usasian wire

one of my images of mark munoz was featured on usasianwire.com:

click here to read article

prince and princess

this is prince and princess, my dogs. they are always together and can never be separated.

tha backhand

i had the opportunity to shoot an up and coming group called “tha backhand” this morning in san francisco. i’ll admit, it didn’t start off right… today was the same day san francisco was having their st. patrick’s day parade… did i know that?… no, i didn’t. usually exiting off the freeway and onto market street would take 15 minutes tops…. well, it took us almost an hour to get around market street because of all the street closures for the parade.

rymo of tha backhand

my cousin chris arranged the shoot with tha backhand, he’s been friends with rymo (pictured above) since they were young. i enlisted the help of my friend paul,  a fellow photographer. i figured it would be a good opportunity for both of us to work together since we’ve talked about doing that for some time. paul brought some great ideas to the table and it was refreshing to see another photographer’s ideas.

yung clap of tha backhand

after the first location we moved into a house and shot several scenes indoors. this shot was a simple 2 strobe setup. i placed a bare nikon sb800 on a stand at the end of the hallway pointed towards the subject. in front and above was another sb800 with a lumiquest lightbox iii. this was all shot using the nikon cls system, it was post processed in lightroom and photoshop.

we were going for the “death row records” shot here. this is a composite with each image shot separately, i used my fancy black straw grid to get the lighting effect.

tha backhand and me

i had a great time, the members of tha backhand were great guys. i think we may do another shoot in the near future, we were missing one of the members. more info and a sample of tha backhand’s music can be found at: tha backhand myspace page

it’s just like riding a bike

my daughter asked me to take off her training wheels this afternoon… within half an hour she was on her own.

my life

these are my two goofballs… my favorite subjects… apparently, they are accustomed to being in front of a camera.

mark munoz’s ufc debut

as usual a bunch of my friends got together and watched another ufc. ufc 96 had a little more excitement to it as a friend of ours, mark munoz, was making his ufc debut.

unfortunately, it did not go the way mark’s previous 5 fights went. mark walked into the octagon with a perfect 5-0 mma record. with about a minute left in the first round, mark’s opponent, matt hamill, threw a kick right to the side of mark’s head, knocking him unconscious.

mark munoz walked out of the octagon on his own power and later diagnosed with a small concussion. i wish him a speedy recovery and am confident he will be back training to fight another day.

from the corner… it’s good!

doctor’s orders i stay home, no strenuous activity… that doesn’t mean i can’t watch my son play basketball in the backyard.

no more vicodin

i’ve been on these pain meds for a few months now… finally gonna have a procedure done to help with the pain and hopefully will never need this stuff again.

update: procedure was a success. there was a couple patients ahead of me and when they awoke from the sedation, they immediately mentioned how the similar nerve pain they were suffering with were gone! i was excited after hearing that. 

unfortunately, my relief wasn’t as instantaneous… when i awoke from my slumber i felt… sore. the doctor says that everyone recovers differently, that some people take a week! it’s been 7 hours now since the surgery and the soreness is not as bad… i’m on my way to be pain free.  8.)

hello, i’m a mac… and i’m a pc.

ok, i know i was able to fix my acer netbook by flashing the bios… but, when i was at work thinking and searching for a fix, i also started looking for an alternative in case i couldn’t fix it. i purchased the acer for a little under $400 and figured that it may cost more to get it repaired than it would be to replace the unit with another netbook.

i have been a pc user for many years, my first pc was a 386 back in 89 (i think) and have always been a pc user… i’ll admit i was one of those anti-apple guys plus, i was a gamer. apple did not have very many games for their computers and when there was a decent game for the mac, it was usually 2-3 years after it was released for the pc.

my first apple product was an ipod… the one with the 4 buttons before the scroll wheel versions came out… i replaced that a few years later with a 60GB photo ipod that i still have to this day. during this time apple starting gaining more and more popularity… it wasn’t just for schools anymore plus, i kept hearing the advantages of the mac when using programs such as photoshop… i wanted one but,with the investment that i’ve put in on pcs and pc software, i couldn’t justify “the switch”… plus the undeniable fact that macs were just plain expensive!

then all of the sudden, apple opened a store at the mall next to where i work, i walked in and just was completely amazed at all their products… but, what got my attention was the “culture” of mac users… i felt then that i need to try a mac… one day.

that day was today. i am a proud owner of a 13.3 macbook. i didn’t go all out and purchase the macbook pro simply because there is no way i can afford it. i justified my purchase this time around because i finally realized that i am not going to “switch” to a mac… instead i am adding another tool to my existing toolbox.

aspire one dead

my netbook died this morning, turned it on and it did absolutely nothing. i’ve had the acer aspire one since august 2008 and 6 months later… it’s dead.

update: i downloaded the latest bios and flashed the bios using the instuctions i found here: www.qrpcw.com/2009/01/acer-aspire-one-bios-recovery.html and everything works now!