Oahu Skyline

May 9, 2013 — Leave a comment

I was watching the day come to a rest on the edge of Magic Island on Oahu as the lights inside the buildings were coming on and the sky was turning a nice deep blue color. I had originally wanted to get take this photo of the Oahu Skyline during the blue hour but I noticed that the sky still had a nice hint of pastel colors.

I thought it would be cool to accentuate the pastel colors while the city lights were turned on so I over-exposed the shot and left the shutter open for a few seconds. That gave this picture a surreal feel as the city lights at dusk clash with the bright sky. I am not sure if it works or not, but it plays a trick on the visual mind for long enough to make it interesting. What do you think?

Oahu Skyline from Magic Island

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In Hawaii, Oahu
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Time-lapse Fail

May 7, 2013 — Leave a comment

I just got back from a trip to Oahu. I did not get many chances to shoot beaches, so I thought I would at least capture the city life while I was there.

One evening, I found this interesting location and I setup all my gear and was waiting for the light to be just right. After a few minutes of waiting around I got bored and started messing around with my camera, in the “we’re just friends” kind of way. I happened upon an option for “time-lapse” somewhere deep in the menu system. What the heck? My camera can do time-lapse?!

This was an awesome surprise so I decided to try it out while I was waiting. I setup what I though was the right parameters and proceeded to wait while my camera automatically took pictures every second for fifteen minutes. I was salivating by the time it finished and imagined a grandiose video but all I got was this five seconds of glory …

This is not exactly what I had envisioned, but it did help me figure out the secret sauce to making time-lapse videos:

1) 10-20 hours of free time
(not likely with small children since they get hungry or have to poop every 5 minutes)

2) A skate board to roll the camera on
(this will require immense patience since I have to roll it about 10 feet in the span of 10-20 hours)

3) Samuel L. Jackson as a narrator
(last time I asked him to narrate my daughter’s two year birthday party video he started reciting some verse from the bible about smiting his enemies or something)

In Hawaii, Oahu
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Fight Love Live (Filoli)

May 6, 2013 — Leave a comment

Ok, I am not big into flowers, but I recently visited Filoli in Woodside California and the place is well known for its gardens so I that is why I am posting these … not for any other reason … just to be clear, I only find flowers useful when I get in trouble with my wife.

The estate was built around 1915 for William Bowers Bourn II, owner of one of California’s richest gold mines and president of Spring Valley Water Company. It is a fancy country house whith really nice gardens which was was sold to the Roth’s and later donated to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The name of the estate is an acronym formed by combining the first two letters from the key words of William Bourn’s credo: “Fight for a just cause; Love your fellow man; Live a good life.”

Filoli Flower

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Filoli Flowers

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Filoli Flower

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Filoli Flower

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Filoli Flower

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In California, Woodside
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A Vivid World

April 15, 2013 — Leave a comment

I am starting to think that toddlers are the most fun photographic subjects. They present various interesting challenges like:

1) Lightning-quick mood swings if not fed ahead of time
2) Constantly moving targets
3) A healthy lack of respect for the artistic process necessary to get a good picture
4) Quirky facial expressions that throw you off guard

They force you to think quickly and adapt even faster. They teach you the value of time but more than anything, they force you to remember what it was like to be a kid. I love hanging with my toddler and watching her vivid world unfold.

aria close up

In The Beautiful People
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Impending Photo Exhibit – Views from Tibet

March 21, 2013 — Leave a comment

I would like to invite you to my first photography exhibit, yay! I got hooked up with some artist types who are putting together an exhibit in Oakland named “Transitions” and they have asked me to showcase some of my pictures from Tibet. If you are free, you are welcome to stop by for food, drinks and art from various artists. Entry is free, but don’t expect anything fancy (I think it is on a shoe string budget in some office building lobby =).

Dufwin Building, 519 17th Street, Oakland
Friday, March 29, 2013
6:00 – 9:00pm

The opening reception will be on March 29 and then there will be two others on April 4 from 6-9pm and on Saturday April 6 from 1-4pm. I will be at the opening reception on March 29 if you happen to be in the area and would like to stop by. It would be great to see you there!

Below is a slideshow of the collection I will be showing at the show. Let me know what you think!

If you would like to purchase prints, please click here.

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In Collections, Tibet, Views from Tibet
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A Place From My Dreams

March 21, 2013 — Leave a comment

Tibet Tibetan Lake Yamdrok Dream

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The Tibetan pleatueau was vast nearly beyond my perception. Instead, I had to experience it in a few different ways:

Time – The more time I spent under its imense sky, the more aware I became of of how insignificant my thoughts were and they slowly silenced.

Distance – I would drive for hours and hours surrounded by raw natural beauty and the more distance I covered, the less I seemed to move through space.

Sight – All my other senses were periferal to sight. I focused all my attention on what I was seeing around me.

It is no wonder, that when I look back on the trip it all seemed like a place from my dreams.

In Tibet, Yamdrok Lake
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Door to the Other Side

March 13, 2013 — Leave a comment

Door to the other side tibet

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If you found yourself roaming a desolate Tibetan Monastery and came across this blood-red door, would you walk through it? Of course you would! There is an inescapable human need to explore, especially when the outcome is uncertain. I don’t pretend to understand this primal human impulse or why it runs counter to our innate survival instinct, but I tend to follow it more often than not. Usually it turns out great, but sometimes I nearly end myself …

I was walking down a wide alley when I came across this door and had to do a double take. It was practically begging me to open it! I walked up to the door with the intense focus I usually get before an eminent trespass and I pushed up against it with my hands. At first it did not budge, so I put my shoulder into it softly and pushed harder. It begrudgingly started to open with a low rumbling noise and I was flooded with endorphins before I was rudely brought back to reality by a whistling sound.

Excitement turned to panic as I looked around for the source of the sound. The alley was empty. Had the noise come from the other side of the door? Well, I was not about to be stopped by a little sound so I went back to work on the door when I heard the same little whistling sound. I quickly backed away from the door and if I had been burned and that is when I noticed the old monk at the window sill above the door. He was looking at me wearing a pleasant, yet mischievous smile as he shook his finger at me.

Curses! Now I will never know what was on the other side. Monk wins this round.

Monk – 1
Christian – 0

In Christian VS, Lhasa, Tibet
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Light at Sera Monastery

March 12, 2013 — 1 Comment

Tibetan Monk Sera Monastery

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I met this friendly little Tibetan Monk at the Sera Monastery during my short trip. He was in the middle of a courtyard full of monks who were engaged in the famous Monk Debates, which are a sort of verbal sparring match used as a method for teaching monks about Buddhism. The basic premise is that one monk asks a questions and the other has a limited amount of time to answer. It gets exciting though because the monk asking the questions makes martial art-like gestures while the monk sitting on the floor tries to retort before he gets a figurative karate chop to the head. The questions are all relating to the teachings of Buddha and are meant to test their knowledge. It was fun to watch these, otherwise peaceful dudes, let out some steam with all their crazy gestures and yelling about.

Why the heck did I process this photo so that the little monk is shrouded in darkness? Well, just look at the relentless peace and optimism emanating from his face, despite of everything going on out there. It just seemed appropriate that he would give off light in the darkness.

Impending Tibet Exhibit

Some of my photos from Tibet will be part of an exhibit in Oakland, hosted by ArtX Gallery. If you are in town on March 29, come out and check out the pseudo-hippie-political-propaganda … yeah!

Dufwin Building, 519 17th Street, Oakland
Friday, March 29, 2013
6:00 – 9:00pm

The art will be on display at the Dufwin Building until April 30. So if you miss the reception please feel free to stop by the building during the weekdays around 8am to 5pm and view them.

In Lhasa, The Beautiful People, Tibet
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A Dying Breed

February 26, 2013 — Leave a comment

Tashilhunpo Monastery Shigatse Monks Tibet Panchen Lamas

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Tibetan Monks are a dying breed. There is no way around it. It is sad and it is unfair, but the reality of the situation is that they have been under the control of an occupation state who’s interest lies far from that of the Tibetans. To put it bluntly, it may be another few decades before they are technically extinct.

Those were the thoughts going through my mind when I was watching these jovial monks go about their daily chores at the Tashilhunpo Monastery next to the city of Shigatse. I was trying to reconcile the images I had formed in my mind when I was a boy with the reality I saw as an adult. As a kid, I had imagined coming here to see a thriving culture bustling with life and ancient wisdom. As I walked around the monastery and the surrounding town, the acute absence of life almost seemed to echo off the walls of hundreds of small, vacant buildings. There were certainly people around, but the people were disconnected from the purpose of the structures in some strange way so that you knew that time had passed the monastery by.

What would happen in another few decades? Would the last of the Tibetan Monks be replaced with Chinese actors for the sake of continuing the lucrative tourist industry? I think that in some way, that mockery would injure the essence of this once-sacred place beyond repair and the world would have lost yet another reason for being proud of its heritage.

Tibet Art Exhibit

I got linked up with the nice folks at ArtX Gallery and they will be displaying some of my photography from Tibet at their exhibit on March 29th at the Dufin Building in Oakland along with other artists. If you are in the area come by and say hi. I am going through my portfolio and will be posting some of them over the next few weeks so you can get a sense of what will be on display.

In Shigatse, The Beautiful People, Tibet
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In a Toddler Split Second

February 12, 2013 — Leave a comment

It is not easy to catch my toddler daughter still for more than a few seconds but when I do, I get some nice pictures. I have followed her around with my camera since she was a baby, so I think she has grown comfortable with the idea but every so often she does not feel like being photographed and she will give me a swift karate chop and send my poor poor camera flying. I trained her too well in the art of self expression but does my camera have to suffer the consequences?!

Ariana Ortiz
Aria and I were checking out the Zen rock garden at Hakone Gardens in Saratoga … let’s just say it was no longer Zen after we were done with it.

Ariana Ortiz

Ariana Ortiz

In The Beautiful People
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Oasis

February 7, 2013 — Leave a comment

North Park Apartments San Jose Sycamores Pool

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I have been land-locked these past few months with little time to go out and take pictures but after a particularly tough day at work, I grabbed my camera and went out looking for something to feed my starving creative side. I was walking around the North Park Apartments in San Jose when I finally settled down in front of their main pool at the Sycamores village. This place is usually loaded with folks splashing about but since it was cold and dark, I got the place all to myself.

Well, not exactly. There was a cat hanging around on top of the fireplace. I don’t trust cats. They always seem like they are planning something and it usually isn’t good. I have visions of walking down a dark alley and being attacked by cats for some reason. This one did not seem to want to start something thought. I think he was too busy trying to keep warm. Either way, they are finicky creatures so I had a plan ready in case he wanted to throw down. It involved some dodging and ducking followed by some quick footwork ending with the cat in the pool and me cheering. Cats can swim right?

That will teach you to ruin my oasis, cat.

Imaginary Fight Score:
Christian – 1
Cat – 0

In California, Christian VS, San Jose
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Lines In The Sky

January 23, 2013 — Leave a comment

Power Lines

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I recently had to take an emergency trip down to Mexico. I was really not in the mood to take pictures but it is now second nature to bring my camera everywhere I go, so I had it on me when I was watching the sunset from the rooftop of a house from my youth. I had quietly sneaked away to be alone for a while and watch the day finally come to a rest. My vantage point was far from beautiful with the crisscross of power lines dividing the sky into rectangles, almost as if I were watching the sky change color from behind an enclosure, but it felt right and it felt like home.

In Guadalajara, Mexico
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