Runfola Photography

Anti-Pasta Pasta

2010-07-20T18:47:00.000-07:00

The weather has been really unusual the past couple of weeks -- definitely not typical summer weather for San Diego. Two weeks ago, the weather was cool and cloudy on a daily basis with temperatures ranging between 65°F and 75°F. Last week it was extremely warm (hot?) with temps reaching into the 90s -- we had to turn on the air-conditioner in our home for the first time this year! Now, we're back into cooler temps again. Bizarre.

Anyway, last weekend, while the weather was still very warm, I decided to make something refreshing for dinner -- my famous anti-pasta pasta! My anti-pasta pasta is exactly what it sounds like: anti-pasta salad with pasta. I simply boil up some multi-colored rotini, shock 'em with cold water to stop them from cooking, and spread them over a bed of chopped lettuce. Then, I add tomatoes, sliced red onion, olives, fresh chopped basil, roasted bell pepper, salami, pepporoni, prosciutto, and fresh-ground salt and pepper. Next, I drizzle on either home-made or store-bought Italian dressing and top it all off with freshly grated Grana Padano parmesan cheese. Add to that a nice glass of home-made red wine and you've got yourself a refreshing summer meal! Buon Appetito!

New Jersey 2010

2010-06-25T21:09:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness! Look how much time has passed since my last posting! I keep meaning to update the blog on a quasi-regular basis, but life keeps getting in the way.

The period of June 16th - 23rd was quite exciting as it was spent in New Jersey with family and to attend my sister Joanna's wedding. It was really nice seeing everyone again and catching up since we last saw each other. We also had the pleasure of meeting my new brother-in-law, Michael Santore, who is a really cool guy. We wish Joanna and Michael many happy years together.

The pictures displayed below are a small collection that best showcase our daily activities while in NJ. You can view the rest of the collection by clicking any of the pictures.

June 16

Anthony looking through airplane window

Dinner with the Runfola Family
L-R: Augie, Me, Gena, Anthony, Gina, Michael, Joanna, Sal

June 17

Breakfast at the Avon Pavillion along the Jersey Shore

Wedding Rehearsal Dinner

June 18

Chillaxin' on the deck while waiting for the BBQ'ed Italian Sausages

June 19 - WEDDING DAY!

Anthony and his Grandfather playing with a shortwave radio while the bride and her bridesmaids get beautified

The Bride, Joanna, with her Maiden-of-Honor, our sister, Gina on the dancefloor dancing to the song YMCA

June 21

Bottling a barrel of Sangiovese wine -- we got about 252 bottles from one barrel!

At the shooting range

June 22 - Pennsylvania

Near the spot where George Washington crossed the Delaware River

Getting ready to have lunch in New Hope, Pennsylvania

XKCD on Earthquakes and Twitter

2010-04-05T16:24:00.000-07:00

This strip was posted yesterday on xkcd.com, appropriately enough.

6.9 Earthquake Rattles Baja and San Diego on Easter Sunday

2010-04-04T16:38:00.000-07:00

At 1540hrs (that's 3:40 p.m. for you non-military folk ;)) Baja California, more specifically, Mexicali, was rattled by a magnitude 6.9 earthquake which was felt rather strongly here in San Diego and Los Angeles. You can read more about here.

Gena and I were sitting on the couch in the livingroom watching TV and relaxing from a large Easter lunch. I felt some light shaking and at first thought it was Gena shaking her foot. I glanced over at the cord hanging from our Rock Band drumset and saw that it was swaying (I've learned from experience that the cord tends to sway regardless of how weak a quake may be). Our dog, Leica, continued sleeping on Gena's lap and didn't react until I told Gena we were having an earthquake (what a great early warning system the dog is). At that point, the quake intensified and small figurines on top of our television set actually fell off!

Check out the USGS earthquake map showing the locality and magnitude of the quake:

BANZAI!

2010-03-29T21:13:00.001-07:00

Last Friday we, once again, spent the night at Barona Casino. Gena regularly receives free 1-night stay coupons in the mail which we don't always use and, because it has been a while since we last stayed at Barona, we decided to use the coupon. When we go, we usually stop at one of the many fine restaurants Barona has to offer to grab a bite to eat before Anthony and I head back to the room to play games and download movies from Netflix while Gena tries to strike it rich on the slot machines. This time was different.

Because we now have a puppy, we couldn't leave her home alone for 24 hours, so we took her with us and smuggled her into the hotel in one of Gena's big purses (I call it a duffel bag). Leica kept poking her head out of the purse, so we had to throw a sweater over Gena's shoulder and let it hang down in the front to cover the dog up. It worked!

As soon as we made it safely to our room without the dog being detected, Anthony went back downstairs to play near the fish pond for a short while before it got dark outside. While he was gone, I set the camera and lights up in preparation for taking a picture that I've been intending to do for quite a while. Once everything was set up, I asked Gena to sit on the corner of the bed so I could "test" a feature of the camera. I positioned myself a few feet behind her, then ran and dove onto the bed. The first picture shows her patiently waiting while I "tested" the camera, not expecting me to jump on the bed.

I then told her that I had to adjust something on the camera and needed to take another picture like the first. This time, knowing what to expect, she prepared herself the moment she heard me running towards the bed, as you can see in the second picture. When I saw her reaction, I knew I had the shot in the bag!

Five minutes later, Anthony returned and we ordered room service while watching "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" on Netflix.

Homegrown CSI

2010-03-21T21:44:00.000-07:00

Okay, so, Gena's favorite TV shows are CSI (all versions), NCIS, Law & Order, etc. (do you see a pattern here?). This weekend, while catching her watching what I call "The CSI Channel", and seeing two of the main characters searching a room with a UV light, I was hit with the realization that, using a UV light source, I could easily find urine stains on the carpet. Having bought a UV flashlight a couple years ago for a camping trip to the desert with hopes of finding scorpions at night (they glow green, y'know), and not having found any, I had put the flashlight away and kind of forgotten about it. Until this evening...

I jumped up off the couch and went into the garage to look for the box with camping gear. It was pretty easy to find because it was rather large-ish and had "Camping Gear" written on the side. Opening the box, I immediately found the 9" long UV flashlight, a Streamlight TwinTask 3C, sitting on top of the larger items just waiting for its moment to shine (literally and figuratively).

I returned to the kitchen where I donned rubber gloves and then proceeded to turn off all the lights in the apartment (because that was how they did it on CSI). Turning the flashlight on, I immediately saw a couple small urine stains on the livingroom carpet. Scanning the apartment, I found approximately ten small stains throughout glowing bright green-yellow -- these must've been ones that we missed because more recent "accidents" that I've cleaned up were not visible (we've been spraying her "accidents" with Nature's Miracle Stain & Odor Remover after dabbing the area dry, which does a fantastic job of cleaning up).

Check out one of the pictures I took of the stain:

Looks like we'll be renting a steam cleaner soon...

My New Leica

2010-02-13T19:58:00.000-08:00

Actually, the title should read "Our New Leica" because Leica isn't exactly a camera in this instance -- she's the newest member of the Runfola family and is what is considered a "teacup" chihuahua because of her extremely small size.

Born December 3, 2009, Leica was given to us by a family friend whose chihuahua (one of seven different breeds of dogs he has) had two puppies. His wife, apparently, didn't want any more dogs, so he offered us one of the two pups. We acquired her on January 28, nearly two months after she was born.

Since becoming part of the family, she has brought everyone much joy, as well as grief. The grief has been brought on by the difficulty of housebreaking her, but with all three of us taking an active roll in the process, she has already progressed immensely and is running to her "puppy pad" to evacuate. Because she is still a puppy, she isn't always able to control her bodily functions (just like a human baby) and makes on the carpet, but we're always there to clean up after her and spray the area with an odor neutralizing spray.

I've taken charge of the majority of the training and have already, in less than two weeks, taught her to sit. We are now working on "stay" and, after only a couple days, I am able to walk 8-10 feet away without her moving. Daily walks are done without a leash, for now, and she does really well walking by my side and keeping pace. Occasionally, she'll fall behind when something catches her attention, or she'll run a few feet ahead and wait for me to catch up. Walking back, she knows exactly which path to take to get back to our apartment. Leash training will commence soon.

As mentioned before, we're having lots of fun with her and look forward to many years of more fun.

Rainfall Totals for Mira Mesa, California

2010-01-20T22:05:00.000-08:00

As promised, the rains have finally hit San Diego. For those of you watching the news, you are aware of some of the devastation caused by the heavy rains, mudslides, winds, and surf, especially those counties north of San Diego. We haven't seen this kind of storm in a loooong time, and my son and I are actually enjoying it! Just this evening as the brunt of the storm was overhead, he asked me if we could go driving in the rain. Naturally, I had to oblige as I love driving in the rain -- what a blast it was (yes, I did drive safely).

We also received a digital rain meter from a friend which we have been diligently monitoring every 12 hours since the storm started, from 6am-6pm-6am. However, I'm only entering rainfall totals over a 24-hour period. Be sure to check back daily as we continue to update it.

Rainfall Totals in Inches for Zip Code 92126 (will be updated daily as long as it rains)
Date	Daily Total	Cum. Total
Jan. 17,2010	0.02	0.02
Jan. 18,2010	0.95	0.97
Jan. 19,2010	0.58	1.55
Jan. 20,2010	0.81	2.36
Jan. 21,2010	1.35	3.71
Jan. 22,2010	0.29	3.99

Large Storm Headed Towards SoCal and San Diego

2010-01-15T19:55:00.000-08:00

Looks like we'll be getting the heaviest storm I've ever witnessed here in San Diego starting this Sunday. According to the Special Weather Statement released by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), we could receive record rainfall! Check out NOAA's statement, below, and then my screenshot of this evening's weather report following this statement (those measurements are inches of rain, not snow!

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN DIEGO CA
159 PM PST FRI JAN 15 2010

CAZ042-043-048-050-055>058-060>062-162200-
ORANGE COUNTY COASTAL AREAS-SAN DIEGO COUNTY COASTAL AREAS-
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTY VALLEYS-THE INLAND EMPIRE-
SAN DIEGO COUNTY VALLEYS-SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY MOUNTAINS-
RIVERSIDE COUNTY MOUNTAINS-SANTA ANA MOUNTAINS AND FOOTHILLS-
SAN DIEGO COUNTY MOUNTAINS-APPLE AND LUCERNE VALLEYS-
COACHELLA VALLEY-SAN DIEGO COUNTY DESERTS-
159 PM PST FRI JAN 15 2010

...BIG CHANGES IN THE WEATHER NEXT WEEK...

A SERIES OF STORMS WILL BRING PERIODS OF LOCALLY HEAVY RAIN AND
STRONG WINDS NEXT WEEK WITH SNOW AT THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS.

THERE IS STILL A LOT OF UNCERTAINTY ABOUT THE EXACT TIMING AND
RAINFALL AMOUNTS...BUT THESE STORMS HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO BE QUITE
VIGOROUS...AND BRING LARGE RAINFALL TOTALS TO THE LOWER ELEVATIONS
AND HEAVY SNOW TO THE MOUNTAINS.

THIS ALL WEEK LONG EVENT HAS THE POTENTIAL TO GENERATE RAINFALL OF 5
TO 8 INCHES NEAR THE COAST...TO 20 OR MORE INCHES ON THE COASTAL
MOUNTAIN SLOPES. TYPICALLY WETTER LOCATIONS ON THE COASTAL MOUNTAINS
SLOPES COULD RECEIVE 30 OR MORE INCHES OF RAINFALL. EVEN THE DESERT
LOCATIONS ARE LIKELY TO RECEIVE BETWEEN 2 AND 4 INCHES OF RAIN.

SNOW LEVELS WILL MOSTLY FLUCTUATE BETWEEN 5500 AND 6500 FEET WHICH
WOULD CONFINE HEAVY SNOW ACCUMULATIONS TO THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS IN
THE SAN BERNARDINO AND SAN JACINTO MOUNTAINS. AROUND 4 FEET OF
SNOWFALL IS POSSIBLE AT THE HEAVIEST LOCATIONS.

WITH THE RAINFALL AMOUNTS EXPECTED...THERE IS HIGH LIKELIHOOD
OF FLASH FLOODING...ALONG WITH MUD AND DEBRIS FLOWS...ESPECIALLY IN
AND BELOW RECENTLY BURNED AREAS. THERE COULD ALSO BE ROCK SLIDES
ALONG MOUNTAIN HIGHWAYS...MAKING TRAVEL IMPASSABLE AT TIMES.

THE HEAVY SNOW FALL AMOUNTS EXCEPTED...THERE IS A POSSIBILITY OF
AVALANCHES FOR AREAS LOCATED BELOW THE STEEPER SLOPES OF THE HIGHER
SAN BERNARDINO AND SAN JACINTO MOUNTAINS.

THE STRENGTH OF THE JET STREAM DRIVING THESE STORMS IS OVER 200 MPH
AND THE STORMS THEMSELVES WILL BE MOVING RAPIDLY ONSHORE IN QUICK
SUCCESSION.

AS A RESULT THERE ARE LIKELY TO BE STRONG WINDS THROUGH MUCH OF NEXT
WEEK. OVER THE COASTAL WATERS GALE FORCE OR HIGHER WINDS ARE
EXPECTED. OVER LAND...DAMAGING WINDS ARE LIKELY TO PRECEDE THE
ARRIVAL OF EACH STORM. WIND GUSTS BETWEEN 50 AND 60 MPH ARE POSSIBLE
FOR THE COASTS AND VALLEYS...WHILE THE MOUNTAINS AND DESERTS MAY
HAVE GUSTS 70 MPH OR HIGHER.

PEOPLE SHOULD STAY UPDATED WITH THE LATEST FORECASTS. LISTEN TO NOAA
WEATHER RADIO OR VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT WEATHER.GOV/SANDIEGO FOR THE
LATEST UPDATES OF FORECASTS AND WARNINGS.

$$
SMALL/BALFOUR

Weather Report Screen Shot -- that's inches of rain, not snow!

Ocean Beach Pier

2010-01-14T23:03:00.001-08:00

Inspired by my good friend Bob, and by the 15' waves San Diego has been experiencing the past couple of days, I decided to head with my wife down to the Ocean Beach Pier this evening after work. Thanks to rush-hour traffic, we arrived at the pier just in time to catch the last few rays of sunshine before the sun set over the horizon. Hoping to at least catch the Green Flash to make our visit worthwhile, I set the camera to Continuous Mode and rapidly shot off about 50 frames in rapid succession. Unfortunately, atmospheric conditions were not conducive to rendering a Green Flash :( Additionally, the pier was closed due to wave damage, so we decided to walk down the steps to the beach.

With daylight quickly diminishing, I scanned around for interesting subjects to "paint". Except for a few lonely people, the beach and boardwalk were rather empty. Seeing a lady walking towards us with her dog, I decided to "paint" a few pictures of her -- the "paintings" didn't quite turn out how I had pictured them, but I was pretty happy with the results nonetheless. After the lady with the dog passed by, a young man walked in front of us and I managed to get a couple shots of him as well. Below are two of my favorite photos from this evening.

Evening Beach Stroll with Dog

Lonely Beach Stroll

The Best of 2009

2009-12-18T18:31:00.000-08:00

As 2009 comes to a close, I'd like to share a small selection of my favorite photographs that I've taken this past year. Some of these photos made it either to my website or this blog, while others did not. Many of those that did not make it to my website were either not "artistic" enough or I just didn't feel like sharing them. Either way, they still hold a special place in my heart, which is why I'm sharing them now in this slideshow.

The song selected for this slideshow is "Little Green Bag" by the George Baker Selection. I first heard this song in the movie "Reservoir Dogs", and then again while watching "So You Think You Can Dance" in which Pauline Mata and Peter Sabasino performed while in front of a giant backdrop of Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night. Their dance was one of my favorites and you can watch it here.

Enjoy the slideshow!

Christmas Portraits

2009-12-09T21:43:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks ago I was asked by two friends to take some Christmas portraits of their sons and some of the whole family, as well as a couple of maternity shots. I had just bought some new equipment a few days prior and was eager to try it out (for those interested, I bought a new Nikon SB-600 flash, two flash stands, and one backdrop kit to hold the roll of 6' wide backdrop paper my Dad had sent me some time ago). Below are but a few of the pictures taken.

BTW, the second picture of Andrew has been Photoshopped. Can you tell which part? If you guessed the Christmas tree, you're wrong. It's the present sitting/standing/leaning on the overturned box! Andrew was becoming a bit irritable (most likely from the heat of the costume) and wasn't cooperating fully. We managed to get a smile out of him by fake coughing and gagging. In the rush to shoot the picture, we left the gift out of the picture, but I added it later by copying and pasting it from another picture I took after this one.

Halloween 2002

2009-11-22T10:48:00.000-08:00

I was recently discussing with a friend a Halloween costume I had made for my wife back in 2002 for her company Halloween costume contest. At the time, she was working for Qualex, a subsidiary of Kodak, which was mainly responsible for processing film dropped off by customers of larger chain stores such as Wal-Mart, Kmart, Target, etc. I used to work for Qualex, too, but left the company in 2000 to enter the world of fiber-optic technology.

Two weeks before Halloween, Gena came home from work and informed me of the upcoming company Halloween party and costume contest, and also of the grand prize: a 4.0MP Kodak Easyshare DX4900 digital camera, which was announced by Kodak February 22, 2002, and retailed for approximately $500. No sooner had she finished telling me all this when I was struck by inspiration and told her I would make a costume guaranteeing that she would win the camera (hint: anything company-themed is a good guarantee of a win).

With only two weeks to plan, design, and build the costume, I had no time to waste and worked on it every day up to one hour before the contest when I pulled up to the side door of the company to drop off the costume. The production manager opened the door for me and was so blown away by the costume that she immediately paged the whole company over the intercom to come to the Film department. Once everybody was gathered around, they all agreed, hands down, that Gena should receive the grand prize -- no voting was needed.

And that was my first foray into the world of digital photography.

Below are some pictures of Gena's costume, as well as the digital camera that we won (all taken with the new camera).

PACQUIAO WON!!!

2009-11-15T01:50:00.000-08:00

Rather than going into the highlights of the match which can be found all over the Internet, I just wanted to express my excitement at Manny "Pac-Man" Pacquiao's win over Miquel Cotto and commemorate the win with this, my favorite, fight poster (click on image for a 1250x1830 pixel poster).

Yellow Belt Promotion

2009-11-12T16:33:00.000-08:00

Anthony was promoted from white to yellow belt in tae kwondo on November 10th. It took a bit longer than expected because of a few missed classes, but he finally reached the requisite number of class hours, as well as skills, to graduate to the next level. Needless to say, he was really quite excited about his achievement. Congratulations, Anthony!

Of Photographic Challenges and Stereotypes

2009-07-28T12:10:00.000-07:00

Too often the quality of a photograph is based on stereotypes such as sharpness/clearness and exposure, with subject matter being of least importance. One might have captured a controversial image of a starving infant in Africa, for example, but if that image doesn't meet the stereotypes, nobody will really see the message. What you WILL hear are comments such as "The image is out of focus" or "The exposure is off". Who came up with these ridiculous "rules"?

I recently read about some photographers who add "texture" to their photographs in post-processing. For example, to an image of a homeless person on the street, one might add a gravel texture to enhance the "hardness" of the image and make the message louder. Or to the image of a bride and groom, one might add a paisley texture. The combinations are endless and result in some interesting photographs that illicit a slew of emotions. I don't see anything wrong with using this process to enhance a photograph, and I kinda like it myself.

What I find wrong, however, is that the author of this particular article posted a "how to" and stated that is impossible to achieve this sort of layered effect in-camera. I took that as a personal challenge and created the image you see below, which by a few people has been likened to an oil painting. Let me remind you: this effect was achieved in-camera, not in post-processing!

Tobacco Hornworm

2009-07-23T09:06:00.001-07:00

I found this little guy munching away at the leaves of my tomato plant -- I've noticed little holes appearing in the leaves and have diligently been checking for caterpillars regulary, picking them off and flicking them away or feeding them to ants whenever I find some (they're usually about 1/4" long). Recently, though, I've noticed entire leaves missing and suspected there must be a caterpillar that has been eluding me. Sure enough, near a stem that has had all its leaves eaten off of it, I found this Tobacco Hornworm. Easily confused with a Tomato Hornworm, the Tobacco Hornworm "horn" is red, while a Tomato Hornworm's is black.

Tobacco Hornworm

4.0 Earthquake with a Surprising Aftershock -- SQUIDS!

2009-07-12T10:45:00.001-07:00

This morning, at 7:34 a.m. PST, San Diego awoke to the shaking of a 4.0 earthquake centered in the Pacific Ocean approximately 19 miles off the coast of San Diego. Many residents reported feeling the quake, although we didn't feel anything.

Shortly after the quake, beachgoers began spotting squid, jumbo Humboldt squid, to be precise, beaching themselves on the sand at La Jolla Shores. At this point, nobody's really sure about this unusual behavior of the squid, but some speculate it was a result of the earthquake, while others think it's because of the rapidly changing water temperatures we've been experiencing lately.

Following are a couple videos courtesy of San Diego's NBC 7/39.

View more news videos at: http://www.nbcsandiego.com/video.

Evian's Rollerskating Babies (International Version)

2009-07-11T08:07:00.000-07:00

Somebody sent me a link to this video yesterday and I liked it so much that I wanted to share it with everyone. It kinda reminds me of the dancing baby video of the 90s, which absolutely freaked me out (I hated that video!), but I like this one.

Catching Up

2009-07-09T18:46:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it's been a couple of weeks since I've updated this blog, and I hope you regular readers don't feel like I've neglected you. Things have been pretty busy for me lately; aside from work, I've been busy with my photography, shooting a charity event for the 15th anniversary celebration of the George G. Glenner Alzheimer's Family Center, celebrating our 11th wedding anniversary with a dinner cruise around San Diego Bay, photographing a musical performance and, finally, photographing 4th of July fireworks! Oh, yeah, and I've got my regular job, too.

Below are a couple pictures from each event. Except for our anniversary dinner cruise pictures, clicking on any other pictures will take you to that gallery.

L-R: Cheryl Williams, Representative for Assemblywoman Mary Salas; Kelly Focht, GGGAFC CEO; Dawn DeStefani, GGGAFC Program Director

Gena, Anthony, and Me on the Deck of the Inspiration Hornblower

L-R: Rex Castor, Ken St. John, and Roby Robertson of the trio Schmooze performing for the first time in four years at Rebecca's Coffeehouse

Fireworks over San Diego Bay

Husband for Sale

2009-06-25T12:55:00.000-07:00

I came across the following entirely by accident while Googling some photography-related material. The following appeared today, June 25, 2009, in the Toronto Craigslist. I'm not sure how long it will remain online, so I've copied & pasted the ad in its entirity here. I thought it was hilarious (here's the direct link).

WTT: Ken Rockwell-Obsessed Husband (North York)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Reply to: sale-hpcn7-1239135682@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]Date: 2009-06-25, 12:36PM EDT

One gently-used caucasian male. 36 years-old. Slightly defective. Remembers the names of Ken Rockwell's kids but not our own. Constantly buying high-end photo gear then selling it on craigslist the second Canon or Nikon releases something new. Complains endlessly about lowballers, tire-kickers and pixel peepers. Sold car to buy a Leica body and now wants to mortage house to buy lenses, all at Ken Rockwell's insistence. Maybe you can reprogram him. I have no time because I have to cart our kids around on the TTC and work two jobs while while he fiddles with film and DSLR to achieve super-saturated highlights.

Reasonable offers accepted: Food, clothing, 1992 Subaru Justy. Offers of photo equipment will promptly be deleted! Lowball kickers are welcome! A swift one in the nuts will do him some good.

Location: North York
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 1239135682

Mobile Upload Test

2009-06-21T10:42:00.001-07:00

This is my umpteenth attempt at mobile uploading -- previous attempts have failed miserably and I was unable to get any help in the Blogger Help Forums. If this upload is successful, then I will add a comment about the picture later. I hope this works...

Sweet success! It finally worked! OMG, you have no idea how many times I've had to register my phone and perform an upload test only to receive an error message stating that I needed to register my phone -- it was a vicious circle, but everything seems to be working fine (knock on wood). Now I just need to figure out how to eliminate the white top and bottom borders of the picture, and how to center the picture automatically (I had to manually center the above picture).

Oh, yeah, I was going to comment on the above picture -- this picture was taken during my lunch break at work. I had a can of Cherry Coke and a bag of black cherries when I decided to put the two together to create a "still-life". Aside from the lousy lighting and lousy resolution of my phone's camera, I think the picture turned out pretty good.

Anthony and Jack Hanna

2009-06-06T17:34:00.000-07:00

Going through some old computer files this evening, I came across these pictures from the late morning of April 24, 2004 of Anthony with the celebrity zoologist, Jack Hanna. Jack was on a tour and made a stop at San Diego's University Towne Centre mall to talk about animals and the importance of global awareness. We had no idea he would be there and were pleasantly surpised when we found out -- of course, Anthony was excited about meeting Jack, especially since he and I watched Jack's nature shows on TV together. Jack talked with Anthony for a bit while his assistants were busy setting up the stage, and ended up giving Anthony a little book and binder about animals which he personally signed "To my Pal, Anthony. Jack Hanna".

Me, Anthony, and Jack Hanna

Jack Hanna

Anthony Feeding a Parrot

Double-Exposure Portrait

2009-06-05T23:32:00.000-07:00

I was playing around with my homemade snoot and decided to take a couple shots of my friend, Bob. This particular photograph was taken at work with all the lights in the room turned on, but the aperture was stopped down to f/36. I attached the snoot to the flash which Bob held off-camera for me. Took a couple test shots to dial in the flash power and ended up shooting at 1/16 power -- the snoot really concentrates the light! Once the flash power and Kelvin temp were properly dialed in, it was just a matter of positioning Bob during the double-exposure. This was my favorite picture, however, I should've paid more attention to Bob's head position/angle in the second (smaller) shot. Thanks for being such a great sport throughout the shoot, Bob!

Bob Cacho

Heading to Farms for Summer Internships

2009-06-02T21:35:00.000-07:00

My sister, Gina, made the New York Times! The NYT did a short piece on liberal arts students who are heading to farms as interns for the summer, in search of both work and social change, and she was one of the featured students. Check out the pictures of Gina on the NYT website! Way to go, Gina! Love ya, Beans!

Runfola Photography

Anti-Pasta Pasta

New Jersey 2010

XKCD on Earthquakes and Twitter

6.9 Earthquake Rattles Baja and San Diego on Easter Sunday

BANZAI!

Homegrown CSI

My New Leica

Rainfall Totals for Mira Mesa, California

Rainfall Totals in Inches for Zip Code 92126

Date

Daily Total

Cum. Total

Large Storm Headed Towards SoCal and San Diego

Ocean Beach Pier

The Best of 2009

Christmas Portraits

Halloween 2002

PACQUIAO WON!!!

Yellow Belt Promotion

Of Photographic Challenges and Stereotypes

Tobacco Hornworm

4.0 Earthquake with a Surprising Aftershock -- SQUIDS!

Evian's Rollerskating Babies (International Version)

Catching Up

Husband for Sale

Mobile Upload Test

Anthony and Jack Hanna

Double-Exposure Portrait

Heading to Farms for Summer Internships