photography

Planning and Coffee… Oliver the Photographer, the ideamaker

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Today was planning day with Hollie.  We were planning and plotting out the day that I would help her photograph her first booked wedding.  As a friend and fellow photographer I was happy to help her.  It’s cool to see a friend graduate to this level in photography.  When I first met Hollie, she didn’t know what aperture, shutter, and iso was and hot they relate to each other.  And it was after our first hang out that see made the jump to manual.  And ever since then I have watched her consistently improve and make so much progress.  She definatly has made the leap from hobbyist to professional.  This wedding that I am helping her plan will be her first booked wedding that she booked last year and it finally arrived.

The wedding will take place at the Jolla Cove area in the La Jolla Bridge clubhouse.  Hollie and I headed over to La Jolla Cove to do the planning.  However it being summer meant that there would be crowds and surely we were right.  But what made things even more interesting was that there was the La Jolla Coast Music concerts going on at the same time which ensured there was a lot of people in the park where the wedding was to take place.  So our first concern was how to make sure that Aarron and Erin would have a private imtimate wedding and we would be able to do our photography as intended.

While we where at the La Jolla Bridge club, Hollie and I worked out and reviewed the schedule to make sure that we got everything covered.  It was cool to collaborate with her.  But for myself, I wanted to make sure that she knew that it was her wedding and I was there to assist her with whatever she needed me to do to help here out.  I was more than happy to give her my opinion as long as it was ask but I wanted to make sure that I didn’t step on any toes.

After reviewing a few spots around the bridge club we headed over to the next location to do some scouting.  Since this wedding had a first look componenet, it was vitale that we found a place that would work for this momentious event.  It would be the first time that the bride and groom would see each other.  At first we thought the hotel where they were getting ready would work however we found out that there is a wedding already taking place atop the roof which we thought would be a perfect spot to do the first look.  But no worries, Hollie and I found a spot about 1/4 block away in a access walkway that was private and lovely.  This location would be ideal because it would the bride and groom the opportunity to be with each other before the ceremony and with family and friends.

So after we found this place we discovered that it was close to 4pm which is the time that Hollie needed to get back to her place so that she could head off to a birthday party.  And off we went.  Looks like we will be doing some more homework for this wedding coming up again.

After I dropped off Hollie,  I didn’t feel like heading home just yet, so I called up my friend Dave to see what he was up too.  Turns out he had a busy day at home doing some organization, cleaning, and editing.  So hearing that and me wanting something else to do after the scouting I asked if he would like to grab some coffee.  And he said sure.  So I head over to he’s place to grab him and we went to get some coffee and for me dessert.

When coffee and dessert was done I headed home to do more work and burn dvds for the HOBY kids.  I got another 14 DVD burned and ready to be mailed for the next day.  And the rest of the evening was just spent resting and relaxing before another work day ahead.

Coffee, Photography, & Sushi… Oliver the Writer, the Photographer, the Foodie

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Yesterday I had a great pleasure to attend a photography business workshop. The workshop was insightful, informative, and fun.

The time leading up to the workshop was awesome. I actually got off work early enough that I was able to complete a few of my task that I wanted to complete today. The first and foremost pressing task was to get another batch of HOBY DVDs out to the kids. So with all of the work that I did the night before I was eager to get them sent off to the kids. Hopefully next week the kids will receive their packages.

After mailing off the package I saw that I still had some ample time so I decided to head over to the bank to cash in my monthly paycheck. I didn’t go I my normal bank because I wasn’t going home because of the photography meeting so I went to the closest one to work. It was cool heading over there and cashing my check. And getting my check was a little delayed because when they are passes out the check I was a meeting so therefore I couldn’t get my check. And the reason for the not getting my check is because I am one of the few people that doesn’t have direct deposit. I honestly didn’t get direct deposit because they was a cute teller at my bank that I liked and so I would always get her to cash in my check. What can I say other than, I’m only human. But unfortunately she has since moved from bank to bank. It’s been all of the same bank but the branches are not too close so he moves to different one every once in awhile which makes it hard to predict if she will be there when I cash my check.

Well after cashing in my check I looked at the clock and I saw that I had some time still so I decided to get some coffee at a place that I have been wanting to try out. So I checked the traffic via Waze and made my way to place.  After driving up via Washington Street, I made it up to the Tea & Coffee Collective.  The Tea & Coffee Collective has been a place that I have been wanting to try out for awhile.  And since I had the opportunity and time, I decided it was about time.

When I first get there, I found out that I didn’t the change to feed the meter.  I figure just my luck not to have the change avalible.  So I went digging in my car hoping that I would find some.  I was only fortunate to find one quarter so I put that in the meter and then just decided to head in, purchase my coffee, and then ask for change.

The Tea & Collective Collection is a simple laid back storefront.  It reminds me of the simple times and the not in your face fronts that we are use to seeing in other coffee places.  One of the most notable features of the collective is the very large COFFEE letters painted above the store.  When you enter the collective you enter through a actual door.  What I mean by this is that you actually have to turn the knob and then push.  For me it was something that you don’t run into everyday but when I run into one it puts me at ease.  Once inside the collective, you will notice the simple layout.  To your left is a peg wall where local arts and crafts hang in what looks like hand made frames which highlight some of the local goods on the display and on sale.  The bar is located towards the back.

It is at the bar that you place your order.  The menu is simple.  On this visit I ordered a Iced Coffee.  I do love coffee warm but my preference is to have it iced.  The coffee is favorable and strong.  Since I had some time I decided to take a seat at one of the tables and do some writing, thinking, and planning in my very handy always there Moleskine notebook.  I know a lot of people romanticize the idea of writing, sipping on coffee, and sitting in a coffee shop as cool and even hipster.  In the act of doing this it does change your mindset that lets the creative juices flow from your head to paper.

Coffee, a @moleskine, a pen, and ideas. #writing #thought

I sat inside the Tea & Coffee Collective for about 20 minutes just writing some ideas and just taking in the quiet, then I headed off to the meeting.

The meeting was down in Mission Valley.  The meeting is part of the Pricing, Processing, and Profit tour created by Shoot Dot Edit.  It was cohosted by the San Diego SmugMug group.  The toured featured Zach & Jody Gray, Leeann Marie, and Jared Platt.  The one thing that made this tour special was that it was in the home town of the Shoot Dot Edit founders Jared Bauman and Garrett Delph therefore the crew from Shoot Dot Edit came out as well.  The presentations by all of the presenters were awesome, informative, and very business oriented.  Overall a great tour!

How do you build a freeway? Economics of Scale from @jaredplatt #sdetour #business #engineering

After the tour I met up a few friends for Sushi at one of the places down the street from the hotel.  It was a nice meeting and chat about food, health, photography, and just doing some catching up.  Overall it was a good day.  It was also there that I realized that I should just let some things and move on.

Constructability & Getting Things Done… Oliver The Engineer, the Photographer, the Friend

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Today wasn’t as bad as yesterday.  Let’s start that off.  I actually got stuff done, attended a meeting, submitted a report, and caught with some good friends.  Overall it has been a great day with a side of OMG here we go again.  🙂

The morning started off as it always does.  Normal routine, Starbucks then work.  When I arrived to work everything was just fine and normal.  My coworker doing their normal morning banter.  But I immediately got to work on my report because today was the meeting of our constructability review.  The constructability review is a basically the first time that every department sees how the project is coming along and also to see if the project is “buildable.”  When I say this, it means this is when everyone looks at the plans and see if all steps where considered and if the proposed design can work under real work conditions.  There’s a saying at work that just because it looks good on paper it doesn’t mean it’s going to work.  Basically we have do a double take on our work to make sure that everything works not just from an engineering stand point but also a construction stand point.  Because there really is no use for us to continue working on a project if you can’t build it.  Or the better way to look at it is design it in away that we can avoid problem when  it is in the field.  By doing this alone can save thousand and in some cases millions of dollars of change orders because certain things just can’t be bulit because of certain constraints.

So with my meeting at 10:30pm, I wanted to get my project done early enough.  I knew that during the day they would ask me if it was ready to be reviewed and submitted.  I needed to make sure that it was reviewed accordingly therefore I can have a fresh set of eyes look at a report that to me looks the same after the months that I have worked on it.  Now it was 10:30am and the report was about 75% completed but I had to go and make sure to be present at the meeting so I can hear the comments that the other departments were making and also so I can defend our design.

Engineering is more than just the math part, engineering is also base on teamwork and communication.  Without at least one of these aspects a lot of our project will not get done or design with all interested parties involved.

During the meeting our section of the project came up and surprisingly there wasn’t much comments.  It was interesting that there wasn’t as many comments but at the same time I wouldn’t think there would be because I assumed a lot of the reviewers didn’t have ample time to review the plans because this is a very complicated design.  The only comments that were made for our part of the project were things that we already new and just had to fill in people on the reason why we did certain things.  But overall it wasn’t as bad as I thought.  So I left after my section was completed and when the discussion just changed from OMG really, why are you talking about that now kinda of thing.

Lunch today was one of our normal hunts.  Lefty’s pizza, where I usually get a slice and a side salad.  Always good and fast.

Then after retuning from lunch, I promptly finished and reviewed and project and I got it all submited and approved from my leads so I made it look a little more pretty and then submitted for more review.  It is this review that I am more interested in because it is there signature that we need when come down to crunch time.  But I was just happy to get one of the thorns pulled out and off my butt for a bit.  So I couldn’t ask for more.  Progress comes in small little victories everyday is what I say.

After getting off work, I finished I finally caught up and purchased some supplies that needed to fulfill photography order for the HOBY organization that I photographed a while back for.  After working on this project for the last two months it was nice to finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.  I got most of my stuff from Costco and Staples.  The beauty of the system is that I got everything I need ahead of time but I need a few more things to arrive to me before I can package and mail the products out to the students that were eagerly awaiting for them.  I hope that when they do receive them that they will like them.  So currently I’m working on burning their DVDs for them.  It is this burning process that takes forever to do for them.  Especially when you have to burn 40 or so full DVDs for them with only one DVD burner at your disposal.  So it is just a matter of waiting for the disc to be burned and packaged that takes the longest.  The only thing that I have to do after the burning process is acquire the correct postage for the packages to mail to the kids.  BTW kind of off the record, I guess it will be on the record via this blog. But is it me or is it them, do kids get taught what it means a mailing address consist of, because I got a few forms that simply just had their house number and street but that’s it or other pieces of information where missing from the form.  Luckily enought I had a google maps at my disposal because without it would not be able to find the correct address for these kids’ home.

So while I was burning DVDs and organizing the photos and files, I caught up some friends.  Today my friend Dave got a offer of a lifetime.   He got offered a job with one of the photoshop gurus that we follow and enjoy learning from.  From what started out as a hey would be interested in coming out to San Diego to teach and the hustle that he put in for the last two days, he managed to make a good impression and got offered a position.  This is an opportunity that he shouldn’t pass up for sure.  I’m so happy to hear when friends get offers like this because when my friends are happy, I’m happy, and when we are all happy we make our worlds go round and round.  Plus I know my buddy is also perfectly suited for such a job because he is just that guy that can make things happen and he is very motivated.

Another cool surprise that I got today was to catch up with my good Hollie.  It has been maybe about a week or two since Hollie and I caught up so it was time for us to do some catch up.  Although the circumstance that we are catching up is due to the fact that, thou who shall not be named, kind of gave Hollie a very weird answer to a workshop that we are attending tomorrow.  It was weird because the answer of just show and crash an event doesn’t work especially when you are not technically hosting or in charge of the event.  So after a few text we get talking.  And rumor has it that it might be somewhat overpacked and from the sounds and look of things it just doesn’t seem organized enough.  But Hollie and I have discussed that such things would not happen if Hollie, my friend Jason, and I were there still helping because this is just crazy to host the workshop in our normal meeting place.  In my opinion the place that we meet is already crowded enough plus it is super small.  So i don’t know how a large amount of people are going to fit in the place.  So only time will tell.  Other than that occurrence, Hollie and I caught up and got some discussion / planning done for an upcoming wedding that we are shooting together.  So that was good to do so that way we can have a game so that we can most effectively make sure that the photography is a success.  And other than photography related stuff we caught up on other parts of our lives.

Catching up with friends like Dave and Hollie is freaking super nice to chat up with because these are the friends that I know have my back and they know I have their back when they need it.  It easy to make “friends” but having true friends is hard to come by these days.

Well until next time.  Laters.

Food & Photographs… Oliver the Foodie, the Photographer

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Sunday was for sure a foodie day.  It was one of those days that wasn’t planned at all but you just went with it.  The foodie day began with me waking early around 9am to see what I had to do for the day.  I soon realized that I didn’t have that much to do today so I dug up some old pictures and worked on them.  My home headed to church and then shortly after my dad came home from he’s round of golf that he plays every Sunday.  With it being really close to lunch, I asked what he wanted to eat and he immediately mentioned that he wanted to try out a cheeseburger in Pt. Loma.  So I said okay.  At first I was like hmmm, this isn’t what I had planned exactly for eating but it will do.  Eventually I considered this another opportunity to find another place to eat.  My mentioned that the place was called; Jimmy Famous American Tavern.  So to yelp I went to find out where it was and what people would recommend from that place because I had  no idea.  After yelping it I found that it had some favorable reviews.   So it was go.  Now we just had to wait for my mom to get home from church and then we were off.

Finally arriving at Jimmy Famous, I saw that it was in one of the newly renovated seafront properties near the airport.  The buildings were new and modern.  It had a clean, maritime look, that made it completely different from the other building around.

Jimmy Famous is located on the lower level of one of the buildings in the new complex.  The entry was relatively small but once you entered you were greet to a very awesome open space that the daylight filled.  The venue was filled with woodsy, metal, oversize letter, and retro chic decor; I would say it was a pinterest board come alive.

Jimmy Famous is known for the burgers.  From their reviews on yelp a lot of people recommended getting their classic or cowboy burger.  I remember seeing a picture of the burger with a knife in it and I thought fancy.  So we were sitted and we looked over the menu.  The menu was simple and straight forward.  The service was quick.  After a few minutes of deciding what to get, we placed our order, and then what didn’t seem like more than 5 minutes our food was there.  I was it was a; Wow that was fast moment!  When we got our food the photography of food commence as always.  It took me a bit longer than usual to take the photograph.  But I managed after a few tries to get the picture.  I got the cowboy burger.  It was good and filling.  The burger also had a nice bite to it as it did have jalapeno pepper in it.  I ordered a green salad to go with it, I figure it would be better than getting the fries which are good as well ( I had a few from my dad).  Overall it was nice Sunday lunch to have and enjoy.  The place was full of people that were enjoy the beautiful Sunday afternoon in San Diego.   It was just one of those laid back days in the city.

After finishing lunch we headed home to chill out for the rest of the afternoon.  My parents both passed out and nap while I did some work on the computer, editing more pictures.  Those pictures are finally being uploaded as I am writing this post.  So with the quiet afternoon, I got another good set of pictures out of the way and shared.  It was also during the afternoon that I realized that today was the deadline to enter photos from the workshop that I did last week.  So I finally downloaded those pictures from my camera that has been sitting on the floor for awhile ( I have some other photo jobs that I need to get sent out so personal photo project get pushed back).

Now with the afternoon almost over my parents woke up and one of the first things that came out of their mouths was what was for dinner.  So the normal conversation of what to eat ensued and like most afternoons, the respond of; I don’t know was blurred out, and would remain unresolved or stay until someone mention a place and either there is an agreement or a reason for a veto on that idea.  Then the; I don’t knows usually commence further and this is usually my cue to go away for a bit and thing about it.  Today my dad mentions that he would like Chinese food.  Hearing that I knew it meant one thing, Chow Mein from Golden Chopsticks.

There is one thing you should know about my family and that is that we are pretty consistent on eating / getting food from places that we have come to love and we pretty much stay consistent with that place.  So any mention of any of these places usually makes figuring out what to eat a lot more easier than usual.  So when I heard Chinese food I knew that I would be calling one of our favs and that it would be done and ready in about 15 minutes and would require a drive to National City.  A drive you say?  Yup, a drive.  I really don’t mind driving.  I usually figure out how to avoid traffic if there is traffic and usually Sundays are pretty chill in the city so it wasn’t a problem.  And plus I would do anything for my parents, sister, and friends to help them out.  It is the least that I could do for the people that keep up humble and support me in my endeavors.

Now with that decided, I ordered – Beef Chow Mein, House Fried Rice, and their house salt and pepper chicken.  All delicious and I highly recommend them all.  FYI, I know if you are reading this post and you read yesterday’s post, you are thinking piggy or man you ate a lot this weekend.  It may seem like that but I do eat them in moderation and usually i haven’t over indulged since changing to the modified palieo diet.  Okay back to the story.  With the order placed.  My mom and I got in the car and headed down.

The drive down was pretty chill.  Nothing out of the ordinary.  Mom and I just talked, caught up on things and just drove.  Good times and mom and son hang out time.

After picking up dinner and some Filipino treats at the Goldilocks near the Chinese food place.  BTW, I am now the Duke of that place on yelp.  🙂  We headed home and soon after ate.

During and after dinner I worked on two pictures that I needed to enter to the competition.  And worked I did.  It’s been awhile since I have some images my signature look but I knew what I wanted to do so I had to do the work.  Luckily enough I got to practice some of the techiques over the last few months and in those months too, I got to learn a few new tools for the belt.   So I used those and in little under a hour I got “signature” edits done on the images that I was planning in submitting to the competition.  And once I did, I sent them off.  On my soon to be new website / blog I will discuss and show how I do my “signature” edits and how they differ from the normal edits.  And with those pictures out of the way I finished a few more pictures from my trip to Austin and San Antonio from this last Thanksgivings holiday and finally posted them on my Flickr gallery.  And as of this writing they are about 90% done uploading.  So if you are reading this you can check them out here: http://www.flickr.com/olasis.

Well until tomorrow.  Have a great one and thanks for reading.  🙂

Half Days are good until… Oliver the Engineer, the Cook, the Photographer

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Today was a half day, which in itself is a good thing.  I actually got a crap ton of work completed and in only the mere 4 hours that I was putting your tax dollars at work.  I guess maybe it was the motivation that I would get to have a more time off than usual that was helping make the day for me.  So I work diligently for the 4 hours.  I made a to-do list to visually see what I need to get done and I tried to put a deadline on it but knowing that it would change but I resisted.  Although now thinking about it I should have at least put a date on it for my personal deadline verses my boss’ deadline.  I guess I’ll have to do that on Monday.

So the 12 o’clock hour was coming up and what do you know my boss comes to my cubicle to ask me once again for an exhibit that he intends to send out in about 1 hour.  And of course there are some changes that need to get done and assumes it will only take 10 minutes to change however I know its going to take about 30 minutes to change.  So I knew in the back of my head today that it wasn’t going to go as smoothly.  And this just proves it yet again.  So I spent 45 minutes fixing the map and of course I send it to my boss who doesn’t check it for about 1 hour and then just when I’m about to leave mentions that more corrections are needed.  Oh really?!  Seriously?!  I think I should have just said “NO,” but I’m still working on that.  I know I would never ask someone to do something for me at the last minute unless it was the FINAL resort that I had to do but I will under no circumstances do that to anyone.  So I hurried turned on my computer and fix the map and then sent it off.

Now with the rest of the after ahead of me, I sat in my car for a couple of minutes thinking what I could do.  And I couldn’t think of a thing to do.  Grrr.  Now that I have all this time I couldn’t think of anything fun to do.  So I headed home and through out the drive home I keep thinking of what to do.  And by the time I got home, still nothing.  I knew that I was at least hungry but I didn’t want to eat alone so I tried to call up some friends but they were all at work.  Go figure, right?  So I search the refrigde for what I could eat.  Luckily there were some cucumber and olives to eat up as snacks but those didn’t fill me up.  But in the moment I decided that I wanted to cook.  And I figure I should cook something that takes some time.  So I decided beef stew would be a good choice; I haven’t cooked it in awhile and I knew it would take some time.

Off to the internet I go.  Since it has been awhile that I’ve cooked it, I had to make sure what I needed to cook it.  So I spent about 5 minutes to search for the “perfect” recipe.  But as it turns out there isn’t any perfect recipe.  I finally decided on a recipe that was simple and would have a lot of flavor.  With the recipe in hand I head over to my local Vons.  While in Vons, being hungry (which I don’t recommend), I bought more than I intended.  I’m just happy to report that it was a lot of vegetables and fruits.  So I headed off home to begin cooking the stew.  And much to my surprise I didn’t take me too long to prepare and cook.  In about 15 minutes everything was stewing together.  And I finished cooking it off and put the stovetop on low and let it cook for about 2 hours.  It turned out marvelous, a little bland but still flavorful.  Add salt and pepper for tastes ( just saying ).

While the stew was cooking I decided to get working on some pictures that I have been putting off for quite a bit.  I worked on them for about an hour.  One of the cool things that I am lucky enough or crazy to do is that I never delete any images that I take.  I do that because I always on a look out for the situation that a photo doesn’t look right at the moment but when I learn a new skill, I get that lightbulb moment.  And that’s when I realize that I could “salvage” a picture that just didn’t look right.  So that’s what I did for the hour of time that I worked on pictures.  I like to think that sometimes the solution is present but when it is ready it will show itself.  So I have a few hard-drives just full of pictures.  🙂

After dinner and working a few more pictures.  I was a bit hungry for dessert so I called up a few friends.  I ended up going to get some gelato with my friend Dave.  We chatted about photo projects and did a recap on the shoot that we did on Sunday.  So for a Friday it was pretty good.

But getting back to the title of the post.  Half Days are good until…you don’t know what you are going to do with your half day.  But as it turns out I did a lot but I just didn’t do what I thought was exciting.  I guess that’s why writing and looking back on the day helps.