VII

Firstly, there were two birthdays yesterday. So, happy birthday to Shahe and Myra. We all went to Friday's for a little dinner and hung out. I forgot to bring my camera, and wanted to shoot myself for it. This past week was a long one, and not exactly a good one. I've been ridiculously sick on and off for about two months now. Not feelin' it. Saturday was a pretty boring day and the night wasn't starting off too well, so I went over to Frankie's Italian where Myra was working and hung out. Had some dinner with her and then when she got off work we decided to take a little driving trip in her new car, with no particular destination in mind. Decided we should hit up 3rd Street in Santa Monica, even though it was already pretty late. Got there and walked around for a little. I took some pictures and then we headed back home.




Thanks to Myra for saving my weekend, pretty much. Much appreciated. Hopefully things take a turn for the better this week. And, just to give an example of the weird weather we've been having in the Valley for the past couple weeks, here's a couple pictures I took one day. These were taken within thirty minutes of each other.




Pretty annoying, right? That's all for now. Check out some more pictures on my flickr. Thanks for reading.

-Dean

Coffee & Snow

This rainy, winter weather is killin' me. Not because I hate the rain or anything, mostly just because it makes me wish I were already in Seattle. Found this little video by the Blue Scholars today. A real winter jam for this serious California winter weather. Enjoy.

Us And The Moon

I've been lagging on uploading and posting pictures this week, but better late than never I guess. Friday night my friends in The Unborn played at the Verity Room in Canoga. Pretty random little venue in the back of a guitar store. I wasn't feeling too good that night so I came a little late and left a little early, so I was only able to catch their set. Their new stuff is pretty off the wall, and eclectic but it was interesting. I'm not exactly the biggest metal fan, but combine it with smooth jazz and talent and originality, like these dudes, and you've got my support. Would've been cool to take some more pictures but I took about 380 picures of just the Unborn so it wouldn't have made much difference. I'm pretty happy with most of the pictures I got. Screwed around with shutter speed, panning, and my newish off-camera flash cord (thanks Sterling!). Hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I did.






If you're into experimental metal, or jazz, or just want to support a local band; be sure to check out The Unborn at their myspace page(www.myspace.com/theunborn) or keep up with them on their blog(usandthemoon.blogspot.com). I'm looking forward to big things from these dudes in the future. They're currently in the process of recording a new album, so keep your ears and eyes open for that. The rest of the pictures are on my flickr. Check them out here. Thanks for reading.

-Dean

IV

It's been a long week. Did a bunch of shooting for my Photography final. Also did some good chilling. Got some good pictures of that, of course. Hit the Getty on Tuesday with Chris and Sam. Had to get some abstract shots for my photo class. Got some decent shots. Chris got better ones on his phone. Here's a few flicks from that day.







Hit up Westwood today with Andrew, Max, Jon, and Benjy. Hit the road sorta aimlessly then decided to hit up some spot Jon recommended, Tommy Taco. Sat in traffic on the way there. Nothin' new in L.A. Got there and caught a few good flicks. Gayley Plaza is what's up. Grabbed some Diddy Riese after the meal. Big ups to Benjy for spotting me the two bucks for the brownie and ice cream. Good deal.






Chantel gave Andrew a call and said she needed to get picked up at the Universal subway stop. So we hopped back into traffic and headed over to the bus stop. Benjy and I were both desperate to find a bathroom, so as soon as we got there we headed out on a little mission. Benjy immediately pointed out one of his sweet hit-ups from '06, and Max found one of his. They get up, you know? Walked through the subway station and still couldn't find a bathroom, so we headed a couple blocks down to a Carls Jr. and relieved ourselves there. On the way we spotted another throwback in the form of an Embassy sticker on some street sign. After that we found Chantel, then hit the road and came back home.






Pretty good week. Had some ups and downs, but it's ending pretty smoothly. Hopefully the weekend brings some more good times. If not then i'll be content to repeat tonight, and sit around listening to Blue Scholars. Either way, there will be pictures. Thanks for reading.


-Dean

Radass Session

First off, I'd like to say happy birthday to my boy Andrew. Had a good night at the tweaker bowl last night. Should be a good night again tonight.

Now for business. I went over to the Dolorosa tattoo studio today to take some pictures of a tattoo session with my friend Chris Paez. Had to compile a few general images for a photo essay at school, so I figured a tattoo session would be a pretty fun thing to shoot. Hung out for a few hours just shooting pictures and talking about tattoos, hip hop, and siqq house parties. It was pretty hard to get sharp photos because the lighting wasn't too great. Working with window light on a dark, rainy day isn't exactly a good idea, but i was limited. Most of the pictures came out pretty nice though, and I'm happy with the results. Here's a few my favorite shots from the day...













They're in backwards order, but you get the point. The rest of the pictures are on my flickr. Make sure to check out more of Chris's art at www.radass4mayor.com. Awesome artist and an awesome dude. Thanks for reading.


-Dean

Third of February

Did a little portrait shoot with Myra yesterday. Fucked up and underexposed a lot of the pictures, but a few came out pretty nice. Wish i had a fill card and a light meter though. Here's a couple of my favorite shots. The rest are on my flickr.

Super Bowl Sunday

So, this is the first post on the blog. I'll be using it every now and then to post pictures followed with explanations, and other random happenings. I'll keep this one short, because I've got to go out and shoot twenty portraits in the next couple hours (no idea how I'm pulling that one off). So anyway, here we go:

Yesterday was Super Bowl Sunday. Put together a last minute barbecue. All the usuals showed up and it was an all around good time. Beer pong started up around 3 and didn't stop until about 10. Andrew was trashed for a good 14 hours straight, and Chris decided it was a good idea to get trashed twenty minutes before work.


After the game a few of us rolled over to Something's Fishy for some sushi. I have no clue who thought it was a good idea to get raw fish after 8 hours of beer pong, but everyone was down. We grubbed a little, then hung out in the parking lot for a bit. Andrew thought it would be awesome if i took pictures of him throwing up.



All in all, an awesome night. Wish i would've taken more pictures from the rest of the weekend but I got lazy. That's it for the first post. Check back every now and then for more pictures of Chris wasted. Thanks.

-Dean