17 PICS!

Thank you to everyone who has already PICd my assignment. I really appreciate it! I am now ranked 138. I need to be in the top 20 to get my assignment before the judges so please keep up the good work! Share my link and story with as many people as you know! Thanks again!

Happy Wednesday!

A few things that I want to share with you today.

First, if you haven’t already please “Pic” my dream assignment. It takes just a second to sign up. The assignments are first judged by how many “Pics” they receive so please pass it on! While you’re there please “Pic” Jana’s as well! Thank you.

Second,

I podcast the audio version and was listening to it this morning on the bus. Needless to say, I think I scared some lady sitting near me when I couldn’t control my cheers for Professor Dyson.

Third, if you are not listening to The Bugle you don’t know what you are missing!

Lastly, it’s a beautiful day, and although I am stuck inside, I am still going to be grateful for it.

Mixed Blessings: The Story of a Biracial America

Once in a life time, something comes across your path that is so perfect it is hard to believe it is real. This contest is one of those things. Imagine, $50,000 to travel across the country documenting in photographs and words, your dream assignment.

It didn’t take me very long to decide upon my dream. I am biracial, and identifying as such has shaped everything about me. I spent my senior year in the USC sociology department studying biracial and multiracial identity. Since then it has been a dream of mine to document and photograph other biracial and multiracial individuals around the country.

With the election of Barack Obama as President I feel that now is the perfect time to discover what the new faces of America have to say, and how we can learn that we are not all so very different after all.

I hope that you will help me in achieving my dream. Please “Pic” my assignment, and please, if you feel that this is a valuable endeavor, share this with your friends and family. http://www.nameyourdreamassignment.com/the-ideas/lawahine/mixed-blessings-the-story-of-a-biracial-america/

Thank you.

Weddings, Sundays and the Future

On Saturday Jana and I shot an 8 hour wedding.  It was, let’s say, a very  interesting day.

We stopped to eat lunch at an Outback and for some reason we were totally giddy. We apologize to our server who might have thought we were laughing at him. I don’t know why we couldn’t control ourselves. Just one of those days I guess.

The location for the wedding was just absolutely gorgeous. A wedding photographer’s dream. I was awestruck at the portraits from my 5D. Finally the quality of the images matches the image I see through my lens.

All in all I think the promotion was a success. We met a lot of great people and a lot of business cards were gone by the end of the night.

I think I finally found the perfect outfit. I was comfortable and had plenty of pocket space. My shoes weren’t bad but I think I could still keep looking. At some point I’ll have to give in and spend the money on really good shoes.

Sunday was a wash for me. I would have liked to have spent some time cleaning and relaxing but I was at my computer the whole day editing pictures and working on my script. It wouldn’t have been such a waste of a day if it wasn’t for the fact that it was my only day off.

This weekend made me all the more resolute that I am doing what I want to do. To have the freedom to plan out my own days. To have no one to report to but myself. To be motivated not by a paycheck, but by my own pride in my work. These are my goals. This has to be my future.

I have lived this dream in my mind many many times: I wake up on a Monday morning, not by an alarm, but by the sun. I throw on my robe and fix some breakfast. I sit down at my computer to check my email and read the news. Then throw on some gym clothes and head to the gym for a nice workout. Head back home, shower, pull out a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and head to the office. I imagine that Mondays would be more of a prep day, these are things we need to accomplish this week. If we had a shoot or an event over the weekend, I imagine Mondays wouldn’t even exist.

But until that day comes, and it will come soon, and perhaps just when it is supposed to, here is a little proof that my dream isn’t just a fantasy, it is just a few steps away from being real.

The Arizona desert and training in Spring

at 3:45 on Saturday morning I pushed the snooze button on my alarm. Five minutes later I was staring at a text message sent 11 minutes ago telling me that Jana was walking out the door. In a panic I threw on my clothes brushed my teeth grabbed my bags and ran out the door. It was 4:00am and we were headed to Glendale, Arizona and Dodger spring training.

A Joshua Tree

The sun came up just as we were approaching Joshua Tree National forest. We pulled over for a planned stop to take some pictures. We wandered around for a bit, laid in the middle of the road, and remembered we could set up a self timer and had a tripod. There is nothing quite like the crisp clean cold morning air of the desert.

Arizona Welcome Sign

We stopped in booming Blythe, Ca for breakfast, just before the border of Arizona, where we weren’t the only customers wearing our Dodger pride. Not a few seconds back on the highway when Jana caught the welcome sign just in time to pull over and take a few pictures. States really should have pullouts so that people don’t kill themselves doing that.

Camelback Ranch

Kemp and Ethier

We arrived in Glendale, AZ around noon which gave us an hour before game time. We were really impressed with the layout and the style of the whole facility. It wasn’t gaudy and blended in with it’s desert surroundings. A water feature (which used reclaimed water) made you feel as if you were in the middle of a desert oasis. The stadium itself was very intimate and it took a while to get over how close we were to the players.

Furcal

On Sunday we sat just 10 rows behind the Dodger dugout. We took turns walking down to the side of the dugout to take pictures. I was so close I could have touched Andre Ethier. Then I looked up and Rafael Furcal was standing just feet in front of me. Then I looked back down and Matt Kemp was standing next to Ethier. I scampered back to my seat giddy as a teenager.

It was an amazing trip and we spent the whole time planing our month long vacation next March. We got to see some kids in action, Clayton Kershaw and AJ Ellis, so it will be exciting to root for them. We were only able to get Jeff Weaver’s autograph because of a certain gestapo usher but we were able to stand near Chad Billingsley. I’ll flickr all my great pictures soon.

After spending way too much at the clubhouse store we got on the road and headed for home. It was the most jam packed 42 hours we had ever spent together and it was a blast.

Driving home into the sunset.

TGIF!

It’s Friday! Yay! It’s strange, and it always happens, that 4 day weeks feel longer when you have the Monday off. I wonder why that is.

Last night I spent most of the evening scanning my negatives from our DC trip. I should have them all done by the end of the weekend. But hopefully I will have some images to flickr tonight or tomorrow so stay tuned!

Birthday party tonight for GR. I’m excited!

My new Canon 5D!

Palms on my street

I finally got to take my new camera and lens out for a test drive this weekend. I shot some beautiful snaps of my courtyard on Saturday.  I was utterly amazed when I uploaded them into my computer. Sure they could be tweaked in lightrooom, but they didn’t need to be.  The images were so crisp and clean. The amount of contrasts and depth was perfect.

My new lens was a great buy.  I tried to choose something that would give me lots of range for the price. I ended up getting the Canon EF 28-105mm.  Not only do I have the variety of focal length, this lens also shoots in macro.

Ashes

Without much effort I can now take the perfect portraits.

Yesterday, I popped on my flash and took some shots of my cats. I was utterly amazed at the images I was able to capture.

You can see my flickr page for more samples of the test shots I took.

I am deeply in love with my new camera and know that very soon it will become my new best friend.

Holga!

First shot

At long last, well it was really just two weeks, I received my first roll of film shot using my new Holga.

This is a double exposure. Of course I had to try a very difficult shot as my very first. It ended up being a great lesson. Notice how the right side of the picture is just the porta-potty. There was enough light in this image to expose the film so that the second image didn’t show up. However, on the left side, which I don’t recall what was there, the film remained somewhat unexposed allowing me to capture a ghostly image of the inside of the bus.  I love how the fence fills the whole image. All-in-all, not bad for my first two clicks.

Double exposure

This image is my favorite.  It was done with full intention and I think it came out precisely as I had intended.

I have a bunch more to share but these were just the first two that really grabbed me. Going to run them through lightroom to see what happens.  I’ll flickr them all, but I may post a few more of my favorites soon!