traveling with wekfest has always been an experience. being able to witness this company and this car show grow in the past few years has been huge. a lot of the times you see the same cars but then there's times where you are completely blown away by the new ones. one of the things i enjoy most about these shows is just watching Elissa do her thing. she's always telling me how tired her face is from smiling all day with all the people she has to greet but its that will and spirit that i admire. i've seen her starve herself and neglect her bladder all for the sake of her supporters and fans. it's crazy to me how many of the same faces i see come to the show year after year to come visit Elissa, it doesn't surprise me however. i often see and hear people tell her how much of a role model she is and how much they look up to her. I can see why. she's a woman with a huge heart and always humbled by the people who take the time out for her. talk about a wcw. bam.
(how often do you travel/explore?)
every chance i get! i've learned throughout the years that planning to travel always has some lag to it and sometimes, it's procrastinated and doesn't even happen. so all that talk about doing this and doing that, going here and going there, you end up not doing anything and not going anywhere because some people just don't follow through. for me, i try to get out as much as possible. i made it a habit. if i go one week without going out and explore, i feel like i'm about to explode. when people think of travel, they automatically think of hopping on a plane and soaring through the clouds. ot even. you can hop on your bike and ride a couple miles and find a spot to explore, and that to me is still considered traveling. i always hear people complain about not having anywhere to go and shoot in their city or whatever, but thats bullshit. you can live in a farm out in the middle of nowhere and i am sure you can still capture some amazing things out there. it's really not that hard. get a couple of friends, pitch in a couple bucks for gas, and take an aimless drive out somewhere and make frequent stops where you think you can find something interesting to photograph and document. there really is no excuse. as of late, i have been going out almost every week. as should you.
keep the questions coming y'all.
before heading out to hawaii, i had checked the forecast for the week we were staying and i was pretty disappointed with what i saw.. 1 day of sunshine and the rest... rain. so of course, on the only day of sun that we were supposed to get, we decided to make the most of it and start early on a hike to manoa falls. after a bit of research, this trail was supposed to be an easy hike but man, it whooped our ass. the humidity and heat had all to do with that. I'm typically used to the cold brisk coastal weather in northern california so this definitely took some getting used to. it was in the 80's with a bunch of inclines and it didn't help that it was super muddy from the rain the night before. nonetheless, we made it to the waterfall to find not much of a waterfall.. more like a small stream trickling down. the views were still as beautiful as they could get. found out they shot parts of jurassic park here too so it was pretty cool to know some of the scenes were right there in front of us. i would definitely suggest hitting this place up but make sure that the waterfall is flowing heavily before you start the hike. i would've enjoyed it way more if i got to see some more water coming down. mahalo.
(what camera equipment do you use?)
99% of all my shots are taken with a canon 5DM2 paired with a canon 24L. so this is probably the most common question i've gotten in my inbox from the curious minds. and i think it's the go to question people tend to ask when they see a good photo but that doesn't mean if you go out and buy the same exact camera with the same exact lens that you will be able to take the same exact shot. i mean, in literal terms, yes you can. but the whole point is that it's never the equipment you use. this is so cliche to say this but it doesn't matter what camera or lens you use. i can honestly go out and buy an entry level dslr and rock a cheap manual wide angle lens that i picked up at the flea market and still be able to knock out a photo shown below. to be a good photographer doesn't mean to have the most expensive shit. you have to have an eye for it. a taste in composition and visual expression and interpretation. a photo is supposed to mean something to the person that took the photo. it should be able to evoke mood.
a photographer is simply a writer,
a camera is simply a pen,
a photograph is simply a story.
if you see things in this perspective, you are one step closer into being a better creative. i see a lot of these beginners going out and copping $3000 cameras with a $2000 glass but they put out some mediocre photos. i mean if you got that much money laying around then hell yea, but it just goes to show that just cause you have expensive ass gear, it don't mean that you can put out some killer shots. photography is a skill set that's learned through experience. countless hours of experimenting different techniques. i am no pro and will never consider myself as a professional photographer. i take photos cause i like doing this shit. so for everyone who has asked me advice on what camera to pick up.. just pick up whatever camera is in your budget and master the fuck out of it until you come to the point where you realize you need to upgrade to a better camera. don't force yourself to not have enough money to feed yourself because you wanted to get a baller ass camera... keep yourself fed. start from a comfortable standing and work your way up. best of luck to you all.
keep the questions coming y'all.
took it to the big basin redwoods national park this monday with the crew in search of a waterfall. when we say waterfall over here in california, you have to really take it with a grain of salt. it's nothing like what I've seen in the pacific northwest. our waterfalls here are on a much much.. much smaller scale. usually puny with a trickle of water but it's as good as it's gonna get for when chasing waterfalls. maybe that's why tlc was right, don't go chasing waterfalls.. in the bay area. anyways, still gotta love the scenic hike through the giant redwood trees. we hiked all the way to the waterfall only to find that there was a road that took us right to it. good show.
Aimless aiming.
I try updating as much as possible but sometimes I just don't have the time to and I feel as if I'm being let off the hook if I just post a photo without writing something. I want to try something out that would involve all of you. I get a lot of emails from people who ask me a variety of things and I don't always have the time to get back to all of them. It's tough to answer the same questions over and over again, but i do try to keep it going. so i figured i would try this out instead. I am opening up the option for people to write me messages or to request topics for me to go more in-depth about. the ones that fall under the same category, i will address as many points as possible in regards to that but still general enough for everyone to understand. you don't need to enter any of your personal information, just simply what you want to know. I will add a form in this post and also a link on the top menu bar for future access. let's see how this goes.
we don't get to shoot as often as we would like.. as much as we talk about shooting, sometimes it just doesn't work out. sometimes we're just too tired, sometimes we're just too lazy. regardless the reason, when we do shoot, it always happens to be magic. she's just a natural, what more can i ask for. even though she always tells me that she needs me to tell her what to do, this and that.. i always just tell her to just stand there and i just fire away. those are typically my favorite shots that come out. the shots caught in the moment. to me, those are the ones that evoke the most thought and emotion.. see for yourself. try staring at each one of these photos and just try to imagine the mood, the thoughts, the emotion. it's all there.
oh.. and there's a restock on small murked hoodies. go!
our journey along the coastal highway 1 continues as we ended up at shark fin cove tucked away in davenport, california. everything about this place was insanely beautiful. this place has so many different spots to explore and every view was so worth it. down on the beach there was a whale carcass, which generously provided us with a putrid stench of rotting flesh. even with the smell, it didn't take away from the views at all. this has got to be one of my favorite spots so far. as i am beginning to realize that the hunt for dope locations to shoot are getting more and more scarce, it doesn't discourage me to continue searching. my goal is to uncover as much of northern california as possible and i intend to do so.
so theres this thing called "writer's block". it's apparently some imaginary wall that you hit, mentally, that prevents you from writing anything that makes any sense at all. i think we've all been through it.. you have to write a paper for class and you end up sitting in front of your computer on word, an hour passes and all you have is your name and date in the top right corner heading, and the blinking bar with not a damn word to start off the introduction. well that folks, is what we call "writer's block" but this shit right here... This was our block for the day. we hiked down this sketchy ass muddy cliff to get access to this beach and when we got to the bottom, there was a fat ass elephant blocking our only way onto the beach. it was peacefully sleeping so some of the guys were even thinking about jumping down and making a run for it but i've watched enough discovery channel to know not to fuck with them. we tried go around to the other side but come to find another one, damn. back up the cliff we go.
stopped by the vsco event in temescal alley in oakland last week with the guys. t'was a dope event, free doughnuts, coffee, tee shirt, and bunch of other goods. can't go wrong with doughnuts and coffee. as you can see below, potato feeling the same way about free doughnuts and coffee. but anyways, it's dope to see vsco get so huge in the short amount of time that they have been running. it's taken a huge leap along with instagram for sure. vsco has made it so easy for anybody to just throw on that film-esque look on any photo, from any camera. simply by adding filters. it's crazy, it used to be that in order for you to gain the film look, you had to shoot film. unless you were a pro at photoshop or lightroom, and you knew how to mimic that mood which I used to do when i didn't feel like shooting film. i mean its crazy though, it's tough to find a photo these days that do not have a filter slapped over them. but that's cool, it really gives everyone the challenge to rise above in order to stand out from the rest. shouts to vsco one more time, for the freebies and hosting a dope event.
you know, as long as i have been taking photos, i've never once asked anyone how they edit their photos. which is why i am always hesitant to answer questions that many ask on that topic. what my settings are, what programs i use, how i post process, etc. I just don't really understand.. I mean I do but then i don't. i understand that you may be wanting to get the similar look from my photos. but i don't understand why you want to copy it? as a creative, don't you want your work, your style, to showcase you? your photos, or any work in matter, should be an extension of you and your creativity. to me, it's just one of those personal matters. I'm not being a dick by not answering, i'm trying to encourage everyone to just figure things out on their own, like i have. i have been taking photos for years now, and i am truly self taught. of course, shooting along side friends and such you learn a lot, you pick up a ton of knowledge so there is credit due to the people you shoot with. i love photography, and i love the entire process of it, but most of all, the learning process. what's the point in asking for a specific setting, or a specific style of post processing? you don't learn. in order for someone to truly master something, they need to be able to say that they have tested every single possible way of doing one thing. i've yet to master photography, i believe i never will. there is always something new to learn. to try. but i know that i am one step ahead of all of you who ask for hand outs because i took that extra step to just try things out on my own. trust me, you will appreciate photography so much more when you aren't trying to achieve someone else's style. that's why i switch up my style so often. it's because i am still learning, still teaching myself new things and still figuring things out. i just hope that you all understand where i am coming from and encourage yourself to do the same.
walking on the moon.
shot to death is a phrase i hear often. not in terms of being put to death by gun shots, something a lot less violent. we often use this phrase by seeing the same photos, with the same angle, same everything.. over and over and over... and over again. i mean of course i have probably taken a photo in the same exact spot someone else has, that i know for sure. so that's why it's always a challenge to push yourself to not take the same exact shot and try to see things that other people may have over looked. I'm always wandering off trying to come across a good view for a photo opportunity. it's fun to me. to challenge yourself to shoot something else. That's not to say that i won't take photos of shit that everyone else takes, cause i will. i just would rather see a bunch of shit from other people that i've never seen before rather than seeing all these photos pop up on my instagram feed of the same repetitive locations, one after another, after another.
we've been doing much of these monday funday's lately, bunch of us basically get together and go somewhere to shoot for the day. so far it's been pretty dope. we've gotten to cover a ton of spots all over northern california and we're still looking to uncover new territory for adventures. yesterday, i linked up with Nikk, JL and Potato and headed down south of hwy 1 just hitting every spot we could along the way. we had planned to hit up a lighthouse originally but we ended up coming across this beach with a crazy low low tide so we ended up just sticking around for sunset which was fire. we even ended up having to run across this little runoff about 6-7" deep of ice cold water.. decided i would rather have set socks, than wet shoes so that way i could have drive shoes to wear after we left. made it work.
this will be my first official post for 2015. after scrolling through my journal section on here, i've come to realize that something was missing from much of my content that i have been posting and i found out what i felt was missing... a visual story. i've been posting mainly my final result photos from trips i've taken but then after going through my photo library, i came across so many photos that i never used. mainly because i didn't feel as if they were good enough to post but that was stupid to even think of to begin with. most of the unused shots are moments i want to capture, to document really. for myself. but i figured, why not share. so for this year, i will be trying to post more of these moment shots along with what i've been posting before. so.. enjoy.
closed out of 2014. feeling like nothing has really changed now that we are in 2015. i'm actually doing pretty well cutting checks and not putting 2014 on them as that was one of my challenges from previous years. i honestly don't have much of a new years resolution, nothing different than what my drive has always been. so there's no need to say "new year, new me" when bringing in 2015 cause i ain't changing who i am or doing anything differently. 2014 was a huge year for me, and that's due to the fact that i've stayed hungry all that time to constantly push myself to go a step further; and that's exactly what i am going to do with these next 12 months. i'm super excited about what 2015 has to offer and what 2015 will mean for my family. if you keep with the mentality of always living your life to its potential, then it's a life well-lived.
I'm totally chill now that christmas is over... at least i would like to think i am.. since i am trying my hardest not to think about the end of the month and then new years.. so let's not think or talk about it. christmas was awesome. my son was definitely spoiled this year by santa. he got everything he ever dreamed for and more, it was just awesome seeing his reaction to his gifts. especially the one from us, that totally blew his mind. we got him a laptop preloaded with his PC games he's been bugging about for forever. as for elissa, we had both agreed early to not get each other anything but we all know how that goes. her gift to me was just fucking awesome.. i just hope she feels the same way about the gift i got her.
Here is a perfect example of what time has felt like lately. I swear, one minute its October, the next minute we're days away from 2015. It's just the craziest couple months. Feel as if it's been nonstop, I am not even sure if I have got to really sit back and appreciate all the things that's happened in those couple months. It sucks cause i feel like i've missed out on a lot. As if I have been on autopilot, like Adam Sandler in Click. Where he's there, but not really there. Not that far gone but you catch my drift. I wish I could really have had more time to just soak in the time and enjoy every moment of it because no doubt, it's been very eventful and from what I remember, it's been fun and enjoyable, with my family and friends. It just feels all too bit compact. Christmas just passed and even that came at nascar speed. now news years? damn where has all the time gone.
