Halo 3 Legendary Edition

Yes, it's finally time to "finish the fight" on the xbox 360. Unfortunately I can't actually wear this helmet while I play - yes, I'm that nerdy but I will say that playing online with a bunch of friends is quite an experience. Friend me up - gamertag: Sparda05.

Anyway, I have a pre-quincinera shoot this Sunday afternoon @ Balboa Island so stay tuned.

Thanks to Khiemy for the awesome link. This site is just fun - it's kinda like the macs or certain cell phones where you can distort your face or have fun backgrounds and effects. All you need is a webcam and some creativity. Here are a couple of me - I couldn't pass up the ninja effect.

Update: added the monkey

Click HERE to make your own.

Bryana @ the Park

Th' most important thin' when takin' pictures be th' lightin'. IMO, th' best time t' take them be when th' sun be settin' (or risin' if ye`re an early bird). Ye only get around an hour o' golden sun that looks great (notice th' hair). 't can be tricky t' take an' ye definitely need an SLR type camera wi' good lens if ye`re shootin' into th' sun, but if ye can pull 't off, 't looks great.

edit: Today be talk like a scurvy pirate day, so as ye can be seein', I be participatin' in that. Luckily fer me thar`s a shipmate translator on th' web which saved me a lot o' time. Here`s th' link fer more details, if ye click on 't I won`t be havin' t' keel haul th' plank. Yarr.

Cool Park

Click for larger resolution.

Here's a shot from Mission Bay Park (I think that's what it's called) near Downtown, San Diego. The huge park was a happenin place with jet skis and sail boats etc. and tons of people. There was a boat race in town. We drove around it and got out for a few pictures. The weather was just awesome, not too hot with a cool breeze. This picture was taken with my new 'big daddy.' I'll explain more later.

Lilia @ San Diego

I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take this pic. How often do I get
to spend a nice day with 2 fun ladies?

I spent the day in beautiful San Diego visiting Bryana and doing a shoot with her photogenic friend Lilia at scenic Seaport Village and a couple of other places. She missed half of the Chargers game for this - which probably was a good thing for her being a Chargers fan (they were down 24-0 in the first half). My friend Jeff was supposed to come out and get some pointers but due to a scheduling conflict, we'll have to do it another time. Looks like he missed out. Here a few shots - more later.

Eye lashes

Extra! Extra! Sienna's mom puts fake lashes on her! Just kidding. Sienna's lashes are extremely long, I don't mean Mr. Snuffleupagus long, but very nice and long and curly. Basically, lots of girls will be jealous when she grows up. Here's a shot from our day at the park.

This weekend I'll be headed down to San Diego for a shoot that was supposed to be a part instructional session with my buddy Jeff who wants to buy a camera but there was some mix-up with the date. Since it's not cool to reschedule with the person I'm shooting, I'm doing it Han Solo style. He'll have another opportunity if and when I take shots of her sister, depending how well I do on the first shoot...make sense? Anyway, stay tuned.

"Capturing Love" Slideshow

This slideshow was a little harder to make than expected and didn't turn out perfect (especially with the music in the middle) but hopefully you guys will really enjoy this. It's a slideshow of images that really show why I like to take pictures. Instead of fake smiles and cheesy cliche poses, I try to capture the intangibles in life. Sometimes I'm lucky and I actually capture love and emotion in a photo. I know what you're thinking: yea yea bla bla bla I'm being cheesy for the blog, but I'm really not trying to. I had a really rough year but I think taking all these pictures has been therapeutic. Enjoy.

A vibrant door

Yes, it's just a door but check out the cool colors. For backgrounds, I like to find places with vibrant colors. This same door was the background for Bryan'a shoot (see below). A little saturation boost and it really pops. Cool eh?

Mateus (and Sienna) @ the Park

7lb Mateus had his first outing yesterday to the park for a quick photo shoot. I think this is the furthest he's been away from home literally (kind of like a Hobbit) so it was nice for me to share in that. Not to be out-cuted, Sienna came along too all dolled up and sporting her new hair clip, so I guess you can consider this their first date - look at what I'm starting! Anyway, I think the pics turned out great. You must excuse his little bald spots, they're from the I.V. at the hospital. The poor little guy almost died if it weren't for an emergency c-section. Anyway, you know parents are very happy and proud when Dad dresses up and comes out to take pics too.

3 Neighbors, 3 Moms, 3 Babies

I'm going to try to convince Jessica to do a photo shoot. Chloe has incredible eyes,
and mom is really photogenic too!


Wait a minute...what's going on here? That's Sienna's hand...and look at that smile.

Introducing Karen and Mateus (bottom) and Jessica and Chloe (middle) to the blogosphere - My blog frequenters already know Susy and Sienna. They're all neighbor mommies. Mateus is the little guy - he was born premature but he's gained some weight and is now over 6 lbs (yay!). He's still a little delicate. I'll be taking a few pictures of him in a couple of days and will do a full shoot for his baptism and as he gets a little older.

These pics were just taken on the spur of the moment on a driveway and the moms look a little tired from their babies. Check back soon when moms and babies get dolled up.

Update: For those of you who wonder how often I update this blog, I have set up an email alert service that will email you when I have new posts or you can add it to your RSS reader. I do try to update it as often as I can as you can see by my recent almost daily updates.

On photography

Being the "I hear you take pictures" guy amongst my friends, I get asked a lot what kind of camera they should get or what kind of equipment I use etc. What I always tell them is pretty much, it really doesn't matter. Any modern DSLR will do the trick as long as the person shooting knows what he or she is doing in the right lighting - which takes practice and doing a little homework. If you've noticed in this blog, it's not about Canon versus Nikon because it takes away from the REAL stars and the heart and soul of this blog: the pictures and the people. However, being the geek that I am, it's inevitable that I will chat about the gear sometimes, especially if I get something new.

* Update: I've added the feedblitz email subscription so now you can get an email notifying you when I've updated the blog, which I'll try to do more frequently.

Cool Beach Pic

It has been scorching hot in Socal these past few days. Maybe this water pic will psychologically cool you down. I've got more pictures coming soon, when I introduce some new babies.

Laguna Beach Blowout:: Sienna

I warned you these were gonna be devastatingly cute. It's awesome when you actually capture "love" in a picture. Kris and Susy are just beaming - and Kris never smiles. Sometimes I get stuff out of my camera that even surprises me and in this case, it was the sky and water, which was perfect despite the earlier rain. In fact, the rain made it a lot more interesting. More pics to come soon.

Another cool picture

Click to enlarge

I caught this cool shot when I told Bryana to "run through the birds" (she didn't end up doing that). But I did catch the seagulls as they were flying away. Click for a nice high res 1280 desktop background-worthy shot.

I had another shoot with Sienna also at the beach last Sunday but I'm saving that for the next couple of days when I get swamped again and can't take pics for blog posting...so be forewarned, you are in for some devastating cute. For now, enyoy.

Laguna Beach Blowout: Bryana

Cool motion shot, I've been waiting for an opportunity to try this shot.


Bryana is ALMOST 5' tall.

Bryana stopped by yesterday for a shoot as a gift for her boyfriend (awesome gift IMO) in lovely Laguna Beach so we tried a few new things, new poses, new backgrounds etc. to keep things fresh. In my opinion, shooting in the sand next to the water at a beach is not really ideal although most people think it's the best. I think we got some awesome shots with great colors (it also helps that she's photogenic and loves to smile).

Evelyn & Randy @ Laguna Beach

Yesterday Randy and Evelyn stopped by Laguna Beach along with Ann and Phil and once again I was rueda numero cinco (haha it bugs R&E when I say that). Anyway, we took some quick pics walking down to the beach that surprisingly turned out nicely despite the sun having set. It only took us around 15 minutes to take all these pictures. I suggested if they want to take pics to wear solid colors but it was their idea to show up wearing matching bright red shirts! Just messin :D

Cool Picture

I'm staying in Laguna again this week, which means some nice picture opportunities. Sienna is stopping by this weekend for a shoot and I got some nice spots picked out. I spoted this flower right outside the door and the lighting was just right. Pretty cool colors and blur huh?

Lynn and Donovan has nailed down a date and locaion for their wedding - Jan. 5th, 2008 in Irvine. Yours truly will be taking the pictures. To celebrate, I've posted a few shots from our shoot in Laguna Beach a while back.

A subtle update to the blog - pictures now are in a bigger size, so no need to click to enlarge. The adspace has been removed on the left. This is ideal for resolutions 1024x768 and larger.

OC Fair Part 2

I fifth wheeled the OC Fair with my good friends Ann & Phil (above) and Evelyn & Randy. E&R are engaged btw. Anyway, I tried out some low light photos to try to get some cool blurred light backgrounds with the merry-go-round. I couldn't decide on the color or sepia/blue split tone for the last picture.

Cool Classic Car

I snagged a couple of pics of this cool classic car last night @ the OC County Fair. I think this is a V8 Ford 1940 DeLuxe Woodie - I'm not a car buff but that's the closest I can find by looking it up on the Internet. Speaking of cars, check out this VIDEO of the ultimate carwash - only around $10,000!