Thursday, September 30, 2010

September 30 - Fashion Show Blimp


So it's not an actual blimp. I don't even think it's meant to depict a blimp. But that's what it looks like to me. Or a surfboard. I stopped by here after watching "DAO: The Asian Celebration" with Jenny at the Riviera. It's actually a decent show.

September 29 - Blog Title


This photo is so meta. I'm almost at the end of the 7th month of this blog and the ideas are running dry. I visited my brother's place and they have all these tiny letter tiles on their fridge. I decided to photograph my blog title.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

September 28 - Fiery Windmill


I left work late today and the sun had already set, so I was driving toward this pretty sweet sunset ahead of me. I decided to stop at a park I usually pass but had never visited before. It's actually a pretty awesome little park, complete with an equestrian section. I always knew I would need to capture this windmill some day. Today be that day.

September 27 - Kapoosh Knife Block


I was pretty much stumped for ideas and decided to photograph my knife block for the heck of it. As it turns out, I really like how the reflection on my chef's knife makes it look like you're actually looking through glass. I had to position the knife and the camera a few times to get the effect the way I wanted it.

Incidentally, I love my universal knife block. I only have a chef's knife, a bread knife, a paring knife, and a honing steel, and they fit in there however I want.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

September 26 - Big A & JAO



We went to Olive Garden for Aaron's and James's birthdays. The photo above is either (a) James and Aaron playing paper football or (b) Aaron giving James the double loser sign. The photo below is Hina's idea.

September 25 - Bogatsa Baklava


Josh and I hit up the Greek Food Festival for a couple of hours. This is a photo of the Pistachio Baklava and the Bogatsa I had to conclude my eats. The Bogatsa was delicious (I love custard).

I'd have to say the highlight for me was the trio of dolmathes that started my afternoon. Yum, yum, and yum! I also tried an Ouzorita (a margarita-style frozen drink made with Ouzo). The sun was pretty brutal at the time, so that Ouzorita hit the spot and gave me a few cases of head freeze. However, I'm not a big fan of the anis aftertaste that lingers a little too long.

September 24 - Hybrid Theory



I snapped this photo in the couple of minutes I had before heading out to the Big Boi concert. I wanted something high contrast and slightly abstract. For only having a couple of minutes, I think it turned out pretty well.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

September 23 - Exploration Music Project



Anthony posted on facebook that he was going to head to Exploration Park and play his guitar. This sounded like a good photo opportunity. Unfortunately, he didn't go until well after sunset, but I managed to get a decent shot or two.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

September 22 - Net Sunset



I'll admit that this photo is just a quickie that I took right before my coworker and I hit. On the bright side, it required no cropping and I just did a couple of quick level adjustments (mostly auto). Not a bad photo for a quickie.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

September 21 - Callow Ways



My coworkers went to Callaway to hit some golf balls during lunch. This is a fairly regular occurrence these days. I figured a nice silhouette would satisfy today's blog entry.

As for the title, whenever I think of Callaway, I think of The Decemberists and their song, "I Was Meant For The Stage." It contains the lyric, "You will resume your callow ways. But I was meant for the stage." Random, I know.

September 20 - Red Red Yarn



So there was this time quite a while ago when a coworker taught me how to crochet. I bought some random yarn on sale several years ago. And I still have it. I'll probably never use it.

Anyway, I'm still searching for that quintessential abstract macro photo. This isn't it.

September 19 - Nag Champa



I bought some Nag Champa when I was in Haight-Ashbury. Louie says it's the most popular incense out there. I decided to burn some and make some more smoke art. I call the above photo, "The Dancing Couple." The one below? Hmm. Let's call it, "UC Berkeley."


Saturday, September 18, 2010

September 18 - Guitar Gallery



Since I drove all the way down to Winchester, I figured I'd get a two-for-one deal out of it. This photo of their guitar wall was taken shortly after midnight. There are a ton of signatures on each guitar; I'm just not sure of any of the names.

September 17 - KVGS The Alternative



I decided to visit Camila at work and get my photo. This one of the 107.9 studio is easily the most interesting and certainly most colorful.

Friday, September 17, 2010

September 16 - Miracle Mile



I have to give props to Louie for the idea for this photo. The rest was luck. This girl just happened to be walking by right as we were walking by. She reached out for the wall and gave me the perfect shot. The nice thing is, I had the right settings for the silhouette, and my shutter button worked!

September 15 - Ethernet Run



I finally bought a monitor for my cheap PC that, up until now, was hooked up to my TV downstairs. Now that the PC is upstairs, I have to stream videos to my media box over wireless, and that just isn't cutting it. It won't look all that pretty, but I'm going to run some cat5 from the router upstairs to the devices downstairs.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

September 14 - Yelp Mints



I picked up this tin of mints (as well as other swag) at last night's Yelp event. I like how they are actually shaped like the Yelp logo. It's at least good enough for a photoblog entry.

September 13 - Skyzone Pleytime



One big benefit of being Yelp Elite is that you get invited to these free events. I missed the first one I was invited to, so I made sure to catch this one at Skyzone near Sam Boyd Stadium. It's basically a huge area of trampolines to bounce around on. There was also a netted off area to the side where they held the first ever Yelp LV dodgeball tournament. We didn't participate. It was fun (and tiring) enough just jumping around and shooting hoops down on the other end.

Overall, I'd say my first YEE (Yelp Elite Event) was a hell of a lot of fun. Big shout out to Misti Y, our awesome Yelp Community Manager, for getting us crazy Yelpers together for a fun night.

If you care, you can read my review here.


September 12 - Window Shadow



I had another free night at the South Point. It's really kind of pointless, but they give you a coupon book with some decent free stuff. And I suppose it saves my power bill from a night of air conditioning. Not that my power bill is that expensive to begin with.

I tried to get something a little eerie looking. It was all done in camera. I didn't really get the effect I was after.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

September 11 - Jollibee Not So Good



I've never claimed to be very Pinoy. I haven't been to the Philippines since I was about 8 years old. And until last week in San Francisco, I had never been to Jollibee. Well that visit inspired me to finally get some here in Vegas.

The verdict? The fried chicken was OK. The corn was good. The mashed potatoes tasted like instant. But the spaghetti was frakin awesome! I used to hate Filipino style sweet spaghetti sauce. I still like the tartness of a good Bolognese, but I am totally down with Filo spaghetti.

By the way, I spent $14 on this food spread. I figured I didn't want to have to go back to try other things, so I tried to get it all out of the way now. The ONE thing that I would definitely go back for? That Banana Langka Pie. OMG. The Peach Mango Pie was pretty good, but the Banana Langka is absolutely amazing.

September 10 - Jedi's Jerseys



Apparently, the NBA Store doesn't ship overseas. Or something. So my friend Ged ordered the LeBron, D-Wade, and Chris Bosh jerseys and had them shipped to my house. For some reason, the Bosh stuff is on back order. I've had these items for a while and I finally decided to just ship them off. But not without taking a photo first.

September 9 - Butt Jar



When I visited Julian's art gallery last Friday, he told me about an allegedly awesome looking jar of cigarette butts at my brother's house. You can decide for yourself how awesome it looks. It was certainly photoblog worthy.

September 8 - Katy Mars



I hadn't seen ACTS for a while, so I decided to drop by. Of course, they fed me as usual. The weird thing is, I was able to leave there without feeling like I had just gained ten pounds. Christine and I even went to Fukuburger afterward.

Anyway, they were getting ready to record a mashup of Katy Perry's Teenage Dream and Bruno Mars's Just The Way You Are. You can watch it here. I like the composition of this photo (I didn't do any cropping). It reminds me of the Philippine flag.

September 7 - Scorpion Deathlock



In the 13 years I've lived in Vegas, I had never seen a scorpion. Until now. Strangely enough, it was in my house! I have a pretty decent pest control service and I barely ever see any creatures. I'll see a bug maybe once a month at most. I wasn't even sure if bug spray would work on it. It did, as you can very well see.

Monday, September 6, 2010

September 6 - Jia Tse What?!



I totally forgot that Jia wanted to play some tennis this evening. I'm still sore from yesterday's hike, but I managed to run around and hit some balls. Bunch and I even played a couple of games and I held my serve. When I arrived, I was happy to see that Jia already had a hitting partner; it enabled me to get my potd.

September 5 - Standing Dog



I couldn't come up with a witty title for this post. Oh well. This awesome dog makes up for it.

We had just finished hiking up and down Griffith Peak via the South Loop. It's about 4.5 miles each way with an elevation gain of about 3100 feet. Chris's Dad has a house in Kyle Canyon and they had us over for a pretty awesome BBQ.

I'm still sore from that hike.

September 4 - Dirt Mowers



James invited people over for a BBQ at their new place. As soon as I saw they had three lawn mowers but no lawn in the backyard, I knew I had to capture the comedy.

September 3 - First Friday



I found out that Julian had just opened up an art studio, in time for First Friday. I decided to stop by before heading to the Hard Rock for the weekly Open Bar event. I've been wanting to check out his art for a while.

September 2 - Febreze Air Effects



Whenever I have nothing to shoot, I like to do experimental photography, particularly with my reversed 50mm lens. In this case, I used my flash to freeze some Febreze. The result looks a little strange.

September 1 - Tropical Smoothie



On my way home from a late night gym session, I used the last of my three Groupons for Tropical Smoothie. If there's one thing I seem to fall back on, it's food photography.