Brick Flowers

Some things grow in the unlikeliest of places. These flowers have supplanted the weeds of my neighbor's house, a house that's been unoccupied for over two years. The rest of the yard is gone and dead yet these flowers have found a home.

Our House - November 10, 2008

One More Day

One more day! This is it. Wow, it's all come down to this. It seemed like it couldn't get here fast enough, really. The first stirs of the election were over two years ago! It's definitely been a long time coming.

Can you feel it? There's such a buzz in the air. It's all focused on tomorrow, a magnifying glass held over November 4th since, well, probably since Bush was re-elected in 2004. And perhaps it's because I'm four years older and four years wiser (I hope!), but this election feels different. It feels heavy. Everywhere I go I feel the weight of importance, whether it be competing lawn signs or a bumper stickers. My TV is inundated with ads, showing people looking for change, families and children strongly affected by the past four years. People are strongly divided and tomorrow will be a defining moment of our time.

I don't know what to expect and I don't know what's going to happen. I just hope for the best.

Go vote!

UCLA Campaign of Champions

Added a page for my latest project, UCLA's Campaign of Champions. It's a 6-minute promo that's being used to raise $150 million for UCLA to renovate Pauley Pavilion.

It hasn't been released publicly, so I can't have it on my site just yet. If you want to see it, I'll be happy to show you!

New Videos

Just posted: three new videos in the Watch section.

One is the teaser for a short film called Untimely. It was directed by William Bibbiani, who I went to UCLA Film School with.



The other two are clips from another short film, The Delivery. Peter Hagan directed this short.





I'm proud of both these projects because they were different from anything I had done before. Untimely was a horror film, a genre that I don't love to watch but have a lot of fun making (strange, huh?). The Delivery is a romantic comedy and features the music of Jason Holstrom, U.S.E., and Wonderful.

Check them out! I also made them iPhone compatible, so if you have an iPhone, you're totally good to go.

"Dinosaur-shaped Chicken Nuggets": A short story

It's one of those nights. Can't stop working or won't stop working. Basically trying to load my site up with as much crap as possible.

And now...! The amazing, wondrous, fantastic return of my 2003 short story "Dinosaur-shaped Chicken Nuggets!"

I wrote it as a submission to UCLA's School of Film. It's not great, but I still think it has charm. And it's definitely better than anything I'm writing now. Well... Maybe. That's still to be determined.

It's only about 2,000 words so if you have ten minutes to spare, perhaps take a look. Enjoy--

Panoramic Ecuador & Galapagos

I posted two sets of panoramic photos of Ecuador and the Galapagos. The more panoramic photos I take, the more I love it.

My favorites from the Ecuador set are:



I've discussed this before, but what I love most about the panoramic frame is how it requires the viewer to take a more active role in looking at the photo. Something I've been doing lately is choosing a subject that's lost in a crowd or nearly hidden until you really look into the image.

For instance, at first glance this photo simply looks like buildings and sky. But upon closer inspection, you can see the people hanging off the balcony. It was a older man and what I presume to be his children overlooking the town square.


In this photo, initial impressions seem like a simple shot of the road. But the subject is actually my friend Rebecca, feeling the effects of altitude sickness.


And, of course, there's always the gratuitous landscape or sky shot which panoramic makes all the more gorgeous.



My favorites from the Galapagos set are:



I had no idea that this shot of the tortoise would have been so cool. When I took the photo, he opened his mouth so quickly that I thought I had missed it. Having captured this image, however, it looks like he's trying to fend me off. In actuality, these animals have a demeanor so serene that you could've touched their shells.


Full galleries are in the Look section. Also, if you like the panoramic photo format, check out my new blog I started called A Life Panoramic. It's going to focus on panoramic photos only, along with random thoughts and observations.

EcuaPano

New photos up in my photo gallery of the Ecuador and Galapagos trip we took at the end of August. Take a look and I'll have a longer post about them tomorrow.

A Life Panoramic

Oh boy, here I go. Another project in the works. This one, however, actually feels like it has legs. We'll see.

A permanent link is on the sidebar.

Ecuador & The Galapagos

I just got back from Ecuador & The Galapagos a few weeks ago. It was an amazing trip that I took with my wife, Chelsee, my brother, Michael, and our friend, Rebecca. I put up two photo sets and a third panoramic photo set will be coming soon.

The first one is of Ecuador. What an amazing country! We visited two friends who had moved to the capital city of Quito to teach at the international high school. We started with a walking tour of Old Town, enamored with the ornate architecture and rich history. Of course, we had to try the local ceremonial food of fried guinea pig, or cuy.








After a day in Quito, we took a bus through the Quilotoa Loop, highlighted with a stay at the Black Sheep Inn and a hike to Laguna Quilotoa:








Also, let it be known that the best way to travel through Ecuador is on the back of a pickup truck:








The second set of photos is of the Galapagos, which was equally stunning. It had a different appeal than mainland Ecuador with a more natural beauty and animals everywhere. We saw iguanas, pelicans, lizards, seals, and penguins to name a few. And--oh yeah--blue-footed boobies.








It was an awesome vacation and, as always, far too short.

Four New Videos: Chicken Wing Theme?

A bunch of updates are coming down the pipeline and to start I've added four videos to the Watch section. Though they weren't made as spec spots, as finished products they make pretty good ones.

They're all :30 spots: two for Buffalo Wild Wings, one for Hoagies & Wings, and one for March Madness 2008. Strangely, all four spots deal with chicken wings. Perhaps it'll become an emerging theme in my work...





























All were written and directed by me and my brother, Michael, and edited by me.

Brand New!

I have a habit of updating my site every few months, despite the content not changing that much. However, I like to aesthetic of this site much better than my old one. I feel it's more streamlined and logical. Also, the design matches my new business card, which I like.