Grand of a Time.

Late entry! So WHAT!? I was itchin' to go take a self portrait. Looking for inspiration from Flickr. Cait, a future model of mine decides to join the party. Mind you, it was already night and I had work the next day. So I wanted to stay local. One of my favorite places to shoot is Grand. No homeless people, nice lights, classic Escondido. So we searching around grand, seeing what kind of lights and subjects we can possible shoot, and we pass some bank with some cool semi-spiral stairs. We do a couple of shots, keep in mind that nothing was planned. I was teaching Cait how to use a DSLR, hopefully she'll get one soon. If not, she'll just steal her boyfriends. So we were just messin' around with some poses and some cool exposure shots.

Equipment: Canon 20D on a tripod with remote shutter, 17-85mm f/4-5.6, Bare Canon 430ex triggered by Radiopopper JrX (no stand or anything)

Our location on Grand and Maple (?)

Cait waitin' for her boyfriend's call.

5 separate exposures and super imposed into a single photo in Photoshop. Not bad for a single light source.
We're textin' each other. Hahaa.

Cait_DGAF.

Chillin' in my sweats.

For the given time and equipment, I'm pleased with these shots especially with the models so casual not "model ready". I'm sure I'll try this again and hopefully I'll be better prepared too.

Auntie Mel's Birthday Celebration

uggggghhhhh.....that's how I feel right now. I worked Friday, then right after went straight to Carrie and Francis' place to celebrate Melissa's birthday. This is gonna be a short entry, a lazy entry, a whatever entry. I just need to get these photos up. It was a great weekend, started at a house party with great friends and alcohol. It was a wine party. Sounds class right? Not really, fun as hell though.

Then the next night, we hit up North Park's The Office. Hit up Alberto's for some carne asada fries and called it a night. If that wasn't enough, ended up at Simply Sharon's for some high end chicken and waffles and plus some. That's a wrap!! The "Itis" 2 waffles, it felt like a half of a chicken, 2 eggs, hashed potatoes, and biscuit and gravy.

iPhone quality.

Chicken and Waffles.

Continuing to Conquer Mountains.

Alvin and Melissa figuring out where to go next before we get lost.

I'm taking over mountains. I'm snowboarding, hiking, and biking them all!! There is no mountain to high for me to climb. Hahaa, that's a lie. I just didn't find it yet. Well, Elfin Forrest is located in Escondido. Gorgeous place to ride especially with the cool weather after the rains. It's no Daley Ranch though. Daley's trails are fun and a work out, compared to Elfin Forrest's trails is a nightmare. Sharp mini boulders to climb over, loose gravel, a lot of sharp switch backs. It sounds like fun, but it is more about technique than physical strength. Technique is something I need to improve.

Elfin Forrest Overview. Pure Nature. I love it!!

It was a work out to get to the top of Elfin Forrest Overview, but worth it. Once at the top, Melissa, Alvin, and myself decided to have a little picnic and have our lunch. Eating our dry Von's brand sandwiches. No Mayo or mustard!!! Instant FAIL!!!!

Top of Elfin Forrest Overview. Time to eat lunch.

On our way down seemed so much faster than the climb, a bit tricky and stressful but faster. I just couldn't wait to hit the shower and eat some real food. I'll be sure to be back on this mountain soon.

My Baby.

Melissa is using this bike like a champ!!!

Chillin' next to Roxi.

Alvin on a good charge downhill.

The shower was the worst part of the day. Dirt, sweat, and BLOOD all down the drain of my shower. I fell into a small bush (don't ask me how), a twig ended up stabbing my right lower ribs. Putting disinfectant is never fun. I don't think I've screamed that much in a while. 

Mt. High has SNOW!?

I just came back from Mt. High with Cait_dgaf. We both had free lift tickets from SnowJam. I've been itching to go for a minute. If you haven't heard of Mt. High, keep it that way. Hahaa. Mt. High is the closest snow resort to San Diego, literally less than a two hour drive to get there without any windy roads and chains. That being said, you won't expect fresh powder (something I still have not experienced). So its no Mammoth. Lately, its been raining, so I had to take advantage of the moment. I was fortunate enough to have decent snow, no ice patches on the mountains, nicely packed snow. Here are only a few pictures of the mountain. I didn't take as many pictures because I was enjoying the snow too much with my friend.

Pink and Grey Snow Bandits! What up!!!

You can sense a storm is brewing in the air. Conditions exceeded expectations.

Cait_DGAF, pretty in pink.

WEST COAST!!! My track jacket was more than enough to keep me warm.

I just like this photo Cait took on the way back from Mt. High

I'm ready to ride again!

Saint Patrick's Day 2011

I am buzzin' right now. I can't believe I edited some pictures from this night. Well, I needed to make room for some memory cards so I didn't want to just dump all the pictures onto the computer and just forget about them. That's never fun. Whatever. WELL!!!! It was St Patrick's Day!!!! LEDEND...wait for it.....DARY!!!!! I had a blast hanging out with friends. First of all, they had bomb ass food from the start. They had corn beef burritos!!! Who has those first of all!? delicious!!! I loved each bite, even though I kinda got messy. By the end of the night, Jess, Al, and Tyler showed up once everyone was already out of control. Let's just say, it was good St. Patty's day. Now its time to look forward to Pete's bachelor party. I doubt you'll see any pictures from these next few nights, but believe there are pictures out there.

We were drinking...so what. hahaa.

Suicide Girl

(Click the link above^^)

This is a new goal for this year. I met this girl a couple months back, super cool chick, who's hot too (always a positive). We met through mutual friends. We got to talking and she has some interesting tattoos scattered throughout her body, all located in subtle places. All of them have a story or something meaningful to her, which I can only appreciate. I honestly hate tattoos without anything thought. If you're gonna get a tattoo, which is permanent, it might as well hold some kind of significance to you. If you were to see her, you wouldn't expect to see tattoos. However, she has been a fan of suicide girls forever. I know suicide girls sound extreme, it isn't. It empowering for women who are independent and sexy, but with attitude. Tattoos and piercing is a showcase of the strong and feminine side of suicide girls.

This is an opportunity to expand my work. It is something new to me. It'll be more complex compared to what I'm normally shooting. So I'm stoked about this experience. Hopefully picture will come out soon.