Exuberant Bastard

Chelle and Louis get married (Yay!) [part 1]

2007-09-10T13:15:00.000-04:00

Go 'Chelle, Go Louis (imagine a bad 90's rap song, and that's the effect I'm going for).
(woof woof? Arsenio!)

Michelle is one of my first true Atlanta-an (Atlantan looks weird to me) friends. We used to work in this tiny hole in the wall in between the offices and next to the elevator shaft at Georgia-Pacific. Our entire gang (Shout-outs to Chunger, Chadwick, T, Leslie (!)) had a large collection of music, and it was easily the substance that binded us and gave us more than enough matter to digest. Also, it helped we were the biggest nerds we knew.

Little by little we parted from Georgia-Pacific, and the ties of friendship still hold between the lot of us. Even after Michelle moved to New York, which through her job as a computer consultant she met the ever awesome Louis. Louis has always been cool every moment I met him, and his personality strikes harmonious chords with mine own. This was solidified upon visiting their apartment which has just about everything I could classify as stuff I'd own or have owned. I told 'Chelle that even if she wasn't marrying Louis, I could still be his buddy. Thankfully it's a combination of the two. Here's to them both.

They asked if I would like to photograph their "Rehearsal Dinner" @ Johns Pizzeria in NYC. Of course I can't say no to doing something I was going to do anyway, so I lovingly obliged. They're a great pair and I'm so happy for them. This first part is the rehearsal dinner. I'll post pictures from the actual wedding day, but I toned down my shooting because I didn't want to impose on the official photog's abilities. The fun part was that they had essentially the same equipment base so we got to talk shop a few times. I'm a nerd.

'Chelle and Louis hammin it up. They're allowed.

Miss Em. The Maid of Honor, and another Atlanta ex-patriot. Five bucks says she misses me already.

Tanya, the bridesmaid, and her husband and all around cool guy, Jason.

The rest of the Rehearsal Dinner can be seen here:

Casey - Chang Rehearsal Dinner @ John's Pizza

Here comes the Sun...(doo do do doo)

2007-06-25T08:39:00.000-04:00

Yeah, it's that bright. The Camry lasted a week from the fix, but it might be salvageable, but not for a while. Plan B was initiated and I am no longer driving a ticking steam bomb. I now drive a screamin' yellow school bus, a 2007 Nissan Xterra. It's what I wanted if I were to buy a new car, and bam. They had it. The Solar Yellow color is hard to come by, but my dad found one in Augusta, and drove it up when the Camry bucked the kicket this past Friday.

There are all sorts of reasons why I wanted this particular light-SUV, but probably the most prominent are nostalgia, and trust in the brand. My parents were the first in our entire extended family to purchase an SUV of any sort, a 1990 Nissan Pathfinder. Now, there's something you have to understand about crossover Filipino accents. For some reason, F's get replaced with P's and P's get replaced with F's. So to my beloved maternal grandmother, the Pathfinder was affectionally called..... the ForthPinder. The 4thPinder took my family and I all across the Midwest and Eastern United States. Count in about a million trips to our trailer-camper in Wisconsin, the numerous IL-GA trips, and the ol' girl had near about a quarter million miles when we retired her to the charity auto donation(tax break!) in 2004. So, she never really died. Sure in her twilight she had her share of problems, a funny way of shifting (she was an automatic!), her AC gave up at 2001 (I learned to live without AC). Then there were the mistakes that my brother and I made. He backed her into at least 3 of my friends cars...I broke her passenger side mirror, and dented the door. She was broken into twice in a two month period during my last stint @ Georgia Tech. All this... and the engine never gave us a major problem. Master brake cylinder was about the only major repair she needed. There was a transmission recall once, but as long as the factory fixes something I don't count it against the car. All the history of the 4thPinder gave my family enough confidence in the company to purchase the 2004 Nissan Altima 3.0 for my mom, which my sister ended up being the primary driver. The Altima is a great experiance, maybe because they got the upper ended V6 model is why we've enjoyed it. But that's the secret it seems...

Turns out the 2007 Xterra happens to have the latest iteration of the most solid performing V6 motor in the last twelve years. The design is so versitile it powers all of Nissan's V6 needs from sedans, to super-sports, to trucks/lightSUV's. It's weird thinking that the SUV I now drive shares the same basic engine design as their sports car, the 350Z.

So, I have a reliable car, it's got everything I need, and nothing I don't. I have to drive to Augusta to get some sidestep rails installed, but other than that I'm pretty much set. Now, the boyhood urges of adding an even more bitchin' (yes, bitchin') stereo/speakers, GPS navigation, fog lights, winch(just kidding!). Do they make bobble-head computer nerds? That would be awesome, if you find one, I'll buy it off you.

I shot my other summer wedding this weekend, and even in the 95 degree weather I did not melt in the bus, and the Yellow did not blow up. I <3 you Yellow Bus. Speaking of anthropomorphic vehicular identity... You need a name besides Yellow Bus. Let's see, you're Blond, you're tall, beautiful, versatile and bold. I'll call you Charlize!

Anybody wanna go for a ride?

Adventures in Overheating

2007-06-18T07:51:00.000-04:00

Well, my weekend was downright terrible. I, being the the good son that I am, attempted to drive from Atlanta to Augusta. It being father's day weekend and all, my mission was to secure a tablesaw for my Pop. I thought it was all planned out, I knew the model, I had the store, and it was near my parents place in Augusta. It was not a cake walk, it was more like a hot lava walk...barefoot.

I left Saturday morning, in the vain hopes of missing traffic. Oops, turns alot more people were on the road at 10am than I anticipated. Not to worry, I drive along I-20 at a zippy 80-85mph. "Vrroom! Here I come Pops! We'll get you rebuilding that deck in no time!", or so I thought.

Somewhere along the way I get inspired to listen to my Ipod, (with 1 earbud at somebody's suggestion.) I'm rocking along to whatever bad music I have, (okay if you really want to know I was listening to RENT. If you want to know even that much more badly, it was the Movie Soundtrack, not even the Original Broadway Cast Recording. Why? A. I'm probably one of the few straight men you know who digs musicals, and only slightly ashamed to admit it. B. Okay, so I was poor man karaoke-ing the songs sung by the characther Tom Collins, along with C. Critiqueing Rosario Dawson's portrayal of Mimi. The Verdict? She's respectable, and well she's Rosario Dawson, she's ... hawt.)

Speaking of heat... when after a cursory glance.... I realize my engine is about 1 sliver of a hair away from the dreaded REDLINE on the temperature gauge. I follow the usual Emergency Kelvin Hotness procedures, Hazard Lights? Check. Windows down, Heater to Max, Vents tilted UP? Check, Check and Check. Alright we should be cool...-er right? Wrong. No hot air is coming from the vents... Damnit, she's gonna blow Captain! Crud, crud, what to do... Slowing down won't work, stopping the engine might... maybe it's time for a tow... wait, maybe I'm just ultra low on Coolant, good thing I've got some in the trunk...

I take in my surroundings and digest this simple fact, "I'm in the middle of freaking no-where." Now, I'll admit, Augusta, GA isn't exactly "Someplace, USA", but it's a heck of a whole lot more than Camak/Warrenton GA. I slow down the car, pull to the emergency shoulder, and look at my troubles. Fudge muffins, and donkey saddles, that's the an enormous crack in my radiator. And what's this? The recovery bottle top... Exploded off?! Awesome, that explains the excessive music video smoke and acrid smell. I didn't take pictures of the engine compartment, because the last thing I wanted to do was subject my camera and other gear to the wonders of evaporated coolant.

I had to get off the side of the road. I don't know if you've ever had a roadside incident, but there's something ... humbling about being buzzed by a 20-ton tractor trailer zipping by at 75mph. I get the bright idea of adding just a coolant I have left to the radiator. The effect was something from that old show on Nickelodeon, "Mr. Wizard". A few seconds of gurgling, and a good minute or two of viscous white coolant-laden steam. Fun, after huffing the stuff for a second, I make the concious decision that one should not huff and drive broken heavy equipment. To the driver's seat!

I called my parent's house, and my dad answered. "Hello?" he says, "Hiya Pops, I'm in trouble...bad." I explain the situation and asks me what steps I took. We get to the same page, and he asks if I can drive it a little bit down the road to an exit. I comply and refer to my phone's GPS feature to find me a service station. "Good, I'm near an exit," I say to myself, unaware of my vast ignorance of the ignorance society has paid to this particular exit. Auto-salvation it was not, more like... Deliverance. Nothing, nothing for at least 5 miles around. I confirm this in my phone, and eventually just pull to the side the road, GA HWY 80.

I relay this defeat to my Pop, but he already had a back up plan simmering. Turns out my Uncle (okay not really an uncle but my Mom's Sister's Husband's Brother) who lives 2 houses down from my parents has a two wheeled car trailer hitch. Pop goes to get it, and then come get me.

So I wait. I take pictures of the lovely surroundings... of nothing, and my car. I even self timer a shot or two, just to remember that for some odd reason, I'm not entirely bummed about the situation. I call some buddies just to past the time, and laugh at the situation. Prior experience is what probably kept me from panicking or worrying much past the heat of the day.

Pops saved the day, as per usual, and we got the car hooked up and hauled home. I bought a new radiator, we installed it ourselves, and barring a few minor issues, I was able to drive it back to Atlanta this morning. There's a few kinks to work out, a clogged thermostat being the main cause of the failure cascade, but I think we'll get them fixed this Saturday when my Pops and his buddy come by to install the new thermostat.

We did get him that table saw. It's uber-nice and crazy expensive, and it'll take a day to build just the saw itself. But it's worth it. It's reasons like this we all have to love our Dads. But I don't know about you, I only call my Pop "Dad" or "Father" when I reference him to complete strangers or have to specify his status in my family. People hear me say "Pops" and assume I have more than one father or something out of a sitcom. My Pop has never been Dad or Father, those are too formal for us. He's Pops, and I'm Ken. Yeah, seriously, it's what he calls me. It's even weirder to see his name for me typed out. Happy Father's Day Pops. Thanks for saving my bacon again.

Adventures in Overheating

My buddy's birthday bash

2007-05-20T20:36:00.001-04:00

This Saturday we celebrated Shaun's birthday at Fogo de Chao. I thought he's been before, but among the four of us that went, only I was the meat graduate. Shaun, Maura, and Sara ended up loving it, even in the wake of the silliness induced by the apparent meat-drunkeness induced by...meat.

Shaun was gifted with things of great weight this year. From Maura, the complete Calvin and Hobbes, and from me, a huge freaking cutting board that graduates from the board classification into, the "compressed tree block" phase. We should all bow our heads in respect to the trees that died to make this one ... chunk. Maura actually linkified the board on her blog several months ago and I kept it on the back burner of my mind. I think I'm going to buy one for myself, it's that nice.

We were probably the rowdiest people there, because we had great laughs about the ludicrous size of the chopping board. It seemed just shy of the same size of our 4 seat table! Afterwards we picked up some SoCo and Coke, and played Wii bowling. The hilarity and debauchery that ensued was enough to rattle my innocent mind. Happy Birthday Bro.

Internet Famous Maura

With some creative marker help Diego looks just like Me! Or is it vice versa?

Selections from Shaun's Birthday 2007

Financially Mutilating but Photographically Liberating

2007-05-15T15:09:00.000-04:00

Michelle's daughter @ Heather's graduation pool party

Wow. I mean WOW. It's here. My 70-200mm f2.8L IS USM lens. I've had it for about 2 weeks now, and I've given it some work, with some graduation related casual photography. I bought it knowing it would complete most of my range needs, but I didn't know that it also completed "me". Alright I kid, but ISabeLla (yeah I just named her right now in fact, shhh, she can hear you...) gives me surgical precision when it comes to my favored style of photography. We all know I love portraits, and the more candid, the more laughter, or other emotions conveyed the better. Given it's reach is nearly the equivalent of a 320mm lens (when mounted on any 1.6x crop factor Canon SLR) I can frame a head and shoulders shot when I'm 20 feet away. This serves a few purposes, first my subject is less likely to notice me, and secondly combined with the wide apertures it's capable of and the longer focal distances, the background is tossed into a buttery smooth blur (bokeh). Combined with my previous baby(I can love both the most right?) the 24-70mm f2.8L, I've got the focal lengths between 24mm-200mm(unadjusted for crop factor) covered, while still being able to shoot in low light (i.e. dim churches).

Isabella is a tad on the heavy side. She's 3.5 pounds with her tripod collar, and combined with my 20D, vertical grip, 420ex flash and light diffuser, I'm probably carrying a 7 pound rig. She didn't arrive cheap either, pushing my price envelope outside the cost of even my Canon 20D! I have no regrets, and I'm so glad I've got some weddings booked this year. It's always a great feeling to give somebody pictures of themselves that they actually want to show other people.

The graduate herself!

I also attended my sister's boyfriend Chris' graduation commencement. This is where the f2.8 aperture and Image Stabilization are completely necessary. There's no way I would have been able to pull off this shot with any detail whatsoever with my old gear.

Chris applauding the crowd.

Shot was taken from the bleachers in the nosebleed section. Handheld in terrible civic center lighting! Thanks Isabella!

Emily's daughter is doing all she can to stay behaved while Michelle's daughter helps button up her outfit. When I started taking pictures like this without interrupting the subjects, I started to realized how this can change the way I shoot.

The following photo was taken with the 24-70mm f2.8L. Neither lens is perfect entirely, they're entirely complementary to each other. I think the only terrible outcome of this entire situation is that I may have to invest in another body so that I don't have to take the time to swap lenses during a paid event. Which was entirely planned anyhow. I'm just trying to put off my next purchase until Canon announces it's replacement for the 30D, whenever that may be. It's pure speculation, but I'll wait.

Chris' four year old cousin.

Well, I had an amazing eye-opening weekend shooting events for friends, and I'm even MORE stoked to shoot the weddings I have lined up. I enjoy the atmosphere, and great things always happen when I shoot a wedding.

Heather's Graduation Party Selections

Chris' Graduation Selections

... Smells like... work?! Oh, no that's definitely Elephant doo-doo.

2007-04-24T20:01:00.000-04:00

Lions, Tigers and Panda-Bears? Oh My? Strange bears indeed, but still classified in Ursidae. Above is Mei-Lan ("Atlanta Beauty") the newest panda in the Great Sino-American Defy Evolution save the useless animal campaign. I love pandas. They're cute. But in my uninformed ecological opinion, they do nothing for the environment. Read about them. The only food they digest, is so lacking in nutrients they have to eat pound after pound of the young shoots to survive. They compensate by sleeping...a lot. They're SOOO lazy, apparently mating is a chore! Mei-Lan and at least one other American born Chinese Giant Panda are test tube babies! Yang-Yang, the Atlanta male Giant Panda... talk about a misnomer. At least Lun-Lun, the mother is a good mother figure. Cute buggers though, well worth the trip to see this dying species. A word of advice, register online and pay the 5 bucks for your ten minute tour. Pray that their both awake and playful like at our session. The Atlanta Zoo isn't going to help you take pictures of them though. Definitely turn off your flash, and if you can get your lens up to the glass, the more the better. They're behind some 1 inch glass so the reflections are horrible at the wrong angles.

Scratch off Tigers too, because somebody hid that guy way out of my poor 28-105mm f3.5-4.6 lens' range. I got a Lion though! He looks quite kingly, but I mean that in an 80's style king. Check out that hairdo.

This male lion had just woken from a nap to eat some tiny chunks of meat that were rained on his head. Not exactly befitting a giant hunter cat, but hey, that's the good life right? I only wish they could somehow encourage them to Roar on cue. I've never heard a lion roar in person. By far my most N.Dynamite moment of the day was when somebody somehow got the Zoo Tiger guide to talk about Ligers. I was very sad to find out they were not bred for magical powers, but are the result of breeding accidents much like most stray mutts and cats.

The orangutans were great, and I like how they ate oranges. I figure things that start in O-R-A-N should eat things that start with O-R-A-N. I've yet to find a food that starts with K-E-L-V. I'm sure I could fudge with it and eat Kelp... This cute guy and his mom had a great crowd admiring them. The mom even threw back the spent orange peels as she finished them. Since there are no chimpanzees at the Atlanta Zoo, she has the great distinction of being the only primate there that the Atlanta Braves can sign. She and her son are more maroon than ... well ... orange that we're familiar with in the movies because one species is slightly more critically endangered than the other. Quick etymology: in Malay, 'orang' means "person" and 'hutang' means "forest", thus Orangutan = "man of the forest".

Follow the link below to see the only pictures I let pass through my editing sieve. The worst and most expensive part of this excursion was that I realized just what I was lacking in the zoom department. I have this bad-boy coming down the pipes... which is both great, and at great cost. Thankfully it's more than a necessity in my upcoming wedding shoots this year, because of the limited access I have to some altar areas.

Atlanta Zoo 042207

Time's a wastin'!

2007-02-25T11:46:00.000-05:00

A quick note, photography related, but nothing personal to relate.... Buy this camera. Quite easily one of the finest all around pocket cams recently discontinued and replaced with not so shiny and useful brethren. The Canon Powershot SD700 IS, is getting hard to find since it's no longer in production. Pick it up while you can and enjoy an easy to use pocketcam with amazing picture image quality.

I'm terribly conflicted about this, because I'm saving up for the new Canon SLR equipment that was announced prior to this years PMA. But what shall it be? The Flash? The new pro 1DmIII? Guess we'll have to figure the take from or to Uncle Sam...

-k

Seven Thousand (+) and Going!

2007-01-04T20:48:00.000-05:00

Pictures from the New Years Eve party I attended thrown by Gena and Maggie. Gena's birthday is on the 31st of December, so a heck of a party was thrown in her honor. While we were there we stayed and partied for New Years Eve. These are the results.

Wow. I bought my Canon Digital SLR EOS 20D in August of 2005. In that time, I've shot over 7000 photos with it and various lenses (currently at 7086) for some people that's a lot of photos for other's it's more than they'll ever take in their entire lifetime. But, I'm not even a high volume shooter! Some of your digital wedding photogs out there shoot a good 1200 a weekend. But in the year and four months that I've had my 20D I can say I've grown a lot as a photographer. If we go back to the 2 years before that when I started shooting on my trusty Canon EOS 7E, we're probably talking in excess of 10,000 pictures combined total. I can only thank my most favored of all subjects, my friends and family. Even when they hate seeing a camera in my hands they struggle through and allow me to capture their likeness in the way that I see them. Be it drunk, funny, inquisitive, blissful or perplexed, the camera and I get a chance to capture you in all moments of humanity.

Technologies may change the equipment, time may change my age, but the photographer behind the lens will always be the same hungered being craving a chance to show others themselves.

New Years Eve 2007 Selections

Sometimes Boo's are good. (well in this case great!)

2006-11-01T13:58:00.000-05:00

Ha! I really haven't been into halloween for quite some time. I mean a guy of my stature doesn't really need the all you can eat sugar-ho-down that this particular holiday offers, and I'm not really keen on better than your average horror flicks. What was wrong with Freddy and Jason? I haven't even seen those wildly japanesey grey dead children long hair of doom flicks either. But I do appreciate a good costume, be it concept, design, execution or exhibition I find it's my favorite part of freakshows like Dragon*Con. Throughout the images of my childhood, there exists amusing snaps of my brother, my cousins and myself in strange garb. Filipino Cowboys? It could happen. (pictures taken by my Pops, who I just now realize is the original inspiration for my love of photography).

I'm going home this weekend to hang with my parents and deliver some kind of tasty Ipod music solution for my sister for her birthday, but one of my missions is to find a picture of the best Halloween costume I ever wore. My mom sewwed together 2 Native American (ah come on, Lil' Indians!) outfits for my brother and me complete with props bought at some kitschy tourist trap in Wisconsin. Or was it K-mart? All in all the same thing really. Anyway, I remember vividly the reactions we got where ever we went and my Mom glowed at the attention her crafts-womanship got her. Heck it was even WARM. If you've ever trick-or-treated in Chicago, you know the end of October is really just the time most kids first learn of frostbite. Here's something that should bring a warm smile to your face though...

Awwww, this darling fall-chicken was in the clutches of a maternal catwoman. Danny and Michelle had come down for a mini-vacation, and on their last day we decided to head to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens with the intention of admiring some flowers and the possibility of admiring the fascinatingly strange visions of Niki De Saint Phalle in mosiac form. Acompanied by our friends in blog-shenanigans Shaun and Maura, we made our trek to the "flowery part" of Atlanta. In doing so we stumbled across Goblins in the Garden, the ABG's annual Halloween + Children celebration. It made the experiance a bit more crowded, but thoroughly enjoyable because of the little goblins present. So we got to do some people watching, brushing up on our botany, art appreciation, and in my case photography of all kinds.

Flower Near-Macro Shot (Maura named it as a snapdragon, and she made it talk to our bemusement):

Candid Portrait of Bloggers who can't stand real Sunlight in place of office flourescents:

A Sun kissed Mother to Be:

Purty Rocks (Shiny and Reflecty):

There's also a bunch of grapes, a cracked self portrait, Frogs a la' Dominguez, Scarecrows, and Air Jordan. I invite you to leave your own comments on the pictures that strike your fancy ;-).

Atlanta Botanical Garden Selections

Good Morning Atlanta

2006-10-08T15:02:00.000-04:00

Last week I provided technical assistance of all kinds for our PR group during a symposium held downtown. I stayed at the Omni hotel at CNN Center, and I got to see downtown Atlanta from a different viewpoint, namely the 13th floor of the north tower of the Omni hotel. I'm sure the view was better higher up for birds eye stuff, but I think that given the distance from the Omni to my old work at the Georgia Pacfic building (3rd tallest in this shot), it worked out perfectly for perspective. I wasn't even going to take a skyline shot because I thought it was pretty cliche. But a few thoughts occured to me on Saturday morning when I saw this outside my window at 7:30am. First, the Atlanta skyline is impossible to correctly characterize because all the vantage points in and around Atlanta vastly change the composition of buildings. (I'll contribute this problem beause of the 3 main areas of skyscrapers in ATL downtown. Peachtree Center, North Ave, and Midtown). Second, most of the views I like include the places I've been to, which coincidentlally are the 4 main buildings grouped together in this shot. Last, I only like skylines where the sun/sky gradient does something special to the buildings.

So what we have here is my personal favorite view of the buildings that comprise Peachtree Center, with a little bit of Centennial Park/GSU in the foreground. I forgot the Omni even existed because it was underwent construction during my time at Georgia-Pacific, and it was just a mass of girders and cranes when I had a view from the 12th floor of GP. It was completed while I was on the near windowless 5th floor my last year at GP, so I never really took a good look at it. What I like best about the shot is the color transition. What it tells me is that between the cool dark blues of night and the red hot heat of day, there's a warm peach flavor to seperate the two.., well at least in Georgia.

(shot from my room at the Omni, through my window. Remember kids, turn off the lights in your room, and try to eliminate all reflections by putting yourself and your camera between the drapes and the glass. If you don't have a fast lens like I did in this case, you'll need a tripod for best results (or a lens with Image Stabilization/Vibration Reduction/Anti-Shake).

Friday Night Lights (Wedding Rehearsal pre-gameday Practice)

2006-09-28T11:16:00.000-04:00

Mr. Barthel having a great time.

Jeness, Todd's Sister. The Best "Man." Easily the best dressed out of the Groom's side ;-)

Todders stealing a kiss from the bride to be, Kati.

20 Years. That's how long a certain Todd B. and I have been friends. From 3rd Grade Mrs. Zacek's class to now, we've done nothing if not mature together. So this past weekend on Sept 23rd, he got married to a wonderful girl, whose family I might have known almost as long. Kati and her older brothers Danny and Jason have lived not more than a 200 yard stretch of land away from my parents first house in Homer (now Homer Glen) Illinois. Danny and Jason were always on the same bus as I was, and Danny and my cousin Chris were friends. I was deeply honored to stand as one of Todd's Groomsman.

I brought my camera gear at his request "just in case" and it turned out to be a most excellent idea. Alot of times couples choose not to have a photographer onhand for the intimate rehearsal dinner, at the expense of not documenting a night just as emotional as their wedding ceremony. It's such a great way to recognize the important people in your life and how they're able to complete all your plans for the wedding and reception ahead.

Barring some weather concerns, there really wasn't a single thing out of place for the evening. It made for a really great night for photos. Critique wise I think I could have paid just a bit more attention to the settings of my flash and diffuser, along with moving to a lower ISO for higher fidelity while still retaining most of the background. Indoors at f4 gives just the right depth of field with the 24mm-70mm L Lens, but at 1/60th shutter with the autoflash (420EX, diffused and bounced) the subject stands out from the background by 2 stop or so. I really need to invest in a remote flash setup, so as to provide a background light. Time to start saving up those pennies again ;-).

Without further comment... the Martin-Barthel Rehearsal Dinner, held at the lush Pheasant Run Resort.

Martin-Barthel Rehearsal Dinner

Sep 22, 2006 - 157 Photos

[GT Alums*] + [BBQ] +[Dairy Queen] = Guaranteed Good Times

2006-09-12T19:06:00.000-04:00

My buddy Dave spent some time in the ATL for Labor Day weekend. Thursday night college pals Maggie, Dave, Todd W. and myself ate at the venerable meat palace of the illustrious Williamson Brothers. Let me say this... if you like dead animal, you owe it to yourself, your appetite, your tastebuds, and your stomach to dine there. Wow. Double Wow.

After a hearty meal and a healthy talk (about the only thing healthy that night), we changed locales to something cooler and sweeter. Dairy Queen! I myself was stuffed to the gullet with Q, but the others didn't mind getting a sweet to counter the savory. Todd was a huge influence in my rekindled facination with photography back in college, so I brought my gear to show him and convince him that he needs to join the digital-SLR revolution.

We had a great time catching up and stuffing face.
Let's do it again sometime, cats.

Mag-azine and Dave

Todd

Magster

*them not me.

Day at the Races

2006-09-10T23:44:00.000-04:00

Todd, my friend of almost 20 years, is getting married this month. Last month we had the Bachelor Party thrown by his sister Jeness, who is the "Best Man". Rightly so, because these two are pretty much inseparable siblings. I grew up with them and I consider Jeness to be a long lost sister, as much as Todd is as close to a blood brother as one can get.

The activities of the day (from 11am-God Knows When), included but were not limited to: Drunken Bus Ride I, Arlington Park, Drunken Bus Ride II, to Sam Maguires Irish Pub, and Drunken Bus Ride III to "Club O" gentlemens' club. I'd like to make a personal salute to all the Barley, Hops and Yeast that died to make the epic amount of beer that our troupe consumed.

I was sort of torn between socializing and taking pictures, so halfway through the day I packed up my 20d and concentrated on having fun. I did take more pictures with Todd's Canon digital powershot, but I haven't gotten those yet. Some real keepers there too.

Jeness and Todd

The only fulltime professional female trumpeter/Bugler Bonny Brown.

Fellow Groomsman (along with myself) Neil!

You can view my selections from the events here:

Barthel Bachelor Party Selections

August 26, 2006 - 46 Photos

Contradictory post about not posting.

2006-09-10T23:27:00.000-04:00

Heh, of course I went into blog-hell. Those of you that know me in person might be perplexed because as extroverted as I am in person, it's hard to believe that I don't blog every minute of my life here on the vast text vacuum of the world. The more I think about it, I'm not into just generic broadcast of my existance. Maybe because I feel that the internet is too big. Who's to say somebody reads this? It's so annoying to talk to a wall. So I guess it makes more sense to me to post pictures along with one way words. I guess I like feedback. I read friends blogs all the time and try to comment because I figure it lets them know I read what's gone on with their lives. Anyway I've taken some pictures here and there, so I have some material other than web diary conundrums.

-k

Clarity in the calamity

2006-07-22T14:02:00.000-04:00

My 9 year old speakers from Boston Acoustics (via Gateway computers), have been picking up AM radio stations at odd hours in the morning. Let me tell you it was quite scary the first time it happened. I thought I had burglars talking to me about politics and sports. So I made the executive purchasing decision by ordering a set of Logitech Z-5450 5.1 speakers (with wireless surround). At first I was in shocked at just how much I was missing on both the low and mid range. Music, movies, and games (in 3d surround no less) sound like tangible reality vs. the recordings and synthesis they actually are... or so I thought. Things got better...

I've been reading about the merits of a better sound card, and I had to take the plunge myself. You can only read so much about how something sounds. Just like you have to taste an orange to know what an orange should taste like. So I got a Creative Labs Soundblaster X-fi, with the hopes it would make my investment into my speakers more than just a boy's fancy for high-tech toys. . . I installed the card, the drivers, the software, and apparently it installed within me belief.

To paraphrase the Monkees:
Then I ~~saw her face~~ heard her voice, now I'm a believer
Not a trace of doubt in my mind.
I'm in love, I'm a believer!

Imagine the first time you saw your favorite band in concert. The drivers of every speaker impregnating the air with the sonic bass pressure and flurrying the atmosphere with the slicing treble from the guitars and vocals. It's like every mp3 I listen to I'm at a private performance from the artist. Scenes from the Matrix were great, but I've been behind in the movie world and I don't own a movie that I'd consider Dolby Digital benchmark material. So I tried downloading some WMV:HD, but I'll share the results of that later, as I'm not done testing the movie aspect.

Videogames are a passion of mine, and without getting ultra nerdy I can say that it's nothing short of crazy how good this setup is. I play a game called Battlefield 2 that supports 64 players skirmishing in a semi-realistic wargame. CNN doesn't know how real it seems at my desk. Discovery channel, eat your heart out. Tanks roll by and I fear for my life.

My speakers are a Ferrari with slick handling and a powerful yet versatile engine. My new soundcard is the skilled driver and mechanic to making this sonic machine scream down the soundtrack of my life. I've been throwing rock, prog-nu-metal, 90's alt, alt-country, white soul, r&b, even some freaking Elvis. I'm happy to report that this setup was worth it, and it wasn't even that much of an investment considering the use that they'll get. The speakers were only 250$ from Amazon, and the soundcard is 111$ from Newegg.com.

To my friends that are technically inclined, I have to say this is a must do upgrade. If you spend any sort of time listening to music at your computer it's a no brainer. Of course there's more to this story because the highest end model of the card is actually a studio quality (not just marketing mojo here) recording/mixing device. Maybe I'll upgrade for Christmas, then I can record my (not-so) sweet lixx on my axe. =)

Score! (or hot aural action)

2006-07-11T20:46:00.000-04:00

Yes indeed score, not "GOAL!", but score. As in the orchestral score to a play or movie. Do you have a favorite movie score? I'm not talking about the hip-hop , rock-pop, or indie-darling song substitutes out there like the much praised "Garden State", or shame inducing "Wild Wild West". I'm talking about the kind of music that allows you to sympathize with the emotion being played out on screen wordlessly. I'm willing to bet that if the movies we know and love didn't have compelling music accompanying it, the modern film market would be much worse than it is today. (Not that gems like Gilgi actually help it). Can you imagine a Star Wars without the Imperial March? An Indiana Jones without his theme to get your blood pumping? For that matter what about television? I'm not sure if "Good Eats" would be the same without it's ten note theme running through in it in all forms ;-). Back during my short stint in college, I met a man we know and love as Das Monkey. He was actually part of a group that collected scores from movies in mp3 form way back in 1997. I actually have a CD with Das Monkey's top 100 tracks from film scores in mp3 format. What struck me was that some of the tracks he had were from terrible movies. Or in the case of "Starship Troopers".... TERRIBLY GREAT! But musically the songs did have merit. The selection from the maligned Starship Troopers, for you curious types, was "Klendathu Drop". My personal favorite track of all time from a movie, is 'Elk Hunt' from the movie "The Last of the Mohicans". In nine years, I wonder what greats Das Monkey has added to the top 100. Name a movie in the last 9 years that stuck with you aurally.

Mental Tickles

2006-07-04T11:01:00.000-04:00

So my stream of conscious surfing today has led me to some quotes from famed New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra. The journey started off as a trivia finding mission for "Bon Voyage Charlie Brown", which eventually led me to researching the individual Peanuts Characters. Peppermint Patty is prone to malapropisms, and I followed that branch to the origins of such humor. Other word play was linked, and I found myself at these gems. Something about them has got me cracking up all morning outloud. Yogi Berra is a freaking genius. The bit about his epitaph, has me in stitches. Do yourself a favor and soak in the widsom and wit (if not entirely intentional) of this Hall of Famer cum Zen Master. It just might make your day. I know it made mine.

Converting Black and White

2006-06-27T11:39:00.000-04:00

I have mixed feelings about converting to black and white, and I've got even stronger convictions against "selective" color black and whites (i.e. red rose, black and white everything else). I do like black and white conversions when I feel that it allows the primary subject to stand out. I like the picture to the left because it's so fluid compared to the awkward stumbling of most children on a dance floor. Foot kicked up, both hands flowing, and eyes closed in concentration. You'd almost think it was her wedding to have.

Many programs out there will convert a color picture to black and white with simple De-saturation. Try messing with the color curves or filters to get an effect you like, for instance increased grain for that film feel, or upping the contrast/brightness. I might try again with the picture of the dancing flower girl, but for now I'm satisfied with the results.

Great Camera Recommendation (deal is now expired)

2006-06-23T10:46:00.000-04:00

The Canon S2 IS 5.0 megapixel camera is an excellent camera, but for 280$ it's an amazing camera. Yeah, it's a point and shoot, but it's got more features than most, along with Image Stabilization. Blurry shots be gone! You also can't go wrong with the optical zoom of 12x. Some video cameras can't even do that. Here's the link (expired)

This is actually last year's model, but the current S3 IS doesn't offer anything better for twice the price. Also, it's been argued that the S2 still has better image quality. Shoot if this deal lasts until next week, I might buy one myself. Sadly, they never do last, so get ON IT!

Reasons to Buy:

12x Optical Zoom
Image Stabilization
Fast Glass (the front element is much larger than most point and shoots)
Uses conventional sized batteries (AA), stick with NiMH 2000mah or above.
Great image quality (i.e. the sensor)
All these features, and it's not a monster in your pocket.
You can't beat that price.

It's such a good camera, I've recommended it to several friends, and many co-workers. Don't forget a nice 1GB or 2GB memory card!

The Comment Nazi Accusation Peace Resolution Accord

2006-06-22T10:57:00.000-04:00

This morning I found out from m-scribbles that I was perceived as a Comment Nazi; a brown shirted (maybe more like skinned) fascist regime hell bent on silencing my detractors and oppressing the weak. This misconception was born out of the fallacy of my previous e-mail forwarding provider Netforward. Their ineptitude and disregard for customer service has caused me all sorts of ill. I'm missing at least a weeks worth of e-mail (though arguably it's just spam). But it's also the source of me being the new Internet Mustachioed (sorta) Totalitarian Dictator. Apparently none of my blog comment moderations ever got to me. So I've since fixed the problem, and I can now believe that people actually read this, instead of me typing to myself in a narcissistic weekly basis. Comments are now a free for all, and I shall take the burden of comment spam removal upon my shoulders. Thanks for stopping by!

Meowr?

2006-06-21T11:02:00.000-04:00

Meet Emory. He's a cat. An 'onry cat at that. He's named after the University he was found at. Enough with the unintentional rhyming.

This picture was taken months ago, but I just decided it needed some cleaning up. A little contrast and fill light, and then some sharpening.

Sorry for the relatively short comment. Working from the Picasa Blogger interface is kinda strange. So I post, then come back to it from the main site.

This little guy is my friend Heather's pet kitty. She wanted me to take some portraits of Emory while he was still young, and cute, before she kills him because he's so frisky. From what I recall (i'm sure I can check the exif data, but i'm lazy) this is with the 85mm f1.8 lens.

Pet pictures are just like people pictures. Focus on the eyes, fill if there's backlighting, and do everything you can to get their attention, including treats. Scooby-snack anyone?

Cookies. Damnit. (now with actual content!)

2006-06-13T16:55:00.000-04:00

Well damn. I had a nice long post that was informative and all, but I lost it because it took so damn long to type. I'll recall the info and post it later tonight. For now, have some cookies.

updated!
d (^.^) b <--little face with thumbsup There's just something about the sight and smell of a homemade chocolate chip cookies that both warms you up and starts up your appetite. Makes you wish for a glass of milk eh? I took the above picture using the same portrait setup as the wedding shots posted a month ago( Canon 20d, 24-70mm f2.8 L lens, 420EX flash bounced off a Demb Big FlipIt! ). These cookies were a donation to a bakesale that I helped organize as part of a peer staff council at work. We were pretty successful in our initial endevour, as we raised about $450 for 2 cyclists that were participating in an AIDS benefit race. We had lots of donations, everything from poundcake, carrotcake, chess-pie (?), chocolate dipped pretzels, and of course chocolate chip cookies. We sweetened the pie (so to speak) by actually making it a sort of contest, Iron Baking as it were. For the curious: The photo was shot in horrendously unfriendly flourescent light, filled by my bounced flash (diffused fill, bounce off the ceiling). This results in a fairly "cold" picture, but the light's more uniform, while highlighting the details in the sugar. A bit of adjustment on the color (warmth!) and saturation and some sharpening and voila' food for the eyes. For my friends who are trying to take their photography more seriously (the rest of you can stop reading now, cuz this is pure camera junkie crap): Get an external flash. Even if you don't think you need the flash, you can't go wrong by having it attached and ready. Think about it, all the major components of a camera are meant to either record, focus, or record light. Without enough light in the entire picture you end up with a murky darkness. You'll never hear "there's too much light in here!" from most photographers. Unless you're carrying a tripod and do available light shots, a flash is a must have for on the go photogs. Don't even think you can get by with the flash that's built in on most modern SLRs and consumer D-SLRs. The standard model flashes used by both canon and nikon (the 430ex and SB-600 respectively) have a flash power rating, called the Guide number that's 10 times more powerful than the pea-shooter built in to their any of their SLRs and D-SLRs. What's this allow? Well say you want to compete with the brightest source of light we can think of, the Sun. You've got your subject a good distance in front of you, but behind them is the sun. Since they're backlit, if you had no fill flash, you'd just see an artsy silhouette of them. With your built in flash you'd get a few details like possibly a nose or the hair. Since they're not right up in front of you, the light from your flash has to travel further, losing potency at an increasing rate over distance. So a flash that's 10x more powerful is a necessity in a brightly lit scene! Now, the oppossite, a dimly lit bar, a few friends across the way. No flash, and you have a blurry mess. With the built in flash, you'll get your friends faces, but since you only have a single directional light source, you'll get a very dark background. If you're all in a drunken stupor how are any of you going to remember where you were? ;-) Here an external bounced flash does wonders. You not only see your friends, but you see what's around and behind them. For those of you that like taking photos of people, there are two added benefits to an external flash. The first being a pretty "catchlight" in your subjects eyes, and a huge reduction in "red-eye". Red pupils are a reflection of light off of the blood vessels and retina. Seeing the demon-eye is a function of how close the flash is to the horizontal axis of the lens on your camera. Don't believe in red-eye reduction pre-flashes, not only does it reduce your battery time immensley, but it is more likely to cause a bad photo as your subjects are blinking like crazy. What's that you say? It's expensive? Yeah, but it's WORTH IT. Don't even think of going with a cheap 3rd party flash. These guys have to try to reverse engineer the communications between a camera and the 1st party made flashes. Stick with the manufacturer of your camera, and you'll never go wrong. Canon users this means the 430ex at $230 or so, and Nikon-ers it's the SB-600 at $190-200. (okay I'll bite, the canon is more expensive because it's newer and is optimized for use with the smaller sensors on most consumer digitals, while still performing as before on full frame film and digitals).

For my friends with other digital cameras or smaller point and shoots, you could benefit from an additional flash too! Some of the bigger point and shoot (film and digi) have 1st party flash shoes just like their SLR and DSLR big brothers. Canon cats, you can probably get by with a 220ex. I don't know what the Nikon equivalent is. For those of you who only have the little onboard red-eye enhancer flash on your cameras, you can use something like this little honey from Metz.

Yeah, food bloggers, this applies to you too. You'd LOVE it.

-k

Impromptu Reviews: Wicked & RENT

2006-06-05T10:26:00.000-04:00

Make no mistake about it folks, I like musicals AND I like girls. A cosmic conundrum I'm sure, that makes me some sort of Heterosexual Heathen in some circles. I won't defend it other than say I appreciate music to the extent I appreciate vocalists and count them as much as an instrument as they are a person. Even technically "bad" singers can offer something fascinating like warble of Connor Oberst (Bright Eyes), or the calming monotone of Mason Jennings. But it's always a joy to hear somebody who has pipes that can knock back a nuclear blast. Both touring casts of Wicked and RENT had a few such artists.

Wicked the Musical, an adaptation of an interpretation of the back story to the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire. Maguire's twist on L.Frank Baum's original Wizard of Oz was an involving dual character study in novel form with dark and sexual overtones. The musical keeps the sexual side of things, but tones it down for a PG-13 show. Musically, Wicked comes on strong, and has humor and bounce. It gets a bit synthy for some, but it's terribly good fun in all regards. It's like your favorite ice cream, you know you shouldn't have a second helping, but you just can't stop. The story in Wicked veers off in a lot of ways, because frankly, the book isn't very kid safe. What's a morbid horror in the book turns into a mild inconvenience in the musical. Our particular performance had one problem. The lead male was atrocious, granted he was the understudy... but the complete opposite was true of the lead female, Elphaba, who was also played by an understudy. Our consensus was that if the understudy was that amazing, how much more amazing could the principle be? Verdict: 8.5 out of 10. Easily could have been a 9, if it weren't for the 1 actor/singer.

RENT, sometimes credited as the first Broadway musical to openly address the following: Transvestites, Homo- and Bi- sexuality, AIDS, and heroin usage. Seems like a totally jam packed humdinger story, which it is, but not to the extent where your distanced from the characters by the hugeness of the situation. Most of the characters are fairly well fleshed out on stage and in song, so you eagerly want to know how each one handles their predicament. Musically it's ... not your mother's musical. There's an onstage band led by the pianist-cum-synth-rocker, and at times they can very nearly overpower the cast, but for the most part it's well balanced. The ballad themes are infectious, and the sadder pieces will leave you near to tears. Given the characters stories, RENT is a righteous celebration of life and the time that people have; either forgiving the past, forsaking the fears of eminent future, or just living in the now. The touring production we saw was incredibly cast with not a single weak performance. My favorite was the gorgeous actress/singer who played Mimi. Either as a drugged up purring seductress or a wailing lover, she moved mountains with her talent. Runner up was the tenor in the character Tom Collins. His fantastic performance on the piece "I'll Cover You"(reprise) will coerce water to well in any human eye. Save the few technical difficulties in the opening act, I give it a 9 out of 10.

Capture Pt 2.

2006-05-25T21:07:00.000-04:00

Here's the rest of my favorites from Tuesday. Thankfully I can use this as ammunition to convince the rest of my friends to let me take pictures of them, or at least stop protesting when the terrible glass monster comes out to play.

Between these pictures and the recent wedding I shot, my confidence in my photography is approaching "damn-proud". I think I'll finally stop being a terribly low budget photographer and be at least a medium market photographer. Maybe I should see about getting that business license if I want to take this even more seriously.

-k

Capture

2006-05-24T10:34:00.000-04:00

While I'm all for headshots that involve somebody smiling at the camera, I really do like the ones where they're not looking at me, and they don't necessarily expect me to take a picture. I do love pictures where a genuine smile or laughter is captured, but I like off beat natural expressions that people don't always get to see of themselves. This is my good friend Sara, she scrubbed up and pretty for our night on the town seeing the touring production of "Wicked". I've been meaning to take some portraits of her for forever, but the opportunity didn't really present itself until yesterday.

We're in a little alcove next to the Georgian Terrace Hotel, a good bit before our show. It was a bit weird at first because I'm not used to posing somebody in a public place, who isn't obviously in an event.... like a wedding. Sara proved up to the task though, and I think we were able to eeke out some keepers with her talent, and my mediocrity.

Camera-philes, the above photo is with my trusty 20d, the venerable and affordable 85mm F1.8, my 420ex flash as fill off of a Demb Flip-it flash diffuser. My only gripe about this particular shot was that I accidentally had the camera in the default "green" auto setting, so I only have this in a JPEG format. For those of you that haven't moved to shooting RAW yet, do it. Get bigger memory cards (or more of them) and you'll find with patience and a little know how you can control so much more in your images to get the end result you want.

I'll post a few more of the keeper from this session tomorrow.

Forum Fun, and Caveat Emptor

2006-05-22T14:43:00.000-04:00

The internet is a vast and terrible beast. But it's also capable of putting you right next to people who are interested in the exact same thing you are. The best (and arguably the worst) way to learn and share is through an internet forum. If your addiction happens to be photography like mine, I can recommend the forums at www.fredmiranda.com. I'm a Canon shooter, and I find that it's most informative site for other canon users. Most Nikon fans opt for nikonians.org. The FredMiranda forums are all encompassing though, from picture critique in all types of photography, monthly image composition contests, local "shooter's groups", and the most active private Buy and Sell forum. If you're in the market for a used digital SLR, or some nice lenses, this is the place to go. Remember though, traditional e-buyer caution is a must! I've made several purchases myself there already, and it's very friendly and very informative.

If you're into computers and computer sales, you can't really beat the 1-2-3 combination of Anandtech's Hot deal forums, Fatwallet.com, and the summary of scoops at Slickdeals.

The viral interwebmachine is housed within the forum structure, which is both good and bad. But since you're usually among understanding peers in those situations, the benefits far outweight the occasional internet troll.

If you're into something, find others like you that are into it too. You'll get far more enjoyment out of the hobbies that make you, you.

-k

Output!

2006-05-16T21:05:00.000-04:00

So I've been busy. This past Saturday was the wedding photography gig, and this time it wasn't a direct friend of mine as the bride or groom. Sarah-Irene and John were great though. I had a lot of fun and I took a bunch of pictures that I culled down to about 340. I've got a bunch of faves, most of them respresented in the above collage. My favorite non-portrait pictures are the wedding environmentals. I had a great day and lighting for pictures, (overcast with sprinkes of rain, and the church has plenty of skylights and windows that would have normally flooded traditional film out. ) and it also helped to have technology on my side (Thank goodness for digital, and whitebalance!) . Editing these photos was almost as addicting as taking them. The times I get to grind out a creative product on my computer lately are a rare and cherised delicacy.

Having shot my own share (and by many less-than-brave photographer's standards one is too many) of weddings using traditional 35mm film (in Professional emultions of course), it's an amazing breath of fresh air to be able to say that I've reviewed the pictures, culled the pictures to a more managable size, and edited the pictures for color/composition all just 2 business days after the wedding! Before, it took me almost 2-3 weeks to see the returned proofs from the photofinisher I used. As it is, if I was just delivering the final digital images on a DVD without any type of prints, I'm done. Digital is blazing volcanic changes to photography workflow.

Here are some of the environmentals at very tiny sizes compared to their "deliverable" quality siblings.

Flash dance

2006-05-10T16:54:00.000-04:00

So Tuesday night I was so curious to know if my current tripod setup was strong enough to handle my camera + new lens. The lens is of a relatively normal zoom range, but with optics both exotic (Ultra-Low Dispersion, and Aspherical) and enormous. The outer diameter of the front glass element is 77mm, the largest round filter thread size. Even though I own a tripod that's quite heavy, I had to make sure it would all be stable. So I get everything setup, and find relief in that my tripod is quite sturdy despite it's newfound heavyweight friends. I satisfied my curiousity further by taking test shots with the new flash diffuser I've purchased as well. My apartment has several large windows that face the parking lots, and I can't help but wonder if people could see the blitz from my flash bleed through the blinds.

On Wednesday night Sara and Shaun and I hung out at El Torrero for some tasties and distribution of Japanese artifacts made in China. (Sara had recently gone to Japan to visit her best friend). Afterwards I informed Sara that I would need to use her as a test subject for my new setup, which she was kind enough to oblige. So I've got a set of photos that involve Shaun and Sara combatting with pillows on my futon. It's hot. Or Sarcastic. Or something. At least I know my photo gear is working.

(The above picture was stolen from this website, and it shows my camera, my lens + it's lenshood, and something I don't own...yet... which is the vertical grip - located on the bottom of the camera).

Anticipation(s)

2006-05-08T08:41:00.000-04:00

I photograph weddings as a pro-am and it's something of a labor of love for me. One thing that I haven't been able to shake though, are the jitters and worries that plague me a month before the shoot. These butterflies are like my social worries about meeting new people. I'm entirely dodgy and shy and unconfident when the mere idea of new socialities surface to the now. But put me in that firey cauldron and I strive to be the dominant flavor. I like to think that I'm the same way with photography. Since it actually involves a good bit of personable ability, I'm more at home behind a lens and in front of people than I am anywhere else.

With that said, I'm terribly excited/scared about this weekend. While I'm responsible for creating the images that last a lifetime, at the same time, I'm responsible for creating the images that last a lifetime.

(the above picture was from the Semonova-Shattuck wedding I took last August)

Friendly Monster in all of us.

2006-05-03T15:12:00.000-04:00

Here's my buddy Eduardo. Those of you not fans of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends take note: He's a scary looking monster, who's more scared of you than you could be of him. Oh, and he bilingual. Bienvienido, Eduardo!

Picture was taken with my Canon 20d and my new lens. Thank you everybody who contributed to the Nevkil Birthday Lens Fund '06!

Motivation of the wrong sort

2006-04-24T15:20:00.000-04:00

I had a fairly relaxing time this weekend past, probably because I scrapped the idea about a birthday party/house warming. It's more a function of locale and locally available friends than "at-rest" inertial physics that ultimately doomed the endeavor. Friends out of town, friends out of town permanently, friends permanently out of reality (read as: "Steve"), and so on and so forth. That and I didn't have a grill or at least a grilling location that wouldn't involve the Decatur/Atlanta Fire Dept. Plus, I can't honestly say I felt comfortable trying to get people together in honor of my own birthday. Granted, I am an attention-slut, but for some reason I can't do it upfront with "Hey let's party in my name! Uh, I don't drink, but sure, bring your own beer and let's party in my name!".

Earlier on Monday (my actual birthday day 17th), my friend Sara was determined to make my birthday something more than just dinner at a regular haunt. So I suggested a new place I liked, Taqueria Del Sol. Thankfully (yes, thankfully) they were closed on Mondays, and we were forced to find sustenance elsewhere in Decatur. A quick spin and we ended up at Taqueria Del Sol's more creative cousin, Zocalo's. I was happily impressed with the food, and we had the most talkative of servers who told us a deep compounding series of stories that involved revenge pranks. We're talking 20 minutes worth of stories here kids. From his parents' tactics, to his co-workers' demise, we knew everything about him and revenge pranks. Super glued toilet seats, ex-lax margaritas, and the surprise of the night: habenaro sauce on your office chair. The latter is utterly devious. Hot sauce on your office chair will eventually seep into your enemy's skin, providing you with a not so friendly irritation of the most wrong kind. The food was the highlight, but I'll get into that later, as I have yet to learn how to spell anything on that menu correctly.

Afterwards we met up with Shaun and went to go see "Thank you for Smoking". PR Spin at it's best/worst/horrifying/funniest. We saw this movie on the incredible recommendation from my buddy Matt. Matt loved the movie because he IS the spin doctor. The short of it all, go see it.

Friday, I saw the Inside Man with Jodie Foster's legs starring. Oh and Clive Owen, and Denzel Washington, and Willam Dafoe. A thinking flick with humourous dialoge that focuses on the (not-so)-little racial indignities each society as a whole inflects upon itself and others. As for the crime itself, it's rather inexplicable without giving it away.

Saturday, the highlight was the creation of a truckload of mashed potatoes. Though, I'll have to cut back on Mr. Alton Brown's definition of tasty salt since I've switched to using gourmet/kosher salt. It's a bit salty with his recommendation of 2 whole freaking tablespoons. One and 1/4 would have been enough I wager. Taters go great with steak. Yum.

Sunday... I wanted to feed people, but I fed myself. Pot roast! It's fun cooking something as strange as Alton Brown's Pot Roast. Also, Since I was alone this weekend I figured I might as well watch the chick flicks that accumulated on my DVR: Amelie', Wimbledon, the family favorite: An Evening with Kevin Smith (okay so it's not a chick flick, but damn funny).

Quick rundown: Amelie' - HA! + French = the Unpossible come true. I dug it.
Wimbledon - Pure cheese. But I'm in love with Kirsten Dunst. 2/5
An Evening with Kevin Smith - Most fellacio jokes during a series of
interviews....EVER.

-k

Veintisiete Anos; Familia ++ (and obviously late postings)

2006-04-17T11:23:00.000-04:00

It's basically impossible to sum up my lifetime in a blog posting, and maybe I'll take on that challenge when I'm 30. I'd need a round number to justify working so hard I guess. In anycase, thank you pre-emptively for your birthday wishes.

One of the more amusing aspects of my birthday (and in correlation my brother's and my cousins') is that for 1 month I'm either the same age as my brother, or the same age as my cousin. My brother Jay is a mere 10 months younger than myself, and my cousin Christopher is 11 months older than me. In fact, the next male cousin in this series (and so far the oldest mentioned) is my cousin Francis. He's only 6 month's older than Christopher. It's no wonder we're all so close.

To better understand the social dynamic of we the Fantastic 4, it helps to know that our 3 mothers are part of a nuclear sisterhood of six Castor family girls. Francis, Chris, Jay and myself are a tight cluster of a larger bunch of first cousins. Growing up it was like having one brother, and 2 half brothers. As you can imagine, we might have fought constantly, but for the most part we were our own little gang. Many times the cluster of cousins older than us would prop us up and adopt us as two distinct armies. The Layug brothers against the Silva-Atraje Conglomerate. Numerous sports and physical challenges ensued with this pitting of tiny titan vs tiny titan. Football, baseball, basketball, boxing (always a family favorite), wrestling (Greco-roman, and WWF) were but some of the activities that minor bloodshed occurred. I think the only really mental game we played was probably 52-card pickup, and even then it only happened 4 times total. (1 per mark). I have no qualms in saying I had a enriching and thoroughly magnificent childhood that warrants jealousy. For those with limiting circumstances, it's hard to compare, since my childhood came with it's own set of 3 other friends/rivals, of which I'm truly lucky to have. But we're not the only cluster to happen, and certainly not the last within our lineage.

My maternal grandfather, Leon had no sons, so I guess his daughters took it upon themselves to churn out babies like there was no tomorrow. All in all, the Six have created 2.5 kids apiece. The turns out like this:

My aunts/mother listed with baby named in order of appearance.

Edna: First out the gate with Noel
Edna: Repeat Victory with Irwin
Merle: Usurper with Dennis
Merle Follow up with Francis
Nimia: Christopher to steal the thunder
Florida: For the steal with the first girl cousin in the family Jannelle!
Irma: Sneaking in with Yours truly
Irma: Nabbing the award for fastest repeat with my "irish" twin Alexir John (Jay)
Nimia: 2nd Girl Jennifer
Florida: 3rd Girl Jeannete
Irma: 4th Girl My sister Kirsten
Claridad: Bringing it back male side of things with Raymond
Claridad: Mixing it up with Katie
Claridad: A trifecta with Robert!
Florida: Coming back with the last first cousin and a girl to boot, Jackie.

At this point, I didn't have time to go any further the entire week on writing, and frankly the post got bloated past all things, because to describe my family probably requires the same amount of time that the 30 year old post would.

So for the record, I'm 27, I'm grown up, and I come from the finest filipino stock this side of the pacific. And I'm tragically late on posting this by 4 days.

-k

White Rabbit

2006-04-13T09:44:00.000-04:00

Oddly enough, I typed in this post's title with the intent of alluding to Alice in Wonderland's tardy lagomorph. But I guess you could also associate it with this coming weekend's sucrose packin', plastic grass dealin', egg shell hidin' fiend himself, the Easter Bunny. So I might as well touch on both my intended and unintented meanings.

I'm always running late it seems. Even when I wake up 2 hours before I need to go to work, I still manage to dilly-dally my way into a few minutes of trouble. Not that work is strict or that I'm paid by the hour. I don't even have a long drive. Funny thing is, it's usually all within the same time frame that this happens, so I'm actually on a schedule, just not in synch with everybody else's. I've even tried to offset my clocks to 10 minutes ahead of time, so as to rush me. Though I've done this for so long I think it's actually counterproductive, because I always compensate for the difference in my head. I think I just need to manage my time better, though I always say that. Or I need a red vest and a pocket-watch.

Did you know that the Easter Bunny should really be an Easter Hare? For the short and quick answer, the main difference in the ear sizes and if the young are born naked or hairy. Don't blame me, blame some German-Americans who made up the story that a buck-toothed mammal laid art deco eggs. My personal vote is for the Australian Easter Bilby. Apparently rabbits and hares are considered to be pests so there was a movement to replace the bunny/hare with a long eared marsupial rat. It's freaking ugly, and I'm not sure people should be eating a chocolate representation of such an animal. Also, considering it's minute size... wouldn't laying an egg 60% of your own volume hurt? Explain that to the kids.

There are all sorts of strange and interesting facts/fiction/myths surrounding Easter, and being a Catholic I can say I'm familiar with most, but today was the first day I actually thought that the Easter Bilby/Bunny/Hare/Turtle didn't make sense, and I decided to look it up. Just goes to show that the older you get the wiser you get, though my personal wisening maybe slightly delayed with regards to most others'.

Tree Pollen and Me. (A Tragedy)

2006-04-10T10:51:00.001-04:00

I had so many things I wanted to do this past weekend, but for the most part I ended up sleeping. It's my unscientific conclusion that the pollen is eating away at my soul. For the most part, it's actually not too terrible; I'm not crying, sniffling, coughing or convulsing in ways that would require Catholic priests (young and old). But it does tire me out. I feel a general bodily irritation that might constitute a soon-to-become 27 year old itch, and my body is probably fighting off the yellow invaders. Asian? No... domestic aboreal sperm. The entirety of Atlanta is being inundated with springtime beauty and the associated requirements of tree sex.

Of the activities, I really wanted to go to the Atlanta Dogwood Festival, but that would have required waking up early, and finding parking somewhere around 8am. Wasn't going to happen considering my recent trip to Chicago had me up at 4am (EST) every night for a week. So I spent the day napping away the hurt. Thankfully my decision was justified, considering the rains that fell, a small reprieve from the pollenic onslaught of the week.

But, my decision was not so smart on Sunday. The day was amazingly beautiful, and the flora thought it was the most perfect time to amp up their sperm production. Girls, flowers are not overtly feminine, according to my calculations, they're hornier, and less restrained than the men who give them to you, albiet only during a few months a year. Hence, I slept most the entire day. What a freaking pisser. Though, from a portrait photographer's standpoint it was terrible to go out in, not a single cloud in the sky. Diffused lighting is far more flattering to skin than harsh noonish sun. So as far as having fun in great weather I missed out, but blame the sleep-eze brought on by pollen; on the other hand, I wouldn't have been able to do what I wanted to do anyway.

My goal today after I scarf down some of tasty remnants of last nights dinner, is to walk over to Lullwater park here at Emory and see if I can't make something happen with light, nature, a lens and a 8.2 megapixel digital sensor. Oh I should probably do some work too ;-)

In other news, good thing I brought my camera. Home opener for the braves? Badass. Hope we can score some tickets.

A melody softly soaring through my atmosphere

2006-04-07T16:24:00.000-04:00

Artist: Death Cab for Cutie
Venue: Tabernacle (Atlanta)
Opening Act: The Cribs

Audience: Myself, M-scribbles, and every girl under the age of 21 in the greater atlanta area, and their respective boy toys + mothers.

Even though I was surrounded by quite possibly the girliest audience seen since a Jack Johnson or a John Mayor concert, I had a great time last night at the Tabernacle. The opening band was the Cribs (an english rock family trio). Simple, but highly energetic and punchy, it almost seemed a strange juxtoposition with the overly contemplative Deathcab. ( Take in mind that most of this tour Franz Ferdinand is the Co-headliner with Deathcab, which helps the relative incongruitity smooth out) I could listen to the Cribs, but I don't think the Deathcab audience was prepped to be rocked hard so early in the evening, though in my eyes they did a good job, but probably went over the heads of the O.C. crowd that seemed to infest the Tabernacle.

When the main event started, I felt so soiled by the blinding ignorant flashes from every single digital camera that emerged from a purse or pocket. Ben Gibbard's so lucky to not be epileptic. I'm a photographer by nature, and if you're listening out there, your shitty little digital camera's flash is quite possibly the most flaccid and annoying thing since Bob Dole's pitch. If you really want pictures of your favorite artist, sneak in a small pocket film camera with iso 1600 film. You'll probably think you're some kinda Liebovitz if you compare the results to your $300 "shit"ital cam. It's just plain rude these days to be part of the stalkerazzi.

Once the flash flood subsided, some actual music could be enjoyed. For the most part, everything sounded immaculate. Majority of the material was plucked from Plans and Transatlanatiscim, along with a smattering of older fan favorites. Bodies were moving, girls were swooning and the house got LOUD. So loud that a few times Ben's mike had to be upped just to cut over the band trying to cut over the crowd. Not to make a new generalization of the fanbase, but there were alot of females there. It's my guess that with the higher ratio of soprano voices, the db levels were on par with a shuttle launch. I was riding in a vehicle powered by girls screams, and it made me dizzy, but I had a great time. Death Cab is a great live band, because they're so spot on. They maintain the sound of the album, but at the same time, it's more energetic, and has a great spontaneous feel to it. The instrumental sections of songs were highlighted and savored, as opposed to just being time filler. A few times Ben broke out into singer/guitarist/percussionist all in the same song, and then blew the crowd away when a second but diminutive drum kit was brought out so he could jam and trade diddles with drummer Jason Mcgerr.

All in all a great show, with the only shortcomings coming from the crowd, I can say that I'll definately catch the next Death Cab show. And I suspect my unwitting victim in all of this ,M-scribbles, would too.

(fo)Cussing out of focus

2006-04-05T13:44:00.000-04:00

This is a photo of my cousin Christopher and his wife Imee. It started off as a very out of focus color digital, but the end result tells the story I wanted in the first place. My stylish cousins at a glance with a glance. A little noise, a little black and white, some upping of the contrast, and a little bit of blowout turns it into something I can look at and feel that I've done their images justice.

Writing to Reach You (again) or Welcome back Kotter, er Nevkil!

2006-01-24T13:34:00.000-05:00

Blogs. Yup. I've re-joined the band. I actually had one of the most depressing... "personal websites" my friends ever read before these things were deemed Weblogs... Blogs, Bloggers, Bloggtastic, or...*shudder* Myspace.com. Good ol' http://www.home.com/~nevkil later morphed into home.comcast.com/~nevkil. I wonder if I have that stuff archived on a zipdisk somewhere. I'm sure it's hidden away in some attic space at my parents, a sad and dusty reminder of just how terribly depressed a stupid kid in love could have been. But that's enough of that! Let's get on with the show, and see how many !!!!'s it takes before I lose my mind (again).

Elastic World

2004-06-29T13:31:00.000-04:00

Today my world both shrank and exploded right before my very eyes.

The concept of Six Degrees of Separation is something that has rocketed to the forefront of socialite tongues. It states each person on this Earth is tied to every other person by merely tracing social links through six easy steps or less. When I first heard about this I was a freshman at the fortress(more on that on a later date) known as Lockport Township High School. It was the title of a movie starring the then fledgling rapper/actor/comedy- The Fresh Prince himself- Will freakin' Smith. Now the movie was a laughable failure, but the idea the movie was based on still lives. The web savvy translations of it have evolved into sewing circle dating/stalking forums, friendship and it's Google friendly competitor Orkut.

As a Social Moth (see social butterfly) I'm aware of the various fires that people tend to hunker themselves around and keep their souls warm. The observation I make as a temporary guest to one and the semi-permanent member of another, is that we sometimes close our eyes to things and people outside of our own bright fires. Blinders are often put on and are a result of the fear of the friendless cold. It usually takes the necessity of circumstance or a flare of burning desire for a person to seek the fresh warmth of new friends/circles. Not to knock on the door of friendship and to call it out and denounce our human intentions, but I cry wolf here to show that a stated friendship does not equate a bond. To know somebody is different than having the opportunity to know somebody. The former is an experience that lashes your life unto the life of another. Where a stranger becomes the trusted, and your lives are made better.

The Six Degrees ideal doesn't take the bonds of family or friendship into effect, it merely relies on circumstance of a chance meeting, or less personal setting. Although working with somebody can be a valid experience of friendship, working the lower rungs of a corporate ladder shouldn't count as knowing the CEO of a company (which is why to this day I still wish I could meet Ted Wait of Gateway and have a long chat). This less than pure chain of people can easily corrupt one's view of how friendship should be. Take a look at some of the more "connected" people on Friendster and you'll find that they meet all the requirements of a raver flash mob. Anybody with 100+ friends is either a budding internet debutante, or a well linked lover of all that is internet. Friendster took note of it's almost ridiculous networking by limiting the degree separation to be 3. Easy on their wallet, and makes more sense when it comes to meeting people who may know a friend of yours. Dark Helmut had us nailed with "I am your father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate"

Which brings us to today. I started off my day by actually shaving my face, but I yet again yielded to my now sentient moustache. Being that it's contrived and composed of alleged hairs, I'm convinced it must be of a hive mind. When stragglers wander off into the unknown of my chin(s) I wrangle them up with the help of my blade of choice, the Gillette Mach3 Turbo. (I could tangent off into the oddly accepted realm of razorblade upgradage, but I'll stick to my posting title today.) I also took the time to iron and starch my favorite white cotton Oxford in anticipation of my corporate doom. There is something relaxing about a slow methodical process in the face of a lion-like day. Because the terribly shadowed date of my one-on-one meeting with my departmental Director had finally arrived, I was preparing my still living corporate corpse to the nines.

As it turns out it was an informal get to know eachother session that allowed my Director to get to a more personal level with her underlings. Which I applaud her for. She's an easy person to talk to, and my own garrulousness is hard to contain in such situations. It's one thing to prod an army of strangers along to battle, but it's easier to lead a group of friends towards an objective. In our less than strategic conversation though, I found out she grew up in the place that I graduated Highschool from. Evans Highschool, in Evans, Georgia (the dreaded Augusta). After laughing about her hometown and my adopted home base (the rents and sibs are still there), we talked about our family. It turns out her mother volunteers in the same hospital that my mother is a R.N. Quite the coincidence, and fairly amusing to us both. We exchange names of our mothers and meandered around my education, my goals, what I liked about my job, and my hobbies. All in all it was a good experience and I'm glad she took the time out of her day to BS around a bit. Augusta and Atlanta come together and shrink my world a step.

A far more sobering piece of news was to shortly follow though. I worked and am friends with a young lady who hails from the former Soviet controlled country of Kyrgyzstan. She's a tennis marvel and went to school here locally in Atlanta. She's a natural at both tennis and geek, a fun surprising cocktail of energy and sobering tinkerality. She can drink me under the table to boot. She co-oped with the company I work for and was eventually hired on as a contractor. Her student visa expired the year she graduated, but she was unable to attain a sponsorship for a H1 visa. Too shorten the tale I'll leave out her involvement with a chicken footed old-balled bastard. She was let go for legal reasons, and she's forced to leave the country, to avoid being banned from the country for several years. It pains our group of friends to watch this happen, as there's nothing most of us can do. She's decided for herself that marrying a stranger or an acquaintance to stay goes against her way of operating, and I'm all for that. My own morality entwined view of love and marriage wouldn't allow me the convenience of an on the spot marriage, no matter how much I loved the country I was in, and how much I would miss it. Some of my other friends disagree, which I too can see, but I wouldn't make that decision personally.

Her leaving is very disheartening to her and to her friends. We'll miss her. Too much in fact. So much that the distance from Atlanta to Bishkek might as well be light years. Thankfully an ansible exists. The internet. But to me, life is more than digitized text and pictures. There's something sly in a smile, something wicked about a laugh, something terrible about a sigh, and something wonderful about tears, that will never be caught unless you're right next to your friend. It won't be the same, and the world is disgustingly huge to me because of it. Being linked to somebody in a very tangible form stretches your heartstrings to the limits when they're far removed from you. When a person 1 Degree from you leaves your circle of influence, their accessibility hampers your expression. Typing to a person through any of the IM programs isn't a fulfilling experience for me compared to a phone call or a one on one. But we'll take what we can get. Hopefully we'll all see her back in several months and this will be just some ink on the internet. Let's hope.

Sorry if I wander about in topic and subject. But the ideas I set before the story (try to) explain my brains alignment with fudged logic and my heart.

Utsusemi

2004-06-28T15:04:00.000-04:00

*breathes in*

Today I cast off yet another skin, and renew my relationship with a person I've known all my life...myself. Or rather the self that exists as a multi step organic-scientific-mystic waltz from my subconciousness to my consciousness to my ego to my fingers to the keyboard etcetera. It's a refreshing experiance for me, as usual, but this time I have the determination to make it something more than a morose commentary on my unwieldly perception of love.

I've been meaning to get back on some sort of writing schedule, but I waned from it for lack of an audience. It's no secret I'm an amalgam performer-thinker archetype to my friends; a sort of charismatic enigma that craves attention of any kind one instant only to stymie my whims and freeze my interactions the next. Now that I feel that I have friends who might be interested in finding out more about me combined, with not-so-secret need to expunge myself unto the masses, I again write.

The whole process seems to molt me.

The japanese word "Utsusemi" refers to the shedding skin of a cicada. The process symbolizes renewal, and in this case is the renewal of self.