Through my eyes.... and my camera

flying over the grandest of all canyons

2007-08-06T00:31:00.001-07:00

flying over the grandest of all canyons
Originally uploaded by Joits.

i should have been at work at this point... but instead i was flying above the grand canyon at approximately 30,000 feet. still can't believe that our flight was delayed and ultimately leading to my mom, my bro and me having to say in grand rapids for an extra day. our flight our today was super early and we were out of our motel at 3.45am. good thing... turns out as we got in line, it actually got really busy. after a few issues with checking in, we managed to get through all that and pretty soon we were on our way to chicago. the chicago flight to LAX had me sitting in a different area than my mom and bro but it was fine with me cos i wanted the window aisle. spent the flight half sleeping, half reading harry potter. managed to capture some cool shots from the window although i missed capturing the in-n-out near lax due to my point and shoots slow picture taking time... damn that p&s... haha.

i really didn't want to go into work... but we arrived in LA around 11am and I knew that if i wanted to get my full 80 hours, i'd have to at least work 4 hours. so i made it into work and i'm glad i did, my managers were actually surprised to see me, they figured i'd just call it a day when i first informed them of my cancelled flight. i was pretty tired but i managed to get through the day.

leonardo da vinci's horse

2007-08-06T00:30:00.001-07:00

leonardo da vinci's horse
Originally uploaded by Joits.

my mom, my bro and me really shouldn't have been here for this pic. this was taken on sunday at around 3.30pm... and we should have been in chicago's o'hare airport boarding our flight back home to LA. but our flight from grand rapids airport to chicago was delayed causing us to miss our connecting flight. they could only get two people back to LA that day and so my dad and sister took those. i stayed behind with my mom and brother and after renting a car and finding another hotel, we took advantage of the situation by visiting the frederik meijer gardens & sculpture park. we didn't get to spend a whole lot of time here and didn't see everything as it was closing at 5pm, but i think we saw enough and i really enjoyed it there. a great place to photograph and it was also a pretty nice day out, albeit a little hot. we really could have done more that day but we were all pretty exhausted from the whole weekend and so we called it a day after our visit here and returned to our hotel and just relaxed.

i have no experience with having my flight delayed and i also found out that it wasn't only me who got delayed, jeb, kitting, pia, tommy and ro all didn't get home until monday afternoon or evening... and they all live on the east coast! not really sure what was going on that caused all of us to take more than a day to get back, most likely it was weather related.

after catching a few ZZZs at the hotel, i ended up waking up around 10pm and spent the next four or so hours going through and editing the pics from our weekend in grand rapids... i took quite a lot! i think i had around a 1000 pics... i was hoping to upload them that day but when i finally looked at the time, i realized that we had to start getting ready to make our way back to the airport to catch our flight.

another thing that i remember was that jesse recommended the motel we chose, excel motel which was 3 miles away from the airport. it wasn't much, but it was clean and comfortable from what i could tell and the best thing was free wi-fi. why is this a big deal? about three weeks ago i was in pleasanton staying at a pretty nice hilton hotel and there it was $10 a day for internet access... wtf?!? so i was pretty pleased to see that the residence inn marriott and the excel motel both had free high speed internet.

filzams

2007-08-02T00:14:00.001-07:00

filzams
Originally uploaded by Joits.

another filzam getting married, another filzam reunion. it seems that in order to get a large number of filzams to get together, someone needs to tie the knott. of course the exception was new years in nyc... but most of the time, it's usually a wedding. before saying goodbye to everyone, margaret's boyfriend, paul was saying that we shouldn't wait for another wedding for everyone to get together again... i really wish that was possible, but the reality is that everyone is busy with their own lives and its kinda hard to get this many filzams together without having a special occasion. i guess if you all live in the same city or area like they do in canada, those reunions can easily happen, but for most of the filzams i know... we're all over the place. seattle, houston, san francisco, south carolina, new york, virginia, las vegas, michigan, boston... definitely not easy to get together.

so jesse and pellagia's wedding... a perfect opportunity for a reunion. i was definitely going, heck i'd been to kristabel and mike's weddings and so there was no way i was missing jesse's. initially there were several other filzams supposed to be here... but not surprisingly, reality set in and some of them weren't able to make it. wish they could have, especially ryan, since this was definitely a case of "the more, the merrier". still... as you can see from the pic, we had a fairly large turnout.

i spent most of the wedding ceremony taking pics. i basically acted as if i was working and i took pics as if i was their official photographer. i wasn't, they had a friend taking their photos and she was using a film camera. i'm pretty sure her photos were amazing... i gotta give lots of respect and props to anyone still shooting film in this digital era. i don't have the skill or talent to shoot film... i need digital's flexibility and instant feedback. i think i did a fairly decent job, i was able to capture a lot of key moments. one thing that did throw me for a loop was that the couple who married jesse and pellagia stood between the couple and the wedding guests... something i'm not used to and if i was the official photographer, that would have bothered me since i wouldn't have been able to get any shots of just the couple exchanging vows... usually a very important shot when it comes to wedding photography. but i guess its just one of those challenges or variations that comes with doing wedding photography... another reason its considered one of the hardest photographic assignments anyone can do... and why i keep turning down offers of wedding jobs no matter if they tell me that it will be a small wedding and it should be easy... there's no such thing! i'm just not ready to photograph a wedding by myself.

we had a bit of a break after the wedding and i was able to drink some delicious peche to quench my thirst. thanks to adee for bringing that and some biltong as well.

the reception was a lot of fun. and as i mentioned in my blog post yesterday, despite the fact that the wedding reception was on sand, it really added to what made this a unique reception. after a fairly formal wedding ceremony, a lot of people changed to a more casual dress for the reception and the sand didn't really inconvenience anyone. the kids certainly loved it. kris's son gavin and mike's daughter jasmine were practically rolling around in it... which is sort of fitting. kids are supposed to get dirty. one of the highlights for me was hearing pellegia's story and how she and the royce's became family. it was really amazing and such a touching story. i don't know the royce family, but from what i saw that weekend, they are such amazing people and pellagia and jesse are people to have them as family. then jesse's best man, david, gave his speech and he informed us that he was going to try and keep it short... and then proceeded to give the longest bestman speech that i've ever witnessed... and believe me, i've worked over 40 weddings over the past ten years... and none of them went as long as he did. hahahaha... david, if you're reading this... don't get mad... i'm just saying that it was funny cos you tried to keep it short and well... it was long! hehe. things got really going once the dancing started and they played several african songs. i did notice that apart from the bouquet toss, they didn't really do any of the traditional wedding events... which was cool cos everyone wanted to get to the fun part which was the danciing! the dancing went on for quite a while and while a lot of the other guests had gone home, we were still here and along with some other guests... we just kept on dancing and dancing! as they say, all good things must come to an end... and so after helping to clear up for a bit, we all took a couple of pics like this one (which led to a rousing rendition of zambia's national anthem) and then we headed back to the hotel. but the night wasn't over yet, not for some of us. most of the people in this pic, paul, tommy, jeff and david went to a bar across the street from our hotel to just relax, have some drinks and eat some pizza... it was pretty fun. probably cos most of us were tired and hungry after the reception and all the dancing, the pizza tasted really really good.

after i got back to the room, i tried to view all the pics i had taken that day (around 700) but i was just so knackered that i gave up and went to sleep. this definitely was a fun day... and i just want to congratulate my friends, jesse and pellagia on this special day. you guys are awesome!

today wasn't the perfect day however... because i was at this wedding... i missed my friend, allan jay's wedding which also happened this same day. it killed me to have to choose between these two. but jesse and pellagia had planned and set this day for such a long time that i had to go with the first wedding that i committed to. i really really wish i had been able to attend allan jays... it will forever haunt me that i wasn't able to go. but he's been pretty cool about the whole thing even though i know that he's disappointed in my decision. can't really do much about that tho. what happened happened. from all the details that i heard, his wedding was fairly spectucular... just a case of bad timing.

and to make matters worse... one of my favorite events of the whole year, comic con was this same weekend. but in the end... going to one of my oldest friend's wedding was the right choice to make and as i mentioned several times, i had a lot of fun. comic con is an annual event... jesse's wedding was a once in a lifetime event... and so was allan jays which again makes me feel like crap for missing it. c'est la vie...

chapel at calvin college

2007-08-02T00:13:00.001-07:00

chapel at calvin college
Originally uploaded by Joits.

irst thing i noticed about arriving in grand rapids... the humidity! damn... i'm so used to being in dry heat that it felt really uncomfortable for the first couple of hours that we were there. when we arrived our luggage hadn't even made it in yet because once we arrived in chicago, our next flight was almost leaving and we practically had to walk from one end of the airport to the other... as soon as we boarded, the plane took off. wasn't too surprised that our luggage was going to arrive a bit later. my sister got us a pretty sweet black jeep cherokee and we made our way to the residence inn at marriott. naturally we booked two separate rooms, one for my 'rents and my lil bro, and another for us and the rest of our friends. we met up with the uncle june and auntie epi first and then joanne. then ro came and little by little we started to meet more people as they started arriving. we got a preview of the wedding reception place because jesse asked if we could help them set up the tables. we drove to the royce's place and in their backyard, they had a tent set up. the thing that threw me a bit was that we discovered that the whole wedding would be on sand... almost like a beach party under the tent. naturally i was a bit concerned since i figured most of us would be dressing formally for the wedding... how would that work with the guests on sand? turns out it didn't really inconvenience anyone, at least not me. after watching jesse, pellagia and the wedding party rehearse for the wedding, everyone went over to the nearby park to kind of relax and meet everyone before the big day. we did go out that night, first to a really cool looking bar not too far from the hotel... it seemed really upscale but hardly anyone was there, surprising for a friday night. but i ended up doing something that i never thought i'd do... i brought my d70 and the camera bag... but no memory card! wtf! so i didn't take any pics of our night out. we then went to "the bob" which i think is grand rapid's most popular club... i think. good thing there was no cover as we didn't stay long since it was almost closing time. grabbed some pizza from some dude on the street, it was aight... then called it a night.

reading book 7 for the second time

2007-08-02T00:12:00.001-07:00

reading book 7 for the second time
Originally uploaded by Joits.

photo taken by my mum

i've been waiting for this day for ages! i remember jesse and pellagia telling us several years ago that they'd be tying the knot around july 2007... and its finally here. i'd kept myself pretty busy the whole week leading up to this so that the time for us to leave for michigan would come quickly. even tho it was thursday, it felt like friday at work.

another thing that stood out to me was the fact that i would be traveling with my whole family, the last time we did that was back in '93 when we first got to the states. the trip to grand rapids was fairly uneventful except for the fact that we had two stops, vegas, then chicago before finally getting to grand rapids. i'm a bit weary now of red-eye flights because i rarely get any sleep meaning once i arrive at my destination, it usually means i either haven't slept or i only got an hour or two of sleep. i spent most of the trip from vegas to chicago re-reading book 7. yes, i'm a big fan of the series. i've re-read the other books several times but believe me, i'm by no means the biggest... there are so many people out there so devoted to the book that i can't even begin to compare. nevertheless... i wanted to experience the magic of the series one more time. i did notice that there were quite a lot of people around lax and las vegas airport also reading the book... people of all ages, male and female which was cool.

me and the cast of nwc

2007-07-26T02:12:00.001-07:00

me and the cast of n*w*c
Originally uploaded by Joits.

right to left: rafael agustin, miles gregley and allan axibal.

"the play with the name that no one wants to say"... n*gger, wetb*ck, ch*nk. a play about stereotypes and the minority experience of stereotypes told by three amazing and talented actors; rafa, miles and allan. each one representing the three controversial words in their play. you don't need me to tell you who represents who from this pic do you? hehe. the funny thing is that rafael is from ecuador and allan is from the philippines. nevertheless, all three have experienced being grouped into one general category and through the use of brutally honest comedy, they entertain and educate the audience.

my reasons for seeing this play was not only because i knew it was good, but i actually knew one of the guys in the play, rafa... we both worked at video 94 in la puente sometime in the late 90s if i remember correctly. i distinctly remember rafa telling me that he wanted to be an actor and i also remember thinking... that's gonna be tough, mainly because he was a minority and you don't have to be a genius to know how hard it is to become an actor especially if you're a minority. but look at him now... a masters degree in theater and writing and starring in a play with two of his friends from school. i saw this play a few years ago and just came to support rafa but i was blown away then just as i am again today by how amazing this play was. of course there are updates to the pop culture references and a few others but its still got the same message and values within.

getting people to see this play was a bit tricky, most because of the name. its not easy to say those three words and not be worried that someone who might accidentally overhear me say one of the words and then think i'm racist. but once i do say the name i'm usually greeted by a mixture of reactions. i've had one person give me a sort of dirty look and say that they shouldn't be using those words and wouldn't listen to my explanation and then i've had reactions of curiosity and interest by a play that would dare use those three words in its title. i definitely do try to get the word out not just because of how great the play is but because a friend of mine is in it and i'm just really proud of what he and everyone involved in this play have accomplished.

"there's only one race... the Human Race" ~ n*w*c

seems like a good place to read...

2007-07-24T01:08:00.001-07:00

seems like a good place to read...
Originally uploaded by Joits.

having finished the book yesterday and having seen the movie just last week, it was pretty much a harry potter week for me... i saw a clip on youtube that showed dan radcliffe, emma watson and rupert grint at the mann chinese theater. i've been here quite a few times but with not much to do after work, i took my bro and met up with my buddy megz and we headed to this spot. neither one of them had ever been there before so at least they got to experience it. there were a lot of tourists but it wasn't too hard getting our shots. i actually wanted to pose with the book lying down on my side in a lounging pose... but i settled for something easier. i also saw one of those people dressed up as movie characters and one dude was dressed up as snape... i dismissed him at first but when i decided that if i took a pic with him it would be fitting since i came out here to see the harry potter trio's prints... but he had already taken off... ah well. just thought it would be funny since the question about whether snape is a good dude or evil dude is one of the most discussed topics amongst fans.

i really like doing things like this... making spontaneous treks out to see something and then capture it for my flickr stream... yeah its a bit of a drive... but i think we had fun. also had dinner at palm thai restaurant, one of my favorite thai restaurants. the thai elvis impersonator was no where to be seen however. heck it was still early and we headed over to the paramount lot to see if the huge bumblebee transformer robot was still on display... alas it was no longer there. a friend of mine snapped a shot of it with her camera phone and i really wanted to take one too. i wonder where it is now.

harry potter and the deathly hallows

2007-07-23T00:33:00.001-07:00

harry potter and the deathly hallows
Originally uploaded by Joits.

the long wait is finally over. ten years. of course i didn't start reading the the books right away... never even heard of them when i first saw the movie trailer for sorcerer's stone. didn't start reading until after watching the second book. i liked it, they weren't too bad. it was a kids book which i liked because i identified with the whole "boarding school" situation. but still... it was a kids book and there were a lot of elements that made me think it was just okay. the more i watched the movies, the more i read the books and the older the series got... the more i liked the series. so yeah... i'm a huge harry potter fan... something that i know might make a few people go... wtf... maybe because of my age... but i really don't give a shit. i like what i like and i really like this series.

(no spoilers, don't worry) there was always the fear that the final book would be a letdown, basically because its rare for any medium to totally match or surpass the hype that precedes it. the hype for star wars: episode 1 was monumental and see what happened with that. but with this book, jk rowling in my mind has written a book that lives up to the hype and actually surpasses all my expectations of it. its not a perfect book by any means and i did have issues with it... but there's more to love in this book and it far outweighs any negatives. it just really surprised me by how dark and just how much it differs from the earlier books. gone is the innocence and wonder of harry discovering magic... now people are dying left and right. the action starts almost immediately and there's so much tension and anger and it almost never lets up. this was easily my favorite book of the whole series and even though i know the movies always leave shit out... the movie for this book is going to be frikkin badass!

the whole week i was wondering where i wanted to read the book... should i go someplace like a park or the beach... in the end i spent most of the time reading in my room although i did go eat breakfast today at carrows... pretty damn good breakfast too and the most surprising thing was that i didn't bring my camera and take a picture of it. those of you who know me quite well know that when i really enjoy a meal, its almost guaranteed that i'm going to take a pic of it... but i actually forgot my camera! blame it on jk rowling! hehe.

the beautiful veronica belmont...

2007-01-05T20:23:00.001-08:00

P1020988.JPG
Originally uploaded by Veronica Belmont.

so glad that veronica posted this pic of herself. she's already a beautiful, but the fact that she's a tech geek makes her even sexier! of course i'm falling prey to stereotypes... but still, you really don't see that many beautiful women into video games or tech stuff. love her podcast, buzz out loud... i wish i had discovered them sooner.

curved around the lights

2006-12-11T22:18:00.000-08:00

curved around the lights
Originally uploaded by Joits.

over the years i'd gotten a bit bored of the auto show. other than the after market section, it wsa pretty much the same thing with maybe a few new cars and some interesting and sometimes ugly concept cars.

but like a lot of things lately, it was interesting again because no i was going there specifically for photographs. no more agonizing that i can't afford any of the cars... okay, a bit of agonizing, but not much.

one of the things i wanted to do was to take shots of the cars and make them a bit different than what i used to take. most of my shots from the 2004 show are all the same... taken from the same angle. this time, most of the my shots were close ups of the car's details. i did relent a bit and take a few full shots but i think it was an interesting experience to try to just take close up photography of the cars.

brought my co-worker charles and fellow flickr friend darrell. charles learned really quickly that when you to an event like this with two flickr people, we're going to take our time and not just go from one car to another after a shot or two...

sway to the music

2006-12-03T23:53:00.000-08:00

sway to the music
Originally uploaded by Joits.

i had another def edge gig to photograph and while i had my reservations again about doing it, it turned out to be pretty fun. i think that's the only way i can enjoy being at a club... well that and the other thing.

i guess my reservations is that i'm not a real big fan of the whole hip hop culture anymore. the music is okay, i'm just not liking the attitude that surrounds it. basically every posed photo that i took that night has someone flashing the westcoast sign or they're trying to look cool with that thug gangsta look. maybe i'm being too judgemental about the whole thing... but i enjoy taking photos so i take those shots for an opportunity to take other shots.

like this one for example... sure its a pic of a beautiful woman. but what i love most was the expression on her face. she was clearly in the moment, having fun dancing to the music. i took photos of another beautiful woman, kori, who said she was a model... and no doubt she's beautiful, i liked this pic a lot more and it made the whole night worthwhile.

night shots

2006-12-01T20:30:00.000-08:00

Originally uploaded by blaarg77.

just got my manfrotto bogen tripod and another type of photography opens up to me... night photography. i haven't really had a chance to take a lot of night shots but thankfully we had a san diego flickrmeet and me and a couple of flickr people took shots of the san diego skyline at night. that was a lot of fun. i had tried to before in a park nearby but i was too scared to be on my own... hahaha, i'm such a wuss.

been browsin flickr looking at what other photographers are doing and i came across this one. i've been taking long exposure shots at around 25 seconds max... this one is at a whopping 256 seconds! good lord... and i'm sure with some photoshop adjustment, this pic doesn't even look like it was taken in the evening! i gotta make more of an effort to make opportunities for myself.

liberation

2006-11-28T22:27:00.000-08:00

liberation
Originally uploaded by Nikopolated.

i met harrison at a wedding that i was photographing for triversity several weeks ago... turns out he was a flickr member and i told him to look me up. he had asked us if we needed an apprentice... but after i checked out his pics... holy crap he's an amazing photographer in his own right. i really hope he does find an internship with someone because he has the eye. just this photo here is an example of how talented he is...

catalina trip

2006-11-28T22:15:00.000-08:00

lookin down the bay
Originally uploaded by Joits.

my friend rhoda had talked to me about how stressful work was and i had my own issues with stress from other things, and we decided that we needed to just take a trip to get away from it all. after much thought, we decided to go to catalina during thanksgiving weekend.

hard part of the whole thing was getting up at 3.00am! of course i was a moron and saw a movie the night before and so i only had two hours of sleep.

along with rhoda and hannah, they brought their friend aleck and her mom. i didn't really think about the ferry ride, but the ride proved to be a bit too much for aleck and hannah. they both got a bit seasick from the ride over. poor hannah was seasick throughout breakfast but she proved to be a tough little girl and she managed to overcome it.

i enjoyed breakfast not because of the food, but because i enjoyed eating at a place where the regulars knew each other and were enjoying breakfast and each other's company. it's simple things like this that really made me have that sense of being away from the big city of LA... even though i don't technically live in LA.

we took two tours, the first one being the submarine ride which was pretty cool. i loved the view of underwater life. the second one was a tour of the island. it was okay, my only issue was that i would have liked to have stopped and had more time at certain spots to take pics. some people were freaked out since most of the drive was on a bumpy rode right next to a cliff... hehe... i've been on worse so this didn't bother me at all. actually on the way down i managed to catch a few zzzs.

managed to take quite a few decent pics though. the great thing about being somewhere knew is that there's all kinds of possibilities. i felt bad for rhoda cos she forgot her camera. i know she has a pretty good eye and it would have been interesting to see catalina through her pics. she did take a couple of pics with my cam though so at least she has some pics of her own.

it got cold much later and damn... we got tired too! i think we regretted the decision to take the 8.50pm ferry instead of the earlier one... with the sun setting so early and the temperature dropping... it really made it seem much later than it really was.

when we finally got on the ferry... we all passed out! i needed that power nap since i had to drive when we got back to long beach.

all in all... a great trip. finally been to catalina, and it was worth the trip. i definitely want to make a return trip and hopefully the flickr group will vote to come here sometime. i'd love to try other things like renting bikes or maybe going kayaking or scuba diving.

funny thing tho, like most of my trips, i come back exhausted! haha... i needed all of saturday and most of sunday to recover from the trip... but still... i had fun and that's all that matters

halloween office decorations

2006-10-24T00:17:00.000-07:00

cannibalism
Originally uploaded by Joits.

we won again... hahaha. somehow my team always wins the office decoration competitions. there some amazing ones again this year, and i do feel bad for some of the teams who put so much effort into it and they didn't win. but i'm just pretty stoked for my teammates, most of us worked pretty hard i think to decorate our room and some of us spent a good amount of money to get props and decorations. work is just so much better when people get involved. we won a free lunch, which will most likely be pizza (boo), but hey, free food is free food. i also made sure that i took a ton of pics this time. naturally i got a lot of questions about my camera, even got a wedding offer... hahaha, it never fails. naturally i turned her down... i'm a long long way from being ready to shoot a wedding. all in all, a pretty decent day at work... except for a few minor moments, one of the better days i'd have to say.

Flickr

2006-10-24T00:16:00.000-07:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

jagged...

2006-10-22T23:26:00.000-07:00

jagged...
Originally uploaded by Joits.

a casual stroll through a new neighborhood reveals new opportunities...

fascade

2006-10-17T01:37:00.000-07:00

San Francisco: Crustacean Restaurant
Originally uploaded by Joits.

this was probably one of my best food shots. why? first of all, i took it with a point and shoot camera... it's also basically a quick snap shot. i also thought the picture was sharp and the lighting was perfect. the presentation was done by a cook at an expensive restaurant, crustacean. so basically, i thought it was awesome. flickr comments tend to do that sometimes. make you feel more skilled than you really are. i understand that of course. i know that flickr comments are no substitute for real photo critque. the comments are mostly "manufactured" comments, mostly made in groups where they are required to post a comment. i'm sure that some of them are geniune comments so that's cool. so despite all that, it still is nice to get positive feedback on pics that you are generally proud of.

but sometimes you just get your pic totally skewered, totally dismembered... and believe it or not, i actually liked it. well... once i got over the hurt feelings of getting such a bad review on a pic. once i calmed down and re-read the criticisms.. i did begin to understand that the person had a point. basically this is what she wrote

"I like the salad, but I don't like the photo. It seems you didn't really take the time to compose the setting or the photo. For example, in the upper right corner another dish is crowding the light, and the piece of vegetable on the lower left is running away from its mates - in professional food photography every little detail really matters.

Also, it's disconcerting that the shrimp on the right is being crushed by the cutlery. The light is pretty dull (too even) and the shrimp looks cold and unappetising. You should never have the utensils crowding the plate like that, and some effort at garnish should be made.

As you can probably tell, I take my food photography very seriously. :)"

ouch. but the truth can hurt sometimes. i've checked her pics and she's a pretty damn good photographer so i feel that her opinions are quite valid concerning my photo. i have zero experience in taking "professional" pics. especially when i took this one. even looking at it now... i still think it's really really good... except maybe for the other dish on the top right corner and the shrimp under the cutlery. i disagree on the issue that the cutlery is crowding the plate however... i feel it belongs there and that it's part of the presentation. as far as how the food was presented... i had no real control over that... that's how the waiter brought it... and this was at a pretty expensive restaurant... shouldn't they know something about food presentation? this might be one of those "eye of the beholder" type situations. i wasn't really going to try and re-arrange this pic when this was a shared dish amongst six other people who were pretty hungry and i don't think were going to wait for me to re-arrange it to make it more photogenic.

so again, i still think this is a pretty good shot, not as good as before. i liked her criticism because it brought me back down to earth after all those ego feeding compliments. in order to improve as a photographer, i think these types of comments get me thinking more about the shots i'm taking. i'm not going to totally dismiss all the positive comments though... i really appreciate the fact that some people just like what they see and express it with a few words. i just hope that there are more photographers out there who can take the time and provide constructive educational comments...

Koreatown Flickrmeet

2006-10-05T22:39:00.000-07:00

rolls
Originally uploaded by Joits.

i missed the last flickrmeet so i didn't want to miss the next one... turns out it wasn't much of a flickrmeet. only one guy showed up... but in the end, it was all about taking pics so it didn't matter too much. there was another girl there from flickr but she didn't identify herself and we only found out afterwards.

anyways, it was a pretty cool event... got some cool pics, got to eat a ton of food for free... can't really complain.

ADP block

2006-09-23T00:16:00.000-07:00

ADP
Originally uploaded by Joits.

just a simple experimentation with this cool paper weight that ADP gave us. i was quite surprised by the weight of this thing... i need to do more of this... that is just fool around with the camera at home. still deciding between a 70-200mm f2.8 telephoto lens or a 60mm or 105mm f2.8 micro lens... but with a micro lens i could take more shots like this. hmm... something to think about.

squared off.....

2006-09-19T22:52:00.000-07:00

squared off.....
Originally uploaded by hb19.

wow... would you look at this... what amazing photography... achieved using cheap props from ikea. i need to put more effort in my photography... and not wait for the weekends.

Flickr pic of the day

2006-09-13T22:41:00.000-07:00

Colored Water
Originally uploaded by Paul J Whaley.

all i can say is... wow. so amazing! the colors are fantastic! such an amazing find... i would looooooove to take a pic like this. one of the reasons i love photography!

just thought i should continue this flickr pick of the day...

vegas at night

2006-09-13T21:19:00.000-07:00

vegas at night
Originally uploaded by Joits.

its been ages since i been to this place. i just didn't really feel the need to return here at all... but then mike called me up a few months ago to let me know that he was getting married. how could i turn that down? i was excited cos it was the first time i'd be there with my d70. overall, i'd say that photo-wise, i didn't exactly get what i wanted. i took a few good pics which is at least something.

but i had fun. i always have fun when i meet up with them zambians. there wasn't much of us... the gestons and mike minosa... but it was alright...

been awhile since i posted... hopefully i can keep it up.

The Late Crowd...

2006-06-03T00:38:00.000-07:00

The Late Crowd...
Originally uploaded by Joits.

Funny thing, I went to Santa Monica, took some pictures and at the time, I didn't think I came away with anything. After lookin at my pictures on the computer, there was actually a few that turned out okay and I posted them up. This pic in particular really took me a few moments to appreciate. I realized that I loved the whole silhouette effect as well as the sunset colors produced on the waters and wet sand. Turns out the Flickr community seems to love it as much as I do... in just a few days it quickly zoomed past my other pics to become one of my most "interesting" pics, even making it to the #1 position on Flickr. So... I guess it is true, just shoot, shoot, and shoot some more, who knows that you'll get sometimes.

Memorial Day Weekend

2006-05-31T21:35:00.000-07:00

Intensity
Originally uploaded by Joits.

What was my plans for this long weekend? Take pictures. Went to the Zoo and MoCA on Saturday with Hannah and Rhoda. Even though we got their a bit later than I preferred... I still had fun. And I gotta say... Hannah is intensely fun. Where I'm usually impatient with most children... it's different with Hannah. She's a cool kid. MoCA as predicted was a confusing but interesting experience. I don't get art, never have and still don't. But... it was still an interesting experience. Bonus was that I also got to take pictures around downtown LA.

Sunday... the highlight of the weekend. A visit to the birthplace of LA... Olvera Street. How I missed this place for so long, I don't know. I had a lot of fun. Music, people, food, drink, trinkets, little markets... so many things to see, do and experience. Met a cool couple, Raul and Laura. Got to talking... mostly because they saw my camera. Got some great tips from them... and the waiter, both of whom thought I was a photographer. Haha... its funny, to see people's reactions to my D70. I loved the dance by the Aztec Indian performers... that was THE highlight of the weekend. My favorite photo of the day was this fellow here, he was so intense and so into the dance. Their costumes were awesome... but it was their passion for the dance that made it special.

Memorial Day... almost didn't go out. Before, I would have just stayed in... but with photography in my blood... I just had to get out. And get out I did, a brief stop at English Springs Park in Chino Hills was first. I was a bit disappointed, it looked kind of run down compared to the last time i was there. Still, got a couple of decent shots I guess. Headed over to Santa Monica pier, partly because I was gonna pick up Dave. I thought I didn't get anything, but a few shots actually turned out to be pretty good judging by the Flickr response. Day ended on a bit of a sour note when Dave said he had a ride... WTF? Why send me a text that you might need a ride and then not tell me you have one already? That was a bit messed up. Whatever.

My pics on Explore

2006-05-24T20:21:00.000-07:00

My pics on Explore
Originally uploaded by Joits.

I was pretty shocked to see this. 8 pics on Explore! I know it's not really as special as it's cut out to be... but still... 8 pics on Explore. And the Abstract randomness pic is the #3 pic on the list which is even more amazing. So... thank you weird Flickr algorithm.

Explore Pages

2006-05-22T16:54:00.000-07:00

Colorful bird thingy
Originally uploaded by Joits.

I've had pics on the explore pages... but I've never stumbled across one of my own pics before. I was pleasantly surprised when I came across this one when I was browsing through the most "interesting" pics in the last 7 days. I know it's not based on any technical or artist merit really... but it's still nice to know that it's there and that it gives me a wider audience to come and view my pics.

LA/OC Flickr Meetup

2006-05-21T16:06:00.000-07:00

Jelly Fish... thingy
Originally uploaded by Joits.

Went to my first Flickr Meetup at the Long Beach Aquarium and I gotta say it was quite fun. It was cool meeting people really into photography and it was fascinating to hear them talk "shop". I did learn a few things which was something I wanted to do when attending a meetup. And of course it was fun meeting new people.

As far as picture taking, it was quite limited because of the lighting conditions at the aquarium. I took close to 200 pics... but I only uploaded 20 or so... but I guess that's how things work. I didn't really coome away with that "one" pic... the one you can really be proud of. I've usually had at least one of those everytime I've gone somewhere to shoot... but I guess that happens sometimes and its something I have to get used to.

I think I might need to start shooting in RAW format. I've just heard too many good things about it to keep shooting in jpeg. I'd need a new memory card though. Finally saw a lensbaby... weird little sucker.

I'm looking forward to the next meetup, hopefully the lighting will be better or I'll at least have my SB-600 flash and a 50 mm f1.8 lens by then.

Bracelet Buddies!

2006-05-16T01:01:00.000-07:00

Bracelet Buddies!
Originally uploaded by Joits.

Rhoda's got a very cool daughter. I say this because me and kids do not get along well with each other. At first I thought that's what was going to happen here... especially since when we first saw Hannah... she refused to look at me. Then when we ate lunch at New Town Buffet... she started playing around with us and laughing and talking to us. Next thing you know... we're bracelet buddies! She's so cute and so full of energy. I had so much fun during Rhoda's graduation dinner, not because of the all you can eat food, but because of the company... especially Hannah. We ended up buying some cheap trinkets from some vending machine... but they turned out to have more sentimental value... me and Hannah got a ring and a bracelet. haha... I even let her take a couple of shots with my camera and a few turned out to be quite good, espeially the one of her mom. Rhoda is a very cool person... and her daughter takes after her as well.

Abstract...

2006-05-13T02:17:00.000-07:00

Top of My Heart
Originally uploaded by amyallcock.

Before flickr... I wouldn't have seen the simplicity, the minimalism... the beauty of abstract shots. Flickr has opened my eyes to so many things... and abstract pics was a beautiful discovery for me. I've taken a few pics... some of which have actually made me proud. I know I still have a lot to learn... but again... the journey makes me feel so enriched.

For Love of the Music

2006-05-13T01:09:00.000-07:00

For Love of the Music
Originally uploaded by Joits.

I'm surprised the kind of pics that can transpire when you shoot randomly. Just a relaxing day at the park with Gait, Rhoda and my sis. Rhoda picked up her guitar and started playing and singing. I took a few shots... made this one black and white and all of a sudden... it turned out to be this amazing portrait shot. I love how Rhoda's face conveys the emotions she feels when playing the guitar. As mentioned on the caption for the picture... Rhoda is a great subject for portrait photography. Understandably she's not so comfortable posing for portrait shots... not many people are. But when I do get a chance to take her pic... beautiful things can and have happened.

Flickr pic of the day...

2006-04-22T23:13:00.000-07:00

The Demise of the Soda Bottle
Originally uploaded by r.2.

i marvel at how people can turn everyday ordinary things, take a pic of it and then turn it into this amazing photograph. i hope i can develop this eye where i can take pics like this. i mean... it's an empty soda bottle on it's side... i would see that and not think anything of it. going to newport beach tomorrow, so i hope i can take some good pics.

I met Apolo...

2006-04-22T23:10:00.000-07:00

Me and Apolo Anton Ohno
Originally uploaded by Joits.

this happened three weeks ago, but i'm still tripping about the fact i met apolo anton ohno. i saw some amazing races at the olympics and to stand next to someone who is this amazing athlete that at any give point he can be considered the best athlete in the entire world!! he was really cool too... he took pics with me and a few other fans.

so it was a good day... got to watch some great badminton matches and met a gold medalist.

badminton saturday...

2006-04-22T22:53:00.000-07:00

saturdays. most people look forward to this day because it's the weekend and they can go party and get drunk/wasted, etc. me... i look forward to it because of badminton. i woke up and all i could think of was badminton. rhoda actually woke me up earlier than i expected to wake up, but thats okay. i caught the wiz/cavs game but then took a nap.

i guess this is what it's like when u don't go as a foursome... me and javier had to look for opponents. first match we won easily. but then we started playing more skilled opponents and they took us apart. they exploited our weaknesses and most of all me and javier's inability to properly communicate with each other. but that's okay, we're both beginners so we had to look for people close to our skill level. we found these two guys, one was a lot better than us and one was weaker... so it made for a fair fight. we split our games but i thought we should have won all of them.

it's a bit frustrating... in my mind i know how much better i used to be, but my body just isn't at that point. i have to try and rein in my emotions better. i am improving since i first picked up the game, and i'm glad to have met javier again. i know i'll get better, i just have to be patient.

rhoda and the girls couldn't make it today. i was a bit disappointed in that. we could have had some good games... me and rhoda and then javier and lynn. but they came from palm springs... i had a feeling it might take awhile to get back. we really missed a great opportunity since it wasn't as busy as it was on tuesday.

javier took me to that taco del rio off azusa after we played and i got a burrito, it was pretty good. i've always seen that place but didn't know if the food was good. it's not as good as albertos and they have no chips but yeah, i liked it.

still having doubts about my ability to play at 8am tomorrow... but i told saad i'd go... so i'm going. looking foward to tomorrow tho... i get to spend the day with rhoda and gait. while they're studying i get to take pics. then we got that conference about the holocaust... it should be eye opening.

i'm tired... but i had fun... and that's what it's all about.

Road Trip

2006-04-22T01:17:00.000-07:00

this was so out of the blue. i'm just at home watching tv and i get a call from Rhoda who i barely knew. i knew her in zambia... but never really met. saw her at Rayna's baptism, but never really talked to her. so... a road trip with someone i don't really know... i just wanted to travel so i said yes. funny thing about it was that AD was also going. that definitely made me want to go.

somehow i was lucky enough to be able to get time of work. met up with rhoda and her fellow law student friend Gait at Tapioca Express. after the introductions we laid out our plans for the trip... well sort of. the planning didn't come till much late.

we ended up getting a chevy trailblazer for our rental car. it was promising at first, till i got on the freeway with it. man that thing swerves like crazy! i took the first shift of driving despite the fact i only slept 10mins the night before. while i drive rhoda and ad took some shots here and here. the weather didn't really agree with us at this point. it was pretty miserable and for a moment i thought that's how the whole trip would be.

first stop was at Solvang which is a town famous for it's Danish community. we didn't spend too long here due to the massive hail storm that came down. so it was back on the road with rhoda taking over.

next stop was The Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa. took this shot which i really liked. i've seen a couple of those linear shots at flickr and i've become a fan of them. had lunch at this diner which was popular with college students. there was this one hottie waitress... man she had great legs.

back on the road, this time gait's driving. had to use the "oh shit" bars a couple of times cos that chick drives crazy! she was speeding up on turns... and remember this is on a rain soaked day on a not so stable trailblazer. but she slowed down later on and the weather improved so i definitely breathed a sigh of relief! haha.

made a quick stop at Gonzales, a town along the 101 fwy. lucky bastard, has a town with this last name. don't suppose anyone knows any towns named "racasa" do they? no?

next stop... salinas, ca. we went there to see the john steinbek museum. i hadn't even read any of his books completely or seen any of the movies. rhoda and ad were aware of him tho and i don't mind checking out new things. i actually had quite a lot of fun... mainly because of our brokeback moments. yes it's immature and juvenile... but that's fun for me. what can i say? almost had a disaster tho... AD trying to pose for a picture accidentally drops our keys. we don't realize it for more than an hour and a half until we get to the car. lucky for us when we went back to find it, some other tourist had found it and were waiting to see if someone would come and get it. close one.

ad's turn to drive and we're back on the road. next stop, carmel beach. clint eastwood lives there and apparently was mayor once. we went there to see the sunset. with that done... we decided to skip monterey and go straight to san francisco.

we were staying with rhea and allen who have a pretty cool place. favorite part is there attic area. allen has his dj equipment set up there and it's a cool place to relax. we had thai for dinner, went back to rhea's apartment and chilled out for a bit. being so tired from the night before... i slept like a baby.

sightseeing time in frisco! it started out raining but lucky for us not all the time. met up with roy, AD and rhoda's friend from brent. first order of business was lunch. AD wanted crab... so Roy took us to Crustacean a super fancy restaurant. not exactly what AD was thinkin of... but their crabs were huge! and so good! the food was delicious, expensive, but delicious. after lunch, we visited the Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Wharf, Lombard Street, a visit to the Castro area, and then to Twin Peaks to check out the view. and we were done with frisco.

back on the road... ready for the 700 mile trip to the grand canyon. man that was a long trip. would have been a bit shorter had we not experienced trouble with our stupid rental. stupid window wouldn't close. so we exchanged it for a ford freestyle in bakersfield. not as powerful as the trailblazer, but a lot more stable. i took a really good shot, but not with my camera. as AD says,it looks like a Windows desktop wallpaper and it does. we got into our hotel about 1.30am but we didn't sleep until 4.30am. we ended up hanging outside our room in the middle enclosure type place just goofin off.

ahh... the grand canyon. i can't believe i haven't seen this place till now. the views were amazing. took a ton of shots of course. it was well worth the trip. had a lot of fun. and of course the trip to grand canyon resulted in my alltime favorite pic that i've taken. the funny thing was that were 0 for 3 in terms of catching the sunrise, sunset and the next day's sunrise.

driving back to cali, we made a brief stop at Hoover Dam. had lunch and then it was time to go home.

i can definitely say without a doubt that this was one of the best holidays i've taken. i was lucky to take it with some amazing people who share my love of traveling. got to be really good friends with rhoda and gait who are just amazing people. i already know ad but its always fun to travel with this guy. it will definitely be one of the highlights of that year and my life.

Macro!!

2006-04-21T20:29:00.000-07:00

don´t forget the butter!
Originally uploaded by -sel-.

When I discovered macro, I knew I wanted to do it. This picture here was one of my favorites amongst favorites. I'm amazed at what people have taken. Before Flickr, I never knew that certain things could be shot like that.

So... how do I do macro shots? Well, I think I need a lens. A macro lens... or is it a micro lens? I dunno... whatever. I need one of those. I think I can get one for around $300 plus.

They say in photography it's all about the glass. Okay... so I need glass. I'd love a telephoto lens but those things run over a $1000. Just can't afford that right now. I might get what they call a "prime" lens since those run under a $100.

But first order of business has to be a macro lens... micro lens... whatever. I want one!!

Flickr... the beginning of my photographic journey

2006-04-21T20:09:00.000-07:00

A Lonely Sentry
Originally uploaded by Joits.

As far as my photography goes... so far this is my proudest moment. It was pure luck really. I mean... the grand canyon was right there and naturally most people's attentions were focused on that. I turned around after getting my shots of the canyon and there it was. I was at the perfect angle... a few feet below the tree with the blue sky behind it, snow just at the base. Even when I took it, I knew it was a great shot... looking at it on my camera's 2.5 inch LCD monitor was confirmation. Most of my pics on Flickr before have just been of friend's and I haven't really tried anything "artsy" with them. Over the last few months I've tried to take pics comparable to sthe ones I'vve seen on Flickr... with not much success. With this picture, I feel that I've come close. This was my first step in that direction. The comments have been really great. That's what I love about Flickr... the community is amazing. Naturally Flickr has it's issues... porn pics, stupid members... but every place has that. Overall I've found that the upsides to this place far outweigh it's downsides.

blogging...

2006-04-21T18:39:00.000-07:00

maybe this blog will work out. i have a live journal acct... posted there a few times. got one on myspace... posted there once or twice. only reason i'm here is that i'm using the theory that maybe a change of scenery will help me get this blog going.

i guess another reason i never really stuck with it was that i never really had much to say. well things have changed since then. but probably the biggest factor in me getting a blog is flickr. flickr... what an amazing place. i cannot say enough how many amazing pics and photographers there are on that place. the funny thing was that i joined that place only because people could leave comments on pics that i posted. well... i'll save that flickr talk for another blog. i'm gonna stay on topic for my first blog.

so... i guess i'll see how long this works out...