Birthday woes…

Again, I barely have time to blog anymore, I apologize. (Also sorry for the lack of photos on this post, I figure if I don’t post this now, it will be weeks before it actually goes up!!) My birthday past, wow exactly a month ago! Things have been quite ridiculous lately. I took 4 days off two weeks ago to visit my dad and friends all over in Socal. Awesome cake above from Thao and Jacob! I returned to Vegas to absolute Mayhem! The biggest change was I no longer had a shower, it was completely gone, and for it seemed like a week (but was 2 days in all actuallity)! After all the construction (banging,noise)/lack of sleep, I got a pretty BOSS marble shower in the end. Meanwhile, work was non-stop, I was working maybe 13-14 venues/events each week until last.

One thing I bought for this trip was a laptop/camera bag combo that I’ve been looking at for the longest time. The Think Tank UD50 (Urban Disguise 50) is a godsend, happy birthday to me! I can fit my old 15″ macbook pro, gripped d700, 3x sb800s, 24-70, 70-200, and a prime lens easily. the bag isn’t really huge, but with a good amount of gear it gets kinda fat like how you feel after “all you can eat” sushi!!

My birthday did get me kind of down, as I felt I haven’t achieved my goals for that age quite yet. I got sick and tired of a few things, one thing was my old website, so I spent a good four days on a new layout/v2.0 and I think its a huge upgrade. The site has fullscreen capabilities, easy navigation, Ipod/Iphone capabilities, and my facebook/twitter widgets!! It’s basically what I was lacking. The galleries in the portfolio section aren’t full yet, but I’ve been so busy I gave it an early launch. You gotta check it out and leave me some feedback! Check it out…..HERE

I did some other minor upgrades as well. I purchased Photomechanic for my Macbook. It is such a time saver when it comes to sorting hundreds of images taken nightly. I also upgraded my d300 to a d300s this week. I’m very happy with that move, the back of the d300s is very much like my d700. The multi-select button is improved, dual card slots FTW, 720p video and I like how the live view has its own dedicated button now, it definitely helps for overhead/crowd shots in the nightclubs. Another cool thing is the custom functions on this thing, the d300s is on par with the d700 where as the d300 had a few things it couldn’t do (custom function wise).

I also gave in after all these years I purchased my first pair of pocketwizard plus II’s. I got them strictly for remote triggering (cams not strobes). The Radiopopper JRx’s have been glorious for strobes/speedlites, but the on/off switch is the trigger when trying to trigger a remote cam, and it cant shoot in bursts. Either way, its about time. There are reasons these things are the industry standard still for all these years!

My vehicle was broken into a week ago. Window was smashed, and a camera bag with my “Just In Case” stuff was stolen. Cam Batteries, AA batteries, some CF cards, and other small things were taken. Luckily my insurance covered the window, and partial of the items stolen, but it was a terrible inconvenience. I spent the next 2 days cleaning out my garage, and can actually garage park the vehicle now. I still need window tint badly!