Crystal Antlers, Audacity, Shannon and the Clams in LA

Whats new?

Well. Actually I have been really enjoying the last few weeks of not a whole lot! Really it hasn't been a whole lot of nothing ... just not a whole lot of actual shooting. I have been working on a book for the Boozy Floozy Burlesque Troupe ... I would love to have a rough draft of that finished by the new year. I have also been been working on a new portfolio for my wedding images. Its going to be a really nice hard bound 11x14 portfolio book. I have also invested in a new camera and a couple of new lenses :-). Nothing like a new camera to bring out the internal techy geek that itches around inside most photographers. What is more important? The image or the camera? I will answer the images any time, hell. The camera isn't even close. You can make great images with almost any camera, and the camera is just a tool, but the tool can be very helpful in creating the type of images that you imagine, and selecting the right camera and film combination can be key. You would never shoot a 4x5 at a baseball game expecting to get a crisp close up of the pitcher hurling a hundred mile per hour fast ball, nor would you use a 10 frames a second DSLR with 500mm f 2.8 lens on a pair of diamond earrings in the studio, and I definitely would not use a cell phone for either of them. No, I didn't buy either one of those camera options either. Though I have been VERY VERY tempted by 4x5's in the past ... and still am really. I love large format photography. OK. Enough of that?

I shot these a few weeks ago (!!) and I simply forgot about them. How I managed to forget about them, I don't really know, the images came out pretty great, and I consider this to be one of the better shows I have shot recently. Audacity, Crystal Antlers, Shannon and the Clams, Cold Showers and BomBon a warehouse in downtown Los Angeles.

BomBon from San Pedro. They play a garagey surfy rock n roll kinda like the 5,6,7,8's that is a bit less screachy. http://www.myspace.com/bombonhoorah

Click the link for more, it will be a minute or two of your life you will not regret.

Black Elephant & Audacity @ a house on halloween

Here we are. The day before Thanksgiving, I have the day off of work, I have ran my errands (mostly) and I am finally sucking it up and posting a few pictures from Halloween. I would normally use the fact that I was working on a wedding all month to reason my way out of not posting these sooner. Really though, I just plain didn't like any of these. Regardless, I sucked it up a few days ago and finally went through them. Turns out, they were not as horrible as I thought they were, and I even like a few of them ...

Click for photos of Sara Palin, a vagina with a head stuck in it, and some other republicans ....

Tiffany and Brians wedding

This wedding took place on the October 23rd at the Hacienda in Santa Ana.

Pam and I showed up at Tiffany and Brian's place bright and fairly early at 8am. The girls were all doing there thing running amok when we arrived. Hair stylists, make up artists, coffee, sweets and magazines were spread throughout the house. We set up and went to work.

I will shut up now and let my photography do the talkin:

Detail of Tiffany's dress.

As always, click on the link to continue and see the rest of the photographs.

New show at Nomadic Image!

Nomadic Image will be opening our Halloween themed photography show in two saturdays, November 7th! I will be showing some work from my Los Amigos series. Here are a few samples of that. Check out the website at http://www.nomadicimage.com/. Art walk is a free event in downtown Santa Ana on the 1st saturday of every month. If you havn't been before you really need to come down and check it out. There is always a lot of work up and the people watching is never disapointing. I will be there with a bottle of wine or so causing mischif and getting into trouble. We open at 2 and will be there until at least 11.

Sean and Nichole's wedding

These are all shots that I photographed at Sean and Nichole's wedding earlier this month. It was a great backyard wedding that was attended by all of their friends and family. Nicole and Sean have both been incredibly grateful of photographs and could not have been better hosts. I co-shot this wedding with Pam Pritzker of www.pampritzker.com.

Boozy Floozy Burlesque @ Galaxy Theatre

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Okie Dokie @ Women Of Crenshaw House

As the above title states, these are photographs from said show in LA. This all went down after 10 PM on a Tuesday night. Not such bad things for a Tuesday night. Okie Dokie was rad, Frances Harold no showed, and Mentira Mentira proved to be a pleasant surprise while Blissed Out put me to sleep.

The house was rad, being a fan of small intimate shows, I found the living room to be pretty enjoyable. Parking was easy, the yard was full of comfortable grass to sit on, and there was a liqueur store across the street. My first time at this house, but not the first show I have wanted to go to here. The last one was Audacity a couple of months ago ... I actually completely forgot about this show until I saw a flyer for it at another show I went to the next night, ooops. O'well, I redeemed myself this night by going out on a work night, yes that's right, I went to show that didn't even start until after 10 PM on a night I had to be up for work at 4 AM. Now that's dedication. Or just plain stupid. Either way, this is where I was.

Fantastica Bastidas @ Black Triangle

 These were taken at the Black Triangle in September. I am not feeling like writing a whole lot to go along with the images today, so its going to be mostly images. + blogger's image uploader is being ri-tarded again. Seriously, why does this thing freak out so much? Its still a little faster than loading them from photo-bucket ... but not by much.

Hoodstock Los Angeles

Alright, lets try this again. So last week I tried posting a couple more blogs and the image uploader that comes stick with blogger was being a real bitch. It seems it likes to change the way it uploads every few days. After messing with it for about an hour each day, I decided screw it, I didn't have time to fuss. Today we will try again though.

These are photos from the Hoodstock show in downtown LA the other week. It all happened at the Sex and it was a jolly good time, starting out fairly slow and building momentum until Japanther finished it all off. Interestingly there really are not any photos of Japanther, not that they weren't good, I just didn't photograph them. I had fun just hanging out in the front. Anyways, on to some images, since that's why we are all here, we all meaning my potentially pretend audience that is.

Next up ...

Yesterday we got a wedding, and today I am going in a radically different direction for todays post. Will I follow this up with another post tomorrow in a totally different direction too? Well. I will try.

Anyways, today we are going to be checking out Simone ... over 18 content behind the cut, click on it and take a look.

THE RETURN. After a minor break.

Wow, its been a month since my last post?! How does that happen? Oh I know how, I just get super busy with the 9 - 5 and photography! So what have I shot in the last month? Umm, a wedding, a couple portfolio shoots for models, a couple music shows, and a burlesque show and I went for a week long road trip up the coast. Is it ok that I neglected my blog for a month? I think so. Well, now that I have some breathing room, lets get this figured out. What should I put up first?

Screw it, lets start at the beginning and put up the wedding. Ok, not the whole thing. Only a few highlights.

Click for more of course, 16 more to be precise ... Kate and Patricks wedding ...

Neon Black and the Prisims and Holy Roller

.... and back to photobucket I go for my image hosting. The Blogger hosting application is screwing with my images when I upload them today, far more trouble than its worth, kind of a bummer, bloggers way was a little bit faster and I had more control over the layout, maybe it will work better tomorrow ...

Anyways. These are some photos that I took at the Hellman Triangle a couple of weeks ago. Holy Roller and Neon Black and the Prisms played.




... and this band though I forget the name.

Wow am I behind on things! I like to take a week to get these things up, but between working full time in the day, and working practically full time photographing, it is getting difficult. Just wait when I start school again in a few weeks ...

Anyways, enough complaining about the amount of hours in the day. I visited the Black Triange for the second time about a week and a half ago to go see a few friends bands. Dva Damas, Fiction, and Green Screen Door. 

Saturn was the first band that played.

 

http://www.myspace.com/saturnheights   

I think they either changed their name to or from Animal Eye ... I am not sure on that one.

This seems like an appropriate place for a cut ... as always, click the link for more photos.

Blue Jungle, Cosmonauts, Cum Stain and otherrrrs @ Black Triangle

Welcome to the Black Triangle, Lately Blu Blu's new place. You might know her, she also helps run L'Keg and sings for Blue Jungle. The spot just opened up about a month ago, ok, well a month before this show, which was two weeks ago. You can add right? Anyways. This spot is amazing. Upstairs loft just West of Downtown Los Angeles on whatever street that is. I got to the show at 9PM assuming it would start a little past the posted start time of 8:30, and boy was I on the money!

Casey and Steves Wedding

June 26th, 2010. Its hard to beleive that this was already a month ago! This was the day of Steve and Casey's wedding in Pasadena. I was up relitively early for this one, at the salon just before 10am, and I photographing until almost 11pm! Not such a terrible day, in fact I really enjoyed it.

I am going to do something a bit different with this post and try to use bloggers photo upload system instead of my usual photo bucket aproach ... well see how things work out!

As always, click the link for more.

These are from the Boozy Floozy show at Galaxy Theatre on July 1st!

Dva Dammas, Le Face, Woah Hunx +1

So again with the lagging. This whole week has been crazy, Ive been going out every night for the last two weeks, and its not stopping! The Burlesque show last week was great, but I have barely touched those pics! So today its going to the Le Face, Dva Dammas and Woah Hunx show from Whittier a couple of weeks back.

The show was in downtown Whittier, not a location that there are normally good shows, but maybe there are and I am just ignorant to them ... in either case, this show was in a dance studio that was rented out for the evening, mirrored walls and all.



This was the 2nd band ... I feel bad for forgetting their names ... it happens. I need to bring a pen and notepad with me.

Wow! These have been a busy couple of weeks. Today its the 4th of July and its been a great weekend! I have been shooting a lot, and have been spending most of my free time editing. I shot a wedding last week, as well as another Boozy Floozy Burlesque show, so pics of those are coming, but today I am going to play catch up a bit and post some photos I took a few weeks ago along the Santa Ana River.

These were photographed for the "Drains To Ocean" Show at Nomadic Image, (www.nomadicimage.com)it will be opening in August. The entire collective that makes up Nomadic Image has documented practically the entire Santa Ana River, from Big Bear to the Beach. My section was from the Prado Dam South to Green River road. This was my 3rd time out there. The 1st time I tried to ride my bike along the trail, I ended up taking a wrong turn and the road down the wrong side of the river, I had to back track about 5 miles to find the right turn ... by this point I was over it for that day. 2nd time I tried hiking it from Gypsum Canyon Road ... we stated out too late and ran out of time, only making it to Green River .... 3rd times the charm, and we hiked down the south side of the river, which is the wrong side by the way. There is no established trail, and we were often times making our own trail. No, it was not easy, but we made it to the Dam! Then we climbed the dam, and victoriously overlooked the 91 freeway and the river. Here are a few pictures from our hike ...



RR bridge in between a housing complex and golf course ... so far, we hadn't had to jump any fences and it had been an easy hike.

Karen and Franks Wddding

My buddy Peter called me up on the phone a few weeks ago looking for a 2nd shooter for a wedding of his, I was glad to oblige. The wedding was that Saturday for a friend of his, Karen. Here are a few of the highlights that I captured.



Catching Pete at work.

The wedding was at a Chappel in the Anaheim Hills, I got to ride in the limo going up to the place. Totally over rated. The driver was really weird ... and the Limo smelled like wet leather. Oh and the air conditioning did not work as well as it could have ... anyways ....

Health & Best Coast @ Echoplex

I am doing something a bit different with this post. Most of the photographs are going to be of trip to the venue, and then just a few from the venue ... its something I havn't properly documented before.


5:00pm

The journey always starts with my bicycle, I don't currently have my drivers license ... so this can make things adventurous. Especially when I go out to LA for shows. I try to be as self reliant as I can .. and this means public transit. The bus on this day was particularly annoying.

Hair shots with Syd

I shot these a couple of weeks ago at the (Dammit Danica, why arent you on aim!) so and so salon to help my friend Danica with her hair portfolio. These are of her friend Syd who did a great job modeling for us.



rembrant coming out of a softbox. 1 main, + fill card and a background light. The make up artist brought this weird frilly dress thing that we played with a bit. The colors fit really well with her hair, but it just photographed way too awkardly and at felt like we were trying to build a nest around her head. Alright, this wasn't working, lets find something that does ...

Well its been a couple of weeks. Since the last time I posted I've shot a burlesque show, a wedding, a couple of outings just for giggles, and hair shots for a friends portfolio (and mine). I think we'll go with the Boozie Floozy photos tonight.

Thursday May 21st, at the Galaxy theatre.

This is turning out to be a decent month as far as shooting goes! Over the weekend I did three shoots. Friday I did headshots, Saturday I shot some portfolio shots for a hairstylist friends portfolio, and on sunday I did a location shoot for my own portfolio. Tomorrow I am photographing a burlesque show, its been a little while, and I am looking forward to it! I am still looking for a model to do a studio shoot with over the weekend. No music this weekend, but in a couple weeks I have six potential shows in a week and a half period. Its funny how that seems to happen.

This is Jay, my first victim off of ModelMayhem. I have been warned to expect models I find off of there to not show up, be horrible, and all sorts of not so good stuff, so I was pleasantly surprized when jay not only showed up on time, but he was eager to get started! Sweeeeet. Not such a terrible start.



Nothing complicated, just straight meet and great headshots.

Signals & Foot Village @ the Smell

I wasn't sure if we were going to arrive on time, it was 9:30 and we were still driving on the 5 headed towards downtown Los Angeles. The Smell rarely starts a show before 9, so if we got there at 10, we would have missed the 1st one and a half bands, which I didn't mind so much. I forgot about something though, when its after 10, good luck finding street parking in downtown. Ooops. We drove down a few streets before giving up and forking over the eight dollars for parking. Theres a new yuppy club that opened up on 2nd and main ... I guess it gave the parking lots permission to raise the parking rates three bucks. Not cool. Its almost 10:30, and I am sure we've missed the first couple of bands, as we are walking in, I greet Deseret at the door, pay my five dollars twice, once for me, and once for JoV and in we go ... I recognize the sounds from the back of the building being one of the bands I came here to see.



I couldn't be sure if Foot Village had just started, or were towards the end ...



As luck would have it, they were somewhere about the middle of the set.

Aaron Kahn met up with me to shoot some new headshots the other day, here are a few of what we got.

Art walk tomorrow night! Tomorrow Tomorrow Tomorrow! Downtown Santa Ana starts about 6, password required to enter the Nomadic Image gallery, message me and I'll probably let you know what it is.

No Bunny, Toys That Kill, Audacity @ Babes

This show was an adventure for me, to start with I road my bike there from Costa Mesa (i'll leave out the part about taking the bus half way for dramatic purposes). Left my place at round 7, got up to Long Beach about 830 and road PCH to Anaheim, and the rest of the way to the warehouse which was on the otherside of the 710. Stopped to pick up a beverage along the way, and got to the show about 930. The venue is really really cool. Its a warehouse that is used for a variety of things, ranging from shows, to BDSM, to small raves and whatever the hell else they can rent the place out for. One of the better underground places that I have been too recently.



worst picture ever. Not really, but its bad enough to post.

I got there about 930 and I started talking to the door guy and a couple of the people that stayed theyve been doing shows there for about four years now, and being located in a great neigborhood, havn't gotten into too much trouble for it yet.



Audacity was the first band and played around 11, yeah, 11. Wait, lemmie check my files ... nope, it apears I have exagerated a little bit, they actually started playing at the stroke of midnight. The place was packed after 11, I am sure the fact that it was a donation only show helped things out a bit, but still, even if it was a required 5$ show, it would have been packed.



The decor in the place was amazing, from a polar bear on the wall (I am sure they didn't shoot it themselves) to an old Harley Davidson that was also on the way, to a human sized bird cage hanging from the ceiling (which came in handy during No Bunny.







Audacity was rad. I don't really think that needs to be said at this point, but I may as well.

http://www.myspace.com/audacityca Ohhh Myspace ... my god you are slow. My god you are cluttered, my god everytime I click on something my window seems to close and reset itself ... oh and we wonder why we don't use you for anything but music and capitalist purposes .... seriously, is there anyone on myspace that actually uses it to communicate with their friends without trying to sell something?



these people. total ambush.



this guy. he had no chance.

Normally at this point I would post some photos of Toys That Kill, but I don't really have any. I took a few, but I didn't care for them ... so. Nope. Check them out anyways, because they were good. Myspace.com/toysthatkill







yeah.











I wish I got a better picture of this action.



Did I mention the bar? They actually had a small bar in the back where you could purchase (after properly checking your ID of course) cheap tecates and shots of yeger and whiskey. Yesss. This was too much. I drank too much, and really havn't drank since.





The show ended at almost 3 ... at which point it was time to ride my bike home. Its too bad home was a good 2 hour bike ride away. Luckily. Chris let me couch surf for the night at his place off 10th and ximeo. I gladly took him up on the offer and the next morning had a delisous chili cheeseburger from Tommys to chase that hangover away. It mostly succeeded.

Have a written 200 words yet? I hope so, cause I don't really feel like counting, and really don't feel like writing more. Enjoy :)