A photo shoot with Fall of a Tyrant

A while back (months and months), one of my buddies told me to come and check out his band, being an average person of this internet age. I went to the bands website and was appalled by what I found. The pictures sucked (really, they did) and that they sucked so bad that I offered my photography services for free of charge to fix the problem, perhaps even shoot a video for them (my ulterior motives were to add on to my portfolio, perhaps other bands who had crappy websites would come forward to ask for pictures after seeing what I did for these guys). So last while I was off in Key West last month, I get a text message from Jason (lead singer of Fall of a Tyrant) asking if I could come out when I came back and take some pictures. Being the middle of the night, I texted him back to remind me when I was awake. So with the bride in tow, we went out to Club Retro in Fresno, an all ages non-profit music venue. We arrived and got permission from the powers to take pictures and below is a sample of what I came up with and a link to my Flickr Set. The band did a great show and I hope my pictures and video reflect that.

Pictures were shot with the Canon 7d, video with the trusty Iraqi Canon S3. I would have done the video with the 7d but the DSLR works better under scripted settings and I need a computer with more punch to edit the high def video.

Duval Street in Key West

Taking some low light images while walking around last night, while California is cold and rainy, most of the people down here are in shorts and flipflops.  I'm looking forward to seeing the Bride when I pull back into town but am going to miss the warm weather and good fishing of the Keys.

Some pictures in Key West with the 7d

Key West take 3

Much better trip then Iraq take 3, I'm down here wth VFA-122 conducting some air to air training and perhaps getting some fishing done.  I've spent much of the weekend tuned into CNN with a close watch on Japan, my sister and her family are in Atsugi, they're fine but shaken up, no pun intended. 

This happening to Japan, I have a feeling the online video sites are going to be flooded with some fairly intense footage of the event and many cameras are going to be found in the wreckage with that, "Oh $#!*!!!" moment in the months to come.  I'm glad my family is alright but my thoughts go out to the families of the missing.

Yosemite with the Canon 7d

Things that I found out, 430 pictures taken in large RAW and JPEG and a minute HD video with fill a 16 gig card.

Perhaps I need to being a laptop with me so I can see how the full sized image looks and to get the light settings right. I'm still working on my light, some of my pictures are coming out a bit over exposed, only one way to make that right, practice. Here are some shots I took yesterday.

Soon to be a Second Class Sprint Citizen

I’ve been a happy Sprint customer for years, even though every time I go to my home town of Prescott AZ, until a couple months ago, they didn’t even have 3g service. Being such a good customer I was eligible for the Sprint Premier program with let me upgrade my primary device every 12 months and it was just recently that they got any devices that challenged the other networks.

12 months roll around, if there was a decent device, I would upgrade. Starting April 1st, the Premier program turns into a Gold and Silver Sprint Premier tiered program. Gold, stays the same, upgrade each year, Silver, you can upgrade after 22 months. For my demographic with a shared plan at 149ish a month, I fall into the middle of the Silver plan and the only way to get to Gold is to up my bill over the 169.99 hump. As of today, I’m eligible for an upgrade but if I wait till next month, I’ll have to wait an additional 9 months. If you’re a Sprint customer and are interested in all of the numbers and facts, go here.

So my hand is forced. With much arm twisting, I am the owner of a very sleek Samsung Epic. I’m justifying this because my Samsung Moment tended to lock up and crash whenever I was trying to do something important and honestly say, Sprint made me do it. Still a bit urked about the two tier system, I like the fact that Sprint was always the cheaper choice, while I’m glad that I fell into that window, I feel bad for all of the folk who didn’t.

Now, hopefully Sprint doesn’t take away my Premier card because I posted this but someone had to say it.

Also, I'm a little worried about the news story about Sprint might be switching to LTE instead of Wimax considering I just picked up a 4g phone and I'll be stuck with it an extra 10 months (not that I have 4g in Lemoore but still..)

Hero laid to rest

Saturday the 26th, we laid my brides grandfather, Marine MSgt Ken Maddux to rest with full honors at the Oak Hill Cemetery in San Jose, the family wanted me to take some pictures.

I am the proud parent of a Canon 7d

As most of my readers know, I'm a picture taking fool and it's something I deeply enjoy doing. In a couple of years, I'm going to have to figure out what I want to do when I grow up. I enjoy seeing life through a lens and when I can, putting it down in written form. Last week I took a step towards the rest of my life by sinking a great wad of cash into this camera, a Canon 7d.

my new baby

While I'm an alright Corpsman, I have a bug inside of me that forces me to document everything, lay it all out on film or write stories about it. Four trips to Iraq, 40 thousand pictures and 200 gigs of personally taken video say something, that there is something wrong with me, I'm a picture hoarder. At least with the advent of digital media all it takes is a fairly cheap hard drive to hold all of my passion in (and lots of back ups).

picture taken with the 7d at the doggie park

But eventually I want to make something of that photo bug that tosses and turns inside of me and buying this camera is a step in that direction. 3 years from now, I'll need to find a new job, something to keep food on the table, roof over my head, kibble for the mutts and my wonderfully beautiful wife in hair dye and cute shoes. Might as well do that by doing something that I love.