Dat Banner...

Well well well, lookie here.

Decided to upload the old banner. Added a new banner, changed the background and color scheme.

Enjoy

Merry Christmas and whatnot...

So i had holiday duties for the past few days. Sue me. Sorry i couldn't pump out these crazy awesome pictures you all love to look at (it's funny because it looks like there hasn't bee many page views ;_; am i talking to myself here?) on a daily basis.

Moving on, I hope the few (or none...probably none) of you who look at this blog had a happy holiday for whatever festive event you celebrate this time of year. Nowadays we all have to be "politically correct" and we can't just say "Merry Christmas" like we used to when we were younger in fear of 1st amendment lawsuits being thrown at you or whatever business/company employs you.

 And yet you go into cities and towns and it looks like Santa Claus and his merry elves had a giant gang-bang up and down every block and splooged Christmas jizz all over the windows, street poles, and doors. So even if you celebrate Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus (bro-fist if you got the reference) or what have you; you have to swallow that load of crap "happy holidays" every time you go to the store when all you have to do is look at the Santa hat the cashier/teller/etc wears on their head to know what they're really saying to you. 

I'm not trying to bash other religious beliefs here; i'm not even practicing one myself. I was raised in a Catholic family, but I myself find no interest in any sort of religious belief. If you happen to sway towards any religion, i'm completely fine with it. Just don't make a point to shove said belief in my face.

However, Christmas today (or at least in the U.S.A) has become synonymous with Santa Claus, the Christmas Tree, gift-giving (and receiving), Egg-Nog, and Ugly Sweaters. There is quite more to it that i could go in depth about regarding corporations influencing the psyche of the people during this time of year, but even for a blog, i won't subjugate you to statistical facts/theories and the like. There is little to no hint of the original Catholic celebration of Jesus Christ being born on that day. And if it is there, it's always 2nd potato to the aforementioned gift-wrap and stocking stuffers.

And that's what I celebrate. Not because I was raised in a Catholic family, but because we all love to decorate the house and tree, wrap up presents and tear them open and stuff ourselves silly with good grub, and hum (or sing, if you're into that sort of thing) along with classic Christmas songs.

....

Okay, /religious talk. About these pictures. Surely you noticed them in between all the religious babble i was spouting. First one is of Pescadaro Beach. Foggy, wet, and yes, touched up. Very rarely will i ever publish a RAW file just because it looks so bland without some shooping (or at least in my eye).

Second on down is all Pebble Beach (no, not THAT Pebble Beach). The second is a panoramic stitch of an awesome wave crashing and the cliffs to the left make a nice contrast. Even had to put my watermark on the left side because it would get wiped out (no pun intended) on the right side. Light editing to all of these, if you haven't gotten that point drilled into your skull yet.

Third is a bit further down the trail on Pebble Beach. Wide-angle stitch. LOTS of Photoshop went into this one. Curves, vibrance, multiple uses of masks, layer modes, a vignette. Looks really pretty.

The fourth is a bridge that i actually shot the 3rd one from. A wide angle stitch, but not as wide as the third. Very gentle editing. One curve adjustment layer for the foreground and a vibrance adjustment layer for the sky. Oh, and a H/S adjustment layer for the blue in the itty bitty piece of ocean you see to the right.

And speaking of Christmas, (like i haven't done it enough already) lookie what i got (please excuse the sharpened up cell phone photo, my SD card was inside the gopro)!

i didn't even ask for anything this year because jobless lifeless burden to my folks and whatnot, but this truly shocked me. I've been entering that win everything we make contest of theirs for months now and lo and behold, my parents come out of nowhere and give this to me all wrapped up for x-mas. Really thankful for them giving this to me even though they've been putting up with the way i've been for so long. So plan on looking forward to bumper/dash cam videos of me driving through some pretty roads sometime in the near future.

Maybe when the weather isn't as cold or wet, so like in a few months lol.

okay, i'm out. going to get a new background set up tomorrow and a change in font color and stuff.

"Happy Holidays".

Beaches. Beaches Everywhere.

What better way to waste your time with in this cold, cold December than looking at images of beaches wishing you were there?

Granted, this is no tropical island beach photography but still, it was warmer when i took these photos earlier in the summer than it is now. 

Remember what i said in my earlier post regarding that railroad track in Santa Cruz? the next few images i will be posting are in walking distance (literally, less than FIVE minutes. I spelled it out just so there aren't any typo inquires) of that shot. 

Immediately to the right of the tracks, there is a rocky path that leads up into this cliff that juts out of the coast. Beautiful views. Let me make clear that all of these shots aren't as touched up as the railroad shot, but they've all had light editing done to them to brighten them up a bit. The RAWS are always kind of dull looking before Photoshop has a go at them.

Walking along the edges of the cliff like a boss. (not really)

On to the left side. Neat little beach that you can actually get to if you keep walking along those tracks i mentioned earlier until you come to a path. You can't really see it in this low res, but there are about a dozen people enjoying the warm weather. Despite the overcast in the sky, it was in the 70's and a bit humid this day.

And now for an artsy-fartsy wide angle stitch.

Tomorrow I'll post pictures of another beach. 

another day, another photo...

Sorry about yesterday, folks. wasn't able to do much on the computer. So, here. have a heavily photoshopped shot of a railroad track.

Took this down in beautiful Santa Cruz, California earlier this year. This wasn't shot in the morning, or in evening. I totally changed the sky up so i could get that effect though. I'll put up some more images i took of the immediate surrounding area in the coming days. Might have to touch a few of them up before then, but i'll try to keep a steady stream of them coming along every day. 

Also, you may have noticed the new banner i have up. that's not a crop, it's a panoramic i took a few steps to the side of the background image you see on the site. I'll put up some more "stretchy" pano's in the coming weeks after i've touched them up and added the watermark. 

Enjoy.

A Bit More About Me...

So after reading over my first post, i decided to add to the about me part a bit more.

A quick recap: i'm 23 (male. if there were any questions). Live with parents, going to expensive university i'll never be able to pay off in the San Francisco Bay Area. Jobless.

Well, not exactly quite jobless. I'm a game tester for EA (Electronic Arts) and if i qualify for the game test, i spend 2-3 days getting paid to play the vidya. This is by no means anything close to part-time or even on-call; as i have to qualify for the game test my superior calls me about before even making it onto the list. This happens maybe once or twice a year (I've only qualified for two out of five so far ;_;)

Unfortunately i cannot talk about what games I've tested as per the NDA I've signed otherwise lawyers will be called, i'd be given a bad rep and probably never ever be able to land a job because of it. All i'll say is that it's fun and i enjoy my time there, however stressful the build of the game i'm playing may be.

So although it does give me a tiny bit of income, let it be known that it's my ONLY  income as of late. I'd have to use the key word "tiny" for descriptive emphasis on it's impact towards my financial situation. The money i earned doesn't go towards a new camera, or some new video game, or even clothes. 

It goes towards paying for parking and BART tickets, and occasionally gas that i use to get to and from BART. That's it. And even then, before the semester is up, i'd be completely broke. I end up having to mooch off parents for transport costs until the next game test happens or a job (oh my, heaven forbid THAT will happen any time soon!) somehow arises after all those applications i've turned in actually pull through for once.

See kids, this is all part of the college experience. You go to college to get a job. Then you get a job to pay for college. It truly is a vicious cycle. Too bad for me i'm still stuck on that first part, while already suffering the pain of the latter. 

On occasions i DO get to drive around outside of getting to and from school, (and i do love driving and the whole aut/o/motive culture)  I like to bring my camera/tripod along with me to take some photos.

My tastes have taken a short interesting path in my photographic life. When i first started out, i loved taking panoramic images. I found out in a certain windows program you could make stitches with photos. So i started taking pictures in twos and threes and stitching them up. it was fun, and something i still do to this day (but using superior Ps instead). From architectural interiors to wide open landscapes, my shutter was snapping in 15 degree angles. 

From photographing vista's and landscapes, i became aware of my desire for driving. I started photographing the roads i drove on to get to locations i originally wanted to shoot for the view. And from that stemmed my budding (still budding, i might say) interest in photographing automobiles, be it parked and being shot from delicious angles or being thrown through a beautiful curve. and hoping i can nab that one shot that effectively uses stop-motion or motion blur. 

if you're wondering what i drive, it's this auto-tragic 97 Eclipse RS. Completely stock, no rice on this vehicle. Not to say i don't like rice; sometimes it looks good, sometimes it looks bad. 

As of yesterday, my baby is being garage kept indefinitely until we (we as in my dad or if i take it to a shop) can figure out why the pads are sticking to the rotors on the right front side, yet the rotors look clean and shiny, while the left side rotor looks like the grand canyon with all it's rivets, yet no metal on metal grinding sound can be heard from said left side. 

Anyway, once that's fixed we've decided to put it up for sale. it's been in our family for 11, almost 12 years actually. our longest running vehicle by far, and my parents have had A LOT of vehicles. 

Don't know what will come after that. Due to the current financial situation my family is in, we wont be able to get anything "new" anytime soon, oh say short of winning the lottery. I've been looking at older buckets, and trying to find something that looks somewhat affordable yet doesn't break the bank to fix/maintain. Preferably a 5speed, so it doesn't completely suck the fun out of driving. 

Although i may be a jobless, lifeless failure, i try to bear as little a burden on my parents as i can, so they'll never hear me whining or begging for a new car/clothes/games/etc. Hell, i'd rather just get the Eclipse fixed than sell it. 

Well that's my blog post for the day. Even threw in two photos. Also if you were wondering about the background, it's a touch up of one of my dad's pictures that i used for my first photoshop class' final a few semesters ago. I'll be changing the background and text color on the regular, so stay tuned for those as well.

I'm Outtie.