Paradise Found

Stories from the Canon 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5

2007-04-08T15:22:00.000-10:00

Here are a few shots from the Canon 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 lens that I rented from Lensrentals.com last week. I originally rented the lens for the Pacific Jungle Sessions show we just held, but I was able to get some great use out of it elsewhere. Whether it was fate or luck, the BYUH Salsa Orchestra (formerly the BYUH Jazz Ensemble) was having their concert the night before our show. It was also the last concert for my friend Will Yokoyama because he's graudating, so he asked me to come out and take some pictures for him. I did.

Here are a few of the results, along with some pictures from Pacific Jungle Sessions and sights around Honolulu:

Ala Wai Canal via King and River

Pacific Jungle Sessions w/ Shimon of Ram Records @ Next Door
March 31st, 2007

Kause (Pacific Jungle resident) opening things up for the night

Pacific Jungle Sessions w/ Enemy (AJ) of Evol Intent
March 31st, 2007

Scott Campbell destroys the place with an amazing solo on my old sax!

The Man of the Night

Aala Skate Park on King and Beretania

It was hard sending that nice lens back through the mail, just as I suspected. It gave me a taste of quality glass and made me realize I can't settle for anything less if I want to continue to progress as a photographer. Next stop, L series!

These were also taken with my new external flash - Canon 580ex and a Gary Fong Lightsphere Cloud diffuser.

(The camera body pictured here is not mine and I actually have the Lightsphere "Cloud". Displayed is the Lightsphere "Clear", to help you get the idea of how it works.)

That’s all for now. More to come in the very near future.

Just A Taste

2007-03-14T13:48:00.000-10:00

In preparation for the upcoming gig I have this weekend, I was able to try out the Canon Speedlite 580EX II external flash at work. Hip has a few of them lying around the office and was gracious enough to let me try one out. I'm totally convinced I can't go any longer shooting at night without one. Heres a little sample of Radar at work....

This was shot without the Gary Fong Lightsphere II cloud diffuser, which would soften up the shadows even more (which I also plan on getting with the flash).

Here's the gig flyer:

This is something that my co-worker and good friend Julien put together with some others. He going to be djing too, under the Joulz alias as described in the flyer. I'm hoping to get the flash before Saturday (if I can find one on the island). SOUL!

Pictures + Comments!

2007-02-25T14:40:00.000-10:00

Here are a few shots I've been able to take with the new Canon 400D (Digital Rebel XTi) since my last post. I love this camera!

Tyler vs. Waimea Shorebreak

Narrow Escape

Tyler's New Truck

Beretania and Bethel (the bottom of my apartment building)

Me and Jason opening up for Ed Rush and Optical at Next Door - Jan 20th, 2007

Tyler was the stand in photographer for these!

Our MC getting the crowd going

Ed Rush. He Came, he played, he conquered!

Chinese New Year Feb 17th, 2007 - Beretania and Maunakea

Construction outside my window

Friends Lex and Reese

These are just a few of many. I'm filling up my hard drive really fast now!

Target Practice

2007-01-12T20:26:00.000-10:00

So I was sitting in my living room alone tonight and had an epiphany. There is a show on OC16 (the local cable station) called Board Stories, which basically consists of surf footage from Hawaii and interviews with pro surfers. I then thought to myself how great it would be to shoot pictures that nice at that moment. Cue the light bulb.

I run into my room, grab my camera, and start taking pictures of Board Stories on the TV. The images aren't the greatest quality and you can see the pixels in the screen, but its great practice for your timing with shooting fast peeling waves. It's fun too.

Look, I'm on TV!

Hopefully I'll get some real ones this weekend. I've got to get rid of this computer geek tan.

Pictures Do Speak Louder Than Words

2006-12-26T23:55:00.000-10:00

Here are a few pictures from Christmas this year with my new Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTI. Its a Single Reflex Lens, 10.1 mega pixel camera and has two lenses; the Canon EFS 18-55mm and the Canon EF 75-300mm lens. I love it! Here are a few shots from Christmas, and expect many more great shots in the future! Enjoy!

"Sit Sarah sit - Good dog."

Mele Kalikimaka

2006-12-13T23:55:00.000-10:00

Here is my desperate attempt to take a few pictures from the car of a giantic Mr. & Mrs. Claus, who just so happen to be throwing shakas. Here are the results from South King Street in Honolulu.

One more week of work before vacation! I can't wait for some much needed vacation (even if I don't get to go to Disneyland this year). SOUL!

Music is my life

2006-11-25T10:53:00.000-10:00

After much procrastination and neglect, I'm finally writing in my blog again. I think the reason why it's been so long is because I promised myself to repost all the images that went down a few months ago before making any new entries. With that looming over my head, you could probably see why I kept putting things off. Regardless, I finally got motivated today to get this thing up to date and add some new content.

Since my long lapse of blogging, I've been having a considerable amount of fun. Work takes up a lot of my time, and whatever time I have left seems to go to DJing. Over the course of the summer from the time I moved into Honolulu, I've made friends with some people that put on "Open Turntable Tuesdays" night at a local nightclub in Honolulu called Anna Bannanas. Basically it’s like an open mic night but for DJs to come and bring their own records and take a turn DJing for a crowd. I first played there earlier this year (I think it was in April) and since that time, I've now designed several flyers, spun at every event and weekly, and had a lot of fun in the process. Halloween was a blast; we flew out one of the top Drum and Bass DJs in the country, DJ Dara, for a special Halloween edition of what has become a weekly open DJ night with a strong following. We have about 30 people on average who come every week and half of them are DJs, which makes for a good social setting to meet people within the music scene.

Open Turntable Tuesday's DJ Competition 10.3.06

(Just so you know, those silhouettes are all just me and my friend Tara. Photoshop rules again.)

Halloween w/DJ Dara @ Anna Bannanas 10.31.06

I've also joined up with another production crew called "Pacific Jungle", who puts on a monthly drum and bass event called Subphonix, which has been my primary source for seeing industry leading DJs in Hawaii. They do it the first Friday of every month just across the road from my apartment building, which is really convenient! I’m going to be playing there this coming "First Friday", as you can see here (I'm BillyZane down at the bottom):

I'm also going to be heading to the mainland for some vacation time over Christmas. I'll be flyinng into San Diego December 22nd, and back out to Hawaii January 3rd. I'm definitely looking forward to it!

Dead or Alive?

2006-09-20T20:32:00.000-10:00

I just tried to view my blog, and it said "Page Not Found". This worries me and I hope this isn't all due to the fact that my account has been inactive for some time.

Hope this post works.

P.S. Go to www.youtube.com and search for "Beardyman" to see "Beardyman the beat boxer". Pretty clever.

Graduation Pictures

2006-08-05T21:14:00.000-10:00

Brigham Young University Hawaii - Laie, Hawaii - June 24th, 2006

Kaimi Brede - One of my best friends and housemates from school.

This is me clogging the line to walk into the Canon Activities Center (or "Cack", as I like to pronounce it in honor of Martin Short's character in "Father of the Bride" and the command for Sarah to go poo poo-Fronk. "Sarah, go fronk!"

Me entertaining myself inside the "Cack" with my camera.

Me with my parents after the it was over.

Tyler and me.

Don Colton and Jonathan Miller - These two are great guys that were always willing to help and made school awesome.

Dr. Darren Duerden, the school's jazz ensemble director, and good friend of mine. He's helped me so much and while things may get hard at times, he still keeps things real and remembers why he does it.

Me and Kaimi burried!

All I got was a piece of paper!

Aloha From Honolulu

2006-07-26T16:29:00.000-10:00

Since my last blog entry, I've moved to Honolulu and live in the Downtown area near Hawaii Pacific University and Chinatown. It's a really neat place, everything is in walking distance, and there are a ton of hole-in-the-wall asian restaraunts; Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai-you name it. All the concrete did take some time to get use to, but I'm adjusting fine. I'm now living in an apartment building called Kukui Plaza, which has two 30 story towers. I live on the fifth floor, and this is what it looks like outside my window:

The park you see is the top of the parking garage and business suites that reside between the two towers. In an awesome twist of luck, my work is located at the bottom of the opposite tower, so it literally takes me five minutes to walk from my front door to work. Here's a picture of Radar (my employer's dog) and me at work:

I also chopped all my hair off before coming back to Hawaii. The highs right now are in the 85-90 degree range, and when you combine that with extreme humidity, it's nice to have short hair. The surf has been fun on the South Shore and there is suppose to be a strong south swell for the next week or two starting tomorrow because of a hurricane in the South Pacific. Its a different scene out on the south shore, too. I think it reminds me more of how it is surfing in California, but with cleaner and warmer water.

I think thats all for now. Until next time, Aloha.

A Case of "The Mondays"

2006-06-16T20:24:00.000-10:00

Yeah, I know it’s Friday - so sue me.

This last Monday was my first day at the new job. I’m now working at a computer shop called H Power Computing, where I manage our small network and build and repair custom computers. So far things have gone smoothly, with the exception of Monday after work.

It started with me checking The Bus schedule to see when the first bus was suppose to arrive after 5pm. Upon further inspection, I realized there was an express bus that traverses around Kaneohe instead of traveling through the residential area (which saves a considerable amount of time). What I didn’t know and what I discovered too late was the fact that it doesn't stop at every bus stop along its path. So after watching the 88A (North Shore Express) zoom by me, I had to wait another 50 minutes before the next bus arrived. It was filled to the brim to the point where there wasn't a seat for me until we got down Pali Highway, which didn't exactly put me in any better a mood. By the time we made it to Kamehameha Highway, our bus had completely discharged (I assume the bus driver was referring to the battery), which forced us to get off The Bus and wait for the next one to arrive.

Could the situation get any worse? Yes. Did it? You betcha.

As it turned out, there was some sort of accident further up the road and the traffic was just beginning to back up where we had jumped off. At that point I figured "What the hell - I might as well just start walking!"

After trecking it down the road a few miles I found out what was causing the dead stop. I later found out that a tour bus driver had fallen asleep at the wheel and careened into an H2 Hummer in oncoming traffic. The Hummer looked like an accordion and the driver died, sadly. The collision also sent the Hummer into the side of a house, destroying the part closest to the highway. What a horrible mess.

At that point I thought I wouldn't get home until at least 10pm, considering there wasn't any traffic traveling either direction and Hauula was at least another 10 to 12 miles down the road.

I was fortunate enough to notice a couple that was on The Bus with me and had the same idea of hiking home. They called a cousin to pick them up and offered me a ride to Kahana, which would shave off about half the distance home. I graciously accepted, and about halfway back they said they would just give me a ride all the way home; they did. It's the little things like that which remind me why I moved back to Hawaii, and I am glad I did.

Since then, things have been going great, and I only went one more day before I figured out where that express bus stops. The job has been going great since then and I'm really enjoying it.

Coming Soon: College Graduation

Guilty Post

2006-05-31T19:13:00.000-10:00

I just wanted to point out that I haven't posted a thing in almost a month and a half...Shame on me!

I plan on posting more in the future, but for now I will display the honorable mentions from the last small chunk of my life. Here they are in no particular order:

- Seeing Family
- Hanging out in SD with the Sloan clan (SD Zoo, Cheesecake Factory, Hotel Del Coronado) and getting REALLY good surf at Blacks
- Spending time with Sarah
- Justin's Birthday
- Seeing DJ Irene at OBEC
- Going to the movies and hanging out with Chris
- Picking up a contract for a website and building it
- Seeing Kenny Ken and Shy FX with Jessica (=
- Getting my plane ticket and flying back to Hawaii

I might elaborate on a few of these things later, but for now here they stand. To all of those helped in making this time really fun, thanks!

I'm going going, back back....

2006-04-17T21:15:00.000-10:00

About a week ago I heard about an opportunity for an internship position that was being offered by a BYUH Alumni at USC in their IT dept. I sent them my resume, and I got an email back the next day saying they wanted to interview me for a full time position working as a PC Support Specialist. So I figured this was a pretty good opportunity to start my career and thought what the heck.

I just got my plane ticket today, so I will be traveling back to California on May 2nd. If I get the job, I'll stay (obviously). If I don't, I’ll probably come back to Hawaii and find work out here. I'm pretty excited about the whole thing, but not too excited about the idea that I have to live in the LA area with all the traffic, smog, and people. But I do like the idea of not being a poor college kid anymore, so I think I might be able to live with the idea. At least it’s a possibility for something new in my life.

Should be interesting!

Jazz Ensemble Concert

2006-04-07T15:47:00.000-10:00

On the 24th of March, 2006, I participated in my eight and final BYUH Jazz Ensemble concert. I guess you could say this was the culmination of my school musical career, considering I will probably never have the opportunity to play with a school ensemble again. After nine years of playing in school bands (man, that's hard to believe), I was able to end on a great note.

Kaimi jamming:

This has been a really good semester for the Jazz Ensemble. It seems like the group goes through good and bad years, depending upon which players we gain and loose every semester. This year we had about eight seniors, many of which who have been with the group as long as me, so we had a strong ensemble to say the least. Going out on tour really helped the group increase its level of performance because it gave us a change to get out in public and become more comfortable on stage. Thank you Maui tour!

A jazz musician's true posture:

That night, we had a great performance. We played about nine tunes, ranging from songs like Channel One Suite, Girl from Ipanema, Wanna Be Like You, Come Sunday, to The Incredibles movie medley; all of which are songs that the whole group enjoys playing.

Channel One Suite:

We had a show order for our music, and I had been bickering Dr. Duerden (our director) all week to change the order to one more to my liking, because I thought he was arranging the music in a way that would be anti-climatic (plus I wanted to solo in the last few songs). Right when we were in the middle of our show, he changed the songs to my request. I was stoked.

Scott and I taking turns:

I had two solos in the concert; A smooth slow melodic one in Channel One Suite, and a jazz blues solo in My Dinner With Ronald that we played for the hana hou (encore). We all had a great time playing, and all the seniors got leid.

More Channel One Suite:

To really put the icing on the cake, Dr. Duerden pulled a few strings and got the campus TV studio to record the concert. It was a collective effort of approximately twenty people and five cameras, so I can only imagine it will turn out awesome. I look forward to watching our show from a different perspective.

All pau:

In retrospect, I think I can say that my experiences with the BYUH Jazz Ensemble have and will be some of my most cherished memories from this school. It's helped me develop my musical ability far beyond what I would have been able to achieve on my own. I remember back in junior high and high school thinking to myself how great it would be to perform in a college group, and after it has all been said and done, I can honestly saw I wasn't disappointed.

Tyler, Me, & Raiatea:

I consider myself very fortunate to have had the oppertunity to stay with music. I believe it was my participation in it that allowed me to be admitted to this university, because when I applied the average acceptance rate for high school seniors was eleven percent. I can't thank music enough, and how it has enriched my life in so many ways. I encourage anyone to pursue it if that is your desire, because at least for me it instills a sense of satisfaction and enjoyment that few things do.

Coming Soon: The End Is Near

41 Days and 41 Nights

2006-03-31T13:42:00.000-10:00

It was reported earlier today on our local news station that today is the 41st consecutive day that it has rained in Hawaii.

And wouldn't you know, its pouring right now. I'm over it!

Coming Soon: Jazz Ensemble & Farewell Matthew

311

2006-03-28T12:04:00.000-10:00

Last Saturday Tyler, Nate, Matt, TeAnna, and I went to the 311 concert at the Waikiki Shell. For those who don't know the Waikiki Shell, its an outdoor amphitheater similar to the Hollywood Bowl.

Getting down there was challenging enough. Tyler and I were to meet the rest of the group down at Matt's house and drive from there to the Shell. Needless to say, things didn't go according to plan. After driving about 15 minutes down Kam Highway, the truck we were borrowing from Tyler's cousin broke down. Luckily, Tyler had another friend that was heading the same direction, who was only another 15 minutes down the road. Thankfully, he turned around and saved us from missing probably most of the concert, and were again on our way. The rest of the group had to take the bus down to the concert, but they were only about 20 minutes behind us, so they did well in getting there in a timely manner.

The concert started with Pepper, a local rock-reggae fusion band from Kona, who are now somewhat popular. I really like their music, but wasn't too impressed with their performance because they concentrating more on "rocking out" than playing their music clean. That's okay though, I didn't come for them.

311, on the other hand, was outstanding. I've been a longtime fan of this group, and so naturally I like their older music more than their new stuff. I think they understand this concept because a large majority of the music they played were that of their older material. It did manange to down pour on the concert right in the middle of their set, but no one was going anywhere. Everyone got soaked and a little muddy, but didn't lower the morale of the event. We eventually migrated up to the front and center row, where we enjoyed a majority of 311's set.

I was pleased with 311's level of performance and showmanship. They were a great group, with really good stage presence. They sounded awesome, played all the songs I wanted to hear, and took solos to really dig into the music. During a drum solo, the stage crew brought out four sets of auxiliary drums (toms, snares, etc), and all the members of the group did a drumline segment with the drummer of the group. You have to give them credit for creativity with that one! After seeing that, I was convinced they were a bunch of band geek friends in high school that formed a band. Just don't quote me on that.

Getting Soaked:

311:

Matt and Me:

Crowd shot:

We had a great time to say the least.

Coming Soon: Jazz Ensemble Concert

Laie Storm Watch 2006

2006-03-27T11:36:00.000-10:00

This winter has been nothing less than crazy when it has come to the amounts of rain we've had here in Hawaii, and more specifically in Laie.

I have this theory about Hawaii, and so far its been conclusively true. Winters in Hawaii alternate between heavy rain seasons and heavy surf seasons, and this year just further proved my theory. It alternates back and forth like so;

Rainy Winter (winter '02-'03) -> Rest Winter (Winter '03-'04) -> Surf Winter (Winter '04-'05) -> Rainy Winter (Winter '05-'06)-> Rest Winter -> Surf Winter -> etc...

This rain season is by far the gnarliest one I have ever seen, and the community agrees. They claim this has been the rainiest season they have had in a decade. The last part of February of all of March has been covered by clouds. We've experienced weeks at a time without seeing the sun, which drives a little me crazy at times. The surf is garbage during that time on the east shore because its too stormy, so that eliminates a lot of normal surf time. And getting rained on almost every morning going to school or work sucks even more!

On March 2nd we had 2" of rain a hour (after it raining for three days straight), so they closed the school because of the flooding that was threatening the homes of local residents, which I think is somewhat the fault of the great minds that decided to build the town of Laie in a swamp below sea level (what is it with Mormons and swamps?). This meant a "rain day" for the town of Laie (as opposed to a snow day for the rest of the world), where students and community members alike got to go out to the field in front of BYU to play football in knee deep rain runoff.

My friends and I took it another step further and brought over an ocean kayak that we paddled all over the field and some of the rain gutters as well. After a short time, the kayak was overthrown by local kids who wanted a turn, which was fine. We played football out on the field for probably 2 hours, which is quite a work out when you have to lift your leg up high to get it out of the water to run. Tackling was encouraged and praticed during these games, thanks to all the water.

We had a great time to say the least.

Clair & Clairissa ready to go:

BYU Lake:

Clairissa, Me, and Clair:

Downstream:

Flood Prevention on Campus:

Things are finally starting to mellow up now. We've had a few nice days and it seems like the weather is only getting better. Finally!

Coming Soon: 311

Winter Ball Gig

2006-03-18T17:03:00.000-10:00

After four years of attending BYUH, I had never been to a school formal ball until now.

About a week ago when we were coming home from our Maui tour, Kaimi and I were both asked to play with a jazz combo during dinner at the winter ball. The agreement was they would give us couple tickets for the ball (which included dinner and a dance). We both agreed to do it, and after only two practices this last week we had enough songs down to play for the hour dinner.

The people who were coordinating us to play were suppose to have a sound system ready for us that night. Turns out, they had contacted the school sound department only the day before to find out that they wouldn't work off campus. Luckily, Kaimi works in the Sound department and was able to talk his boss into lettting us take a PA system to the ball. Basically he saved the day.

So it then turned into our job to transport, set up, and break down all the sound equipment. This forced us to get there earlier, and to not be able to drive over with my date.

We ended up playing for almost two hours. We went through all the music that we had rehearsed and then took requests from the guests, and it went really well.

The Group:

Kaimi and Me:

Aaron on drums:

Jake on bass and Ryan on piano:

Clair and Me:

After the dinner portion of the ball was over, it was then time for the dance. They started things out with a 70's funk band playing covers from bands like Earth Wind and Fire. I thought it was pretty awesome, but I don't think was very well accepted by everyone else. They eventually changed things up and had a hip hop dj play the usual, which kind of made me loose interest. By that time, both Clair and I were really tired, so we called it a night, packed up the equipment, and went home.

The Ball was at the Ko'olau Golf Course Clubhouse, by the way.

Coming Soon: Laie Storm Watch 2006

Snow Day By Way Of Screenshot

2006-03-17T10:40:00.000-10:00

While its a balmy 80 degrees here in Hawaii (and finally not raining), the rest of the world has a different weather agenda. My mom sent me a video from Beth and Jake, way up on the other pole of the globe (practically), of my niece Maci eating and playing in the snow. She reminds me of Ralphie's little brother in "A Christmas Story" with all those layers she has on!

She just needs a snowboard and she'll be all set.

As adorable as Maci is, the real reason why I created this post is because I was attempting to capture a still image of the video via a screenshot, but didn't couldn't get it to work at first. After a little research, I was able to figure it out.

Capturing Screenshots with Windows Media Player:

Open the player
Select Tools --> Options from the pulldown menu
Select the Performance tab
Slide Video Acceleration control bar over to the "None" selection
Select Yes to the Changes prompt
Replay your movie and press the PrintScreen, PRTSCN, or Alt+PrintScreen (depending upon your keyboard)
Paste the screenshot (Control+v) into an image editting program (Photoshop, Paint, etc.)

Capturing Screenshots with RealPlayer:

Open Player
Select View --> Preferences from the pulldown menu
Select the Performance tab
Unchecking the box labeled "Use optimized video display" and select OK
Restart player
Capture image with screenshot
Paste the image in an image editting program

Hope you guys find some good use from this!

Coming Soon: Laie Storm Watch 2006 and Winter Ball Gig

Maui Tour 2006

2006-03-14T18:42:00.000-10:00

Last weekend, I had the privilege to embark on a journey with the BYU-Hawaii Jazz and Brass Ensembles on a university performance tour. This was my third time participating in such a tour (and second time to Maui), and after everything had been said and done, I can once again conclude that I LOVE MAUI! The landscape is amazing. The people are so happy and friendly. It's truly and amazing and special place, where people actually do practice the spirit of aloha.

We played all over the island from all the way over in Hana on the east shore, to Lahaina on the west. I could talk about this trip for hours, but I will let the pictures do that for now...

Tour press release photo:

On the road to Hana:

Sight seeing around Hana:

BYUH Jazz Ensemble playing at The Ocean Fest in Lahaina:

Banyon Tree Park:

Channel One Suite solo:

About to go out to with a rental to Lahaina harbor:

Sunset in Lahaina with Lana'i in the distance:

After the fireside, eating a cream puff:

Krispy Kreme Doughnut run right before heading home:

Coming Soon: Laie Storm Watch 2006

Getting Started

2006-03-14T18:26:00.000-10:00

So, after much anticipation, I finally started a blog entitled "Paradise Found", which only seemed appropriate. My hope is to add new entries at least once a week, and if that doesn't happen I give everyone consent to get on my case.

Right now I'm just working on the blog formatting to my liking...I love CSS!

Coming Soon: Maui Tour & Laie Storm Watch 2006

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