I have been photographing more and more real estate and needed a lens that could help me capture everything in a room without cutting anything out, complete ceiling to floor, wall to wall action. So I borrowed the Sigma 10-20mm lens from Borrowlenses.com for only $29 for 3 days! Here is a quick comparison with my iPhone vs the Sigma:
My cell phone photo
Photo using the Sigma
Now you can tell just by comparison that the Sigma completely blew my iPhone out of the water. The whole kitchen, living room and bedroom were captured in one shot. The ultimate benefit of using a wide angle lens with real estate photography is to be able to fit into tight spaces, capture everything in the room and also give the illusion that the space is a little larger than it actually is. Being able to show both the floor and the ceiling helps with this. If you need a cheap, high quality wide angle lens I would highly suggest the Sigma 10-20mm.
The time has come where I need your help to become Photographer of the Year!! Vote for me once every day (from Oct 1st to Oct 8th) by going to www.rawartists.org/abrphoto and hitting the VOTE button. The prizes for becoming Photographer of the Year are CAREER CHANGING. Help me get this! Spread it around, share it with your friends and family!
Also I am running a contest for YOU to win a photo session for FREE (if you are out of state or out of the country, I will send you something special!) All you have to do is vote for me, take a picture/screenshot of the completed vote, send it to me or tag me on Facebook, and you get 1 entry into the random drawing. Share the link with your friends & family and you get another entry. Share the link on multiple social media sites daily (or forward it through email) and you receive multiple entries! The possibilities are endless. The random drawing will take place on October 10th and the winner will be announced on October 11th.
Plus my birthday is Oct 5th, so this is your gift to me! Let’s make this happen peeps!
Also view my RAW Artists Showcase experience and see how amazing this organization is by clicking HERE.
Author’s Note: If anyone has any questions regarding my RAW Artists experience please feel free to email me! Not only have I done this show, but I also won Photographer of the Year of Orange County by RAW so I will try my best to answer any questions you may have!
RAW: natural born artists is an organization for artists by artists. It is kinda like this awesome club where every art lover is invited in to experience the work of all artists; from musicians, to painters, sculptures, fashion designers, make-up artists, jewelry makers, photographers, drawers, poets, film-makers, and everything in between! I had the amazing opportunity to be a part of it! If you have never been to a RAW artists showcase or if you have never heard of RAW, you are missing out! It’s at a place that serves alcohol, there are fashion shows, alcohol, musical performances, alcohol, spoken word, alcohol, and every artist gets their own booth and can design it any way they want to. I, of course being the creative genius I am, was clueless on how to do this. Luckily, my booth buddy Alex Estrada (who is an AMAZING portrait/editorial photographer) was full of ideas and suggested we make a faux gallery wall using foam core. He was a life-saver because I was just going to probably just tape them to a fence or something (super creative, eh? Told you.).
So Steph and I loaded the car up with huge 4’x8′ 3/16″ foam core that we got from Art Supply Warehouse in Westminister, CA and made our way down to the Shark Club in Costa Mesa where the RAW Artists Orange County Showcase Kaleidoscope was taking place. I was extremely nervous heading down there, not because the foam boards were massive and I couldn’t really see the speeding cars on the freeway, or because Stephanie looks kinda creepy in the back seat, it was because I had to do a dreaded interview, on camera. Now some of you may not know me, but believe it or not, I’m shy. Ok, stop laughing. So I was freaking out. I knew the interview questions, but spaced out on all my super amazing answers (I’m really hoping you stopped laughing by now). The video will come later, where I’m sure more laughing will ensue.
So we arrive to the amazing venue and we set up. Oh and I forgot to mention, I picked the booth that was right in front of the stage. To me that was the best seat in the house. I didn’t care about whether or not people came up to the booth, all that mattered is I didn’t have to leave my location to view anything that was going on, onstage. Yes, I’m that lazy.
So setting up was all done and it was time for my dreaded interview and portrait session. The portraits were easy since I just had to sit there, but the interview….. yea….. I forgot everything I was planning on saying and just winged it. From the video, you can totally tell (at least I can). I looked like a deer in headlights. Mind you it was in a dark room, with two huge lights on me and I couldn’t see anything in the room except the lights. For the most part I believe I did very well. I spoke (which is a win), I made sense (which is another win), I didn’t run away, cry, or throw up (win, Win, WIN!). The video of the interview and the event is below. Once my sweaty self made it back to my booth the lovely host Molly Mahoney comes up to me and informs me she will be bringing up artists onstage to talk about their work.
I almost quit (not really.) So if video interview wasn’t enough, I now had to go onstage once the show starts and be interviewed. Luckily for me, I wasn’t in the first group to go up, so I got to see how everything panned out. This amazing band Ted Z and the Wranglers got the group wiled up and my drinking ensued to calm my nerves. Fortunately Molly is an amazing host, she did most of the talking and bumped up the ego of every artist, so my interview was easy breezy. Plus it helped that I had a huge cheering squad of my lovely family and friends!
If you are an artist, whether you are an aspiring artist or established artist, you need to sign up to become a RAW Artist. You can do so at www.rawartists.org. When you showcase with them you receive a professional portrait, an interview video, free admission and a +1 to any RAW Artists Showcase forever, and you get a FREE showcase out of state (or out of the country!). Plus not to mention you get a crap-ton of networking. Not only that, but RAW Artists get special discounts and perks to other places. For example, I signed up for Turningart.com which is literally the Netflix of art. You submit your work, clients go through and add your art to their collection once they return the art currently at their home, the next piece gets shipped out. So your work gets put up on client’s wall and you get paid for it! And the bonus for RAW Artists is you get featured on Turningart.com! If anybody wants a complimentary 3-month membership to Turningart.com and get my work on your wall, let me know and I will hook you up!
Ah yes, if you paid attention you realized by now I was stalling as much as I could from the interview video. Well it is below. Enjoy!
So we are having our first art show which will run pretty much the whole month of April! Come out and support local art because part of the proceeds will go to “Partners of Parks” which puts money back into the awesome El Dorado Park!
My mother wanted to take me to a place that she used to take me and my siblings when we were young, and that place is the Cabrillo Beach Tide Pools. Now my mom kept telling me we are going to go to the tide pools, we are going to go to the tide pools, we are going to go to the tide pools! For whatever reason that didn’t sink in, because I had no clue what a tide pool was. I was thinking “Oh a tide pool, like at the aquarium where I can pet the starfish in a tank.” I was wrong.. obviously. So me being bright, I wore some loose fitting jeans, a black shirt, some socks that slipped off my foot into my shoe, and some slip on shoes. Little did I know this place is covered in rocks. Not just any rocks… wet, slippery, loose rocks. If you have read my previous blog about Los Penasquitos, I swear I am not always like this! (Ok well most of the time.)
Upon arriving to the tide pools I was feeling a little bit queasy due to the rolling hills of Rancho Palos Verdes, and from my excitement my mom was giving off because of the tide pools! My mom, my trusted dog Nellie, and I venture on down to the tide pools. We walk across this wooden bridge thing next to these bushes, and it smelled heavily like urine. Like if someone had a bucket of urine and like threw it everywhere! I am not exaggerating and my mom didn’t even comment on the smell. I don’t know how she could stand it. We get to the edge of the bridge and my mom says “Oh that’s not good!” and she drags the dog away from this feathered object on the ground. What type of feathered object do you think could be at the beach? Pigeon? Seagull? Pelican? An object a hippy made with the combination of feathers from all those birds? You would be wrong! The feathered object was not one, but two chickens!! Chickens! Not just any chickens though, dead, headless chickens just laying at the end of the bridge to the entrance into the tide pools. My first thought: “Where the hell did my mom bring me?” Second thought: “Why are there chickens?” So we move past the shock of chickens and I head down close to inspect the water and I almost step on a dead sting ray! WTF is up with this place right?
Aside from the urine stained entrance, the dead, headless chickens, and the dead stingray, this place was beautiful! I felt one with the ocean, it was kind of weird. Nobody was there, the waves were crashing on the rocks, little crabs were running by, it was amazing. I could’ve spent all day there capturing the way the water moved around the rocks, and the way the water went from a deep blue to a bubbled white. Not only that but to capture the texture of the rocks caused by the waves crashing on them repeatedly.
We were there about half an hour to 45mins, and we weren’t even a quarter of the way around the tide pools, and my camera starts beeping. Low battery. Story of my life I swear!
Ok so I have been told I have some awesome, very creative (cough cough) names for my photos. I think they are fine, but apparently they need a little help. I mean take the picture of my orange flower for instance… it’s name “Orange Flower.” GENIUS!
So I am opening the creative lines to you all. Every Friday (starting tomorrow the 7th) I will post a picture on my Facebook page and you all will comment with the name you come up with for the picture. The name can be creative, sarcastic, poetic, funny, whatever, but please keep it PG-13 (I know it’s hard). The winner will receive an 8×10 print of that picture plus 20% off prints on my site or a photoshoot. Plus everyone who participates will receive FREE shipping on any order. So here are the rules:
I did some research a week or two ago about some awesome places to shoot in the San Diego area. I was in the mood to get out of Long Beach and head south. I came across this place called Los Penasquitos Canyon Reserve. I read about it and my eyes immediately saw WATERFALL ON VOLCANIC ROCKS (and nothing else) and I was sold! So I grabbed my compadres (Stephanie, Sean, and the puppy Nellie) and we left Long Beach at around 10am. Now if you are familiar with Southern California and the distance between Long Beach and San Diego, you will realize this was a bad move on my part due to the fact that it takes 1.5 hours to get there (with minimal traffic) putting us there at 11:30 around the hottest part of the day! Not a smart move. Score one for Ashley :).
We arrive at Los Penasquitos at 11:30am look at the trusty map to find out where this awesome waterfall is. The map says 2.7mi to the waterfall (Score another one for Ashley). “Awesome!” we all thought, as 2.7mi at the time did not seem too far. Now when you think of waterfalls you think of a nice shady area covered with trees. We thought this too as the first part of the hike was in a shady area covered with trees. Boy were we wrong.
The picture above is at the beginning of the hike and it looked like this for the entire 2.7mi hike. EEK! Mind you, it’s noon at this point (Score another for Ashley.) Now I have not won my compadres over at this point, but the only thing that saved me from them completely tearing my face off is the fact that I brought tons of water and snacks. We’re talking beef jerky, chex mix, pretzels, and who doesn’t love snacks like that right?
Tons of sweat, sore feet, about 2 hours and 2.7mi later we arrive at the grand waterfall! Or lack there of (Score another for me!). Luckily though there was volcanic rock and water, but the rock was blocking the maybe 6 foot waterfall drop. So I felt like I wasted my compadres time by walking all this way to get a waterfall that looked like this:
And:
And:
Regardless of everything that happened we had a great laugh on the way back and I ended up getting some amazing shots. Oh, but that’s not all. Of course our luck hadn’t changed. On the 2.7mi hike back we are on the lonely path back to “civilization” where all of a sudden we see tons of buzzing flying things. Of course there was a swarm of bees blocking the path (another one for me!), and none of us wanted to get stung to death My Girl style, so we hiked off path. We stomped down bushes, and twigs totally did it Bear Grylls style, minus the fact that Stephanie and I got our legs all cut up by doing it Bear Grylls style (and another one for me! Are you still keeping score at this point? I’m not). Finally we passed the bees and warned fellow passerby on the swarm they were going to face up ahead. Closer and closer we got back to the car and we are all on a mission to enjoy the Lunchables I have waiting for us in the cooler in my car (the best right?). Stephanie then yells, “AHHH wtf was that??” Sean and I look back at her, give her a confused look and were like “What?” She says, “I don’t know it was a red winged thing with a huge stinger and it flew at me and then landed on a flower?” We were like “Oh weird!” and we carried on our journey.
We get back to the car (finally!) with a very tired pup, sore feet, sun burns, and hunger, our curious minds wanted to know what this bug was that Steph saw. Well apparently it is this bug called a Tarantula Hawk! And as you would guess it eats tarantulas! As per Wikipedia “the tarantula hawk is relatively docile and rarely stings without provocation. However the sting is among the most painful of any insect, though the intense pain only lasts for about 3 minutes. Commenting on his own experience, Justin Schmidt described the pain as “…immediate, excruciating pain that simply shuts down one’s ability to do anything, except, perhaps, scream. Mental discipline simply does not work in these situations.” In terms of scale, the wasp’s sting is rated near the top of the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, second only to that of the bullet ant and is described by Schmidt as “blinding, fierce [and] shockingly electric”. And this is what this thing looks like:
Well if you are still keeping score, congratulations! The results would show that I suck!! Overall though this was a very memorable experience and I got amazing pictures out of it! Surprisingly though my compadres have all been out with me on other photoshoot adventures (they live life on the edge).
There is a moral to this story: Don’t come with me on photoshoots. Oh wait, that’s not it. Actually look at the information you research ;).
