Monthly Archives: July 2009

Slamming Sake Bombs

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Because she is awesome, Laine took us out for sushi last night to a place called Wassabi. I was convinced to try it out on the promise that the waitresses were a combination of hot & super-friendly/flirty but without the tacky orange short-shorts of a hooters girl.

After about 2.2sec, I was sold. Wassabi, is a badass fusion of sushi bar and night club. As music BLASTED, we ordered saki bombs that required balancing the saki on chopsticks over our Sapporo while everyone in the place shouted Sake-BOMB! Sake-BOMB! as we slammed our fists on the table sending our saki crashing into our undistrubed beer glass. AWESOME!

[flickr]3755757108[/flickr]

Here are photos from the whole deal and if you ever find yourself in Fresno, CA it should be on your shortlist of fun.

[flickr-gallery mode="photoset" photoset="72157621700769441"]

The Buster Knows

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Buster the Dog is very keen to his surroundings and pays close attention to little queues from Misty and I. This evening, we pulled out our luggage for the weekend trip and Buster got the panic-look on his face. Granted, giant-rolling-black-bags are not the most subtle of clues, but Buster knows this means that shit’s about to go down.

I couldn’t resist snapping a shot of his “oh dammit” look.

Seeing the Luggage

Canon EOS 50D | EF 50mm f/1.4 | ISO 200 | Lexar Digital Media

have I even told you where we’re going yet?

one blood shot eye

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So even though I’ve been busy today working on actual work, my attention is divided between what’s in front of me and the anticipation of the FedEX guy arriving with the lenses I rented for the weekend.

You see, when it comes to my little photography hobby, I have a rather short attention span. I plan out what I want to photograph, take the shots, play with them in post and am ready to move on to the next excuse to shoot. That being said, I never post as many photos to Flickr+Facebook+the blog as I plan. With this in mind, I’m going to start posting photos from the honeymoon so that when I get back from this weekend’s trip, I’ll be free to show off shots with L-series glass.

Here are two shots from the honeymoon week: The first was taken from the bridge that spans the Twin Lakes looking towards the aptly named Twin Falls. The day after this was taken, we hiked up to the top of the falls and looked back on the bridge from above. It was amazing and highly recommended if you ever find yourself in Mammoth.

Twin Lake Falls

Canon EOS 50D | 50mm f/1.8 | ISO 100 | Lexar Digital Media

This shot was taken from the balcony of our honeymoon suite at the Westin hotel (yes, there’s a Westin in Mammoth Lakes). Misty managed to drag me out of bed at 5am and I managed to shoot the sunrise through one blood-shot-eye. The fact that any of the shots were in focus is a small miracle and a real testament to lens stabilization technology.

Sunrise in Mammoth

Canon EOS 50D | Tamron 17-35mm AF Di f/2.8 | ISO 100 | Lexar Digital Media

Review: Western Digital My Passport Studio

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This weekend, the wife and I are heading up to Northern California for an extended weekend of mad-fun.

I rented two L-series lenses for my Canon 50D and in anticipation of shooting a ton of photos, I decided to purchase a portable hard drive to serve as a backup point for my MacBook Pro.

I had a few must-have criteria for the drive:

- Had to be powered by the laptop, no extra power bricks to pack and then forget in the hotel room

- Wanted Firewire 800 b/c 2.5″ HDD’s are slow enough without slamming them through a USB 2.0 connection AND all of my computers (including Misty’s) has FW800 so why not take advantage of the speed?

- It had to be pretty as if it had earned the right to sit next to my MacBook Pro—which is nothing less than a work of modern art.

I had a few models to choose among from Iomega, LaCie and Western Digital. I decided to go with the WD My Passport Studio Edition. The “Studio” label could have been replaced with “Mac User Edition” b/c it is clearly intended for the mac crowd. As you can see in these photos, the external case is nearly identical in material and color to the MacBook Pro.

Western Digital My Passport Studio

Included in the box was the drive (320GB), a felt-drawstring bag and a cable for all three connection types that were each about a footlong to accomodate a portable workspace size. In some casual testing, transfer rates via FW800 are crazy fast. In fact, I was able to transfer 1GB of RAW photos in about 20 seconds.

Western Digital My Passport Studio

Western Digital My Passport Studio

Overall, I’m really happy with the performance and fit-and-finish of the drive. WD backs it up with a 5 year warranty and at $129 USD on Amazon
you can’t go wrong.

pelotas calientes

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In honor of 105F degree temperatures here in bakersfield, ca, I’m uploading a few photos from our honeymoon in Mammoth Lakes.

Staring Across Twin Lakes

Captured using a Canon 50D with a 50mm 1.8/f lens at ISO 100 on Lexar Digital Media

Looking through these photos reminds me that there are indeed places where it’s not hotter than balls in July.

Hungry Cats and Streaming Wizards

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so the wife and I spent a cozy little-Monday in last night. she put together some dinner and as we ate, we discussed the plans for this weekend’s trip to northern california (more on that soon).

while all of this excitement was going on, I noticed Mork the cat, quietly begging for food. I happened to have my 50mm f1.8 lens on my camera, so I shot this photo in the dim light of our dining room.

Who says dogs are the only ones who beg for food?

Mork the Beggar

Captured on a Canon 50D, EF 50mm f/1.8 at ISO 200 on Lexar Digital Media

in other non-cat-related news, today is my mama’s birthday and we are meeting them for dinner tonight to celebrate. before that happens, I need to pick up her gift and a sweet card that will make her cry. I’m also debating whether I should bring the Canon 50D with the 50mm lens to the dinner/celebration or if our point-and-shoot would be more appropriate. The Canon EF 50mm f1.8 is fast…but not that fast…nonetheless, it’s my fastest glass and my best option in low-light situations. you can sit on the edge of your seat until I decide…

After dinner, we wanted to watch a movie and last week the pretty girl watched a news segment on J.K. Rowling, so she was all up for finding out about this Harry Potter “fad”. Because I would rather poke out my own eye than go to a Blockbuster store, I decided to try out Amazon Video On Demand service. The entire experience was awesome! Cost was $1 for a 24hr rental, the streaming began immediately and the quality looked amazing on my 15″ MBPro display. If you find yourself needing a movie to watch in bed and you don’t mind balancing a laptop on your belly, then I highly recommend Amazon Video On Demand.

aren’t you glad you stopped by?

dog days of summer

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so buster the dog and I have been in bakersfield for the past couple of weeks and it has been absurdly hot here. if you follow me on twitter, then you’ve already seen the photographic proof—and if you don’t follow me on twitter, then I’m not sure what the deuce is wrong with your face.

either way, here’s how buster has been handling the heat…by sleeping with a mouth-full of his bed directly under the AC vent.

Slightly too warm to be comfy

Asleep with a mouthful of bed

if the weather gets over 110F again today, I’m going to join him.

marital bliss

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so it’s been 3 weeks since the pretty girl and I tied the knot and I’ve been in a honeymoon/wedding daze ever since. we are slowly getting our new lives put together both physically and digitally.

tomorrow the blog officially relaunches with all sorts of new content and some fresh-squeezed-awesome.

View from the Honeymoon Suite

Captured with a Canon EOS 50D using a 17-35mm 2.8/f lens on Lexar Digital Media

for now, here’s a photo I took from the balcony of our honeymoon suite…it was roughly 40F cooler there than it was here today in bako. need I say more?