February 22nd, 2010

Ode to Beards + PMA

Not here, but the other here, at the bottom of the post.

Jessie and I just got back from PMA, one of the biggest yearly photography trade shows. This year it was held in scenic Anaheim, CA, which is only a 1.5 hour drive from San Diego. Between the close proximity and free passes to boot, I believe the phrase “I want to go to there” was uttered.

It’s unfortunate that I haven’t attended many trade shows in the past, because it was a great experience talking to company reps in person. Who did we drop by and visit? Sony, Nikon, Borrowlenses.com, Moo.com, Lightpanels, ThinkTank, Lowepro, and, well, many more. Who can pass up a free tiger. I’ve been looking at a Lightpanels light package, so it was great to find out what kit I actually needed.

When you’re back home adding up all the brochures, catalogs, and schwag from the day, I believe the only way to quantify it is by weight. My take? About 3.5 pounds.

On an unrelated note, I came across “10 Very Good Reasons Why You Should Grow a Giant Beard.” If I had seen this a few weeks ago, I might have held off on the beard removal. After all, it’s winter and beards are apparently great for sledding (Reason #3). Check out the rest here.

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February 13th, 2010

Oldies but Goodies

No, I’m not talking about myself… or my parents. I’ve just added a few older videos to my portfolio section, mostly from 2000-2006. Remember those days? Neither do I. If you want to check them out, some in their 4×3 standard definition goodness, just click on the “video portfolio” link above. Can’t make it that far with your mouse? Here’s a link.

ps. Does “Holiday Matinee” ring a bell to you? Don’t worry, I’ve left that one out.

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January 18th, 2010

Profile Video: Jessie Keylon

Just finished putting together a short profile video of Jessie. We shot it this afternoon, and I was able to put it together in a few hours. Ideally, I’ll be able to sell the idea to potential clients as a “get to know me” video they can put on their website. What do you think?

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January 10th, 2010

Ocean Beach Video

It’s January and as usual, we are getting gypped on the weather. I know people extol the virtues of our year-round sunny-and-seventy weather, but come on, how about a little variety. When Florida of all places gets snow, you know you’re really getting screwed.

For those of you who are snow-bound right now, I took advantage of our weather and shot a little video of Ocean Beach. You know, to warm your spirits. You can tell that it’s not below freezing because some people are wearing shorts – and not just the crazy ones. Enjoy and if you get the chance to send some real winter weather down my way, please do.

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December 23rd, 2009

Winter Coat

My winter coat.

It’s officially been winter for a few days, and as you can see above, my winter coat is fully grown for the season. Unfortunately, I live in California, so I probably won’t need it. It’s possible it grew in anticipation of going somewhere actually cold in the next few months, but who knows.

It’s now day 23 of my vegan experiment, and I’m happy to say it’s still in progress. Contrary to various predictions, I’m still alive and well and haven’t withered away. In fact, a few days after the first week, it felt like a layer of fog had lifted from my head. I had a little more energy and I could think a little clearer. Strange, I know.

Due to Christmas and a road trip coming up, I might be ending the experiment a few days early. Don’t fret though, I’ve already accomplished my goal adding in more non-diary things to my diet. When I go back to being a regular vegetarian, it’ll be with less cheese and eggs.

One more thing… I ordered a few t-shirts from threadless.com and accidentally ordered two of a shirt. Instead of dealing with returning it, I’m giving it away to the first person who wants it. Call, email, or comment below. Here’s the page to see what it looks like… threadless.com. It’s a Guys XL.

Until next time…

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December 1st, 2009

Day 1: Vegan Experiment

Cheese for everyone!
Cheese for everyone!

Today I embark on a month-long experiment of being a vegan. For those that don’t know, a vegan is a vegetarian, but crazier – no meat, and no animal or diary products. Well, it’s not really a experiment, but that word has more umph than “reset” or anything else I could think of. Let me explain.

As most probably know, I’ve been a vegetarian for about three years know. As humans, when one thing is taken away from us, we often compensate with something else. When I became a vegetarian, I took away meat and replaced it with more diary, such as eggs and cheese. Over time, I have become a very poor vegetarian, and probably not much better than a meat-eater when it comes to healthy eating.

To combat all the eggs and cheese I’ve been eating, I’ve decided to “reset” my diet and become a vegan for a month. Why? It will force me to branch out and find more things to eat that don’t contain eggs or cheese. At the end of the month, I’ll emerge with a new, less-cheesy diet, that hopefully will be healthier.

I’ll post updates throughout the month. In the meantime, I have to get rid of all this cheese!

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November 14th, 2009

Recent Work: Jewelry Photography

A few recent photos of jewelry I took for a client.

I seem to have an affliction of taking on projects that require skills I don’t really have. Take jewelry photography for example. I took on the project not really knowing how to shoot jewelry, but knowing that if I provided some nice photos, I’d get money in return. Works for me.

I knew it was probably going to be difficult, and it was. Jewelry is shiny, which means it reflects everything: You, your camera, your dog. You name it. After a few shots to confirm the reflect-everything-shiny-ness (I was in denial), I promptly headed out and picked up a light tent.

A light tent is essentially a white fabric cube with one side open so you can shoot whatever is inside. You then point a flash at the cube, which creates a nice white surface for the jewelry to reflect. Sure, if you zoom in far enough, you might still see fido in the reflection, but it’s good enough.

After few hours of jewelry wrangling, I had my shots. Once I got them into my computer, I did a little voodoo photoshop work to produce what you see above. After the break, check out one more piece.
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November 6th, 2009

I Never Win Anything… Well, Except for Today!

The loot!Do you know someone that always wins something? That person wasn’t me… until today. I won a ColorChecker Passport from Mike at OnOne Software (via Twitter!). If you’re confused about what it is or what it does, I’ll quickly explain. It’s a color chart for photographers to help them get more accurate color. Since I’m an occasional photographer, it’ll come in handy.

So how did I win a $99 chart on Twitter? It started a few weeks ago when I found out they would occasionally give out promo codes for their $20 iPhone app via Twitter. I began following them and a few days later was able to snag a code for their $2 lite version. Fast forward to today and they started giving out promo codes for the full $20 version. I wasn’t fast enough for the first batch, but luckily snagged one from the second batch.

A few minutes later, there was an announcement that they were giving away a ColorChecker Passport if you could guess a number between 1 and 812. I had no idea what it was, but who can pass up a chance to win free stuff. I picked 109 (since 9, my lucky number, seemed a little low) and the answer was 113. Close enough!

Today, I’m a winner (Thanks, Mike at OnOne Software!). Tomorrow, I’ll be going back to that guy who never wins anything.

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October 4th, 2009

Motion: Clouds

I’m jealous. Jealous of the east coast with their seasons, cool weather, and occasional snow. Being in San Diego, we usually get “Sunny and 70,” which is great, but extremely boring. That is, until today. I woke up to clouds in the sky, cool weather, and the feeling that maybe fall is coming. Finally.

In honor of the fall-ness, I decided to make a short time lapse video. I dusted off my fish-eye lens and set the camera in the freshly-washed front window. One frame every 10 seconds, and about three hours later, I had my video. Enjoy.

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October 3rd, 2009

Details: Backyard

An extremely tiny spider, about the size of a ballpoint pen tip.
  • Aperture: f/20
  • ISO: 400
  • Shutter Speed: 1/60 s
  • Focal Length: 105mm
  • Camera: NIKON D300
EXIF DataExtremely tiny spider.

As humans, we’re often “big picture” people. Take a walk outside and you’ll see plants, trees, and everything else that makes up our cities and towns. That’s the big picture, but how often do we take a moment and look at the details?

Last week, I rented a macro lens for a product shoot I’m working on. For those non-photographers reading this, a macro lens allows you to get extremely close shots of things – revealing details you might never see with the naked eye. This afternoon, I ventured out to the backyard (I know, adventurous!) and grabbed a few photos.

The first one, above, is of a spider about the size of a ballpoint pen tip. Take a look at a few more shots after the break.


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