A Weekend in Big Bear

So this weekend my wife and I escaped off to Big Bear. I did some research and found a cute little Bed & Breakfast called the Knickerbocker Mansion. Not only is it a B&B, but it also has its own bistro that serves quite the wonderful upscale dinners on Saturday nights (Friday nights is casual dining). You can read more about it at their website, but I highly recommend it. Two cute little details - they had two home-made mint truffles for us waiting on our bed when we arrived (which were delicious), and there was a cute rubber ducky waiting on the edge of our shower/tub.

While we were there, we went on an off-roading tour which made any ride at a theme park feel like childs play. We were told it was an "educational tour" and not an "e-ticket ride." Well it was more like a Z-ticket ride, but we spoke with the owner of the company and he made things right, so we will try them again, albeit with a different driver.

We also went to our first Ocktober Fest. While we did not ourselves participate in the Chicken Dance, or any of the other traditional dances the event is known for, both my wife and I did have one German beer a piece and that was plenty. It was actually a lot of fun and everybody was having a good time even before they got intoxicated.

Two other places we ate that I highly recommend if you want good food in Big Bear are Get the Burger and The Mandoline. Fantastic! If you are a fan of In & Out, you will LOVE Get the Burger. Just be sure to order it "Raccoon Style," which means they put a special spicy sauce in the beef patty and they carmelize the onions. The other place we went - where we actually had dinner one day and lunch a couple days later was The Mandoline. Fantastic food. Fantastic desserts. I wish this place was in Orange County and not all the way in Big Bear. You can see the menu for both Get the Burger and The Mandoline here.

All-in-all, a wonderful trip. Now we need to go back after the snow has fallen and we can do some serious snowboarding and skiing!

Walker Mashup

I found a cool new way to mashup photographs and put them together to music. I've been experimenting with it and created one based on photographs I did of Walker, who you can see on my website. Take a look for yourself:

Success with iStockphoto.com

Well it's been a few months since I uploaded some photos of mine to iStockphoto.com. So far the results have been good overall. I have two images that are somewhat popular. The one you see above has had 40 downloads already, and has been consistently downloaded since I first uploaded it.

While I don't think I'll be able to quit my day job based on royalties from iStockphoto, it's a nice affirmation that I've taken pictures that people find value in.

Samy's Photo Seminar - Sept. 29th

On Saturday, September 29th, I went to an event at the Orange County Fairgrounds hosted by Samy's Camera. Naturally they had vendors of all sorts there, but that was not the main attraction for me. What I was interested in was listening to professional wedding photographer Mike Colon talk about how he does photography.

I'd seen Mike's name in all sorts of photography magazines at the back where they have all the seminars and workshops and list the photographers who will be speaking. Seeing as Samy's put this seminar on for free (although technically I think Mike was sponsored by Apple for their product Aperature), I thought I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see him.

As I had hoped, the seminar was great! I was thrilled to learn that Mr. Colon has the same philosophy regarding philosophy that I do. The most important component of a photograph is that the "moment" is caught. The photo doesn't have to be technically perfect. What makes it a great picture is the moment it captures. That doesn't mean you don't do due dilligence to get a sound photo, but I think if you were to ask him, a technically wonderful picture with no emotion or feeling within it is soulless. Better a picture of a magic moment that isn't technically perfect than a perfectly technical photo with no magic in it.

Mr. Colon is also a big fan of using natural light whenever possible. He will even crank up the ISO to get the shot because he likes the grainy photo-journalistic look. I've always been taught that noise is not your friend, but he reminded us all that it used to be that film used to have that grainy look that was once considered "classic." If he does use flash, he tries to set it up so the light looks like it is naturally coming from somewhere, rather than an obvious use of flash. Hey - the guy makes a great living taking photos of celebrity weddings and shooting for major magazines and advertisers, clearly he's doing something right.

It was a great seminar, and I picked up yet more nuggets of knowledge I can apply to my own photography. In my opinion you can never learn enough...

Trip to Paso Robles

I know, it's been a while since I've updated this thing. Shame on me! Well here's a quick look at my trip to Paso Robles, CA for some good food and wine.

Went to Paso Robles, CA for the first time with my wife. I guess you could say it's the "lesser Napa" of California. We ended up going the hottest weekend of the entire year, where temperatures were between 104 and 108 degrees, but we still had a fantastic time. We found lots of great wineries there that I highly recommend you check out if you're in the area.

First of all, we tried a service called Grapeline that picks you up from your hotel and takes you to a bunch of different wineries. The cool thing is they have lines all over the state of California, so check them out and book your tour today!

So during the time we were in Paso Robles there were four wineries that really stood out from the crowd for different reasons; Four Vines, Tablas Creek, Tobin James, and Justin.

Really quick, here's why:

Four Vines has a great branding campaign. Not only are their wines consistently good, but they are a wine with attitude. Go in and you'll get your own "custom" glass you can choose, each with aggressive looking logos or racy statements. A young, aggressive kind of feel with attitude - sort of like if a custom chopper shop or tattoo parlor sold wines. It's refined wine for the unrefined masses.

Tablas Creek does not have an aggressive marketing campaign, but they have great wine and they let you do wine tours there. They were really helpful and nice, and I recommend you check them out if you get the chance.

Nearby is Justin, who is known as being a very upscale wine, and they've got the winery to go with it. We ate at the restaurant they have there, which was delicious. They are famous for a brand called Isosceles, which they were unfortunately out of at the time because it's so popular. However we tried it at a fantastic restaurant named Artisan later during the weekend and it was FANTASTIC. But it's got the price to go along with its amazing flavor.

The surprise of the trip was Tobin James. It's a larger winery, off the main highway 46, and I thought it would be a bit touristy. Our Grapeline tour took us there and I was very pleasantly surprised. The inside looks like an old saloon, and apparently the main bar really is an old saloon that they renovated for the place. It's kind of kitchy, kind of fun, but the wines are surprisingly good and very reasonable. I particularly recommend their Chateu le Cacheflo blend.

Three great restaurants to try if you are in Paso Robles: Bistro Laurent, Villa Creek, and Artisan. All have great food and great service and we will be going back to them the next time we are in Paso Robles.

As for pictures, the grapes were not particularly plump at the time we went, but I got some wine barrels and an interesting shot of an oil field that is off highway 46 on the way to Paso Robles. You can see it under Fine Art about halfway through the photo series.

PPOC Meeting - September

I attended a wonderful meeting of the Professional Photographers of Orange County (PPOC) on September 20th that was really informative.

It was a panel of professional and successful photographers: Rick Rosen, Kathleen Clark, Frank Salas, Karen French, and Lia Segerblom.

Topics discussed were the future of photography, how to deal with clients, adjusting to the changes in the field and competition of photography, and even a debate on giving clients proofs or not. It's clear all these photographers have a passion for what they do and put the client first, which is absolutely essential to make it in the business. I hope to join their illustrious ranks one day.

A Touch of Tablet

There is nothing better in the world than a supportive family.

My family has always been supportive of my endeavor to become a professional photographer particularly my wife and my in-laws. My mother-in-law believed in me so much, she got me an Epson Stylus Photo R1800 professional-quality printer a few years ago and I've created many wonderful prints with it - including two that were accepted into the Orange County Fair.

My wife has no problem whenever I say I'm interested in buying books, joining professional organizations, or taking classes on photography. She believes in me 100% and wants me to really go for it. Now that is a great woman.

Continuing this trend, my in-laws got me another wonderful gift for my birthday this year to help support my photography dream - a Wacom Intuos 3 tablet.

For any of you who are not familiar with this device, it's like a raised pressure sensitive mouse pad. With the pad you use a pen - not a pen with ink, but a pen with a plastic nub - kind of like a large stylus that you would use for a PDA.

When you press this pen to the pressure-sensitive mousepad, it lets you make very fine selections in Photoshop or create effects that look like paintings or drawings because anything you can draw with a pen or pencil, you can draw using this device.

Tablets are used by virtually all professional graphic designers and photographers because it gives you much more control over what you're doing on the screen than a regular mouse. And now I have one thanks to my in-laws (who were told by my wife what I wanted).

It's kind of weird to use at first because I've used a mouse all my life. I'm starting to get used to it, however, and I can already tell I'm going to be able to further improve my photography with it. Yet another small step forward on my way to the top!