Sienna is Growing Up!

...aallllmost a smile.


I'm just like Dad, I don't like to smile for the camera!

I swung by to visit Susy today and took a few new Sienna shots for her photobook. Babies grow up so fast!

Cool Pic of the Week

I took this picture on the last night we stayed at Tahoe. It was pretty chilly out but since I brought my tripod I figured I might as well use it for a cool night shot. What I really wanted to do is take a picture of the night sky full of stars but surprisingly the hotel had this big spotlight on the mountain and parking lot lights that washed out the stars. (click picture to enlarge)

Tahoe Day 3: Johnny Vegas Reno

The perfect cup for drinking milk.


Leave it up to AC to find the only Pho place in Reno AND recommend eating there.


Here's me standing next to Siena...Casino that is.


Reno has Little-Man Syndrome.


I thought this place would be lucky due to the name.


This was my only luck - I won a radioactive homer on the claw machine.


Look AC, infinity!!




Giant Poker Chips

We spent our last day at Reno, the red-headed bastard stepchild of Las Vegas. The city was small and the casinos were also small. If you're used to Indian reservation gambling or B.O. smelling local places around Southern California like Commerce Casino or Bicycle Club, then this place is great, but if you've been to Vegas, this place is craptacular. Regardless, AC (who won $40!) and I did manage to get some gambling in and some buffet action. Tomorrow, we head back to reliable high-speed Internet and smog. Nature, you were great but I have to leave...it's better if we just stay friends and just see each other once in a while. We're just too different...I'm from the city...you're just too country for me. You'll find someone else who will understand you. I'll call you sometime but don't come looking for me.

Tahoe Day 2

Can you spot me?





Moss


That's supposed to be me fishing in the distance.

Upon closer inspection, I was just eating sunflower seeds for about an hour after being discouraged by the fish.

Me in action. Great photos by AC (White border)

We spent the day today on another hike since the bikes weren't available :( But this time we sucked it up and made it to the top - well there's a lot more to go but to us that was the top. We saw this cool stream of icy water. We went fishing again ... Fish 2, Us 0.

Well, we're pretty natured-out so tomorrow we're going to Reno tomorrow for some gambling and buffet action.

Tahoe Day 1

Fish 1, Me 0






Moss growing on a rock.

On the agenda today was hiking and fishing. While the view was breathtaking, so was the hike: we were winded pretty quickly (well AC a little more than me). There were a lot of trees - I'll post these pics tomorrow hopefully. I'm not very good at these scenic shots and I actually got bored of taking pictures for a while.

Next was fishing, which we ended up with zero. My highlight was when a fish tried to snatch my bait while I was reeling it in a couple feet away from me. It caught me by surprise but that was it, the next few hours I kept casting and re-casting ...then I ended up just sitting on the dock eating sunflower seeds for the last hour. Overall it's pretty relaxing.

...except I thought I saw a ghost or some weird thing last night. Maybe I was hallucinating. There was this figure in a white shirt that walked around my bed and ended up at the foot of my bed just staring at me. Or at least I thought it was. When my eyes finally focused it was the mirror and a monitor but I thought I felt someone and heard footsteps and saw someone walk around with a white shirt on. It wasn't AC...creepy.

Tahoe Day Zero

It was a loooong ride to get to Lake Tahoe.


Cows a major cause of air pollution? I didn't believe it until today.






His and His robes? I know what you're thinking...it's not that type of trip.

I have more shots but the Internet is soooo slow and unreliable. It took longer than expected to get here (around 9 hours including several stops) but tomorrow hopefully I'll post some REAL pictures when AC and I get out. We ended up getting a minivan instead of an SUV, but it worked out great cuz it was very roomy and surprisingly great to drive (Hyundai Entourage). The elevation makes me pretty wimpy - I got winded walking from here to there. The room we're staying in luckily has TWO BEDS, one in the room and one in the living room. Stay tuned for some scenic shots.

Two UCI Brainy Babes

I took a few quick shots of two stunning blonds last week who just happen to have brains too. Both are law school-bound seniors at UCI and both are working with me. Megan (top 2 pics) is a Campuswide Honors Program student who's also doing research in computer crime, so I'm helping her with that, and Alex, below, is my research assistant (and fellow gamer and computer nerd - sorry put xbox gamertag here, she's married). Enyoi the eye candy.

For my photographer friend Carrie (see her site on the link to the right) below is an unretouched 'before' photo. I was talking about how I like to shoot underexposed/flat and bring out the light and color later - kinda like those Claritin D commercials where they peel away the dull look - versus overexposing and toning it down later.

Adobe Photoshop CS

+ Curves/Levels

+ Saturation

+ Teeth/Eyes

+ Sharpen

Some Pics from Cinco de Mayo by Rita

It's like the asparagus evergreens.

My good friend Rita AKA Ms. Williams came through with these cool frame-worthy shots from Cinco de Mayo document your day for Flickr taken at the Farmer's Market in Irvine. They weren't even shot with a dSLR or touched up with Photoshop. Very cool, dude!

My day in pictures

I had a crazy day yesterday at Howard's bachelor party. I didn't even make home until 10 this morning. I'm feeling fine but I can't say the same for some of the people there who over-did it. The groom had a great time (he better, it killed all our collective wallets).

It was harder than I thought to bring a camera around and take pictures throughout the day. Apparently you can't take pictures inside a supermarket. And as expected, no pictures during our entertainment. I'm not even going to try to fix any of the pictures since they weren't anything too special, (although the water fountain might warrant a cool shot of the week post.) Anyone else want to share your photos of that day? I can make a video or post the pics here :)

Some new Sienna pics

That's how I like to sleep too, with one arm up!


Hey Dad, it's mini-me!

It's just amazing how babies change from week to week. Sienna is now 11lbs and drinking lots of milk, pooping, burping, sleeping, and doing all the other things healthy babies do. She had her first restaurant experience today when we went to The Hat to eat a greasy dinner. Here she is with dad, who gave her 99% of her looks it seems.

Join me in a photo event!

This Saturday, Cinco de Mayo, I'll be participating in documenting my day and posting it on here and Flickr's group. On my agenda that day is Howard's bachelor party so I'll only be able to take pictures at the appropriate times. I'm hoping to snap pictures throughout my entire day - of myself, people I see, things I do etc. Anyone else interested in doing the same, just let me know and I'll post them on this lil ol blog. I'm hoping to create several slideshows; it'll be fun :) For more details on the official Flickr event, click here. (Miss Williams, you game?)

Nick and Cassidy

I gave my cousins Nick and Cassidy some temporary Yakuza game tattoos today that I got at E3 last year. It's amazing how tough people can look with some ink - the transformation was immediate. Notice the smug looks and attitude to match with both of them. To offset the intimidation, the bottom shot is a cuter picture I took a month ago with my big camera.

Think Blue

I sound like a girl but man, this angle makes me look so fat!!

The guys and I attended the Dodgers ('doyers' if you're from L.A.)/Giants game today thanks to Ty (glasses) and his free tickets from his work. We got awesome deck level seats and of course some dodger dogs and nachos along with $11 beers! (sheesh) Huge difference sitting behind the plate than in the pavilion level seats where fights constantly break out and extreme heckling, especially with BAAARRRYYYY playing. Unfortunately the boys in blue lost but it was fun hanging out and we all got Nomar Garciaparra bobbleheads!

Also, I took another step in upgrading to current technology. Today I got HD digital cable and the picture looks great except for the fact that half the channels don't work. A tech is coming out tomorrow to take a look at it. Next up, a new lappy but I'm still debating on going the Mac route or wait for the Santa Rosa chipset to come out. Hmm...maybe new camera equipment...*scratches chin*