2008 06 17_0011, originally uploaded by neko687.

So while I sit with my second cup of coffee and smoking another cigarette I noticed that I freaking hate being unemployed, I’m bored out of my freaking head, which is a good sign, it means that I’m not made to be sitting around doing nothing, but damn it if I can appreciate that as good news.

I want to go out and take some pictures, I’ve been looking at some nice picture books (Annie Leibovitz “A Photographer’s Life”, “Women” and “Olympic Portraits”) and a documentary about Diane Arbus, and I got to say, they’re highly motivating.

I started assisting a professional photographer in the area for no pay (he teaches me the trade, I’ll carry his equipment), and I went to my first photoshoot today (a baby shower), and even though I didn’t get to do much (ran to the car to get more batteries for the flash and kept myself out of the way) I learned a lot just by looking at a professional doing his job, and it was fun, who knows, maybe someday I’ll get to run around with the backup camera taking some shots myself (little word of advice for those who want to work for a photographer as apprentices, if the lens is pointing on your general direction, get out of the freaking way, the client doesn’t want you in their pictures, nor does the photographer).

I’m still looking for a more permanent job, and I have gotten a couple of call interviews, so hopefully by this time next month I’ll be working for real.

 

And that is all for this week, hopefully I’ll have more to write about on next weeks update.

Old ones-0017, originally uploaded by neko687.

Well, I have to admit that all this free time has been productive in some way, I got to clean up and posted some of my pictures, I learned a lot in this past couple of months about photography, and…. Ok, that’s it, I haven’t been that productive, I want to take a couple of photography classes in college to cover and understand how am I getting the results I’ve been getting in my photos (when good), and how to correct the mistakes I’ve been making (when bad).

For anybody who wants to learn photography, I would seriously recommend going to your local library and get everything you can by Ansel Adams, Joe McNally, Scott Kelby, Mike Aaland, Chris Bucher… hell, everything that mentions photography at all, I’ve have had some luck and found some wonderful books, and some that I couldn’t read for the life of me, but damn, there’s so much information is hard not to learn something in the process.

I’m going to Philadelphia in a couple of weeks, I was wondering if anybody has any suggestions on where I should go to get some nice pictures, I’m already going to the love plaza, the Philly museum, and Liberty Bell, but I would like to get some more pictures than just those three sites, any suggestions are greatly welcome.

Regarding Judo, I decided to move down on weight division from 100+ to 90 Kilos, so I’ve been staying away from sugars, carbs and pretty much everything but lean meats and salads (with no dressing), I lost 40 Lbs. already but I have some time to go before I hit my target weight.

Bullshido.net opened a new store (HERE) with some nice items, if you can, please drop by and help the cause.

Regarding cameras, I changed my mind again, I’m gonna buy me the Nikon D200 as the main workhorse and later on I’ll get the D80 as a backup.

And that is it for now, I’ll be writing more frequently now that I have the time, and yet, I won’t be putting anything life changing…. Such is life, good luck to Tomodachi Judo Club, those guys are right now on the Disney Martial Arts Festival, and I hope they bring some gold home.

Thanks.

Well, in the spirit of writing something new, I just came across an article by Jeff Revell titled “10 Things I want to Photograph before I die”, and with that in mind, I figured I create a similar list (so I guess I won’t be writing anything new), but instead of going global with the ten things I want to shoot in the world, I will do it more location specific (10 things in the U.S., 10 things in Venezuela, 10 things in Japan, etc.).

 

So here’s my first entry, I’ll try to keep it up to ten, but I make no promises, this time it will be about the land that gave me birth, so “10 Things I would like to photograph in Venezuela” (Disclaimer: None, and I repeat NOT ONE of these pictures are mine, I used Google and msn searches to find matching pictures)

 

La Gran Sabana

Been there, didn’t do that, I went to the sabanas when I was 11 or 12 years old, and my mom brought her Olympus film camera, and even though I tried, I didn’t get any really striking shots, I would like to go back and fix that little problem with my digital camera.

At the border with Brazil, Santa Elena de Guairen is close to all the mayor things to watch in Bolivar (Tepuis, Pemon Tribes, Rivers, etc.), and I think (don’t quote me on this one) is pretty darn close (in airplane) to the Angel Falls, which is another thing I want to photograph.

And to add, we visited Santa Elena de Guairen in our way to El Pauji, on our trip to the Gran Sabana, So I definitively want to go back to El Pauji, and take some pictures there too.

 

Margarita Island

When I think of Margarita, I think about home, love, friends and freedom. I lived in the island for 5 or 6 years, and never got into photography (basically just surfing and trying [and failing] to be cool for the ladies), with many castles, one of the oldest churches in Venezuela and forts put by the Spaniards when Venezuela was still a Spanish colony, plus natural points such as mountains, sunsets in Juan Griego, and the many beaches, Margarita is another place I would like to visit with only my camera and shoot away.

Caracas

With all the historical places, people, night life, museums, parks and demonstrations (pacific and not so pacific), Caracas is not only the main city in Venezuela, but a very fast paced location to encounter some of the best pictures in the country.

Orinoco River

The mighty Orinoco, a beautiful location I’d always wanted to visit, and now off course, I also want to shoot it.   

Merida

With temperatures dropping below zero in the highest locations, this beautiful state at the west of the country is another place that offers beautiful natural locations, and historical rich environments to shoot.

 Los Llanos 

Venezuelan cowboys, incredible landscapes and flora and fauna unique to this areas, makes the Llanos an area rich in photo opportunities (Plus, my family on my dad’s side are from the Llanos, and if I go to Altagracia and take pictures, but don’t do the same for them, they’ll kick my silly behind).

 Altagracia de Orituco/Guatopo National Park

My family (on my mother’s side), is from Altagracia; and Guatopo is a national park in the way from Caracas to Altagracia (tropical rainforest), there are a lot of waterfalls, rivers, ponds, and flora and fauna to photograph for a lifetime, and once in Altagracia, there are a lot of family history related places I would love to photograph for the family records.

Sucre

With Mochima (a national park), Sucre offers one of the nicest areas for underwater photography in Venezuela (I’m not saying is the only one), also, there are natural (caves, flora and fauna), and historical (Churches, Castles, Forts)  opportunities throughout the state to get nice pictures

Cuyagua

A surfing Paradise for all Venezuelans, Cuyagua is a beautiful location that offers sandy beaches, waves and sport shooting on one side; and nature, rivers, waterfalls, etc on the other (Thanks to the Henri Pittier National Park). And let’s face it, there are chicks in bikini in this location (come on, go ahead and Google Cuyagua, I’ll wait here) J 

Morrocoy National Park

No better place to photograph sea birds (seagulls, Flamingos, etc.), fishes, Caimans, and some very nice caves (with petroglyphs), This is another favorite place where we used to go at least once a year to help with birds and Caiman population counting, cause my mom used to work for FUDENA (Fundacion para la Defensa de la Naturalez = Foundation for Nature Defense [Partners with WWF]), another one of those places that I didn’t get the chance to shoot, but I will definitively go back and make another group of memories.

From Discover Venezuela:

”Even though this region is predominantly dry, the vegetation is diverse with several species of fern found here. The most common trees are mangroves and sea grape. In Mount Chichiriviche’s semi-deciduous forest you can find howler monkeys, matacan deer, crab-eating foxes, opossums, and pacas. Eighty percent of Venezuela’s hundreds of species of birds are represented in El Parque Nacional Morrocoy. Among these you will see flocks of scarlet ibises, pink flamingos, frigate birds, terns, lapwings, ducks, great blue and white herons, plovers, various hawks, vultures, boobies, and pelicans.

Of anthropological significance, gouged into Mount Chichiriviche is a 250-foot sinkhole named “the Cave of the Indian,” with petroglyphs dating to 3400 B.C. – the mysterious beckoning of a people called the Caquetios.

In another nearby cave you’ll find dozens of tiny statues of the Virgin del Valle, patron saint of Venezuela’s fishermen, and other saints adorning its pockmarked walls. Here and there are you will also see offerings or photos of loved ones. Each July, the Cave of the Virgin – formally known as the Maritime Sanctuary of Our Lady Mother of the Rock – hosts a procession of fishing boats that have been blessed by the local bishop. “

 

If you made it this far, thank you very much for reading, my next post will be about 10 locations here in the U.S.

 

Have a wonderful week.

 

Old ones-0020, originally uploaded by neko687.

Well, I haven’t written anything in a while so this might be as good time as any.

Quick updates:
Well, I freaking lost my job last week, so the economy situation finally hit home, oh well, I have had a lot of time to take pictures and play with Lightroom and Photoshop so I don’t have a lot to complaint about.
I guess is going to be a little bit longer before I get to buy my semi professional equipment though, so that does gets me, I still plan to go to Philly next month, so I will have some new pictures to boast then.
There another two or three post coming up, but first I wanna set them up correctly, hopefully some time this week.

Please visit my Flickr Photostream and here are some of my galleries in Facebook here, here, and here.

Thank you for reading

Michelle’s 15, originally uploaded by neko687.

Well, another day.

Some quick hitters…

We still have rats (I was calling them mice because my wife’s afraid of rats, but she found out the truth, so no need for lying anymore), but now they’re in our walls, Management closed all the access points from outside the building, so the rats are trapped…. In my wall… Somehow this seems like a bad plan to me…

I decided I’m gonna buy me a Canon EOS 40D as a Christmas present and make the move to DSLR jumping in with both feet.

My younger sister 15th birthday was last Sunday and it was fun (I left early but I took a couple of nice pictures), however, big mistake, my ISO was set at 400 all night so some pictures look nice, some look grainy, some I just erased before I even try to fix them… that should teach me.

Less than a month to go for the Dragon Challenge ’08 and I’m still in high spirits, I really want gold on this event.

Well, that’s it for now, I’ll try to post something longer this coming afternoon.

Have a great day everyone

2008 06 20_0001, originally uploaded by neko687.

Another day, another dollar… spent…

Well, a friend sent me a video of mine from way back in 1999 (it was in a VHS-C tape), and off course I wanted to put it on the web so the people on the video could see it (I should add that this video was from my farewell party when I moved from Margarita Island to Caracas), well, I converted it from DVD to IPod Video and then from that one to MPEG with Roxio suite software, and then the trouble started.

For some reason or another, every time I try to upload the video into YouTube (or Daily Motion) it losses the connection, I though it was the sizing of the video so I re-sized the video a couple of times (which made movie maker look for roxio software because apparently Roxio uses a proprietary codec) with the same result. Then I tried places like Megaupload and Rapidshare with the same result (it would actually never crash, but it would get stuck in certain percentage of upload and never move from that percentage), so needless to say, I was really frustrated because I kept sending emails regarding the status of the upload and I would never meet the deadline (in retrospective, I should have waited until the video was up before making all the fuss about it), thank god I found Phanfare and I ran a couple of test with some other similar size videos I have in my office computer, and so far, it seems like it might work (EDIT. It worked, the videos are up).

In judo news, on 8/16 we have the Dragon’s Challenge tournament in Delray Beach and hopefully it would be as busy as last year, I walked away with the silver medal last time, hopefully I would nail the gold on this installment of the tournament.

Well, I was having the little ZLR vs. DSLR cameras argument going on inside my head, so I contacted the professionals; first I contacted one of my favorite photographer, and ask him for validation on my question, I’m still waiting for an answer… so I contacted the nice people at The Digital Photography Show and after some back and forth emailing, I decided that I’m gonna take the plunge into DSLR at some point this year, I’m deciding between the Canon EOS 30D, or the Canon Digital Rebel XSi, so any suggestions would be welcome.

Well, I think that’s it for now, visit The Digital Photography Show if you’re into photography, and have a nice week.

Three little sis, originally uploaded by neko687.

 

 

Well, it is another day.

My baby started school this week… and by my “baby”, I mean my “wife”; she’s gonna become a dental assistant, and it will take a whole year of night classes 4 or 5 times a week, so there will be a lot of video game playing for me.

The Judo team is back from camp, and I can foresee a couple of weeks of pain for me, these people come back so sharp in their throws, transitions and submissions that is really hard to keep up with them, camp is a great tool for competitors and hobbyists alike, it helps you with your base, but if you’re beyond that, you will come back with a new set of skills that will help you in the long run.

Some of the white belts came back much more smoother than they were before they left (they don’t move like Mr. Roboto), and one of the Brown belts taught me some transitions and sequences to attack the turtle (video will be up tonight), that are really nice and perfect for somebody like me (and by me, I mean “lazy”), all this transitions are courtesy of Sensei Igor Yakimov.

I’m sure the team will have much more to share with the rest of the class in these coming weeks, so I’ll upload videos as they become available.

I did my first photo shoot this past Monday, My sister is turning fifteen and they wanted some pictures for the invitations and stuff, at the top of the page we have one of the pictures I used and liked the most, there’s “some” post production with Photoshop and Lightroom.

That’s all for now, I’ll try to post again this week if something interesting happens, so long and thank for all the shoes

So, it’s another day in paradise.

 

I keep coming on empty handed every time I plan some photographic trip on weekends (Father’s day, it Rained, I’m broke, etc.), so I’m just giving up, I will buy a year membership to Morikami museum (due to all the festivals they have in there, it should provide me with enough photo opportunities), and the West Palm Beach Zoo (not so much for the events, but because the large quantities of animals and subjects to photograph in each visit), and I’ll hope for the best (if I can make it 4 times to Morikami and another 4-6 times to the Zoo, it’ll pay for itself right then).

 

I keep looking at DSLR cameras (I freaking love the Nikon D80), and falling in love with them, but I can not justify buying one yet, the expenses are too great (lenses, cleaning, maintenance, etc.), versus the Pros from my standpoint (Raw imaging and a higher quality pictures), now I know that there’s more to DSLR cameras besides the two points I mentioned in my pros, such as White Balance control, aperture and shutter speed control, less noise at higher ISO settings, etc., but besides the ISO advantage, these are controls that I have on my DZLR camera, my Finepix S700 has all these controls but it only shoots in JPEG and I have a shitload of noise at higher ISO settings (so I only shoot during the day). Enter the S100FS.

 

Now I know that a ZLR is no competition to the DSLR (in most cases), and granted, I have no idea about the response of the camera at higher ISO settings, but the flexibility provided by the ZLR is more convenient for somebody in my budget (no expense in lenses for one), and taking into account that I’m not about to shoot a fashion shot, or a wedding (I mean, I could, but you would not like the results), is the perfect camera for me. The Fujifilm S100FS offers me RAW imaging which is my number one concern when thinking of a new camera (I can finally fix my exposure problems without spending hours in Photoshop or Lightroom to do so), Plus, it has a hotshoe, so I don’t have to rely on the pop-up flash anymore (come on guys, the person who came up with the pop up flash was a sick, sick individual).

 

I could make a case about why I shouldn’t buy this camera (the pricing is the same as some nice Cannon DSLR entry level prosumer cameras for one), but once again, from “MY” standpoint (amateur with a hobby), is hard to explain why I should buy a couple of thousand dollars worth of lenses plus the expense of the camera; if someday I decide that I want to make a career out of this, and I’m gonna leave the civilized world and shoot for National Geographic (unlikely) in the middle of the freaking Congo, then yeah, by all means Nikon D300/Cannon EOS-1Ds Mark III cameras here I come, but until then, my nice ZLR camera will do.

 

In other news, there’s no Judo this week due to everybody being at the greatest camp on earth in North Carolina (I couldn’t make it, I had a scholarship for it, but I really need to take a vacation with my wife before I do anything out of the state with the judo team), so it’ll be a lazy week unless I get in touch with Pandinha and go train with him this coming Sat.

 

I keep playing guitar and it’s getting boring to play alone (“play with myself” if you will), so I think I’m gonna get somebody to pick up the bass guitar and see if that get’s the juices flowing…. Ewww

 

Well, the handyman cover the holes the mice where using to get inside my apartment, he did such a bang up job… he used linoleum to cover the entry point in my cabinets, now I won’t dwell into the fact that these little animals chew thru drywall to get to my cabinet and I’m sure they will chew thru linoleum if they find it absolutely necessary, but the fact that the guy didn’t cut the linoleum for the top shelf to fit the angle, and the linoleum doesn’t bent in a 90 degrees angle, it bows and leaves a half inch opening  on the top shelf…. This makes me think that the little bastards are gonna be able to get in my apartment once more, so I guess I’m gonna take things into my own two hands and fix this problem myself (I have no faith in the handyman to come and fix the problem, and there’s a couple of glue traps and a snap trap left, so I do not want him to get injured).

 

So long and until next time.

So, I totally forgot about father’s day this weekend, so no Morikami museum for me.

I went to my dad’s house, they had breakfast and stuff, and then they all decided to take a nap (all that breakfast makes people sleepy), so I went back home earlier than expected (they had a BBQ afterward, but who know what happened with that).

 

I haven’t been that consistent with Judo lately, I skip classes this past week (Wed. was a really crappy day, and Sat…. Well, it was Sat. so I overslept), I guess it has a lot to do with the fact that there’s nobody my weight in class (I’m 250 Lbs. as I’m writing this), that are committed to competition, and it’s fucking frustrating, so I started a diet and exercise regimen a couple of weeks ago (when I’d hit the 270 Lbs. mark), and hopefully I’ll be competing at the 90 Kilos (198 Lbs.) division sometime next year.

 

On other Judo news, I went and got me a library card, and while searching in the library, I found the vital grappling techniques book by Isao Okano, this books have been out of print for years, and it’s really difficult to find today, and my library has a copy… ok, screw you, it was exciting for me!!!

 

Ok, I’m in love with the Nikon D80 (Ok, I’m in love with the Cannon Mark III, but the D80 is within my budget’s reach), and probably that would be my Christmas gift from me to me (if I have the patience to make it to X-mas), and I guess I’ll hide it ‘til 2016 so my wife doesn’t think I’ve been spending money.

 

I know I said I was only gonna talk about grappling (I’ve been having some success with my triangle chokes…. Against white belts only), music (I’ve been listening to the slackers [ska], and lots of Blues musicians lately) and as of lately, cameras (Nikon D80… yay), but lately there’s something else that’s been consuming my life, I’ve been wasting day and night on this, and I need to share, one more time…

 

So we trapped another Mouse this morning, at this point I believe is an infestation, and there’s nothing left for us to do but move and torch the place (Wife doesn’t agree with me, something about “being illegal”), I felt bad for the little fella, he got stuck in the glue trap sometime last night, so he spend an all nighters in the trap, that’s it I felt bad until he try to bite me, now I can see how after a whole night stuck to glue just because you wanted a little peanut butter might make you cranky, but do not try to take it out on me, I’m trying to make your death as quick and painless as I can possibly can, and here you’re trying to snap at me? I should throw you in my parents table, I saw those insane people eat brains yesterday for breakfast, I’m sure they will make short work of a cranky mouse.

 

Anyway, I’m resetting all the traps tonight, and I’m gonna try to catch all the episodes of “Verminators” and see how the hell can I get rid of this pest without torching the place.

 

THIS JUST IN

 

A little update, the handyman for the apartment development where I live came today to fill the holes in the wall where we think mice are coming in, one of these holes is under the border in the sink cabinet, so he puts his head on the floor to get a good angle of vision on the hole… and apparently he didn’t notice the glue trap on the floor, so the side of his head is on the glue trap, now here’s the series of events in the correct order

 

• He screams (after all, he realized his head was in the glue)
• My wife screams (she thinks he saw a mouse)
• His assistant jumps (I guess he was trying to fit in)
• He stands up and screams “TAKE IT OUT” (self explanatory)
• My wife starts laughing her ass off
• His assistant explains that he can not take it out without ripping his hair off
• My wife starts holding her crotch in an attempt to not pee herself
• He screams “I don’t care, rip it off really fast”
• My wife starts making dolphin noises because she can not take air in to breath due to laughter
• His assistant rips it off
• My wife makes an attempt to break the land speed record, and runs to the bathroom just in time to not pee herself
• When she comes out, she witness a disgruntled employee with a missing patch of hair in his head, and knots of glue still hanging from his head saying “now I’m gonna have to shave it”
• Now relieve of her bladder juice, she starts laughing her ass off again, the assistant shortly follows her lead and starts laughing.

 

Now, I wish I had called in sick this morning; I missed the best 15 min. of my life and the chance to win $10,000.00 in AFV.

 

Ok, we caught one more mouse last night, hopefully that was it. Here’s the funny thing, I really tough that I wouldn’t care too much for the little pest, and even though I still don’t care enough to cry and remove all the traps from the apartment, it kinda makes me feel bad having to kill them, don’t get me wrong, I’m not about to share my apartment with this pest, I’m just not enjoying the whacking part of the night.

 

In other news,

 

Man, photography is a complicated craft, with all the details you have to remember, and then all the options in Photoshop, enter Scott Kelby (his Blog, his books), now, there are a lot of books out there about photography and Adobe products, but very few speak to people like me (Illiterate dumb bastards), Mr. Kelby does a great job a breaking down everything to the most basic level, so even I can understand him (this is specially true with the photography books here and here, he doesn’t try to explain me why something works, he just lets me know how to make it work).

 

Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t get any kind of sponsorship or gift (Nikon D300 pretty pleeeeeeaaaaasssseeee) from this fine gentleman, and neither do you (unless you do, in which case, I would be wrong), so I’m not telling you “you should go out and buy them” hell, I didn’t buy them, I have a library card and the library is almost half a mile from my office, so everyday after work, I go and get a couple of books from them; but if you’re a serious photographer (and I don’t necessarily mean “Professional Photographer”) you should find a way to read some of his books on photography and Photoshop, Lightroom, or Elements for photographers.

 

I’m probably going to Morikami Museum this coming Sunday, if I take any semi decent picture, I’ll try to link to my blog.