40/365 My Surrogate

Now I never have to go outside anymore. I have a surrogate.

This photo will make much more sense after you watch Surrogates. I watched it yesterday and I loved it. I guess it’s the popular theme these days to have the ability to control a “unit” like in Avatar and Gamer. Then again maybe it started with the internet. Yeah I said it. Back in the 90’s with chat rooms, ICQ, and now Facebook and Myspace. Where you can hide behind a profile and blurt out one-liners on your status like, “Can’t wait for the weekend and then it’s party time”. Why are our kids texting so much!? What happened to walking to your next-door neighbor’s house for a chat?

Crystal Cove Hiking Trip

If there’s ever a place where artists go for inspiration, very often it’s in the wilderness.  Now for a city boy like me, Crystal Cove State Park (which is along PCH), is the boonies.  Only a 15 minute drive from where I live, it’s got critters, creatures and vegetation, and my favorite, hills and cliffs.  It ranks in difficulty as a 4 out of 5 in Randy Vogel’s Best Easy Day Hikes Orange County.

Never-ending twisting roads

Of course I brought along my camera.  But most of these pictures were taken by my friend and photo enthusiast, Jonathan Gonzalez.  I love hiking here because it’s pretty challenging.  There’s trails with intimidating names such as “I Think I Can” and “Big F’ing Incline”.  Then there’s the dreaded “Elevator”.  A 200 billion foot drop (okay exaggerating a little) where few make it without getting their butt dirty.  Check out the video.It was cool to have an my old martial arts student and now up-and-coming photographer, Danny Delaloza join us too.  Thanks for the tips on HDR techniques, Danny!

My brand new kicks have been broken in.

Well we had a great time and I drank about a gallon of water just on the way home.  My shoes in the picture above are 2 weeks old.  But now they feel like my old pair!

Jason & Nicole

It’s Labor Day weekend and the weather is beautiful.  The temperature was a little cooler than a few days before when us Southern Californians were experiencing 90-degrees (OMG)!  But Victor, the best man and groom’s brother and fellow pro photographer, said it ain’t that bad.  It’s worse in Florida where he lives.  Jason and Nicole picked a beautiful place to have their wedding and reception.  A gorgeous multi-million-dollar home near downtown Los Angeles.  Plenty of shade from the giant tree in the backyard and one in the front too.  As I get started taking pics, Nicole has a serene look on her face and a calm voice.  Today is the day of her wedding.  Time to have fun.

Nicole gazes out the window.

Nicole I know how crazy things were for you with the event you had at work just a few weeks ago.  But now everything is good to go.  Soon everything is set up and the guests are arriving.  The ceremony begins.

Sealed with a kiss.

Kids getting dressed up is alway cute isn’t it?  Here’s the ring bearer and the flower girl.

All dressed up for their important parts

After the ceremony, Jason and Nicole were at their happiest.  Pictures of the bride and groom are always the most fun.

Jason and Nicole share a moment together.

Congratulations you guys!

Ralph & Ana Maternity Shoot

The beach is a beautiful, serene setting for taking photos.  It is romantic.  At 7:30pm there aren’t many distractions in the background.  Except for the beautiful California sunset.  It causes me to take a deep breath and as I exhale, I press the shutter release.  And I try to keep cool in my head and pretend like I knew this shot would come out this way.  But I couldn’t resist.  “Whoa!”  I show Ana and Ralph their photo on the LCD screen of my Nikon D300.  Ralph’s eyebrows raise and Ana smiles.  I look up at the sunset and mentally I’m telling the sun and sky, “thanks”.

Ralph and Ana at Corona Del Mar beach

Ana came prepared to the shoot with 3 changes of clothes and a plan that I can guess came from doing research on flickr or smugmug.  It’s great when people have their own ideas of what they want in their shoot.  I don’t have to do a poll to find out what my target audience wants.

The hands that will hold baby when the time comes

I really appreciated Ralph and Ana’s excitement for this shoot. I could see it in their eyes before we even started. Thanks to Raquel and Mario for telling Ana about my photography and showing them her own maternity photos. I’m sure that contributed to their excitement. Being excited about your photoshoot is always a big help because there’s more energy in your poses and it’s much easier to smile when it’s time. The sun is down and night falls but the excitement is still there.