What have I been up to lately?

So what have I been doing lately? Keeping busy. Very busy, which is odd as it feels as though I have a lot of downtime along with a ton of busy time. October was one hell of a busy month. Back to back weeks of automotive event coverage along with photo editing and DJ'ing. Things pile up. Here's a brief run down of what's been happening.

My buddy Kong's sister is getting married next year and they decided to hold a small engagement dinner party for family and friends. I was the hired gun for photos and let me tell you, I've never freaked so much during a photoshoot. Ever. It was bad. First off, I had sold my two camera bodies (the D80 and D2H) and picked up a D200. First time using this camera. It's basically a combination of the d80 and d2h in one package. Without a solid portrait lens, I went out to rent a 17-55 f/2.8 monster lens. This thing is heavy and my hands cramped up during the dinner. Got to the dinner with just minutes to spare. Hoping to do some off camera flash set up, I set two Nikon speedlights on each corner of the room with my poverty wizards. Bad move. Not having my camera set up, I had to go from standard room shots to portrait shots. Me, being super freaked out and having no people skills, went to panic mode. Nothing was sharp enough, vibrant enough or exposed properly to me. I set the camera to super contrast, super sharp and super vibrant and shot away. Good god did I royally mess the photos up. Sweating like a pig and hands shaking like a coffee addict, damn near every shot was blurry. Managed to save a few but man it was a learning experience. Need to calm down and take things easy next time. Here are a few pictures. Sorry for taking a while to finish up the rest of them Liv and Shafeen. I'll give Kong a usb drive with all the pictures. These guys are cool. Hope to shoot an e-session and *crosses fingers* wedding for them.

Shot with :
Nikon D200
Nikon SB600 + Nikon SB800
Blood sweat and tears. Well just sweat and tears.

Beautiful flower arrangements at every table.


Group portrait time. Big thanks to Shafeen's dad (I think?) for getting everyone set up.


Gift table


Shafeen + Liv


That was almost a month ago. Yes taking a while to post process the pictures. Photoshop is saving my backside whoa.

A week after the American LeMans Series at Mazda Raceway, I was on the way to Irwindale California for the final event of the Formula Drift 2009 season. I'll post those pictures up in a bit or check them out at www.intunedonline.com
This is how the rest of the weekend went.

On Friday, we were invited by fellow photog Allen Chu to help out with a fashion shoot for Meister watch. Originally planned to be shot on a yacht, Allen opted for the restaurant which provided some classier looks. Alien Bee lighting for the win. After the shoot, we were offered a ride around Newport in the yacht. Hell. Yeah.

Quotes of the week?
"Can we smoke on this boat"
"Um..yeah. As you can see we really don't give a sh*t about money."

"Don't you just hate it when cops pull you over in your Lambo at 3am?"
"...nope can't say that I do."

Anyway, this is a $1.6 million yacht.


Our captain.


Our crew.


Sigh one day.


Random sea lion tanning on a dock.


Captain on the left, baller on the right.
(Don't mind the funky post processing, trying something new)


Mr handsome dude. Allen Chu with the camera.


Formula Drift coming up next

In the mean time, our Sunday adventure brings us to some random mountain between Fontana and the desert. Hard to explain this one other than I feared for my life and the well being of Allen's Murano. Made it to the top and never got stuck once!



The crew


Mr Kallusive Clothing Chaz


View from the top


Random bolt on the ground


North to the desert


Sunset to finish off the weekend


And what else?
Attempted to catch the meteor shower. Almost failed as there's not nearly a dark enough spot within the Bay Area. Drove out to Tracy and there was still a ton of light pollution. Got some cool star shots.






That's all for now. Gearing up for SEMA in Las Vegas. Hope things go well.
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