Now before I get into the real seriousness of this post I want to take a minute to apologize for the lack of blog posts. School has had me crazy busy. I am out almost every day shooting photos for class then heading into the dark room to develop and print out the photos. I really want to get some good scans of them to put up on the blog and the website but I haven't had a chance to get it done. They are coming though. Don't you worry!! 

In other news that is more snake related and kinda ties the post in with the real seriousness I have to address. Breeding has been going on. I keep seeing locks from my Mojo boy and my girls. He's the only one thats done anything this season with the girls. I gave up on my spider male even locking and am hoping I get lots of mojos!!

Well anyways, seriousness time for reals. It seems like over the last year the country has been coming down really hard on exotic pet owners. From Reptile owners to fish owners. Anything considered exotic is under attack yet again but this time it is more local and will have a HUGE effect on anyone who lives in LA County. If this were enacted it would do the following:

1. Cages would not be allowed to be stacked.

2. 24/7 staffing if have more than 50 animals in the facility. If less than 50 animals, you must have adequate staffing for at least 8 hours a day. If you have more than 50 fish, reptiles, birds, etc., or any combination thereof, you must staff the facility 24/7.

3. Records must be kept on each "Animal". "Animals" defined in Section 10.08.020 any animal, bird, reptile or fish.

4. Proprietary business information will be available to the public (that could mean Animal Rights groups).

5. The Department may also impose “reasonable conditions” on a breeding license for any non dog or cat breeder.

Now you can understand the importance of doing something and standing up to this. If this were to be in effect in LA there is no telling how long it would take to get enacted everywhere else in United States. This would cause many small in home breeders to shut down or cut way back on their animals. Please take action and take a couple minutes to fill out a form on USARK's website.  http://usark.org/campaign.php?id=14

Until Next Time...

One of the things that I really like to do is revisit old shoots that I have done and do some re-processing. Whenever I get down time in between shoots and snake business I try to go back and just practice and better tune my skills at processing an image. This time I decided to go back to a shoot I did a while ago with some friends of mine who happen to be aspiring photographers as well. One of them, Nick set up this shoot with a really nice couple names Jorge and Gail. After some deliberation Nick decided to setup the shoot at this really nice park in Brea and I cannot wait to shoot there again! You may notice that these photos may be a touch out of focus, let me explain... I purchased a lens right before this shoot that is only manual focus and boy did I suck with manual focus when I first started. Either way I was happy with some of them and decided to re-process anyways. Enjoy.  

When we first got to the park we came across this cool little walk way next to a small creek and decided it would be a great place to start!

Jorge happened to be quite the musician, He brought his guitar to serenade Gail (and us photographer) while we snapped some photos!

There was this really neat walkway that lead to a lake that we could not pass up shooting, Jorge and Gail did quite well dealing with our pose requests and even came up with a few of their own!

While walking the park we had to cross this nice little bridge in order to get around the lake and we stopped for some shots!

This shot was shot in color but I thought it came out MUCH better in Black and White.( My B&W photo class is paying off!)

Towards the end of the day we were walking around in our last little bit of sunlight and we got a couple more shots.

This last photo was one of the last ones I shot of the day and I thought it closed out the session quite nicely!

It was a really fun shoot and I walked away with some good practice and learned a great deal from it! I would love to hear your comments and critiques so leave a comment and let me know!

Until Next Time..

This last week has been pretty hectic for me since about Friday morning which takes me right in to the first post of 2 that I have coming this week. Those of you who know me personally or have hung out with me may know that I am a HUGE fan of a local radio show here in the LA area called Frosty Heidi and Frank. This radio show has been on for quite some time and I have been a fan for just as long. They are an outrageously funny trio who have a show in the mornings from 9:00AM - 12:00PM. They sometimes do live shows throughout Southern California and I have never been able to attend one. Throughout their entire show history I have never been able to attend a live show because I always had work or school.  Well last Friday morning they did a live event at the Hooter's in Lake Forest and I was able to go with my friends Rich and Ramon who also happen to be fans of the show.

This was what I saw when I first arrived at Hooters. This was the booth set up to hand out swag and greet people as they went in.

Rich, Ramon and I decided that It was not too early to have a few beers!

Frosty, Heidi and Frank finally took their seats at the table and started the show and as you can tell they didn't skimp out on the drinks either, which they never do!

During commercial breaks they walked out into the crowed and took pics and signed autographs. The first one I got to meet was Heidi. She is such a cool girl and if you have ever listened to the show one of her bess assets is her tongue. She loves to show it off any chance she gets!

I also got to meet Frosty who is the shows whipping post, They like to tease him a lot but he is also one funny guy!

And last but not last I got to meet Frank. He is the badass on the show. He is the guy with the I don't give a fuck attitude. He's a stoner and a drinker and loves to have a great time.

All in all it was a great time. I can not wait to go to another live show. I had plenty of beer and hot wings to last me a while!
Until Next Time...

While going through and reading my old blog posts one of the photos from my storm chasing blog caught my eye. This photo needed a little bit retouching and thats exactly what I did! I love the way this photo looks, it is actually one of my favorites that I have shot in a long time! I would love to know what you all think, so please leave a comment!

Here it is - Seal Beach in between storms!

I have been working my butt off trying to get some photo shoots under my belt since I have started this whole photography venture. All of my sessions since I have started have all been engagement sessions but one. Now I can change that and make it two. I made a friend over on a wonderful website called Model Mayhem, which is a website for model. photographer, make up artists and studios to connect and make business happen. I created one to meet some great people who were looking to build their portfolio. Within a week of joining I was contacted by a really cool girl named Stephanie. She mentioned to me that she has done some photo shoots in the past and is looking to do some more. We discussed ideas and finally settled on the Seal Beach Pier. It was a bit cold so she came prepared in some wintery clothes. It turned out very well and she was a blast to shoot with!

We decided to head under the pier at first, It was a bit chilly under there so we wanted to get them out of the way!

After we shot some under the pier we decided to head over to this cool rock jetty. Stephanie was a trooper when it came to climbing and rock jumping to get some good places to sit and shoot.

This next pic was taken on the pier next to the lifeguard station, I thought the graffiti added a nice touch in the photo, What do you think?

After the pier we headed on down to this little sitting area, These are some of my favorite photos because Stephanie's eyes really pop!

Overall it was a great shoot and we had a blast doing it. Thanks again to Stephanie for contacting me to do this fun shoot and I can't wait to shoot with you again! I would love to hear from you all who read my blog, please click on the post name and scroll down and leave a comment, let me know what you think!

Well friends... Until Next Time...