stay awake and take pictures of the sun coming up. The weather was beautiful albeit hot, we could have used some clouds not just for cover but for some dramatic effect in the photos......alas it was not meant to be and we had nothing but clear skies. Having been to Joshua Tree before and having shot many photos at the park its always challenging going there and finding new ways to make the images look different than things ive shot before. I had decided before we left that the thing that i really enjoyed about Joshua Tree was the expansive landscapes and the awesome rock formations found all over the park. ive also gone a little panorama crazy lately and i shot a TON of them while there. All in all we had a lot of fun out there (well i know i did, hopefully Shawn did too) and found some other areas of the park that we want to explore for our next trip out there. Now heres some photos for you. hope you enjoy them!

Sunrise over Jumbo Rock campground

We waited for sunset overlooking this part of the valley, decided to do several shots at different times during and after sunset.

The moon was out and a very nice size, and while adding the moon to a photo can be very cliche i went for it anyway. Double exposure done in camera.

Here are some of the panoramics, you can view them larger by clicking on the link below each photo.

View On Black

View On Black

View On Black

As Promised........

2010-06-25T12:56:00.000-07:00

Its taken me a while to get this up on the blog, i have a ton to get done and oh so very little time to do it in. So here we go! We kick things off with the Goodban wedding! Jen and i had the great pleasure of photographing Dales wedding, i have know Dale and his family since he was just a little kid. So it was really neat for me to be able to capture his and Lori's special day. I couldnt have asked for more laid back people, everything that came up they had a total go with the flow attitude and they gave me total control over the photos. Its always so nice and easy to work with couples that hire you because they like your work and are not trying to control your images. The day was perfect, sun was out, no rain and best of all great people. The reception was awesome too!! All the little kids took to the dance floor and 2 in particular turned out to be little break dancers.......it was awesome. So heres an extra dose of sweet images from their day, my apologies for taking so long. More to come in the nest few days! So stay tuned. ENJOY!!

Goodban/Lee Wedding.....Sneak Peek

2010-05-26T02:11:00.000-07:00

Visiting the home of Joshuas Tree.....

2010-05-25T10:09:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went camping with our Growth Group out to Joshua Tree National Park. We had a great time visiting Jumbo Rock, sitting around the campfire making smores and hiking around. I had some chances here and there to take some photos, took a bunch of panoramas (i wont post them here because they are huge and want to figure out a way to display them big). On the hike out to skull rock ( wich by the way was a little disappointing) we encountered a rattle snake wich really made my day being able to photograph it. The only thing that i was really bummed about was that i left my extension tube back at the car so i wasnt able to get any closer. Also did some night photos wich was a lot of fun, did a 40 minute exposure that 1st night wich came out pretty good in my opinion. So here are some pictures for you to enjoy, ill post some photos of our group later on or in a later post. Enjoy!

Making the best of crappy weather.....

2010-05-18T15:43:00.001-07:00

Last Sunday i had a incredibly fun shoot with Brandon Camillo. You may remember the Camillo name from a couple of years ago since i also shot his sisters senior portraits. Now i know that i had stated before that i would NEVER shoot at the old bonsall bridge ever again, alas on Sunday i had to eat my words. Sunday we had this gross overcast, no detail in the clouds just thick grey. Well this destroyed my plans to shoot around the coast and we didnt want to reschedule.......so in the grayness we shot. Since im not to familiar with the fallbrook area i let teylor and brandon choose a place, they suggested a park near the HS. So off we went!! We started at the park, and while the area itself was pretty..........i just wasnt feeling it at least not in that light. As we progressed i eventually learned that Brandon is really more of an outdoors kind of guy, likes to surf and skateboard AND whats this? you brought a skateboard with you?! 2 of them! FANTASTIC!!! How can we get to use these things? We needed something that provided a good backdrop and zero traffic...........The Old Bonsall Bridge. With little time and the realization that we didnt have time to find a different location, difficult as it was for me i suggested the bridge and there was excitement. As soon as we got there the skateboard came out and it was a different Brandon, i knew that we would have to have him ride it for some of the photos. As soon as we started to work on some photos with him riding around he was excited to work on the pictures and to look at the results, just much more engaged. We also had some fun rigging my camera to the front of his board and figuring out how to make a picture work. I had a blast! Brandon was awesome and once we got the board out was really energetic and i was glad to see he was having fun. Poor Teylor........i volunteered her to be the holder of the flash, she was such a good sport about it. Thanks TEY!! I couldnt have done it without you! As always the challenge is to come away with something unique and that captures who your subject is, especially when you've shot in an area that you've used so much before. I think we achieved that.......ENJOY!

Sucking the color out of my photos....

2010-04-20T04:53:00.000-07:00

I continue my learning adventure into the B&W world by taking the color right out of some of my photos. Let me know what you guys think, some of them are still being worked on but i thought it would be fun to document the learning process.

For all of you who cant live without color, heres some others ive been working on :)

Aperture 3........

2010-04-08T05:34:00.000-07:00

I recently acquired Aperture 3, its Apples RAW conversion software for the Mac. So far it has been incredible! I love its organizational tools, how everything is integrated into the program itself, from making photo books, exporting for the web, making slideshows and the list goes on and on. It has forced me to rethink, redo, and plan out my organization structure........organizing terabytes of photos is an incredibly painstaking process but worth the time. The editing tools in the program are awesome! They have made incredible changes to the program since it was 1st released, while organizing photos and importing i have been taking some time to put it through the paces and have been processing some files. It has been a lot of fun and for some reason i find some things easier to do in aperture.......im not sure why but it just works out that way. One thing that i have really been enjoying is working with Black and White. I always found it daunting before but its been so fun right now, i am by no means a master at this yet and i know that i am just barely scratching the surface of B&W conversion. I think ill take some classes on how to best utilize the program. Anywho, heres some examples for you!

Here is a B&W version of Spouting Horn in Kauai

And here is the color version, both were processed in Aperture 3

Heres one that i shot in color, never liked it in color but i like it a lot more in B&W. A slight color cast was added to it all done within Aperture. I did 3 different versions of this file in less than 10 minutes......it was awesome!

This is an old color edit i did a couple of years ago, i had not updated this image since my initial edit until today. Wether the difference was because of the program or just my growth in how to edit and knowing what i want in a photo i dont know.......all i know is that i like the new one better.

New version ;)

This one is a couple of years old as well, i had tried to convert it to B&W before but could never get to where i liked it. I still am not completely satisfied with it but its a lot closer than it was before. Here is the color version (im going to redo this one in Aperture in color and post it later)

B&W

I know what youre thinking. Why in Gods name would i ever turn images from Hawaii which is nothing but color into B&W. Simply put is that i have always felt that color is eye candy i love the reduction of an image into nothing else but tones......i think ill shoot more B&W in the very near future.

Josh and Michelle...........im a spoiled man!

2010-03-31T05:20:00.000-07:00

Seriously!! How is it that i get to work with some of the coolest people on the planet?!?! I love my job, life, and everything that it has to offer. Super tired right now but really stoked, im not gonna write much but last Sunday got to do a shoot with Josh and Michelle..........gorgeous day, awesome couple, balboa park it made for a bitchin afternoon. Full details and more photos to come, ill also post some untouched photos later these have all been played with but i tried not to go too overboard. Enjoy!!

As always opinions and feedback are always welcome.

Another Beautiful day in SoCal!

2010-03-27T03:53:00.001-07:00

i went out yesterday afternoon in search of photos, more specifically panoramas. I have gotten into making panoramic images and doing the best i can to master this technique. It is a lot of fun doing these but can also be incredibly frustrating as youre waiting around for good even light and sometimes for elements within the composition to all come together. One added advantage of doing these is that i have to really scout for a good location to take them from, i also have to give a good amount of forethought to how things will line up and if they will match up once i merge the images together. It is Incredibly time consuming but has gotten me into slowing down and being more methodical with my images, something that i had gotten away from. I set up yesterday and spent about an hour getting setup and seeing if everything would work together, one of the things that i wanted in the image was the coaster train. But 1st i had to make sure that the entire train would fit into one frame or else the blend would not work, i also wanted it to beheading south so i could see the front of the train. Alas i had 2 opportunities, the 1st i screwed up as i had zoomed in to far and the whole train didnt fit into one frame, the second time i got it but it was heading in the wrong direction. So i stuck around to try again, confident that i had worked out the problems i stood there waiting. The sun began to fall and light was fading fast.......still no train. I was to find out shortly that the last train had gone by and i had missed my opportunity, it was beyond disappointing but i live to shoot another day. Frustrated and disappointed i tried to make the most of the remaining light and went out to shoot some more images, nothing to exciting but it was nice to be out again doing what i love to do. Enjoy!

Not willing to let the whole afternoon be a waste i stitched together the one panoramic that i managed to get with the Coaster in it. 10 photos in all, its not great but its a start.

Spring!!

2010-03-24T03:09:00.000-07:00

It is in full effect in my backyard here at casa Menendez, I like this 1st image but im bummed at the same time as the 2nd bee isnt in focus. When youre shooting macro photos youre working with razor thin depth of field so i eventually forgave myself. Enjoy!

I love working with fun families....

2010-03-21T02:45:00.000-07:00

Had a great afternoon with the Monroes and the Sammons family on Friday! Shot around Carlsbad, ran around trying to get the most out of the afternoon light which always makes for fun and interesting times. Im pretty tired so heres a qucik fun shot for all of you to enjoy. Still continuing my quest to do minimmal processing on my photos, so heres 2 versions of the photo. 1st one has basic color and exposure corrections and the 2nd has a little processing done to it. Enjoy!!

More to come soon!

I was in an interpretive mood.......

2010-03-17T02:27:00.000-07:00

I was out at the field with Koa again, he loves to go out there to throw the ball around. The light was fading and Koa was running like crazy, i decided to do some surreal motion stuff. So i cranked the ISO to get some nice grain and dragged the shutter.......i LOVE this 1st image! Dont know why but i was really happy with it, feels very painterly to me. I am continuing my efforts to do minimal processing on my images, the first two images have nothing done to them the last one has a slight reddish filter added to it. Overall im pretty happy with them, the next few weekends will be a challenge though. I have a few portrait shoots coming up and its going to be a challenge for me as my portrait work is where i can go a little overboard. Any thoughts or opinions are always welcome. Enjoy!

How can you say no to this face?!

New Carlsbad Cover

2010-03-11T20:23:00.000-08:00

New issue of carlsbad magazine is out, i have the cover shot for this issue. Go pick up a copy, its a good read for all things carlsbad!

For your consideration.....

2010-03-11T04:50:00.000-08:00

I present to you 2 different versions of the same photo of my beautiful wife. One has very basic exposure and color corrections and nothing else done to it, the other has more contrast and some toning to it but still does not deviate to far from the original. I like them both but definitely am leaning more towards the natural one. What do you guys think? Any opinions and input are welcome. If you follow the blog you may remember that in my last post i vowed to do a lot less post processing on my images. There actually is a reason for this shift, in seeing the work of many different photographers i began to notice one common thread in all their photos. All of them were using color toning or cross processing effects on their photos, many photographers in their quest to become more artsy have jumped on the band wagon and started using color filters or actions on their photos. Like i said before i am very guilty of this myself and by no means am i saying that i am better or above any one else on this matter. I think that some photographers do it extremely well and have definitely redefined what a photograph can be, for me on the other hand i started to feel like much of my work was just over processed and began to look the same or just downright wacky. I have begun to study the work of the masters again, gone back to the basics to see what makes a photograph great to see why they stand out and what makes me say "that is so cool". Many of the great photographs that i have been going through all have beautiful light and great compositions.........and minimal touch ups. This is my continued goal to bring myself back to basics and reinforce the foundation of my craft, heck i even dug up the old film bodies and loaded a roll in there.............that felt good.

Koa's pleased to make your acquaintance........

2010-03-04T04:16:00.000-08:00

You should shake his hand he would love to meet you :) On another note, i feel that so many images now are getting on the artsy bandwagon and are looking over processed. I am not exactly innocent of this but its starting to feel like a crutch more than a tool. Ive been checking out some photographers who shoot some amazing photos and give their photos very minimal processing but they are still amazing photos. From here on out my goal is to use actions and filters less and less and to focus more on composition and lighting. If you follow the blog feel free to keep me accountable to this.......Wish me luck!

The waiting game.....

2010-02-16T04:01:00.000-08:00

If there is one word that can describe a constant in landscape photography it is this one........waiting. Waiting for something to happen, waiting for elements to come together, waiting for the light to be juuuuuuuust right. Constant and constant waiting, it is the thing that if you cannot learn how to appreciate the little things in life or just sit there and contemplate it will drive you absolutely crazy. The absolute worst is when you wait and wait and wait and wait and you walk away with nothing, this happens more often than not. Working on something right now (even though im sick as a dog right now) got to the location early, set up and got ready and then i waited, not 100% happy with it but persistence is my middle name.......ill keep at it. Enjoy!

A weekend in the snow......

2010-02-11T01:19:00.000-08:00

Last weekend i got to spend the weekend with the college group running around in the snow and throwing said snow at people. The majority of my time was spent doing sound for the worship team, taking photos of people hanging out but i was also able to get a way for a little bit to shoot some landscape photos and hang out with some of the students. Most importantly thought i was able to let go a little bit and get some time to worship and recharge. Theres lots going on with life in general right now, many questions go unanswered, looking for direction...........i think after holding so much back i just finally broke down. It was good and felt refreshing, for that i am grateful. For now all i can do is move forward keep seeking the Lord and pray that HE makes things clearer to me...........i dont want to make this all about me so here some photos from the weekend. Enjoy!!

The last few weeks.....

2010-02-02T02:24:00.000-08:00

and weekends have been.......well......incredible! Having the ability to go out and spend time with my beautiful wife and get to do what i love to do all at the same time is an incredible blessing. Since we got our puppy our never ending quest to tire him out so he is not ridiculously hyper at home has gotten us out of the house pretty consistently. The ever changing weather patterns in San Diego have also been a blessing, its given me many opportunities to capture some cool landscapes. Here is the end result. Enjoy!!

The South Carolina and Steve Donley Incident.....

2010-01-27T00:43:00.001-08:00

Ok i know it took me forever but as promised here is the post on our short road trip from NC to SC. Ill keep this short as theres a ton of photos. We went to NC to visit my brother and his wife for thanksgiving, while there my brother was gracious enough to let us borrow his car so we could travel to SC. As luck would have it my good friend Steve had just recently come back from living in Romania and was living in NC not to far from my brother. Steve had lived in SC for a while and knows a bunch of people down there and he was willing to be our tour guide and found some friends that graciously put us up for the night. I always love seeing Steve as he and i have the same weird sense of humor, so were always laughing at something. The drive was a little over 3 hours and it was beautiful! We unfortunately missed the peak of the fall colors but there were still some patches here and there so that was a treat. We got to listen to some tunes, talk and just relax on the way down. Once there we drove around a ton, we only had about a day so landscape photos just werent going to happen this time around. It was fun to have Steve show us around, Jen wanted to see the Atlantic sooooooo that were we headed 1st.......

Jen leaves her mark on the sands of the Atlantic

I have a whole sequence of Steve doing this monkey walk......if i get some time ill do an animation of it cus its hilarious

Sweet beach houses!!

After checking out the Atlantic we decided that we needed food. Steve proceeded to take us to this place called Poes Tavern. The whole decor of this place is based around the great poet Edgar Allen Poe, i didnt really have a lot of expectations for the food. I mean really how much better can their burgers be right?! How good was it? Lets just say that Gods Holy Spirit descended upon my burger in the form of a dove.........eating it was a spiritual experience.

Jens burger

Steves burger

My burger..........destruction soon ensued

The aftermath!

Jen got a small sample of sweet tea....

she liked it. I think its gross.....but when in rome.

Steve enjoying his tasty meal.

This was the bathroom....yes i take my camera everywhere! It was really cool, the walls are lined floor to ceiling with pages of Mr. Poe's poems.

After dinner, we drove around some more enjoying the scenery. Ill tell you now, SC is absolutely beautiful! Cool looking swamp areas, bunch of little islands connected by some sweet bridges and Charleston!! Its so much to take in, we went to downtown Charleston that night to walk around and get some dessert. Downtown Charleston was so cool!! There were some parts of it that was like going back in time, im a big history buff so seeing all these historical places were the civil war took place was awesome. Narrow brick ally's cobblestone roads, incredible old houses that were like going back in time gas street lamps........it was truly incredible. So after walking around in the cold for a while we went to get dessert and it was mmmmmmmm delicious.

The inside of that little dessert and coffee shop.

MMMMMMMM Fattening

Jens girlie drink......way to sweet for me.

Mine on the other hand was bitter and had booze in it........it was sooo good!

After that we were tired and called it a night.The next day we didnt have a lot of time as there was a storm heading in and i didnt really want to drive in the dark and in the rain. So we headed out, picked up one of steves friends and got some lunch at a sweet Thai food place in downtown Charleston. After nlunch and dropping of Steve's friend We headed for a place called Angel Oak. I didnt know what to expect, i knew from talking to Steve that it was a big tree. I thought.....ok big tree lets go check it out. OH MAN!!! This thing was MASSIVE!! Its 1500 year old Oak that words just cannot describe and my pictures do it very little justice. It was a lot of fun to be there and shoot......

Steve is a big guy, very few things dwarf him.........we finally found one.

After this we made a quick stop to the photography studio that Steve worked at before moving to Romania. After that we hit the road and i had to drive in a torrential downpour and in the dark. I will say this though, after driving through a South Carolina rain storm the heaviest Southern California storm is like child's play. Well, thats it i could write much more but who wants to read it. I would like to extend a huge thanks to my brother Daniel for the use of his vehicle, to Steve for showing us around and finding us a place to sleep for free and to Steve's freinds for putting us up for the night. Our visit was awesome! Cant wait to go back.

The good thing about having a dog......

2010-01-20T00:11:00.001-08:00

Is that it forces you to get out of the house, fine by me as i have needed to get out of the office and shoot as all i have been doing lately is editing. These were shot in Carlsbad over the last couple of days. Enjoy!

These next few images are actually older images that i have gone back to and reprocessed.....i like the newer versions better.

Koas 1st afternoon at the beach...

2010-01-19T03:37:00.001-08:00

So this little guy has pretty much changes our entire lives all in a positive way mind you. We love to go out for walks and go for drives along the beach, and Sunday after lunch with the fam we spend a little time at the beach throwing the rope around and watching him eat seaweed and munch on just about everything else that he could get at. On another plus side i love photographing this little guy, hes always playful and he definitely really cute and photogenic.........so prepare to have your heart strings pulled cus hes like super model dog. Enjoy!!

My inner child LOVES planes!!!

2010-01-06T00:03:00.000-08:00

So its been a while since i posted anything else from our visit to North Carolina, but there are things that take priority and need to be done. Never the less i still have a bunch of photos that i need to go through and process that i havent even touched, i take some time here and there to process through a few photos when i can. Expect more pictures from North Carolina, but expect them to be pretty spaced out. With that said let get to it, ill try to keep this as brief as possible. While we were out there my brother showed what has become one of my favorite spots in NC. While i do have a deep love for nature and all of the beautiful things that God has created, there is a big part of me that has a great fascination with the things that mankind has made. I drool over cool buildings, gadgets, machinery and especially planes. I LOVE PLANES!!!My brother told me about some spots near his house where you could go see airplanes take off and land, theres an actual overlook area where people can go park and watch the airplanes. It was fun seeing kids out there just amazed by these machines and i was right there with them, excited beyond belief. As much as i loved that overlook there was another spot that i truly fell in love with. Its directly in the flight path of the landing planes, so you have these MASSIVE airliners flying a few hundred feet above you.......it was INCREDIBLE! I took A LOT of photos, and after while they all started looking the same but i didnt care i was having a blast. Everything was there, beautiful clouds, planes, and sunset. There was a down side/funny part to all this..........as i was heading back to meet my wife and my brother i was stopped by a TSA officer. The world post 9/11 is very different so i was shocked that there was a place like this where you could be so close to the planes, but as i was taking photos i knew that i would eventually have to deal with the authorities. Im sure someone called in and told them i was there, and i cant blame them im out there with a huge tripod and camera that looks like a bazooka to some people. At first the officer had a little bit of an attitude with me, but i kept my cool was very respectful and cooperative. Afterall he was just doing his job and its comforting knowing that they are out there checking stuff out, after he saw that i wasnt a threat he was actually a really nice guy and thanked me for being so cooperative. For all you photographers out there, just remember that keeping your cool and being cooperative will go a long way when dealing with the authorities. Just keep some identification with you and do what they ask, let them search your stuff if need be..............much better than mouthing off and being a tool. Well so much for keeping this short! Oh well. Heres some photos......enjoy!!

New pictures of the runt....

2010-01-05T01:50:00.000-08:00

Some new photos of our puppy who is getting bigger by the day! Enjoy!

New issue of Carlsbad Magazine is out.....

2010-01-04T16:55:00.000-08:00

Some of you may remember that last year the holiday issue of Carlsbad Magazine released their holiday issue with a picture on the cover that i took. A new issue is out now and it also has one of my photos on the cover, its always fun to see your work in print and this a nice way to begin 2010 for me. Go pick up an issue in Carlsbad, there a lot of magazine rack in many of the businesses around Carlsbad. Heres a screen shot of the current cover. Enjoy!

In case you missed the last issue, here is a screen shot of the last cover

P.S.
You can also check out the digital version of the current issue here: Click Here

Our growing family....

2009-12-17T14:05:00.000-08:00

No jen is not pregnant! We did however add an adorable four legged creature to our family, thats right we got a 3 month old puppy! He is a german shepherd lab retriever mix and he is incredibly adorable! We had talked about getting a dog for a long time but i dont think that either of us were really ready for the time commitment it was going to take. As the months went on that desire grew more and more and we began looking more seriously. Jen would look on the website for the shelter EVERYDAY to see if they had any puppies that we would like, of course they are all cute so it was hard not to go and get one right then and there. Ultimately we decided that we would get one after our trip to North Carolina. Sure enough, jen had found a litter of puppies and filled out an application and we went all the way down to mission bay at 6 in the morning to meet them. We saw the puppies and one of them came up to jen right away.........we knew right away that he was the one we wanted. We took him home with us and he slept the whole way home. Slowly he's getting used to the house, learning what not to do and all of the fun things that go with training a pet........it is a little exhausting at times and hard to get work done. All in all we are blessed to have him and we love him to death, hes fun to have around, mellow, likes people, really curious, playful and very loving. Hes only been with us a few days but already i cannot imagine life without him. We finally decided on a name a few days ago, we named him Koa. Its Hawaiian for "brave one", although right now its more of an oxymoron than an actual statement of fact cus he whimpers a lot and is afraid of everything. Some of you have already met him on Facebook but for those of you who have not let me formally introduce you to Koa! Heres a few quick shots ive been able to get in the past few days. Enjoy!

Congrats to Becky and Jesse!

2009-12-15T03:57:00.002-08:00

Before it gets any later i wanted to make sure that i posted this wedding cus it was all kinds of awesome and im really stoked to be working on the images. Ive known Jesse and his family since Jesse was in the 5th grade, in fact i was Jesse's 5th grade sunday school teacher when i used to work at North Coast Church. Yes i felt a little old that day. The wedding was awesome! Becky and Jesse found this sweet park out in San Marcos, it had tons of trees everywhere and lots of green grass. It was fun hearing their story to in better detail, i think they have one of the coolest stories of any couple that i have met. Everything was perfect! I was really impressed by all of the little details and decorations that they had done. The day was a lot of fun! I could go on forever but i know youre all here to look at pictures. So here you go! Enjoy!

North Carolina Raptor Center...

2009-12-10T04:45:00.000-08:00

The day after Thanksgiving Danny, Marci, Jen and myself all went to visit the North Carolina Raptor Center. I really enjoyed this place because i LOVE birds of prey. The center is dedicated to rescuing injured raptors and nursing them to health so that they can be released into the wild. They also take time to educate people about these amazing birds, about their habits, the areas that they inhabit, and what they can do to save them. The birds that are at the center are all birds that for one reason or another had injuries that they could not fully recover from and therefor cannot be released into the wild. While it was somewhat heartbreaking seeing these incredible creatures injured and caged it was fascinating to see them up close. We also got a real great treat while we were there. They had a raptor show in their little auditorium, the show consisted of all owls but while they were preparing there was one of the volunteers there with a hawk. She was answering questions from the audience and before she left she asked if we wanted her to feed the hawk. It was unanimous that we all wanted to see the hawk eat something, it was pretty gruesome to see this hawk literally tear its food apart but i could watch it all day long.........jen on the other hand didnt enjoy it all that much. The owl show was awesome because these guys were so much fun to watch, they have such fun personalities and do the funniest things sometimes, it was really entertaining. Most of the birds i had to photograph through a fence which was a little difficult but i still managed to get some stuff i was happy with. After that we went to a place called the Whitewater Center, its an olympic training facility and they have a TON of activities there which include whitewater rafting , kayaking, mountain biking, zip lines, rock climbing and others that i cant remember. We walk some of the trails and went down to the river to catch the sunset, i only shot a few photos there, some of which i am still working on but i will post more when i get them done. Like i said before one of my favorite things from this excursion was watching that hawk being fed, so we will start with that.........ENJOY!!

Thanksgiving in North Carolina!

2009-12-04T14:12:00.001-08:00

I know that this is late and i havent been updating the blog, my apologies to you all. Jen and i flew out to visit my brother and his wife here in North Carolina, we flew out thanksgiving day and so we had Thanksgiving dinner a few days later. Danny and Marci took us to their church that morning. They go to a Messianic Jewish church, the service was a lot of fun and was really refreshing for me. After the service we came home and my brother began to prepare dinner. I had never realized really how much of a good cook Danny had become until now. He made a delicious dinner! We had a blast hanging out with a bunch of his friends from his church, meeting new people, enjoying the warmth of my brothers friends and community who have all been incredibly welcoming to us. Anywho, we have had a blast so far and are a little sad that our time is coming to an end, many more posts are coming so stay tuned.

I Heart North Carolina.....

2009-11-29T21:53:00.000-08:00

Loving it here so far! Had a nice day full of walking on trails and visited this sweet raptor center. Had a great thanksgiving dinner last night with my brother and his wife and a bunch of their cool friends. My brother made such a DELICIOUS dinner! Pictures from thanks giving and the raptor center coming soon! In the mean time.........like i said before went to the North Carolina Raptor Center and met this amazing creature.........

Rockin Thanksgiving North Carolina Style!!!

2009-11-27T20:00:00.000-08:00

Ok so its been forever now since ive posted but here i am still alive, Jen and I are in North Carolina visiting my brother Danny and his wife Marcy. We havent done Thanksgiving yet, were actually doing that tomorrow after church with a bunch of Danny's friends. Its been a lot of fun catching up with Danny and seeing some of the area close to his house.........HOLY COW!!! This place is freaking awesome!! So many lakes and trees and cool looking parks!! Unfortunately we missed the peak of the fall colors and are here at the tail end of it but there still some leaves here and there that provide some nice color. It seriously amazes me how once you leave California everything seems to really geared towards maintaining community, just the amount of big parks and walking trails out here are a testament to that. I just always see people talking with their neighbors and walking with each other, unlike California were everything and everyone seems so distant and lonely..........i think if we hadn't bought a house we would move here in a heart beat! Went on a cool walk at this park today, super fun just walking and talking and taking pictures along the way..........i guess to summarize.......I LOVE THIS PLACE!! Heres a few pics from today.

Shauna the Magnificent...

2009-10-11T02:23:00.000-07:00

So Shauna and my wife have been BFF's since well forever, ever since Jen and I started dating Shauna was there. Shauna is how can i put this? Well shes crazy, but not like crazy in a bad im coming to kill you crazy. Its a good kind of crazy, the person who is full of boundless energy, is up for doing anything, loves life and is always looking for the next adventure, doing crazy whacky things just for the sheer joy of it not taking into account that you might look like a total fool.......all those things are pretty much rolled into one package called Shauna Salerno. But you know, i must say that despite her incredible love for life its not what makes her such a great woman. You will never meet a more dedicated and Godly woman, if youre a person in need Shauna is the person there giving you all her time to help or just to listen. youre a person who is shy or doesnt make friends easily? Shauna is the one that there reaching out to you, introducing you to everyone she knows, her ability to reach out and makes friends with just about anyone seriously astounds me. If there is anyone that i think embodies the Lords ability for caring and reaching out to those who are hurting or outcast its Shauna. Needless to say i have a great admiration for how she is with people. My wife and i are quite prod of her right now because after years of hard work and schooling Shauna is now Graduating from Biola University and her being the 1st member of her family to graduate from college this is quite an achievement. With being close to graduation she wanted to send out invitations for it but of course you need some sweet photos to go a long with it as well........and that were i came in. My wife Shauna and myself hung out all day together and had a photo shoot in the afternoon with some incredible skies i might add. It as incredible fun and we got to do some photos with her and jen (those are coming soon) as well that were a lot of fun to do. All in all it was a great day! Were proud of you Shauna!

this is a concept that i have always liked but have in no way mastered.....i will keep trying.

The Amazing Makenna.......

2009-10-05T02:53:00.000-07:00

How incredible was this shoot?!?! On a scale of 1-10 it was about a billion+1! Seriously Makenna? A-MA-ZING! She seriously did soooo incredibly well. Super relaxed, laid back, very natural in front of the camera. She made my job so incredibly easy for me and it allowed me to do my job in a much more relaxed state of mind. Not only that but putting up with me and my weird ideas is always a challenge im sure, but she did very well. As you will see, yes these were shot at the Bonsall Bridge. While im not a big fan of using a location more than like 4-5 times (i get really bored really quickly) i was still up to the challenge of trying to pull something new from the location. So i played around with multiple strobes, using different lenses, really just pushing the limits of what i know and what my equipment can do. All in all it was a great afternoon, lots of fun, many things learned and more importantly we came away with some sweet photos. Really thankful that the weather held, i was worried that it was going to rain before we got to shoot. Makenna you did awesome thanks for being such a good sport, heres a few of my favorites. Enjoy!

P.S.
Senior portraits are my new favorite thing to shoot i think, really fun and i can be creative with them.

Back in the water....

2009-09-26T02:37:00.000-07:00

Well i went to the beach yesterday afternoon to take some sunset photos......but this time from the water! Shooting in the water is a whole different animal and so many different variables to take into account int a matter of seconds it get pretty hectic. All in all it was very enjoyable and i got to take a nice little sunset swim with my lovely wife once i was done. Im not a big fan of this set of photos but i post them anyway so those of you out there that are discouraged with your photography can see that even those of us who do it for a living have crappy days. Will i try again? You better believe that i will!! You cant just give up you have to keep trying until it becomes second nature and you get it right.

Sunsets galore!!

2009-09-16T16:53:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks have had some sweet sunsets along the coast, making places like carlsbad our own little slice of heaven. While im not really one to shoot sunsets i relented as i had not been out for a while and it gave me a chance to shoot some stuff that i could submit to the magazine. All in all it was really fun and such a great feeling getting back out there and hearing that shutter click. There are a lot of verticals but there is a reason, mostly because i was shooting for magazine content and when youre trying to get a cover it has to be a vertical. So here we go! Hope you enjoy!