hiatus

hiatus

"McCruelty; i'm hatin' it"

I got word about a protest happening in front of the NBC Studios in Burbank and decided to go take a look, and who better to ask to tag along to NBC?? McClain!!! We got there a little early to check out McClain's old internship and walked around the NBC lot/studio. Lets just say that it was like being on 30 Rock. Anyways, back to our main focus.

In front of the studio were Peta protesters. They came out with signs, a message and, chicken outfits...?

Here's what I got:


Not a lot of people came out to this protest; about less than 20. Although their numbers where small, their message was big: "McCruelty; i'm hatin' it."

Till then.

Home Studio!

So I was able to put together a MUA (make-up artist), a model and a home studio the other day! Did some photos with details to skin and makeup and turned out very well. After words, McClain came over and he showed me a thing or two with Photoshop and 3hrs later, we have something I'm pretty proud of. Here's what we got:


Photograph by me and edited by McClain Nelson. Pretty cool stuff he learned from NBC! And this photo below is all me!

A lot more, but seeing how it takes some hours for 1 photo to be done, these 2 should be fine for now. Oh and working with a MUA was amazing! I recommend her to any of you photographers in need of someone that is professional, easy to talk to and open to ideas and HAS ideas to contribute! Just click on her name and it will take you to her work. Jessica Hughes

Till then!

Hello Furloughs!@

FULLERTON, CALIFORNIA-- Students protest budget cuts at California State University, Fullerton resulting in a 32% increase in tuition fees and a 10% pay cut for teachers and faculty on September 29, 2009.

The students marched around CSUF campus chanting "They say cut back; we say fight back" and "Hell no to Furloughs!" during a large scale protest about budget cuts.

The main concern was about high tuition cost and poor education, due to the Furlough policy. Milagro Medrano, president of California Faculty Association (CFA) is seen holding up signs in support. "These students are our future and it's unfair to constantly raise tuition. Some students can barley get by and that is not what education should be about."

Anyways, here is what I got:

Oh, I just love me a good protest. They're old, but I'll post up my May Day 2009 protest later. That was a fun day!

Till then!

Lexicon Polaroid: Me by Anh for Mike

Lexicon Polaroid is a poetry magazine ran by a good friend in Portland, Oregon. His name is Mike Harper. As soon as he releases the magazine, I'll release the poem that this photograph, taken by Anh Hoang, was intended for. But this is what she got:

It's a photo of me wrapped in dental floss! I added the red filter...maybe I should have kept it in B&W??? Oh well.

Till then.

Engagement Sitting #2

Anh and I decided to do more photos for our upcoming wedding. So, I took out the tripod and set up some sweet shots at a sweet location! Here's what I got:


JK! One of Anh's friends took these A-M-A-Z-I-N-G photos of us. What makes them soooo damn amazing, you ask??? They're free! Anyways, if you ever need some photos done and you got a small budget, hit me up and I'll recommend Linda Hoang (yes, she has the same last name as Anh's).

Till then.

Photo Shoot: Casey Chin

Did a photo shoot with the lovely Casey Chin (http://www.modelmayhem.com/caseychin) at her house. The shoot turned out to be a lot better than I had anticipated; her and I get a long very nicely and that is always something I look for in shooting with anyone. Here's what I got:

A lot more, but I'm too lazy to edit and post them all right now. So enjoy these!

Till then.

Mike Harper

I love alliteration and semicolons in the English language.

"People like pictures in portland. The alliteration alone of that last sentence should bring you up here." -Mike Harper Sept. 14, 09 8:50pm Pacific.

Thanks, Mike, for making my night.

Till then.

Filipino Pirate: Photo Shoot With Karl

Karl, Anh, Aldo and Jessie came over to my house and helped me with a little project. It involved 2 strobes, 2 scooters and 1 SUV. Here is what I got:


And after words, we went and got Pho at 50% off, you know where I'm talking about!

Till then.

Oh and PCs suck; PS3 crashed on me and I've never had soooo many virus in a months time period. I think I'm going to switch over to MACS.

Oh Photoshop, How I Love Thee

I can remember using Photoshop 7 and being completely frustrated with that program. As a matter of fact, because I couldn't use the damn thing, I started hating on people that edited their photos. Can't join them, well, then HATE THEM; those jerks. I would tell myself that people made their photos in Photoshop rather than shot them with their camera and lights. Well, on record, I was wrong. You really can't shine shit (I know, it was proven otherwise on Myth Busters, but really, come on). A bad photo is a bad photo. Long story short, I'm pretty excited about my editing skills and wanted to share them. Here's what I got:


And here is what I used:
Healing brush
Patch Tool
Clone Stamp
Liquify
Eye Dropper Tool
Layer Mask
Magic Wand
Saturation
Curves
Unmask Sharpen
Levels

Many thanks to Youtube and McClain for the great tips on natural skin editing!!

Till then.

Labor Day 2009: Anh Gets Her Wisdom Teeth Pulled

So, this Labor Day (Sept. 7 09) Anh and I went to my brother's dental office in Fountain Valley and got her 2 lower wisdom teeth pulled out! It was not as bad as it sounded; the entire procedure only took about 20-30 minutes! Anh only had 1 moment of pain but my brother solved that with more Novocain.

After everything, he gave Anh her teeth and I photographed them. Here is what I got:


These look so prehistoric; they reminded me of a Velociraptors claw! Ha, they have "Velo" in their name!

Till then.

Health Care For America NOW!

LOS ANGELES-- I went into DTLA to get some photographs of people yelling at one another about Obama's plan for universal health care plan and only got some peaceful, protesting, old hippies. So much for all that stuff you see on TV about them Republicans yelling and crying at their representatives. Anyways, here's the one I like the most:

Oh, and I totally caught a guy starring at some ladies boobs!


He was SUPER annoying. Reminded me of that one guy from Happy Gilmore that would pop out of no where and call Happy a "jack-ass!" This guy...

Till then.

Cold War Kids in The LBC

The Cold War Kids, one of my favorite bands, played a free show at the Busker Festival, August 21, 09. The show took place on 1st and Elm Ave. in Long Beach, CA. The show was packed (why not, it's free) with a bunch of people wearing flannel and riding "fixies." It was really cute. No, I did not wear my flannel, and truth be told, I felt left out, sigh.

Here's what I got:














It's really cool how people think you are associated with the band that you are photographing when you're carrying a big'ol camera; cutzzies for me!

"Who are you shooting for?" "Oh me? Them, The Cold War Kids."

www.coldwarkids.com

Till then.

Sequoia in 36hrs.

Last weekend, 2 buddies of mine and I decided to go backpacking in Sequoia for only a short amount of time (We left Friday morning and I had to be at work on Sunday, 10am). I brought the essentials: Camera, 17-55mm 2.8, 2x 8 gig CF cards, batteries, tripod and a hat. Here is what i got:
















We ended up doing a 7 mile night hike in the complete dark, well, we had headlamps and little flashlights, but that only lit up about 5 feet in front of us. I wanted to get more photos set up for our night hike, but that would involve me walking into the dark forest, off the trail, and setting up the tripod. I didn't want to do that, plus everyone was super tired and did not want to slow down for me to set up a couple of pictures.

We made it back to the car in about 4hrs and got back to Huntington Bch by 9am. Success!

Till then.