Brenda Vongova

My new Sister

Yup she is a baby who doesn't mind throwing up that finger.

This one if for you Noel

I heard a great aphorism yesterday: "when one grows with someone, be it animal, human, or object, they develop similar physical features solely through emotional attachment. I wish I had the opportunity to shoot his wife or dog or husband too.

Oh and the reason why I wrote my friend Noel into the subject is because he recently noticed that I like to shoot old people. He is right, I do; age is facinating.

Street performers in Rome.

Anti Theft System in Rome.

TRATTORIA!

Trattoria! Mmm

Beautiful Sunlight In Italy

Ah, here is one of my recent favorite photos. On my trip to Italy, when I first arrived, I checked into my hotel then began to explore the town. This is one scene that I found. The sunlight was just way to perfect in this shot. Thank you Italy for creating such a beautiful environment for photographers.

Poor Duck

Some random girl chasing the poor duck.

Cousins

Here is a photo of two of my cousins flipping upside down in the same lake as the previous photo.

Its been a while.

This photo is of a lake in Rancho Santa Margarita, a town near my new home. I was impressed with myself when I first reviewed it on my computer, but now, as I post it on the web, I feel like I tried to capture too much in a single photograph. Maybe it's the angle that I shot it at, maybe its because the horizon is in the center of the frame, or maybe its the birds I photoshoped in. But I am still posting it despite my feelings. So I figured that the only two reasons why I enjoy looking at this photograph is because of the bright colors contrasting the dim tonal range of such a naturally bright scene.

New Born

I travelled to San Francisco about a week ago (that rhymes). I had so much fun visiting a friend and making new friends. Everyday, with a backpack filled with camera equipment, I took the train into downtown then took buses to different parts of the city. This shot was taken at a bus stop in the Sunset District near the SF Zoo. Yup

Hm

I don't know where I was going with this. I guess I was experimenting using my strobe lights in an outdoor situation.

Untitled

In the midst of a late night photo shoot on the Venice Beach strip, I snapped this photo. I thought I'd share.

What Ever You Wanna Call It

So, a few days ago, after a big cloud, drizzle, and thunder storm, the now lighter clouds broke from each other and went their own ways. I've been waiting a long time to get a shot with enticing clouds, so when the opportunity came, I picked up my friend Emily, who is an excellent photographer and hiked to the highest point in Culver City, CA where I photographed her against this wonderful backdrop. The only editing I did to the photo was just a slight 1% increase of the blacks: just to define the silhouette a bit more.

Life

Well, I got out in the late morning, around 10-ish, and took a drive up the 405. On my way, I averted my attention and saw thousands of flags planted next to graves at the veterans cemetery in Westwood. After a quick exit off the freeway I found my self next to a huge veteran memorial event. I parked and prepped my camera and began shooting away at anything that caught my attention. After the finale of the ceremony where canon balls were rumbling the grounds and rifles were bursting in to the air, and the USC marching band, dressed in army uniforms, played a patriotic march, I snapped a quick shot of this aged man who was quietly observing a "photo op" where some got to take pictures with a militia. His wrinkles and his eyes are what caught my attention. Some times I like to think that age marks are merely imprints of wisdom, and yet, at the same time, scars of life's roughness.

Long Time No Post

Well it has been a while since the last time I posted a photo. I remember telling myself that I am going to write one post per two days . . . that didn't go to well. The truth is I've been pretty busy, because I was on the lookout for a place to live in Culver City. It is just to darn expensive in this town, thus I am moving to Orange County for an undeclared amount of time. I've been trying to find work around the city, but the film industry is not so hot right now, so there isn't much paid work for a non-union guy like me, but I have not given up hope. I may soon start an Internship on The Office, which is probably my favorite show on television.

Enough about me, the above photo was taken two days ago at the "Smog Shoppe" in Culver City. The venue was an old smog shop that an artist bought, and remodeled into a really chill loft with a big outdoor patio, a big dining room with a huge table for dinner parties, and a huge screen where people can project movies. People rent out the loft for special occasions. That night it was rented for a birthday party which ended with a magnificent pie fight. The photo above is of the birthday boy slamming a pie right into his wife's face. I am glad I caught the energy of the fight.

Smile :)

Not everybody trusts paintings but people believe photographs. - Ansel Adams

The old woman is my Step Grandmother and the shot was taken right before she realized she was the subject of my photograph.

Jumping To New Heights

Pretty much all my studio photography has been shot at my friend's dad's photo studio. I used to intern for him; he pretty much taught me most of what I know about shooting in a studio, shooting art, and shooting architecture. So he is pretty cool with letting me use the studio. But this shot is special, because it was taken right in my room against one of my walls. My friend Lora is the model in this shot. She is vary energetic and motivated.

Darling Just One More Cigarette

I am not sure if this person is a man or woman but either way, he or she is a homeless person in Santa Monica, CA. As I was leaving the 3rd Street Promenade I found my eyes drifting towards this person and I just had to take the picture. The look on the persons face is absolutely mesmerizing; age marks are unforgiving and so is knowledge. I wish i knew exactly what was going through his or her mind at the time. Whatever it was, it was a lot deeper then the average depth of a persons conscious.

Drunk Jumping, Jrunk Dumping

One day my friend Emily and I went on a little photo excursion down highway 1: better known as the Pacific Coast Highway. We stopped at a few places where we photographed lots of nature and architecture, but none of the shots compared to the one I got right here. Emily and I climbed down a small set of rocks that led to the beach, where lots of people had fishing poles with lines sunk into the ocean. On my way down, two hispanic guys were laughing and having a good time with a 24 canned case of Budwiser. I smiled at them and they began to talk to me. They both were vary eager to have their picture taken and published. I said I will take their picture, but the only shots I publish are the ones that are out of the ordinary. We caught attention on a fishermen trying to catch fish off a vary tall cliff, that seemed to reach about 20 feet high. One of the two hispanic guys volunteered the other to jump off the cliff and into the ocean. The one who was volunteered concurred and said he has done it before. I was completely hesitant to ask this most likely drunk man to jump off a 20 foot cliff right in to the ocean where there could be rocks right where he lands. They both assured be that it is completely safe. I told the hispanic man who wanted to jump: I am not asking you to, but if you happen to jump off that cliff I will be here with my camera taking a picture.

Blistered

Here is a shot that I took at Venice Beach, California. Every weekend, and maybe other weekdays, a group of people, who bring their own percussion instruments, gather around in a circle and start tapping and banging their drums in syncopation. One man really caught my attention; he looked like he was in his mid 50's and reeked of marijuana and cigarettes. What was most interesting about the man, was his passion for playing music. It seemed as if his tired life was filled with energy and youthfulness when he was dancing and hitting that drum. The bandages covering the mans blisters, as depicted in the photograph, show that he is a seasoned veteran at the Venice Beach drum circle.

Why would I get a blog?

Hmm, what will I do with this blog.