Pine Mountain Club, CA!

Katie and I just finished a fantastic weekend with Ryan and Becca Robins. We relaxed over the labor day weekend in a small little community, Pine Mountain Club. They had a beautiful golf course surrounded by little cabins and houses.
We had a great time and look forward to a return visit maybe sometime in early Spring. I would love to see this place with snow all around.

Here are some photos from the weekend:


Here is a video I did of Becca and Ryan's beautiful baby boy:
"Clayton"

I love me some vintage old stuff.

Growing up with avid antiquers I have developed quite a fondness for the old and unique. I also have a love for gadgets and gizmos which means that I love old electronics. I recently purchased my first antique television just last Thanksgiving in Wrightwood, CA. Its a 1949 Philco! It works but I can't seem to get a good picture... other then the electronic static noise or snow. I hope to repair it someday and then have a christmas party at our place where we all sit around and watch It's a Wonderful Life on our 7" B/W Philco! How awesome would that be.

Anyways, I am becoming distracted. Recently, my dad has been in the market for a bicycle to bike to work on. He loves the vintage as well and has found Bowery Lane Bicycle Company which hand makes bikes in New York.

Extraordinary Paths Series - Albert Pereta from Share the Path on Vimeo.

They currently have three different models with the Bronks Raw being my father and my favorite. Its made from steel and instead of painting it a solid color they leave it bear. They weld marks are clearly seen. Its really a great looking bike. I hope he buys one soon because I would love to test it before I take the plunge and buy one myself.

BOWERY LANE BIKE ASSEMBLY from Joe Tomcho on Vimeo.

Disneyland with Audrey!

Love my sisters! Wish Jackie could have made it.
Our fun at Disneyland over the past weekend:

Curious Bird Media presents: Gorda Springs Resort

Wow.

Just realized I never poster our Gorda Springs Resort video. I am very proud of this one and was helped greatly by my Brother-n-Law, Will Riggs. He helped me with the music and graphics.

We are hoping to start a little business together, Curious Bird Media, and I believe that this might be, technically, our very first piece!

Lots of fun.

Pretty shots.

Great timelapses.

First of Many... Guam Panoramics

Hello.
This will hopefully be the first of many blog posts about my recent adventure to Guam with National Geographic. The purpose of the expedition was to photograph one of the deepest trenches in the ocean!

These panoramics were taken on our return trip to the trench to retrieve the drop-cams. I haven't had time to touch up the panoramics but will soon.

Will's Visit & Disneyland! (updated: with video)

Will flew in last week and we all had a great time. We capped off the fun with a Saturday at Disneyland!
More pictures will be added soon.. all I have with me are the photos I took using a really cool iPhone app called instagram.
I love the app but don't love the small versions your left with.

Like I said earlier... more picture will be added soon and I am sure Katie will write up a great essay about the weekend. WE MAKE A GREAT TEAM. :)

Hearst Castle

Over the weekend Katie really wanted to visit Hearst Castle. I was fairly apathetic and didn't want to go but was glad I did.

Hearst Castle is an amazing place built easily within this last century. It feels like it would have many hundreds of years between now and when they started building but not at all. It is a marvel and just a fun experience.
We happened to visit the castle on a very wet Saturday but were lucky enough to have a fantastic tour guide.
Here a few photos I took throughout the tour:

HDR Photos @ Gorda Springs Resort

When I have the time I like to play around with HDR photography. When you first see HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography they tend to strike wonder and awe, but those feeling quickly fade. The trick is pretty easy combining three varied exposures into one. There is several different software options out there that lend a hand in creating these types of photos but the effects are always pretty similar.
One of my great heroes in photography: Vincent Laforet recently stated that HDR photos are only effective when you do not recognize the gimick that is HDR photography. Succesfull photos should look like an Ansel Adams piece and not a video game frame.

Recently a few East European filmmakers created quite a stir with their HDR video piece:
The Chapel

TheChapel. A short film. (HDR timelapse) from Patryk Kizny on Vimeo.


Some people love it and some hate it but either way you have to admire what they created.

Here are a couple of HDR photos I shot over the weekend: (not succesfull in Vincent's eyes but fun none-the-less)

Our Big Sur / Gorda Springs Resort Adventure

Me and my beautiful Wife in Big Sur

Katie and I were able to get out of town over the President's Day weekend and shot a resort commercial film. We traded a free stay at Gorda Springs Resort for a web video showcasing the beauties of this resort located on the PCH with a wonderful view of the Pacific!

Throughout the weekend we shot several timelapses with varying success. My last timelapse I shot Sunday night at 2:00am and it finished around 11:00am. My camera took a picture every 45 seconds and afterwards I stiched the over 800 photos together to create my best timelapse yet.
This video has not been color corrected or even really touched up yet. Its pretty much straight from the camera and I already think it looks amazing. What do you think?


I am sure that this will look even better after some color correction and added to the rest of the film.

Katie and I had a great time eating out and simply enjoying the beauty that surprises us around every twist, bend, and curve that makes up the PCH.

Capturing my first timelapse for the weekend

the prius provides the perfect shelter 

iphone photo 1

iPhone stitched photo using photo stitcher app

Film: Maxwell Christmas Decorations 2010

Here is a little film I did over the holidays of a portion of my parent's house. Every year they go all out for Christmas and I love everything they do.
This video provides only a small slice of what they do each year.

Wrightwood Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful time sharing Thanksgiving with some of our closest Cali' friends. We were lucky enough to stay in a beautiful little cabin which was just a few blocks away from the Wrightwood town center.
Friday night, Katie and I visited the town and took part in the annual Wrightwood Christmas Tree Lighting event. It was filled with family fun and joyous people. I made a little video montage of that night:

Lighting of the Christmas Tree - Wrightwood, CA

Film: Silver City Mountain Resort Timelapse

This is my latest timelapse project.

I have realized that my camera, a Canon T2i with kit lens, seems to give me a better picture on the LCD then it really captures. I think it is partly due to the fact that I test all my shots in the middle of pitch darkness and every little light (star) just pops on that LCD screen. I assume that it is all properly exposed and then realize after I download the hundreds of photos that the pictures are always very underexposed. This creates a huge problem because I then have to go into my editing programs and push the photos to their limits to gain exposure. This highly degrades the images and creates a multitude of digital noise. I need to try and always overexpose what I am actually seeing from the camera, however they still look really cool.

I am always fine tuning my expertise. :)

Silver City: Our Return Trip

Silver City Stream

Katie and I spent the weekend at the one and only Silver City Mountain Resort.
I have been asked to do some web videos for the resort in exchange for free stay. Eventhough I hate not being paid I love the outdoors and couldn't pass up an opportunity to return to the outdoors a handful of times over this next year for free!
Katie and I filmed the annual Thanksgiving dinner which Silver City offers every year. They do a early Thanksgiving due to the resort being closed during the actual Thanksgiving date.
While we were here I took several photos with the idea of creating some funky HDR (High Dynamic Range) images.
You basically set your camera to bracket your exposures. I bracketed mine for 2 stops in both directions and ended up with three identical photos all two stops away from each other. Using an application like photoshop or photomatix you can create some killer images that are very abnormal and interesting.
Here are a few I worked on today.
The watermark is still there b/c I haven't bought the software and am using the trial version.

Silver City Stream 2 

Silver City Store

Silver City Storefront HDR #1

Silver City Storefront HDR #2

Camera Lust: Fuji X100

I love this camera and want it very badly.
It combines the latest in pocket camera technology with the sensor of a full size SLR (APS-C) and the old school looks of my antique camera collection.
It reminds me of the all too expensive Leica cameras but will hopefully fall in my price range...
I look at this camera and it makes me want to take beautiful photos, which is unlike the Canon 5D Mark II, which makes me want to make incredible films.
Gotta love it when companies surprise you with just beautiful design. wow.

A Quick Film for a Friend.

Doug and Brynn Holzapels are two of our very good friends here in Los Angeles. They are the couple that have the beautiful baby, Lyla, who you would have seen in my reel and other videos I have posted on this blog.
Doug is an incredibly talented musician who teaches lessons on the side. One of his students, Paulina, has quite a following on YouTube and she and Doug post their duets all the time. Recently I pursuaded them to allow me to shoot one of their videos to provide some better camera footage. It was a very simple setup and I am very pleased with the outcome.
Doug also used some of his high end music recording equipment to record a live session that sounded as if it were in a studio. The combination of the better camera and audio really make these two artists stand out.
Anyways, I hope the best for the both of them.

Here is their latest video:

Director of Photography: U Smile by Rochelle Diamante

My great friend, Aaron Huisman, and myself DP'd this music video. We did all the beach footage and I am very happy to see how it came out.
The artist was very friendly and very talented.
I loved this project because all I had to do was film it and didn't have to worry about editing it or anything else. Since filming is my passion I loved this because I didn't have to worry about all the other parts of production.
Here is the Music Video:


Here are some photos of Rochelle I took in between shots on the beach at Santa Monica:

Hello iPod Nano. Hello my new watch.

Okay...
I have lots of passions in life.
One is my faith
One is my wife
One is my family
One is my dog... maybe dogs (later post)
One is my love of tech
One is my love of bags
One is my love of watches...


And that is what I am going to talk about today: my love of watches.
I have always loved watches probably because it was a piece of technology that you can wear with you 24/7! I had a collection of watches growing up and still do today. I clearly get this passion for the tickety tocks from my mom who takes this love to another level! :)

Fossil's Palm OS Watch

One of my favorite finds, and one that I had to be patient on for a couple of years, was Fossil's line of watches they created in conjunction with Palm. They were basically little Palm PDAs on your wrist! So cool but very limited in functionality and tough on batteries. They were also very expensive! Finally the lack of interest brought the prices down like crazy and I snagged one for around $75! Never really wore it but it is part of my tech colection. I was contemplating selling it a year ago to raise some money for Katie and Me but, surprising to me, Katie convinced me not to sell it. I am glad I didn't. It is a very unique watch.

I always have my eye on a couple of different watches and am always looking for that sale, clearance or ebay deal.

Casio PAW5000 Pathfinder

Recently I have been eyeing Casio's latest Pathfinder watch, the PAW5000. These pathfinder watches were always cool in my eyes but not very attractive. Great for camping but for everyday life they never worked. Well they just released a new Pathfinder which, I believe, is their first to include an analog face and a metal band option. It looks great but has a steep price tag for my budget. It will soon come down though... you just have to be patient.

Lately I have been fascinated with the idea of turning Apple's latest iPod Nano into a watch. I am positive that many companies are figuring this out because I am seeing more and more companies talk about this and even coming out with some early products. In all it is pretty easy because you just basically clip the Nano to a watch band and viola! However, I am not so easily convinced and want to see a totally new product that fully integrates the iPod Nano into a good looking band. I would love to see some kind of Metal band the continues the styling cues of the nano. To me, this could be a refresh of what fossil tried to do with palm. Granted, the nano is a locked device and apps, currently, can't be written for the new Nano but maybe a jailbreak process could create some cool apps that would allow you to access your calendar and/or your address book... who knows.. I am currently being patient and waiting for the write product to make it to market.
Here are a few current products or adaption of products already on the market:
If you click on the pics they will take you to the corresponding company.