Lions and tigers and exotic rabbits, oh my!

By on August 25, 2009 in People, Photos

Amber asked if I would photograph the festivities for her son’s 3rd birthday this past weekend. Having shot her young family before and knowing how photogenic they were, I was excited for this opportunity. There were something like 40 million children and an equal number of animals in a mobile petting zoo (including two ponies!) that was hired to dazzle the kids. And dazzle it did. It was like giving a little girl a…pony…or something. I don’t know, my metaphors are lacking. My point is, kids love animals, and when the animals come to them, so much the better. I’m pretty sure I’m going to have them come to my next birthday.

Below are a few of the various shots from this super fun day. It was agonizing picking my favorites, because there were so many happy kids and so many great pictures. Amber is getting a DVD with something like 400 photos on it!

Finally, can you tell which picture is of the exotic rabbit?

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And finally, a few of the horse pictures done with a decidedly vintage feel.

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Life Gives You Lemons, Make Butterflies

By on August 18, 2009 in Photos

I think that I’m going to publish a research paper on butterflies. Based on extensive research on the topic, I’ve come to the following conclusions:

  1. Butterflies are expert photographers
  2. Butterflies are jerks

More on that in a second.

I decided a few weeks ago that I wanted to buy caterpillars in order to make my own butterflies. I like photographing them in the wild, but they seem to have the uncanny ability to take flight an 8th of a second before you’ve got focus. Moreover, if you’ve put your camera away, they call all their buddies and appear out of nowhere to mock you, opening and closing their wings in spite.

So, as my caterpillars formed their chrysalises, I eagerly awaited the moment I could shoot them at home.  I imagined trained butterflies performing for my photographic amusement. Trapeezes? No problem.

But alas, who was I kidding? All they do is sit there. While the outside of their wings is pretty, the inside is much better. So of course, they don’t show it to you. Well, they don’t show it to you until you’ve decided to adjust your flash or need to answer the phone or something. At that point it turns into the bloody Cirque du Soleil and the animals put on an amazing show.

So in short, I anticipate making millions off my scientific discovery, unless you steal it from me. I’ve only shared it with you because I thought you were cool. And you’re cool, right? ;)

As I get better at shooting them, I’ll try and remember to add more pics to this post.

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Sundaaaaay … Strobey Sunday

By on August 17, 2009 in Head Shots, People, Photos

Here’s an explanation of the title, for the unhip amongst you. ;)

I spent today playing around with different strobe setups and bossing around the lovely Clara as part of an amazing workshop put on by the very talented Ben Chen. We started off with various speedlites and softboxes indoors before moving outdoors with larger Alien Bees and Quantum lights at sunset. I’ll admit that I definitely need more practice with strobes, so this was a great opportunity to learn from one of the best photographers in our area.

By the way: don’t let Ben’s website fool you. His pictures are much, much better than what his simple website would seem to indicate. We got to see them in projector size, high quality color and I was blown away.

In any event, here are some samples from the day.

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Best. Cover Band. Ever

By on August 15, 2009 in Bands/Music, People, Photos

My cousin’s new band played at the Back Alley Bar in Fullerton last night. I had heard from my other cousins that they were pretty good, but doesn’t everyone say that about every cover band, especially family? In actuality, they killed it. These guys were really good, and the house loved ’em. I have a very long day today so I wasn’t able to stick around for their whole set. My loss for sure.

So that I didn’t blind them like all the groupies were with their point-and-shoot cameras, I only took a hand full of shots. Click to enlarge, yo.

Off to teach scuba diving now, and then I’m at the House of Blues Sunset Strip to shoot my friend’s party. Long day ahead. Enjoy the pics!

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Walking Amongst the Eternal

By on August 1, 2009 in Architecture/Man-made, Photos

Photographers and artists are in the business of engineering. For the most part, our goal is to represent “whole” things in ways that people know them. Whether it be faces, smiles, or landscapes, our audience expects something ultimately recognizable. Something large and complete.

The irony, of course, is that the artist, the photographer, or the engineer has to coordinate a million small things to put together that recognizable form. Are we balancing exposure on someone’s face? Shall we use cross strokes with green paint on the trees, or blend yellow and blue?

I went to LACMA today with an unusual plan in mind (for me, anyways). Rather than photograph complete works of art, I wanted to focus on patterns and some of the more singular aspects of the pieces. We typically look at art and life as so many wholes without appreciating all the beauty in the nooks and crannies. Certainly the face of our lover is a welcome sight to behold, but true intimacy comes from pressing your fingers across their flesh, brushing your lips on their cheek, or taking in the smell of their hair as you nuzzle their neck.

As I walked through the galleries at LACMA today, I tried to see the small in the large. To be partner to so many ancient craftsmen pouring their souls into the details so that we the viewers can appreciate the whole. Art always has a secret to share, and the artist will whisper it to whomever cares to really listen.

All pretentiousness aside, here’s a selection of shots from today, including a few panoramics I stitched together. If you haven’t been to LACMA recently, you should go. The temporary Pompeii exhibit is incredible, as is the new modern art building which has, among other things, a cool Warhol collection.

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Trouble Comes in Three

By on August 1, 2009 in People, Photos

The lovely Double-L let me shoot her about a month ago for part 2 in my “Seeing Double” project. (Note: Part 2 should be published around the middle of August hopefully.) She wanted to shoot her nephews G, H, and L as a surprise for her sister. Since her sister is web savvy, and since she hasn’t received her pictures yet, we’re using initials here. No sense giving away the surprise early. ;)

After a lengthy battle with traffic, I met the team at Carbon Canyon for one of the most fun-filled afternoons I’ve had in a while. These kids were bursting with energy, enthusiasm, and curiosity. I probably spent more time playing ball or on the playground than I did shooting. Dub-L was fantastic with the kids and gave them marching orders when necessary, which wasn’t often.

Thanks to the family for letting me spend the day with them. I had a great time! Click the pics for embiggening.

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One of the things I like to do when I’m shooting children is to bring a smaller camera or two that they can use. Kids love gadgets, and most of them have used a camera of some type from a very early age. Letting them play with the small camera, and occassionaly my larger camera, often gets them on my side when nothing else does. To that end, I thought I’d share a few of the pictures the kids took whilst we were running around yesterday.

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Day in the Sun

By on July 26, 2009 in People, Photos

I met the Clelands at my favorite park for some family photos yesterday. Thankfully, I got some electrical issues with my camera sorted out and we were able to play around the park. I’m starting to think that—for as often as I’m at Carbon Canyon—the county should start paying me a promotional fee. :)

Thanks to Chris and Perla for making the drive out and letting me shoot their great young family. Oh, and little Christopher: it was a pleasure to take pictures with you as well!

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Red Rockin’ Vegas

By on July 12, 2009 in Photos

My brother and I decided to take my 8 Irish neighbor girls to Las Vegas for a 4-day weekend. It’s so unlike any other city that we pretty much had to take them lest their American holiday come up short. I didn’t end up taking all that many photos, so I’ve only got two sets to share. The first is from atop the Stratosphere hotel where we went to watch the sunset, take in the strip at night, and to nearly die on the crazy rides they have up there.

Picture 1: sunset. Picture 2: the roller coaster thingy, seconds before it drops and scares everyone to death. Picture 3: my brother and one of the Irish lasses during said drop. Picture 4: the strip at night. Picture 5: more of the lasses on the other scary ride, just before it starts up and twirls them around 1,000 feet above the strip.

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Friday evening we decided to drive out to Red Rock Canyon, which only takes about 30-45 minutes to get to. The place is absolutely stunning: huge skies, awesome canyons, and if you’re lucky, wild donkeys!  I spent most of the afternoon snapping pics of the sky, so I’m only going to put up a few.

There is a 13-mile driving loop that takes you around the park which is great by itself, but we decided to hop out and do some hiking as well.

The girls had never been in temperatures above about 28 degrees Celsius, so the temps that pushed 40+ Celsius (105 F) and up wreaked havoc on a few of them. As a result, only 3 of them made it out to enjoy the scenery.

Picture 1: sky. Picture 2: Elaine hams it up. Picture 3: sky. Picture 4: Ann-Marie also hams it up. Picture 5: Sky. Picture 6: sky and us.

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Young Love

By on July 6, 2009 in Engagement, People, Photos

I had the great pleasure to meet Natalie and Casey today to do engagement photos for them. Natalie mentioned that they were really drawn to a vintage look, so we met before sunset at an abandoned train in Orange to give it a go. It’s a style that I’m also really drawn to, so it was exciting to try it out on a full shoot.

Before I continue, let me just mention that Casey filmed his proposal on an old 8mm camera. How rad is that?

In any event, below are some samples from my attempt to capture this wonderful couple with an eye to cross processing and desaturation like one might see in older photos. I’m crossing my fingers that they like them!

Edit, 2009-07-07: more photos added.

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Smokey Stables

By on July 5, 2009 in Architecture/Man-made, Photos

I had planned to do some bike riding around Back Bay Newport today, but because of a severe case of Independence Day foot sunburn, that was out. Instead, my brother and one of our Irish lasses (Annette) and I did a photo hike through Smokey Stables at sunset.  Here are some of the shots from the day.

I don’t usually shoot “pattern” type shots, so this was a lot of fun. Try and spot the photo in which Annette is an unhappy subject. :)

Click the thumbnails to pop.

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