Monday, January 31, 2011

Yawn Krew.

So today for my "Take a Photo a Day for Fifty Days Challenge" I had our weekly meeting with the Yawn Krew. I decided to do shoot a photo of us soooo... introducing (Left to Right) Veesh, JayPeeAre, & Paul Billings... the Yawn Krew.

Cheesy...

Day 23/50

Four Day Weekend!

So for the past four days I've been quite busy with some stuff. Thursday I had the day to myself so I filmed some assets for some freelance work & relaxed a bit with some riding since I've been feeling a little busy lately. I managed to shoot a photo of my friend playing her bass before we headed off to the movies to watch the King's Speech, great movie by the way.

Day 19/50

Friday was my trip with my friends' band Left Behind to Fresno so I could film them playing at a show. Had an awesome time with them, deff down to do it again.

While a the first band was setting up I shot a photo out of the venue of the foggy street.

Day 20/50

For Saturday with our trip on the way back to Los Angeles I shot a couple of photos of the scenery.

Day 21/50

& Now for today, Sunday, I was planning on actually going out since it rained a bit & shooting a photo but I ended up passing out for 6 hours from such an awesome weekend, ha. I'm now working on the edit for Left Behind's show in Fresno & in Whittier. Here's a peep at all the files exporting, haha. Lonnnng night!

Day 22/50

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Blahhh.

For my "Take a Photo a Day for Fifty Days Challenge" I didn't seem to have too much energy to take a photo yesterday so I set out to a park near my house. I couldn't find something that I was super into shooting so I pick out my favorite of the batch I shot & this was the lucky winner, ha. I'm going to Fresno tomorrow so the drive will probably have something interesting to shoot.

Day 18/50

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Early Morning Sunrises or Dusk Sunsets?

For my "Take a Photo a Day for Fifty Days Challenge" I had taken a couple of photos today, some at the Norwalk Am Track Station & some on a quick stop while I was driving. The ones I took at the Am Track were deff interesting but when I got to editing the photos I was digging this one cause it wasn't so much the same as the other photos I've been taking. When I was editing this photo I realized this photo could be as either a early morning sun rise or a sunset. One would deff think that it would be a sun down cause the light on the buildings are one but lights do stay on in the morning past sunrise. Another would say that it would be sun down as well because the direction the sun is going down, but perhaps I flipped the photo around? Ha, getting a little to into this. Well I guess I won't say what time I took this photo :P

Day 17/50

University of Irvine

For my "Take a Photo a Day for Fifty Days Challenge" my friend wanted me to take here with me to work so she could visit a friend of her's at UCI since I work basically down the street from there. So I thought it would be perfect to shoot some photos at the college since I was planning to already for this challenge, so after work I headed down there. I planned to get an HDR photo again because the sun was setting as I was snapping photos but the photo I liked the most wasn't an HDR set up.

Day 16/50

Sunday, January 23, 2011

HDR!

For my "Take a Photo a Day for Fifty Days Challenge" I finally had some success with my little experiment, which was HDR images. Basically a HDR image is taking multiple photos with different exposures to combine to make a overall correctly exposed photo. For example with this photo I exposed the camera for the sky in one photo, then another for the buildings, & then one in between. Pretty much you have to have your camera on a tri-pod to keep the same exact shot. When I finally got home I brought the photos into a program called Photomatix which takes all the over exposed areas of the photo & combines all three photos into one. I played with the settings & was getting use to it since I'm pretty new to the program, after I opened up the photo & changed the levels & colors a bit.

Exposed for Sky:


Exposed for Buildings


Middle Exposure


Day 15/50

Griffith Observatory!

For my "Take a Photo a Day for Fifty Days Challenge" I went with my girlfriend & friend to Griffith Observatory. It was a pretty typical place to take a photo but I deff tried to snap a photo of something not so typical. We walked around for a while & pretty much when I headed down the stairs I knew that this photo was for the win. I originally wanted there to be no people in the photo but it was a bit hard to get the least bit of people in there since there were so many there. I stood around for about ten to five-teen minutes waiting for any good time to take the photo. By the way if anyone goes to the show they have in the Observatory you're pretty vulnerable to falling a sleep, seats are so comfortable!

Day 14/50

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Take Caution!

For my "Take a Photo a Day for Fifty Days Challenge" I couldn't manage to work out my experiment with taking photos just yet. I kind of have to have the right set up with time & location & actually pulling it off in post. Anyways, after work I headed to a factory off of the 405 frwy. Getting there I drove around a couple of spots & ended up in one location where there was a parking lot. I started to snap photos until security showed up. They talked me for a bit & of course knowing that I was on private property I left with giving them no hassle. I still wasn't stratified at that point with the photos I got so I headed to a different location that was off private property & THOUGHT it was alright to take photos. So when I got to the new location I set up & snapped a couple of photos. After a couple of minutes security showed up again knowing I'd go to that spot. Apparently the overall problem was that I was taking photos of the factory, I guess they had problems with this before. I had to ID myself, I pretty much gave them my ID without question cause I knew it would end up with the cops being called in, & apparently I should be receiving a call from the FBI in which they will question me why I was taking photos. Dunno if that is going to happen but I'd advise anyone that is thinking of taking photos of factories to watch out a bit, ha.

Oh & side note, I know I'm posting this a day after it's suppose to be up but I'm still obeying the rules, I did take the photo yesterday.


Day 13/50

Friday, January 21, 2011

Last Parking Garage Photo?

For my "Take a Photo a Day for Fifty Days Challenge" I set out to probably one of the last parking garages I'll go to since I'm changing up the game with the photos. Heading to this parking lot I didn't think the view was going to be all that great but to my surprise it was. I got more of a higher view then imaged. Hopefully tomorrow I get some time to capture a day time photo cause I been experimenting with a very technical way of taking a photo & the final output works better with day time photos, hopefully all goes well with it ;]


Day 12/50

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Magic Bullet Denoiser! & Vault Session Edit

So I've been working on finalizing the Vault session I filmed but I wanted to run a couple of tests on the footage with color grading before I finished it off but then I ran into a plug-in for After Effects made by Red Giant called Magic Bullet Denoiser. I ran around the internet & found out how well it worked with denoising footage, results were quite great. With the high use of DSLRs for shooting videos these days it's expected to catch grain if you end up having to turn up the ISO. So I ended up purchasing it & right off the bat it worked great. The only downside is that I have 35 clips to denoise which will probably take all night to render, so I'm just going to leave it up. I just probably need a faster computer :|

I got a before & after results screen cap to show how great it works :P


Closer Look

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Car Crash!

For my "Take a Photo a Day for Fifty Days Challenge" I headed to that parking garage that I spotted that was next to the John Wayne Airport. I was thinking I would get a decent view of the air port but wasn't even close at all, although it was right next to the frwy. The spot I found that was the best angle was a very small ledge that had a pretty big drop so the whole time I was hanging on to the wall, ha. While I was up there taking the photos I heard a loud crash that came from the frwy, of course we had a person not paying attention & ended up rear ending the person in front of them.

IMG_1849

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Big Structures?

For my "Take a Photo a Day for Fifty Days Challenge" I decided to go down to the John Wayne Airport, which is down the street from my work, & hopefully get lucky with a decent shooting spot. Unfortunate I wasn't too successful finding a spot other then an another parking structure that may potentially be a good spot. I couldn't take the time to go all the way up to the structure so I headed to another spot I had in mind which was these air plane hangers that I always wondered about. For awhile I had no idea what they were, I'd kind of let my imagination go & think they were some futuristic buildings, which they totally look like it! Ha :P Anyways. I found a decent view of one of the buildings in the wide open area.

Day 10/50

On a side note my friends told me about these videos that are pretty epic of people that eat meat & do it in a big way. Gave me an idea for my 21st birthday, be way cooler to do this then to just drink, which I don't think I'll be doing much of, ha.
Couldn't stop laughing when I saw this.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Venice Boardwalk.

For today for my "Take a Photo a Day for Fifty Days Challenge" I went to a friends house that lived by Venice Beach since I didn't have work. Mind you I haven't been there for I dunno how long? Never maybe? I'm not too fond of that place for reasons of all the drug use & what not that is done there, just not my thing. We went down to the boardwalk with his little cousin & his dogs. Before getting there I pretty much knew that I wouldn't want take photos of everything that everyone else takes photos of, the graffiti walls, skatepark, etc. Although the skatepark was awesome, had a snake run in it. Deff would want to ride it but I'm sure all the skaters wouldn't be too fond of it. Anyways, we walked around for awhile & nothing really caught my eye till we started to head back to the house. We took another route back to the house & a small ally like path that went down to the boardwalk immediately caught my eye.

Day 9/50

Photo of my friend, dog, & cousin.

Los Angeles Shoot!

For my "Take a Photo a Day for Fifty Days Challenge" I headed out to Los Angeles with a friend, Bianca. We shot photos for about four hours till her battery died, she forgot her spare batteries. THANKS BIANCA FOR KILLING THE FUN! Haha, just playing. We both had a good time with the city dead quite, also wasn't too cold. Awesome seeing everything from the higher buildings & what not, It will be a photo seesh well remembered! It was really hard picking my favorite photo but I had to choose finally cause I didn't want it to drag on too long. This photo was taken on a bridge linking two buildings. Editing the photo was fun too. I got a little more indept with the options on editing the photo in Photoshops Raw photo window. I was aiming to get warm & some cold colors mixed in the photo. Pretty happy with the results!

Probably the next photo sessh me & Bianca well go on is in Long Beach, can't wait for that one!

Anyways, enough with my ramble!

Day 8/50

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Giant Steam Machine?

For my "Take a Photo a Day for Fifty Days Challenge" I snapped a photo of an industrial structure after watching a movie at the Archlight in El Segundo. It was about 3 am, ha, pretty cold.

Day 7/50

Friday, January 14, 2011

Another Parking Garage!

So today for my "Take a Photo a Day for Fifty Days Challenge" on the way home I headed down the 405 frwy to take a visit to the Burlington Coat Factory in Huntington Beach to take the photo. The view wasn't as great as I thought it was going to be so I had a bit of trouble being stratified with the photo, I was short on time so I had to do what I could with the view. I think I'll start hitting up spots that aren't parking garages for a bit for this challenge, ha. Haven't had too much luck with'em.

Day 6/50

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Had to go with the safety shot...

So today, after work before the sun went down, I headed towards the end of the 55 frwy where there was a shopping center for my "Take a Photo a Day for Fifty Days Challenge". I headed to the parking structure but then soon to find out the view on top of there wasn't so good. With the time I had before the sun went down I didn't feel comfortable trying to find another spot to shoot so I went with a car shot, which was one of my safety shots for this challenge. I was pretty siked with the colors that came out of the photo in photoshop. Maybe a bit over done but I do like over-stylized photos a lot.

Day 5/50

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

RBG Apple Product Family!

Sorting threw ideas for my "Take a Photo a Day for Fifty Days Challenge" I came upon a thought that I had three apple products that had screens. I just thought well maybe I'll shoot all three of them in on photo on my desk, then i came upon the idea of what else is a three. The idea of RBG came into my head. Yes since i'm a video guy, ha ha. Then I thought, "Why not? Put slimy faces on it?" So here it is the RBG Apple product family!
Blah T_T

Day 4/50

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Two Colored Buildings

So for this photo for my "Take a Photo a Day for Fifty Days Challenge" I knew of these two building with a pretty awesome light set up that was located close to my work so I headed there after work before I went riding. The two buildings had a streak of light going down one side & would change every couple of seconds. I went to on top of a parking structure & set up there. It was quite an awesome view up there, the frway was just on the other side of the parking lot.

Day 3/50

Productive Monday.

Today I got out of work early, but in return I had to drive to Culver City to pick up a package for my boss. Awesome drive when there is no traffic. After that I ran a coupld of errands that I've needed to do for a while, ha. Anyways, I went out with my friend Alex to shoot my second photo of the photo a day for the "Take a Photo a Day for Fifty Days Challenge."
We went to this "fake" bridge in Santa Fe Springs that goes right over the top of a main cross street. I was meaning to shoot the street from top of the bridge but then snapped this photo on the building at the base of the bridge instead. I had many of photos to choose from, liked this one the most cause the architectural design.

Day 2/50

Also Here is my friend Alex. He will be on my many adventures to seek out good locations to shoot photos.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Second Weekend of '11

So this weekend I worked on the Yawn intro quite a bit. Working on one shot in particular. I made some good progress on it but one of the things that I'll have to spend some time figuring out is what to do with the doors exploding off the wall. Should I run dynamics in Maya? Should I animate in After Effects? I guess I'll find out in days to come to see which is more time worthy yet realistic.

Made the image small to preserver some of the surprise, ha.



As well I started the "Take a Photo a Day for Fifty Days Challenge."
A push to keep up with my photo taking.

Day 1/50

My friend Laura & I made some brownies (well she did)
Pretty good mane!

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Vault Session!

Second day I've been up since 4 am. Horrible thing to do when you have a 9 to 6 job, ha.
Well a least it's for a good cause?

Anyways! Today I headed straight to a private session at Stolen Bike Co.'s warehouse, The Vault, after werk. I didn't do too much of riding, instead I concentrated on filming more. Surprisingly I got a good amount of clips to make a decent edit. It's still a challenge with getting use to filming with the T2i but with enough practice, & a new fish eye lens, I'll be having buttery footage ;]

Here's a peek at some color correction I'm doing on the edit.

Monday, January 3, 2011

2010 Rapup!

So it's been a great year for myself, graduating, starting off my career awesomely, started side classes at santa monica college, meeting new awesome people, & so much more!

Some big updates that have happened in the past month:

- Making progress on the Yawn Intro with some Maya Simulations (update video soon).

- Got a Canon T2i, YES HD VIDEO! Will post up pictures of my set up & as well as starting a photo a day post (hopefully will get me to post more often, ha).

- Got an iPad as well, so awesome! Keeps me from falling asleep. Will get a picture of my desk set up as well.

- Working currently on a "How to" BMX edit with my friend Dustin. Putting much effort with editing, color correcting, color grading, motiongraphics, & some sound design (more like fixing)



To get things started I shot this photo at 4 o'clock in the morning on Christmas day.

Christmas Morning 4 AM