So I guess this fisheye lens turned out to be a decent purchase. I almost enjoy its Russian defective quirkiness–there’s a permenant finger print in the coating of the front element (presumably from someone at the factory in Russia), the manual focus ring is labeled backwards (closest is farthest), there are 2 aperture rings, and I can’t read the manual. Another plus–it’s compatible with the K3 for the Reel Loud shooting. It’ll be the widest shot every screened at Reel Loud (not actually fisheye, more like a 28mm in 35mm equiv)

The women’s A riders fly down Durant at the Berkeley Criterium this past weekend.

Was in the Bay for the weekend. Cheeseboard, Tokyo Fish Market, SF, Berkeley, criterium, highway 1 all the way down (rain, darkness, landslides).

Twas a dreary day in San Francisco, but I still decided to make some stops. This is the Palace of Fine Arts as seen through the eye of a sardine. I got a new sardine lens.

I think my mom once said something along the lines of, “most problems in life can be laid out in an Excel spreadsheet.” I made a huge list of tasks that need to occur in the next month ranging from personal to financial to photographic. I have over 50 action items. This is a bit daunting, but at least it’s all laid out, categorized and prioritized.

From 2001. Was digging through some old pictures, and found this one from back in the day. I took it near the lagoon, on something I called a “flower walk.” Kinda lame. I feel like I should be posting on fredmiranda.com.

Japan. How I want to go back. I had a dream that I had moved there.

Exroommate Chris is in town, so we had some expensive/different/good sushi at Taiko dt. Not better than Arigato, however.

The most recent shoot for Ryland’s “Float On” reel loud production was hampered by mechanical difficulties with the camera. We actually ended up wasting about half a roll of 16mm film, which is about $30 in the end. Bummer.

But, as I see it, a good D.P. should know his cameras as well as any other aspect of cinematography, so I ventured to fix our K3 (Krasnogorsk-3). K3′s are notoriously unrelaible. A hour or so later, I had the jammed shutter fixed, and the camera running smoother than before. I also learned quite a bit by reading some stuff online. The K3 has a in lens exposure meter, which as actually supposed to be fairly accurate. The film counter is accurate and works. The whole camera can be disassmebled relatively easily. This got me thinking…The UCSB Film co-op has 7 or so K3s lying around which are apparently broken. I’m pretty sure they’re all repairable. I’m up for it. Maybe a make a little $. Emily…talk to someone about letting me fix them.

On the “Float On” set…view from behind the camera.

The K3 mid-surgery. The shiny metal thing is the shutter. Kinda cool.

VSA Formal portraits are up. You can find them at my Printroom.com site. Overall, I’m not that satisfied with Printroom…I wouldn’t recommend them for photography ecommerece. Seems like thier site was designed by some retard engineers, and customer service rep and “pro account manager” who I spoke with at length today we’re even photographers, so they had no idea what I wanted.

Formal Portraits. This couple gets first place for both photogeneity and outfit design. Well done. This shot was actually a mess up–the left strobe hadn’t recharged and didnt’ fire. I kinda like it tho…maybe a little hair light and it’s good. If I ever get another formal gig, I’m going to try something more dramatic…prom/formal pics don’t have to be softly/flatly lit.

After a long drought of no photography, I had a fun filled weekend of an overdose on photography. I think I shot about 2,000 images…

Saturday was the IV Criterium, or short track type road cycling race. It was awesome to 1)not see any cars on Embarcadero or Pardall and 2)expose the common folk to the craziness of road racing. I think many IV residents were shown their first dose of up-close-and-personal road racing (as they crawled out of their houses in a hung over state for a breakfast burrito from Cucas). As my buddy Mike G. noted, it was cool to have spectators who weren’t other racers.

Immediately after, I back went home, charged batteries, repacked gear and headed to Anaheim to shoot portraits for the UVSA Formal(something Vietnamese Student Association). Just want to thank the organizers for having me, and thank everyone who went–there wasn’t one rude person, everyone was very patient despite the long line, and there were a lot of pleases and thank you’s.

The formal was a ridiculous amount of non stop shooting and direction of nicely dressed people, and mid way through it seemed like it wasn’t going to end. Fortunately Ryan and Mike started bringing me drinks, and all was good (beer goggles works with photography too…you think the pictures you’re taking are better than they really are). I learned a lot, had fun…but missed some open doors…maybe next formal…

We eneded up crashing at the hotel after getting 16 not 15 tacos from del taco. On Sunday we went and got some really good Vietnamese food (w/ DJ spikey on the pho’s and 2′s) then Mike and I listened to Ne-yo on repeat for a long long time because we’re so sick of love songs. Went back to Mike’s, watched the Oscars, then drove back to SB.

I need a chill weekend.

The women’s A riders fly by Pita Pit during the IV Crit on March 4th. (Reflection is in some dirty standing water in the gutter)