Epic

So remember yesterday how I was complaining about having nothing to shoot and not really much motivation to get out and do stuff? Well, I may not have worded it that way, but I was definately needing something to do. I was doing jumpropes in my room, which should be physically impossible do to me being 6'4'' and my room being so small. I just tried not to scrape all the popcorn off the roof or knock my tv over in the process. But either way, rain or shine, I need to keep my ankle active now that I tore a ligament I need to soften it up so it can heal. Though it looks like surgery may be my only option at this point :(

Anywho, I finally got around to editing the pics  I took from friday's lunch break. take a look!



Notice anything different about the two pics? see if you can find all five differences. (basically the top one has 5 things less than the bottom one)




The first one was just his car. A mitsubishi lancer evolution, or as we call it, and 'EVO'. But for my homework this week I had to take a portrait of two people without a face showing, so I asked the owner, who happened to work with me in the office, to step outside and stand by his car acting cool. Then I HDR'd him with the car. YUP that's right, both of those pictures are made up of 9 different pictures blended into one, so luckily Ricardo (owner) stood still enough not to make ghosting or blurring effects.

As for the other portrait, well, I have about 130 shots from tonight to go through. The sun came out to play today and my good friend John called me back to go shoot at the beach with him and his girlfriend. So now I have shots of myself, his girl, him, and him and his girl together... and I only need to use one. sheesh this is hard!

On the way home from the beach I got a txt back from my friend Rosalie and went to hang out. I took her to pick her kids up from Awanas and then dropped them off as we went to Dennys for some biscuits with gravy, mozzerella fried cheese melt, and some french silk pie. AND OF COURSE ROOT BEER, DUH! After that we went to her house where our other good friends Krista and Aubree were waiting with the kids. We continued to play with bubbles until we got the amazing idea to start a game of volleybubble. Basically, since I'm the best bubble blower around, I blew huge bubbles and then everyone tried to blow it around and pass it to eachother. I got some video footage of it on my phone but am too lazy to go hook it up and load it to youtube and post it for you, but next post I will definately show you the carnage that ensued.

So all in all I had a pretty good weekend, despite my girl bein over in Las Vegas, I've been through enough to understand that time and separation can actually bring people closer together as they realise how much is missing in their life once they are away from eachother long enough, so I can't really complain, I'm just glad that she's happy and slightly jealous she got to go see Chris Angel and Phantom of the Opera live. (not at the same time obviously)

Well, gonna get goin to bed now, gotta get up for work in the mornin. Thanks for stoppin by and have a great week! Whoever it is reading this, don't be a stranger, feel free to make use of that comment box below. It's not for some stupid view count or personal acknowledgement thing, I just simply love when people take the time to show some love once in awhile. I mean, you got this far already, you must have spent at least a good 5 minutes if not more just reading all this nonsense, possibly 15-20 minutes if you paid attention and checked out all the photos on their actual webpages and viewed them large. So what would it hurt to say hello or some feedback on what you liked/disliked/would like to see about my writing, or at least simply to let me know you were here so I know I'm not just typing to one or two people with a bunch of other people reading a few words and being done with it, haha.

Well, take care!

~sw23

Four words that need no explaination

For all the people in the world that don't understand
Exactly what it is we have here in this motherland
See the Father's hand started up a master plan
There's been many through the test of time take a stand
But had they ran who knows where we would be now
I thank God it's something I don't have to think about

Instead my thoughts are on the ones who laid it on the line
KIA gave their lives to let freedom shine

But in the meantime I think of those of your kind
And wonder how it is you get things so messed up inside your mind
Just think a second how long it's been going on before you
They're the one's who even helped you have the right to argue

Stop complaining, move along
Open your eyes and see what's going on
We need to get back to the ways of the days of old
One nation under God indivisible

All the people let me hear you give a holler
In God we trust, In God we trust
We stamp it on our penny, nickel, dime, quarter, dollar
In God we trust, In God we trust

The people of the nation let me hear you give a holler
In God we trust, In God we trust
We stamp it on our penny, nickel, dime, quarter, dollar
In God we trust, In God we trust

The other day I saw the news somebody else complaining
They want the motto taken off of the Benjamin Franklin
They got a problem with my God and that I believe in it
But the don't got a problem with the money when they spend it

They're so offended by 4 words that need no explanation
In GOD we trust the motto of this greatest nation
Not just a motto but something that we truly believe
If you don't like it you can pack a bag and you can leave

One nation under God indivisible
You can't take back that, that was never yours

Indivisible, by Pillar

Weekend of fun!

Gonna make a quick update here before I head to bed.

This week has been incredible in terms of photography. I finally got around to editing the last batch from New Year's Eve.



Then on tuesday we got to turn in our self portrait photos for class. My teacher hasn't given the grade yet but the other students seemed to like it. The idea for the photo comes from the AFI song 'death of seasons.'

"I watched the stars as they fell from the sky, I held a falling star as it wept for me, dying."



And the irony of the whole shoot is that less than 5 minutes after shooting the selfie in which I "caught a shooting star," I went to take a picture of the staircase leading into the night sky and it just so happens I caught a falling star... A REAL ONE. I look up to check the lighting to see if I should use my flashlight but the moonlight was more than enough for the job, and just then I see it shoot right across where I'm shooting. I was thinking 'Oooooh I sure hope that was bright enough to show up on the picture!' It's not SUPER bright, but it's still visible and serves as proof that it's still possible. So now I can add shooting stars AND lightning to my night photography portfolio. =D



Then Saturday rolls around after a normal work week. Momo and I went bowling for the first time in years at Harley's Camarillo Bowl for their Club Atomic night. It was alot of fun and we had some really good games, followed by a record breaking bad game. I'll let Momo explain how that one went, haha. All I know is I'm still sore from playing Dance Dance Revolution for the first time in over 6 years. The last time I played I was a local favorite at Lazerstar where me and my old buddy George would go for hours and spend all kinds of money just dancing like idiots on heavy mode. Hey, it was a serious workout, and I'm considering getting back into it for lack of motivation to actually run or workout on my own, haha!

So finally, Sunday! My good friend Jun asked me to shoot his engagement photos for him and his beautiful fiance, Missy. I took roughly 400 photos, and of those I selected 64 to edit and submit for their approval, and of those 64... I have no idea how many they want to use for whatever, but its all good sicne I'm just gonna put my best effort into it and give them something to remember for the rest of their lives, hopefully.




So basically, that's it for now. Gonna head to bed now and get some rest for another loooooong day at work tomorrow. Hope everyone is having a wonderful new year!

~sw23

I'm supposed to be in bed...

I promised I'd get some sleep once I finished working with some pictures. But I never promised I wouldn't do other stuff before I started the pictures, muahahaha! But seriously, I couldn't keep all this stuff to myself, since my internet wasn't working the past 2 days. So first and foremost, as I have made it a new tradition. Here is the latest from CTSP:




So from the beginning of interestingness, Thursday was the second day of my new class. We had the chance to introduce ourselves and naturally I got shy and didn't say anything I meant to say and basically made it look like I know NOTHING about photography and have no interest in anything but surrealism and art, which is in fact somewhat true. I am an artist, not a photographer. My camera is nothing but a tool for my artistic outlet, just like my guitar and my pencil or my keyboard. I'm a surrealist and will never see things for what they really are. That's far too boring.

But then it was time for everyone else to introduce themselves and boy there is an interesting bunch I get to work with this semester. The guy across from me, not to judge, but is probably mid 30's, long black hair, rugged facial hair, muscular and tight-fitting jeans just high enough to let every know that it doesn't matter who's signing for it, he's got a package for you. And not much to our surprise he stood up and confessed that he was raised around photography... pornography to be exact. And then we have two or three "pro" photographers who bought really cool cameras, paid for a website, and started charging people up the butt to shoot their events. I know I'm not a pro and I don't advertise or charge anything close to what I should, but that's because I know I have a full time job and I'm still learning photography every day I shoot. But after seeing some of their sites I finally get what John was saying about people who think that a camera takes good pictures. Cameras, as the teacher explained, do nothing more than store information on light and color, just millions of 1's and 0's. Only the person holding the camera can make what he'she sees into something worth calling a photo. We then discussed the difference between Cameras and artists. Blah blah blah, stuff I knew long before I started shooting, and then finally we got to the good stuff; Photoshop! I actually got in trouble. Not even done with my second day of school and I get humiliated in front of the whole class. And it was so awesome haha. We were editing a photo that was on the community network. What the teacher didn't mention was that if I clicked 'done' in camera-Raw, it automatically saves it to its original location and replaces the old one. So suddenly after I clicked "done" everyone in the room started saying 'hey, my picture just changed and I didnt touch it." Finally the teacher asked "who keeps changing the picture? Now it's desaturated and we can't work with it." I raised my hand and said 'my bad' and everyone just laughed and we tried a different picture while I put my hands in my pockets... Hah! Okay, enough about thursday, gotta save some space for the rest of the week(end).

Yesterday (Friday, so day before yesterday technically since it's now 1 am sunday morning) I believe was fairly okay, with the exception of a few internal struggles. But Momo came to the rescue and came  to spend some time with me after work. We watched James and the Giant Peach, Master of Disguise and about half of Hook before she had to get goin back home. I very much enjoyed the innocent childish humor to relieve me from the stresses of adult life. Thanks Momo!

Then Today (or yesterday for you technicalitarians) I had a half day at work. That's right, a REAL half day, where I was GONE by 1:45 or so. I went straight home, showered and shaved and got something to run around in and headed over to pick up Momo for some sunset photography madness at the beach shown above, El Matador State Beach. The pic above was taken new years eve, but the shots we got tonight were amazing. I got some goofy self portraits while jumping like a maniac off the rocks on the cliff face, as well as some pics of Momo and then another Selfie of a fallen star. (You'll see it soon enough) Then, after shooting a fake falling star, we went to the staircase and shot a long exposure of the stairs under the light of the moon and stars, and just as I started taking the picture a REAL shooting star streaked right across the sky, but it was just centimeters out of view of my frame! But I don't mind it not being in the shot, I still got to see it and that was enough for me. I have to admitt, I've never seen a shooting star turn that bright red before. Usually they are just white and tiny, but this one was orange-ish red and just ever-so slightly slower than most. I can only assume that this indicates that it was a very large body of mass and was large enough and slow enough to fully ignite and still make it close enough to the atmosphere for the human eye to distinct its color before it disintegrated. But I could just be a rambling idiot after all, but it makes sense to me.

So then after shooting we went back to her town and played with fishies and birdies and a puppy that she is house-sitting for, So cute!

Then we went over to my town and enjoyed some Souplantation. THEY FINALLY STARTED SERVING CHOCOLATE LAVA CAKE AGAIN!!!!! Yes, it is so epic it deserves all caps, end of discussion. The entire meal was incredible. 4 kinds of salad leaves with olives, shredded carrots, kidney beans, hardboiled eggs, cheese, noodles and chicken, broccoli and some slices of pickles for no reason at all, smothered in ranch and then downed with my soon-to-be world famous Froot Beer. (Just ask Momo, I have officially taken root beer to the next level. Maybe even over 9000!!!!!!!) Then we headed for the bread n' pasta buffet table and scrummed up some pizza bread, cheesey alfredo pasta, mac n' cheese, and of course some LAVA CAKE! I can officially say now that I ate way too much, and after spending all day at work doing sets of 50-100 push ups and sit ups between trucks, I have now defeated the very purpose of working out and will probably have to work thrice as hard for the next few weeks to undo the damage I caused tonight at dinner... And it was so worth it! :)

So now it's 1:27 a.m. and I'm chillin' out listening to some of my mom's favorite music from the 70's and 80's Amy Grant albums, and I gotta get up in 4 and a half hours to get everything set up at church. I get the feeling I am going to be tiiiiiiiiiiired tomorrow (or later today, for you technicalitorianites) but oh well, I'll live, and if I don't, I'll still live. :)

Goodnight internet! (or morning for you technica.....forget it. goodnight)

~sw23

Operation is a GO

Photo from last night's flickr post:





So last night was my first class for photography. I met the teacher, and we talked about the stuff we'll be going over. Basically it's stuff I'm already trying to learn, but at least this way I will be taught by an official brooks masters degree holder, and I will be able to use the latest software... In fact, I'll actually be able to use my student discount and get Photoshop CS5 AND Lightroom 3 for a total of $275... thats a $900 value without the pirated versions! SWEET!

And seeing the criteria we are going over, I can't wait to get into the homework! I mean... I will be graded on creativity and technique... I'm seriously not worried about the grade at this point, all I want is a challenge. I'm thinking about asking the teacher to give me extra technical challenges to each assignment to help push myself to  achieve what I need: motivation to do what I already love to do! Our first assignment, ironic as it is to me, is actually the only assignment I've been doing on a near daily basis for almost 2 years... Self Portraits! Oh boy, this is going to be interesting. Especially since the first part of the assignment is shooting, the second is learning editing software, or at least for me, learning new techniques. So I plan to go all out with every assignment and use this advantage to its fullest and most likely freak some of my collegues out with my whacky self portraits.

Anyways... I'm just really excited as you can tell, and I have no intention of hiding or denying it. The second I stepped into that room and asked if I was in the right place, I had already decided that whether she said i had the wrong classroom or not, this was where I belonged. =D

And since that's really all that's happened in the last 24 hours since my last post... or however long it's been, less than a day and a half I'm sure, I'll go ahead and cut it off here, but not before I share with you one last thing!

This just makes me want to go find an old SNES and have at it again. Oh 90's nostalgia, what would I do without you. =P

GO TIME!!!!

Almost!

-but first-
Here's the latest and greatest from my website:




So in 18 hours I will be happily sitting in class... the first classroom I have actually been in as a real student in about 5 years! SO EXCITED. And it's a class that I am already confident that I know 99% of the material, but like I said in previous posts, it is an opportunity to get an official degree and thus earn more respect and credibility as a phhotographer as well as have a social life and motivation to use my camera more!

So other than that, nothing too incredible going on right now. I got the car window closed on my head, but only slight bleeding in the mouth, nothing serious. But it was totally worth it because I got to go to lunch with MOMO and feast on Subway. Sweet Onion Teriaki Chicken with avocado... MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. And that's pretty much all that happened today. Got off work early, came home and played around with photos and photoshop brushes and presets from my old harddrive, and now about half hour into melatonin dose and happily admitting that eyes are heavy and ready for a 7 hour nap. OH BEFORE I FORGET my camera is totally scratched on the sensor I think. Can't be too sure, but the dust removal attempts failed and I'm convinced it's hardware problems. But I'm considering upgrading to a D700 anyways... I need better low-light and full-frame capabilities for the 3 weddings I have coming this fall. Ok, wish me luck with all that!

Ja ne!

Ooooooooooh the places you will goooooooooo

Just a heads up, I'm really tired and out of creative juices right now, but I cant seem to sleep so I'm just gonna jot down some of the random thoughts and events of the weekend and try to clear my head, at least clear enough of it to make room for some sweet dreams. So here goes.

Saturday... oh boy was it NOT a saturday for me haha. Worked from 9am to about 7:40pm. Really long day filled with sitting around for hours at a time eating twinkies, doing push ups and situps and making random jokes in spanish that I really didn't understand half of them, but still I tried to contribute and pretend I was listening and said yes yes haha. Finally got off work and headed over to Momo's place for a group get together her family was having with her brother's friends. I sat at the table and had some pizza and fudge while I played apples to apples with the moms. It was pretty fun, and then we cleaned up and I came home, said goodnight, then got the urge to play a few rounds of black ops and edit a picture or two... one of which is kind of mandatory as I needed to finish this picture for a client now for a few days but haven't had time or motivation. Hope she likes it.

But here is the photo I finished for the fun of it. The Oxnard Seabridge on a foggy night.




So other than that, nothing too interesting this week. Went to revive for the first time in a year last night, only to find that it is a farcry from any form of 'revival'. certainly not the college movement that I had remembered it to be when last I visited. But before you go and get the wrong idea thinking I'm bashing it or talking bad about it, I'm not. This is a blog and on it I share my personal feelings, and this is what it felt like walking into that room. It felt like high school. I had the awkward privilage of sitting right next to Jill without realizing it til halfway through, and her boyfriend kept sneaking peaks at me... I guess I was supposed to take the hint and move or something.. but I came to spend time in God's house, not jill's so they can leave if they find my presence offensive, end of discussion, I let them know this by ignoring the stares and sang even louder and closed my eyes and just focused on the only one who deserved my attention to begin with. But aside from the awkward seating arrangement, along with leaving momo stranded again (SORRY!) It just felt like high school all over again with all of the cliques and younger people only talking to the 2 or 3 people they already talked to all the time. Nothing against the service itself. loved the music and message, definately felt the Spirit moving in there. The last time I was there it was intense. Everyone seemed to know everyone, and if you were new there then at LEAST 4 or 5 people would come up to you at any given time and ask to pray or talk with you for no reason other than to meet the rest of the family. So it was just uncomfortable afterwards knowing that so many of those people "knew about me" thanks to her rumors, and thus none of them actually KNEW me, which makes it really hard on Momo as she was new there and automatically got ignored when she was seen coming to hang out with me... like i said... high school all over again. I had to find some familiar faces to introduce Momo to without getting awkward stares from the haters, so I found my brother from another mother Emjay and we talked about some basketball tournaments starting up on sundays... I'll need to get in shape but I'm definately game. And yeah, after that we left and had snack / dinner at dennys and went home. So that's the last 2 days, in backwards order. Anything I missed or anything you want to know? feel free to ask or comment with your opinions or feedback or questions. I've been really unmotivated lately due to 10-12 hour work days and the ever-stressful burden known as random increases and studders in heartrates keeping me up all night. So please, feel free to start me off on a topic or sentence and maybe I'll have something new to run with here ya know? What's that you say? My entire post is one giant paragraph full of run on sentences? Haha, no, actually I started a new paragraph when I broke it apart with the picture...right?

Randomness terminated, commencing operation dream-beam. ZzzzzzzzzzzZZzZzZZzzzzZzZ

Christmas...lol

First off, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! Yeah, I know, a little late. Deal with it. =P

So today I was posting a photo



And while writing the description on my flickr I included a "Merry Christmas" and it dawned on me that many of my flickr friends and regular friends who will see that still try to play the "X-mas" game. You know... trying to make such a blatant and visible point of how opposed they are to acknowledging Jesus' place in their lives. So I went ahead and put this little side note for them to better understand how pointless their mockery is:
                     "I do hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. And for those of you who don't celebrate the birth of the Christ, don't feel awkward or offended, since the 25th of December is nothing but an observance derived from "Yule" or winter sulstace, also called the "birth of the sun" which early catholics thought they could more easily convert people by observing a religious holiday on the same day as a non-religious observance."  Most biblical and historical scholars will gladly tell you that Jesus was NOT born in december by any means.

And that's just it. All these people get in such a hissy fit and bad mood when someone says merry Christmas, as if the name of the holiday is going to offend anyone. It's like me getting all pissy when someone says happy St. Patrick's day because I have a problem with everyone named Patrick or something. Seriously. Grow. Up.

And then you get the other side of the pengelum with some of the more radical Christians trying to act like they're offended when someone says happy holidays, or when the Savior of the universe is replaced with commercialism and consumer-based messeges...even if you claim to be "Not of this world" you still live here and you're going to have to live with 'worldly' things taking control of ... the world. Deal with it. The only attitude you can change by arguing about God Vs. Consumerism is your own.

So this is my OPINION, I'm just going to throw it out there before I get blog-raped by all the people who didn't bother reading the historical fact quoted above.

I see the 25th as merely a chance to spend time with loved ones and family, 'cause if someone came to save the world, His birth and life should be celebrated every day, not just once a year. Even those of you who think I'm an idiot for Who I believe in can still agree with that. If someone is THAT important to the universe, they would have Christmas every day, which is actually what we're called to do anyways, though few will follow through. But no matter what your beliefs are, the holiday season is meant to bring family and loved ones together to share love and fellowship with everyone. So no matter what you believe in, understand that the 25th of December is a great opportunity to tell someone that you love them. And for those of you who call yourselves Christians, don't get offended by someone taking 'Christ' out of Christmas and start getting upset. Is God so weak that He would need you to come to His defense????? We are called to correct our brothers and fellow believers, not to scold and mock those who don't even know if they're doing anything wrong. So everyone. EVERYONE please just get along and get over the whole religious debate, if only for one day of the entire year. Those of you who don't believe, please enjoy your holidays, and for those of you who call yourselves Christians, start using all 365 days as they were intended to be used, not just the one day.

So to sum it all up, please don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying one side or another is right, wrong, or the other. What I am saying is that the most offensive part about Christmas to me is just that; taking sides and trying to put everyone else down for not observing the day in the same way they do.

Well, there you have it. That is my rant for the week. And it just so happens that I'm a Christian. Not catholic, not mormon, not any other look-alike, not even a religion. I'm not the best example, but I have a relationship with the One who denounces all religion. Including the one that claims to be named after Him. Blows my mind sometimes how hypocritical I can be, so I'll just take the chance to apologize for those of you who read this post and automatically label me. I think Dogwood said it best in one of their old punk rock songs on stage to thousands of onlooking Christian teens: "If you see a perfect Christian, you know damn well he's not."

Please be safe and have a great New Years! Can't wait to step into a new decade with a fresh start as well as (hopefully) a fat tax refund. Haha!

AND DON'T FORGET THE COOKIES!

'Til next time all you... reader(s)