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"

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.

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

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. :)

Another Day in LA: A Water Main Waterfall

Living Simpler: Lose the Cable

I have no statistics to back this up but I would imagine most people spend between $50-$150, and maybe more, for cable tv. I am clumping everything into the cable group that is not over-the-air broadcast tv. This includes standard cable, satellite, fiber... and anything else that requires a subscription.

Now I understand that alot of people out there have these big HD tvs and they want the best looking content to fill these screens and this is the reason for cable. Most believe that the only way to receive HD is through a subscription service... well i have a secret for you: YOU CAN GET HD TV FOR FREE!
"WHAT," you may be asking yourself, "I can get HD tv for free?" Yes you can and you do this by simply installing an antenna either the old fashion bunny ear type or a old fashioned antenna atop your dwelling.

Want to know another secret: The best looking HD content is that which arrives to every house freely over-the-air (OTA). In fact, it is this exact signal that these other companies, like satellite or standard cable, receive and then rebroadcast at a lesser quality. The best quality comes free!

Now I know there are other reasons for desiring cable such as the need for more content. OTA broadcasts only include ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CW, PBS and then a dozen other smaller broadcasts that I have no desire for. There are many who "need" to have ESPN or some other random sports network but this desire can easily cost you over $100 a month which equates to $1200 annually! That is alot of money.

Katie and I decided to go the free route.

I mounted an antennae to our house and ran cable to our two TVs. One line goes to our TV in the bedroom and the other goes to our TiVo in the living room. This brings me to my next simplistic device: the TiVo.

Katie and I love our TiVo. Not only are we able to record seasons of our favorite shows but also have the ability to search youtube, podcasts and Netflix Instant Watch. The TiVo cost us around $200 and a monthly service fee of $12. Now I hate having to pay a monthly fee again but the ability to have a DVR record our favorite shows in HD is just worth it. Our lives our way to busy to actually sit and watch a TV show at it's actual airing time.

Through our TiVo and the fact that we live at the epicenter of the Entertainment Capital has turned us into TVaholics! We love good TV and probably love TV more then movies.  The TiVo makes it very easy for us to watch our favorite broadcast shows but for those shows that air on cable networks we use Netflix.

Netflix is another great way to save money. We our on the bottom tier service which gives us one disc rental and all the Instant Watch we can consume. Netflix is slowly growing their online library and the ability to watch our Instant Watch shows through our TiVo is a great thing.

For those who can say no to sports networks and the Disney Channel should take a look at OTA broadcasts. Its free!

Living Simpler: CFLs are energy hogs!

For the last 5... maybe more years we've been told to throw out your old energy hogging incandescent bulbs and purchase these new CFL bulbs and save money while being green. Well I say throw out those energy hogging CFLs and replace them with the LEDs.

Dont get me wrong, CFLs are much more energy efficient then the ol' incandescents but their days are numbered and as soon as LED bulbs start falling in price they will be the new king of the hill. Right now you can replace a 60watt incandescent for a 13 watt CFL.  However, there are already LED bulbs that put out the same amount of light as a 60 watt incandescent but use only 6 watts of electricity. The problem is the cost because a regular 60 watt bulb is easily less then a dollar but the equivalent LED bulb hovers around the $50 mark. Ouch! Granted, the LED bulb will last years longer but it still costs an arm and a leg.

Katie and I can't afford to spend $50 on a bulb so we have done something different. We have replaced all the lamps in our bedroom with these little nightlight candelabra LED bulbs made by C. Crane which cost around $5 each. These lights do not put out an incredible amount of light but enough to see where you need to go. They also only use .85 watts each!

According to this spreadsheet we will save about $4.00 every month and about $50 every year using these bulbs instead of incandescents, BUT we run these bulbs off solar energy which equates to even more money saved.

One day all our bulbs will be LED but until then we'll have to suffer through those energy hogs called CFLs. :)

Living Simpler: My Solar Panel

Im going to start a new series of posts on our blog about the ways Katie and I are trimming back to save money here and there. We have made some entertainment decisions for the past couple of years that has saved us quite a bit of money and I want to share them with you. I will be entitling this series: Living Simpler.

Now, upfront, I will tell you that alot of my posts will be quite complicated but in the long term the decisions we have made has helped us live simpler and cheaper.

My first post will be about my latest money savings purchase... I know this is a paradoxical statement but know that money is being saved.

I recently bought a 15 watt Solar Panel from Amazon and installed it on our roof. With this panel I bought a Marine Deep-Cycle and a little DC/AC Inverter. The power that is stored in the battery from the solar panel is converted to AC and is sent to a couple of lamps in our bedroom. We use the power for lighting and to charge our phones, Katie's computer and occasionally power our small bedroom TV. Even though it will take several years for us to recoup the initial purchase this process has made us more aware of the power we waste everywhere throughout the house. We now try to only use lights when needed and open our blinds and windows for natural lighting.

Our next Living Simpler purchase is a fan for our bedroom window. We waste a ton of electricity using our bedroom window unit when the temperature outside is in the sixties. Our house bakes during the day and keeps the heat in at night which forces us to turn on the a/c. I believe a window unit will work wonders.

My current problem is finding the right fan. I could buy a cheap box fan for $20 but it uses between 67-100 watts of electricity depending on the speed setting. Or, I could purchase a $50 window unit fan that has a built in thermostat, timer and other cool features AND only uses between 40 - 60 watts. Not sure. I am leaning towards the $50 unit but it will be much more difficult to move to other windows throughout the house... oh the conundrum! 

My First "REAL" AC Job!

Hey Guys...

Several months ago I started working weekends, here and there, as a Camera Assistant / Digital Imaging Technicion (DIT) for Abe Martinez, a real-life professional film AC. On the weekends, and when he is not on big time sets, he DPs small indenpedent films, music videos, and commercials. I have been lucky enough to connect with Abe from a mutual friend at our church and he tries to bring me onto jobs anytime he gets a chance.
Out of all the jobs I've had here in LA I have enjoyed working with Abe the most.

Anyways... My first job with him was working on a commercial for Disney. Here it is:

Film: Silver City Mountain Resort

This is my latest commercial/montage film. I've been working on it off and on for the last couple of weeks. I really like this piece but there are a few artificial stabilization problems within but I hope they are easy to overlook.
I just sent the video to the manager of the resort and I hope to sell him the link to the video. I didn't really give him a price but just asked what he thought it was worth to him. I had no intention of making any money off of this project so whatever is made is simply icing on the cake. I kinda hope to get some free days at the resort because I would love to take several friends up there. It is a fun place but really hard and to reach due to this 22 mile one lane road that hugs the side of a mountain, and has more twists and turns then Highway 1 towards Big Sur!

Film: Las Vegas 2010 Video Montage

Here is my latest montage I created from our recent Las Vegas trip.
I originally didn't want to do a video b/c I was getting a little tired of doing these but when we happened upon this older gentleman playing How Great Thou Art on his accordion I had to shoot him and from that initial video I knew I had to create something.
I have a longer version that I will upload at a later date but I feel this version is much tighter and better polished.

2 More Pictures from Vegas

These are two panoramic photos I did in the lobb of The Bellagio at 2:30 am. The Bellagio just goes over the top when it comes to fanciful decorations. Katie and I both agreed that we loved the Bellagio a little bit more then all the others.
Anyways, these two pictures are from this little side exhibit right next to the lobby when you walk into the hotel.

Las Vegas Pictures