Get High and Read the Bible

Ok, so recently I have decided that my blog will be less formal, with more funny, outrageous, and weird content.  Of course with that comes the danger of offending everyone at once*…but I think I am ok with that.  This is my blog after all, right?  Anyways, here’s a really funny clip I found just now; Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church is on the right, and some hippy at Hemp Fest is on the left. Enjoy!

*I still kind of worry some of you will totally misunderstand stuff like this; so if you’re deeply troubled by this or other posts, you can email me and we can chat 🙂

Late night thoughts

I have recently decided that I will not only be posting my photography work on this blog. You see, besides photography I have many other interests; one such interest is philosophy, and thinking about life in general. I know many of you don’t read what I write on here, and that is more than understandable…..but then again, some of you do read what I write, so your input on whether you want me to write anything like this again would be helpful.

Today’s thought is simple–life is too busy. As I lay here at 3:30am, not able to sleep and listening to depressing music, I realize how busy life is, and how little we enjoy it. What is life for anyways? Surely it is for more than keeping yourself busy with school, work, the radio, TV, and chores. Do we ever get “alone” time any more? Whenever I get a chance to think in solitude, like right now, I realize how meaningless life becomes if all that I do is try to keep myself busy, try to fill my mind with information the whole day.

Of course not all of this is voluntary: all of us have responsibilities, families to support and jobs to work at. All of us have to stay somewhat busy to survive. But I think there’s still lots of clutter in our life that we can and should get rid of.

Life is too short to spend it being busy all the time. We’ve got to enjoy it more: and there’s so much to enjoy. I guess what helps is thinking about what you would do if you knew you will die soon (say a month). Would you really spend your free time trying to search the internet for hours just wasting your time? Or watching some stupid shows on TV? I doubt it. If we had little time to live, we’d do only those things that truly matter–enjoy our friends and family, enjoy knowing Jesus, helping those in need. I really, honestly, cannot think of anything better to live for.

And the truth is–we are going to die one day; some sooner, some later. So we’ve got to live like it; we’ve got to live like there’s little time left. Because it is true–our days, like it or not, are numbered. So let’s enjoy life before it is gone

Olga & Brian: Wedding

Heeeeey all.  Here are some niiiiice images from a wedding I’ve shot several weeks ago.  Unlike a typical winter wedding, the day was very warm and sunny, with lots of light, which made me reeeeally happy.  Nothing like starting a wedding day shoot and knowing that light should not be a problem today.

Olga and Brian were also very easy too shoot.  Very laid back.  A very fun couple.  This also makes taking the pictures much easier.

Also, Olga and Brian had a sweeeeeet band at their reception–The Stolen Sweets, who were amazing.  They are a 1930’s swing jazz band.  All of you should buy their album.  I just did (either go to their website stolensweets.com or look them up on iTunes).  Of course they sound much more impressive live (as all music does), but the recorded version is pretty cool too.

And finally: Here are some of the images from the wedding.  Enjoy 🙂

First Wedding of 2009: Elizabeth and Jesse

I shot my first wedding of 2009 on January 2nd…after getting lots of sleep on the 1st (stayed up until 6am during the New Year’s party).  The wedding turned out great, teaching me new lessons, such as–planning ahead is a great idea!  Knowing that most of the wedding would be shot in very low light, I brought some fast lenses and extra flashes, converting the whole thing into a mini studio.  If, just if I didn’t think of this ahead of time, then the shoot would be very stressful, to say the least.  Thankfully Elizabeth and Jesse warned me about the low light, for which I was able to prepare.  Anyways, here are a few of the shots. Enjoy 🙂

Bed Sheets + Camera + Cool People = My Ghetto Studio

Having borrowed some extra camera flashes and umbrellas, I decided it would be fun to get some cool looking “studio shots” during the New Year’s party I was at.  Of course first I would have to transform the upstairs bedroom into something that at least resembles a studio.  So we found some white bed sheets, pinned them to the ceiling and started shooting….well, I ended up shooting for over 3 hours that night; over 1000 images.  It was a lot of fun and I got some cool looking shots.  Below are just some of my favorites.  In the first picture you can totally see the bed sheets wrinkled up in the back; pretty funny.

New Year: Thoughts

As far as photography is concerned, 2008 has been a great year for me. I feel like I’ve personally grown in my skills a lot and I have been able to create many wonderful images.

2009 should also be a very exciting year for me; at least that’s my hope. The plan is to do more photography and to actually post it on my blog. I know I haven’t been very good with keeping my blog up to date, but I promise to do my best to change it in this new year: it is one of my new year resolutions.

To those that visit my blog on regular basis–THANK YOU. It is always very encouraging to hear that someone cares about your work, since sometimes staring at a computer screen for hours at a time is not very appealing. Special thanks to those who took the time to write me emails, telling me how much they love my work. Honestly, these emails are one of the reasons I still do what I do–they help me get back on track and try to create more beautiful art. And in general, thank you for all the compliments that I’ve received over the last year; they really do mean so much to me.

And last, but not least, I’d like to thank Jesus, who has given me the talents, abilities, and opportunities to be a successful photographer. I feel extremely fortunate to be doing what I love.

Happy 2009 everyone. Best wishes to you and your families

Catching up

As I said before, over the last several months I have shot lots of interesting images, but were not able to edit them.  So now I am catching up with the old shoots.  Check out a few of these images I took of my friend Lily.  They came out sweeeeet. 🙂

Annetta & Lubos

Yes, I am still alive. (Michelle and Jordan Wedding)

Yes, I know, I haven’t posted anything on my blog for….OVER A MONTH!!!  That’s a really long time, I realize that.  I apologize to those that have actually been checking my blog and have found nothing.  The reason for the absence of any new content here is–I am just very busy nowadays.  To tell you the truth, I have plenty of material shot, but just not edited yet.  Hopefully I catch up and you guys will be seeing more work on here.  Again, I apologize.

And since I have to make up for lost time, I am posting LOTS of pictures from a recent wedding of Michelle and Jordan.  The wedding was fabolous, and I felt really privileged to capture such an important event.  Here are the pictures:

the funnest california trip

This has been the 4th time this year that I am traveling to California to photograph a wedding;  this had to be the funnest, and the busiest trip so far.  Here are the images from the trip.

Wednesday: Flight out to CA. Meet Vadim and Elana

I was picked up by two wonderful photographers from Latvia, Vadim and his wife Elana.  We stayed up ’till 2am talking photography and showing each other Photoshop techniques.  You may view their work by going to their website bazaly.lv.

Vadim is playing with Lightroom.  Elana getting ready to go to sleep.

Next day I was picked up at 6am to go speak to a High School class regarding photography.  This took place at Reedley High School.  It was a lot of fun.

Thursday: Go to Reedley High School.  Do a creative photoshoot with friend.  Have dinner with Victoria and Edward.

Some of my notes

Next: creative photoshoot for a friend. (More pictures to come in the future).

Later that night I’ve met with Victoria and Edward, a couple whose wedding I photographed back in June.  You may remember their now “famous” wheatfield shot.  Oh, and we ate out at In&Out Burger, which has to be the best burger place on the planet.  I make it a mission to eat there every time I’m in CA.

Friday: Meet Andrey photographer. Do a quick photoshoot for his family.  Meet with Anna & Alex, and their friends.

The next day I met up with a friend-photograher Andrey (see his website by clicking here).  I did a quick photoshoot for his family, and then took an hour to show some Photoshop techniques to him.

And later I met with Anna & Alex whose wedding I shot back in May (remember the bride sitting on a window shot?).  They took me out to a great restaurant where I’ve also met Anna’s sisters and some of their friends.  Overall the night was lots of fun, including conversations about all sorts of things, everything from politics to cruel jokes 🙂

Saturday: Vasiliy and Betty wedding.

And finally, here are some shots from the Saturday wedding. In Sacramento.