Growing and Going So Fast

Obviously, I don't like deaths. I don't like to hear about celebrities in the news that much more. I don't even like hearing about celebrity deaths.

But Paul Walker's death last Saturday was tragic. His life abruptly ended from a car accident at Santa Clarita that he was riding. The worst part was that he was riding shotgun instead of behind the wheel. I do not know him personally and I've never met or seen him in person, yet, that dude was in several well known films, as well as the Fast and Furious franchise for the past 12 years.

I vividly remember the first ever Fast and Furious movie that dropped when I was in 7th grade (going on to 8th grade) back in 2001. I didn't watch it until two years later during my sophomore year in high school. My homeboy Cory was planning to bring a brick of DVDs to class on this one Friday in homeroom when we weren't scheduled to read books on that day. However, there was no DVD player in the classroom, so I volunteered to provide my brother's Playstation 2 to be used as the DVD Player. The following week, just as I disconnected the Playstation 2 to take to school, both of my parents got very heated and started going off about viewing movies in school, especially at the part when I told them that my homeroom teacher wanted me to bring a DVD player since there was none in the classroom. So my parents made me take the DVD player from the big screen TV instead so that my brother's console wouldn't get jacked or something. That shit was heavy.

So I brought the unit to class and Cory selected the first Fast and Furious video to watch in the class. Again, that was my first time watching this film and already, it got me entertained. We only saw the first 20 minutes of it cause that's how long homeroom lasted. After school, I went back to my homeroom to pick up my family's heavy-ass DVD player to take back home. I had to walk home by carrying that shit. I placed the unit and connected it back to the big screen TV as I got home later. Then afterwards that evening, my pops called me and found Cory's Fast and Furious DVD that was left in there. I thought that he was gonna flip when he saw that, but he just gave it to me without saying a thing. I had to wait till Monday to give it back to Cory, so I figured I watch the rest of the movie during the weekend until them. I thought that was a cool ass movie, with alot of street racing action coming from Paul Walker and Vin Diesel's characters in the film.

I didn't think that this film would keep having countless sequels later throughout the forthcoming years. I watched the Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift which was just fucking shit. To me, I kept thinking that the producers should quit making these Fast and Furious films since its showing that Hollywood is out of creative ideas and just turning hit movies into brands and franchises as financial gain. Again, it was very sad to hear about what happened to Paul Walker. They were still in the middle of production and Principal photography for the seventh Fast and Furious film which is scheduled to be released sometime next year. My guess is that they will have to continue production by alternating the script which "writes off" Paul Walker's character from the movie or just re-shoot the entire seventh movie again. From a filmmaker's perspective, that shit is alot of money and time to re-shoot a film. Very emotional to many just from hearing this. Hope the best for Paul Walker's family and the Fast and Furious cast and production crew.

That, along with hearing about motherfuckers getting jumped and ran over for a $75 big screen TV set at various stores during Black Friday, was the only downfall of that Thanksgiving weekend. The rest of that weekend was mostly positive.

During Thanksgiving, I mostly spent it with the family, just the pops and the siblings. I picked up the little brother from LAX, with my step-mom's Benz instead of the Taxicab, since he was visiting for the weekend from his University in the east coast. Haven't seen him since he left back in August. It was great catching up with him again. I was planning on going to my homegirl Amber's house for Thanksgiving again this year, but my pop's wife is out of the country for now, so I stayed home to keep my pops company for Thanksgiving. We had the usual blessing and Thanksgiving dinner in the dining table. Its been forever since we've done that. The next day on Friday, I worked at the airport and it was fucking slow. Spent hours in the taxicab holding lot waiting to be sent to a terminal. I picked up a few trips from LAX that entire Friday which was alright.

On Saturday, I went to the bank, the car wash for the Prius since it rained the previous day, and then to Primitive Shoes and Apparel to pick up some t-shirts. I was there the Saturday before for the release of their collaboration pack that the did with DJ Clark Kent and Nike SB. I originally was gonna pick up some of Primitive's Holiday '13 gear that Saturday, but I figured I'd give it a shot to try out for obtaining those Nike SB's. After standing in line for an hour, I went in only to find out that all the large sizes (I'm a size 12) were sold. The only had a 11.5 left which was the biggest. I tried it on, in which it fits. The disadvantage was that the show was too damn tight and a bit light for my feet. Instead, I just copped a t-shirt and a Primitive X New Era that goes with those shoes. Not to be confused, I got the hat and t-shirt two Saturdays ago, and I was at Primitive the recent Saturday just to some more shirts. I'm always there.

The line from the DJ Clark Kent X Nike SB X Primitive 112 collab release. I showed up late which is why I wasn't able to get my size.

Like I said, instead of those shoes, I picked up a Primitive X New Era fitted with a 3M reflective bill and one of Primitive Apparel's new t-shirts from the Holiday '13 line, featuring the "Paint Splatter" design.

Another Primitive Apparel t-shirt that I purchased two days ago. This is the "Lazy Sunday" t-shirt. I decided to get this in the Sea Foam color since I have several black t-shirts featuring Primitive's sexy models. 

After that I stopped by Mulberry Street Pizzeria to get a quick slice of Pizza and then I drove off to Pacoima to my highschool classmate Marissa's place for her oldest daughter's birthday party. Before I landed there, I stopped at Target to get some coloring books and crayons for her kid, as well as some balloons for the other kids that were gonna attend. This was my second time being there. I was there two months earlier for her other twin daughter's birthday party. But this one for her oldest daughter was great. Had some conversations with Marissa's family members and ate alot of the food they provided. I didn't take too many photos there, but here's one of them:

Marissa getting a pretend glitter tattoo by her daughter during the birthday party. 

Later that night, I went to my friend Natasha's crib, another old high school classmate of mine, at the other side of the Valley. I brought my copy of the Pirates of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Blu-Ray video to watch with her since she's never watched it. I also hooked her up with the Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides movie poster that I got from the private World Premiere viewing at the El Capitan Theater a week before it officially came out two years ago and I lent her the DVD version of the film since the video is a Blu-Ray/DVD combination pack. Also in attendance was her boyfriend and her daughter. Its was great catching up with them again. Thank's again Natasha for inviting me.

I'll end this post here. I'll got another tight week ahead of me in this last month of the year. I'll update this blogsite whenever I have some fresh extra time. Thanks for your time reading this.

Minding Over Business Matters

Welcome to November. One of the most important months of the calendar year to a couple degrees.

Some people will be blessed this month from "getting busy" on Valentines Day (I'll let you figure that out), some will let their Gillette Razors and electric shavers be rusted for thirty days to have their faces go from that 5 O'Clock shadow look to already being qualified for that Rick Ross/Zack Galifinakis swagger, and some will try not to make their moms catch you treating yourself "like an amusement park" and end up sharing a room with a sexy female being shown in a silhouette through the curtain like Estelle Costanza did Twenty years ago on Thursday night. I can go on about the Presidential Election next week and families camping out in front of a retailer during Thanksgiving for a 70 inch TV they don't really need with the money they don't really have on Black Friday, but I'm not going to discuss that for now.

Speaking of families, this is why November is so important. It one of the only times when all families can fly in from different parts of the country, if not, then different parts of the world. They spend a week from their schedules as they gather together to see how big their grand kids are and that conservative discussion in the back porch with that uncle having a heated debate with their father-in-law, along with that post grad twenty something nephew, on why some of the state propositions should've been decided the other way, as well as those optimistic group of high school cousins mistaking the Apple Cider with the White Wine next to that half eaten Turkey prepared by both mothers of the said married couple hosting the gathering, and that group of tomboyish half-sisters and their daughters rooting for the Detriot Lions during the annual Thanksgiving football games. Reminds me of watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and the OG Home Alone, but that's next month.

Moments like these need to last, cause once its gone, its gone. and that's what I'm here for, to capture those moments. Now, I know y'all have seen the Photography and Rates section of my site for anytime you should visit glanced at my business site, and it has alot of detail with the packages and stuff. As you also noticed, my prices are WAY lower than any other professional photographers rates. I'm aware of that, but to me, I really don't give a shit about the prices that much. I'm more focused in doing the perfect job and making the client feel satisfied and amazed on the finished product they requested and paid their money for. I wanted to do this for free when I first seriously started doing this four years ago, yet than again, I don't want people to think I'm shady or something and also, I'm not too comfortable of charging $500 for just a one hour photoshoot and additional money for getting the prints, or charging over $2000 for covering a wedding. Yes, I would like that also and yes, there are photographers say that they charge high is because of  the whole "Time is Money" ordeal (which is reasonable and legit), but THAT JUST ME THOUGH.

Again, I'm all about the quality (how well the photos turn out) over quantity (the prices, limited time, deadlines). If I really like you and think you're chill, than I even offer some special pricing as opposed to the standard rates I listed on my website. On that topic, to those who are confused on how the prices and packages work out, let me explain it to you.

RATES
$75 for Photoshoots
 50 per hour for Events
  150 per hour for Weddings

PHOTO PACKAGES
1 8x10= $10
Extra disc of Photos= $10 per disc
4x6 prints for photoshoots= 15
5x7 prints for photoshoots= 20
1 11x14 = $15 per photo

-Framing is $10 extra for 8x10 photo only
-Disc will include DVD slideshow and JPEG files, upon request of clients option
-Post Production on photos will last two weeks to a month depending on session 
-I accept cash and checks. Payment is made during the day after the session
-All photo sessions comes with a free disc of photos. Additional discs is extra. 

So say for example that you want to do a photoshoot session. I'm going to charge you $75, which covers the session and the free disc. The session is entirely unlimited, meaning I'll take as much photos as I can of the said subject and there's no time limit. Then after the session, we (myself and the client) go over the photos and pick out which ones are the best. Like, if I shot 50 photos, out of all of them, about 15 to 20 will be chosen for editing depending on the client's choice of selections. If he or she wants those 15 to 20 photos printed, then I'm going to charge him or her an additional $15 for prints in a 4x6 size and/or $20 for prints in a 5x7 size. That's about $90 to $95 so far. If he or she wants two extra discs to send to his or her relatives than that's an additonal $20 there, which totals up to $110 to $115.

The disc is made on DVD and it can be viewed on a HD Television or a computer. For Macs, just click on the disc icon in the desktop. For Windows, go to My Computer and click on the DVD drive. Some computers will play the slideshow automatically, especially on Macs. Just configure your settings on your computer to disable automatic DVD playback. I don't do the slideshows that much for photoshoots (unless if you want) but mostly for events and weddings since I take over 100 photos for those, and unlike the photoshoots where the client selects the photos, I select the photos for the events and weddings. If you want an 8x10 enlargement and the option to have it framed, that's gonna be $20 per photo ($10 for the enlargement and $10 for the framing).

So you looking at about no more than $120 just for a normal package for a photoshoot, whereas some other photographers charge twice more than that for their packages. I could've set the rates higher, but there are people out there who have financial issues or got extremely affected by the recession for the past four years, so that's why I edged away from the same high $500 average prices and gave those potential clients a break from their checkbooks. Speaking of which, the payment is made RIGHT after the photoshoot is complete. If you want to pay before the session, then that's fine. If you have anymore questions regarding the prices and the photosessions, then leave comments below, or hit me up on Facebook or Twitter or send me an email at justforsneaks07@gmail.com. In addition, for those seriously interested in getting their photos taken, please check out either my website or my Flickr page for some samples of my work to get the idea of how I take pictures and how I edit them. The links are on the top right of the page, and finally, please don't be that fucking asshole who wants a photoshoot but then stops keeping contact with me or just flakes out in the last minute. If you don't have the money, THEN DON'T EVEN BOTHER. Like I said, I wish I can do it for free, but I can't anymore, unless if I decide to cover an event on my behalf. Again, if you have any questions or interested, just hit me up.

Hopefully this clears out the confusion of  how I handle my rates and packages. Please DO NOT tell me on how to set my prices. I might even raise them a bit next year, but again, I'm not that concerned about money, but only on making the perfect photographs out there. Thanks for your time reading this.

Second Nurture

A post update on a Saturday? Hey, the Breakfast club had to spend the entire Saturday in detention 26 years ago.

I didn't recap my Thanksgiving weekend from last week cause I didn't feel like typing about it for some weird reason. It was just a regular occasion to me. Went to three different houses which involved alot of football watching and a lot of food, including the Turkey obviously. My friend Marlene De La Torre's daughter Yvonne gave birth to her second daughter on that Thursday as well, which made it alot more special and interesting since I was with their family for that weekend. Spend Saturday and Sunday taking photos of the newborn on film. She's very gorgeous, and I give my ABSOLUTE, ULTIMATE best to her, and her parents Yvonne and Nestor the very best in their new blessing.

Also, week 12 of the NFL was just another Sunday. Bad teams losing to good teams and Denver's Tim Tebow still getting criticized and ridiculed by football fans despite his 5 game winning streak. That bloke is still probably getting the most heat from the New York Jets fans after that insane 90+ yard drive his offense performed in the final minutes of that Thursday Night game. He might somehow get a close break from the Chicago Bears in week 14, but I have a obvious feeling that the "Tebow Time" run will shut down when they greet the New England Patriots the following week. But then again, both of those games are home at Mile High Stadium... I mean Sports Authority Field at Mile High. Remember when Sports Authority used to be known as SportMart more than 5 years ago?

That's it for now. Damn, this is the SHORTEST post I ever typed in a while. And last thing, I hope those who were affected by the power outage and the Santa Ana winds damage to their vehicles and houses around the Pasadena area this past week will get something rewarding by the end of the month. It just sucks to think about those who unfortunate and have to deal with that shit, especially around this time during the holiday season. Thanks for you time reading this.

Driving that Holiday Road Again

Yes, I saw Christina Aguilera last week in Hollywood getting her star in the Walk of Fame and yes, I randomly got pulled into a VIP section at the Saddle Ranch at Universal Citywalk to party and take photos of a dude who's celebrating his graduation from a Barber College.

Those two were probably the most interesting things that happened to me last week. I was gonna write about all that in detail this past Saturday using the Double space outline, but it didn't look great. So I erased everything that I spent 70 minutes typing and manually separating the lines, along with the photos I was gonna add. But honestly, I don't really like to post photos that much on here, except for only just out-of-the-blue one liners that I made up dealing with that particular day's current events.

Anyway, I finally checked out the Los Angeles Auto Show this past week. There were some positives and some negatives. The positive parts were the females showcasing the new cars being displayed. They looked attractive, as well as some of the whips. One of my favorite cars that were on the showroom was the Nissan Ellure concept sports car and seeing the Lexus LF-A in person for the first time. The also had this custom made fine tuned two door Toyota Camry that was inspired by NASCAR. Another car that they had on display that I liked is the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1, which is the FASTEST domestic American sports cars in the world. The engine, which you can see through the small glass on the hood only on the ZR1, is the LS9 Supercharged V8 that goes to 60 mph in 3.3 seconds. That's FUCKIN' QUICK FOR AN AMERICAN CAR!

This is where in the negative comes in. You can sit inside majority of the cars the had at the event, but not cars like the ZR1, along with the Audi R8 and the Nissan GTR. I wanted to sit inside the ZO6 Corvettes instead, but there were too many fuckin' people wanting to take turns. That was the same for the 3.8 Liter Hyundai Genesis Coupe V6 and the 2011 Nissan Maxima, two of my other favorite imports. I mostly sat inside some Infiniti models, the new Acura ZDX crossover SUV, and pretended like I was driving manual on a Honda Civic two-door coupe. They also let people test drive some cars from Fords model line. They had all of the cars they produced, including a 2011 Mustang that was customized with aftermarket rims and other parts.

The test drive part should've fallen on the positive category, but again, too many damn people wanted to drive the Mustang as opposed to the other cars, including the new Ford Taurus SHO, which stands for Super High Output. I only drove two cars, the F-150 and the Taurus SHO. The F-150 felt like driving my mom's Ford Explorer, except that this truck is a bit larger, and it had a lot of options that should've been a comeback of the discontinued Lincoln Mark LT pickup, which was also made by Ford. The Taurus SHO was a very awesome car. The black girl who was instructing the test drive with me inside the sedan made it more awesome, and made the ride more comfortable by driving over 300 horses on the Streets of LA around the Staples Center and the Convention Center. That car is very underestimated, even though Ford discontinued it back in 2006 and brought it back last year as part of the Detroit company's rebuilding process.

When we got back to the Convention Center, the line for the Ford Taurus SHO was LONGER than the line for the Ford Mustang, and I can see why from the test drive I just did.

I didn't stay too long for the entire convention cause I wanted to get back to the Valley before the traffic got ridiculous on the freeways and all the roads. Unfortunately, I spoke WAY too soon. The freeways were getting packed and all the streets and roads were on a gridlock. No surprise here, cause that means the unofficial start of this holiday season which will last until January 2nd, since New Years Day counts as it. Theses photos I took below was when I was on Foothill Blvd coming from my place in Sylmar heading to my pop's house in Granada Hills for Thanksgiving. Later on that night, I went to Nicole's place for a little pre-Thanksgiving housewarming party.

By the way, Thanksgiving went well yesterday. Mostly family business obviously. Spent majority of the time watching movies on Netflix with my cousins. The thing I didn't like that the movies weren't available in High Definition, but the quality is still decent. It was fun though. Plus, I just found out that my pops got Toy Story 3 on DVD the day before. I wanted him to get the OG version on VHS back in 1996, but he only rented it. I remember playing it like 10 times on the weekend that he rented the home video cause I was VERY addicted to that film that time. I had all the toys from Burger King and this one kid at my school had a 1996 Toy Story calendar that had me in amazement. Unfortunately, my parents wouldn't buy it cause that shit was $14.95 plus tax, which is expensive for a calendar. I haven't seen the third one yet, but I'll give it a chance when I get the time since I saw the first two both in theaters on its original release dates in 1995 and 1999. Many people, including some dudes, told me they cried at the end, but to me, that's sounds bullshit.

By the way, fuck Black Friday. That shit is one of the core reasons why that many people don't know the true meaning of the holidays. Hell, there were fools camping outside Wal-Marts for 24 Hours celebrating Thanksgiving out in the damn cold before the store opens. And why the fuck is it opening at midnight? I remember going with my moms to Wal-Mart back in the day around my Junior High School years for black friday. We got there when they opened at 6 AM and escaped the store with EVERY ITEM that was on sale. The crowd wasn't that crazy when we got there. Now when you go there, its like camping out for a pair of limited Air Jordans in 2005 or a meet and greet to see the main cast of The Twilight Saga or some shit like that. Every year, there's at least 10 stores in Southern California that has a news story about some pregnant mother getting into a fight with another pregnant mother or a some old dude getting ran over by crowds and fight breaking out. Yet, the recession is still going on and I think they should have these type of prices everyday instead of the day after Thanksgiving. But again, those greedy white-collar corporate suit bastards want more money, which is what the holidays are now mostly about in certain people's minds. I really don't like talking about this every year, but its very obvious as you look around. If I lived in small town that I've never heard of before, then this whole holiday shopping (I don't like to say Christmas Shopping cause not everyone is Christian) frenzy would be completely foreign to me. Now I have to endure this holiday marketing crap until the first week of January.

One more thing before I forget. This may sound very juvenile, but MILEY IS NO LONGER UNDERAGED!!!! Is that why their parents were splitting up? Now all the single thirsty dudes of all ages will get to sleep very well. Hey, its a fact. I'll let these photos I didn't take make you decide.

Thanksgiving Came a Weekend Early

The title LITERALLY speaks for itself this past weekend.

I spent majority of the past 3 days with my family, my friends and their families. It was great attending my pops' and my brother's church for the first time since.... I-really-do-not-know-when. It felt like a year, but I remember visiting the place sometime around this year, or was it because I keep seeing the Pastor and the members at my uncle's house for my cousin's wedding this past summer?

Anyway, my other cousin and the youth of his church were taking over the service for the day. I really wanted to stay and hear my cousin deliver his sermonette that he conducted, but I had to leave to drive to the A.V. to go return the Nikon Speedlight SB-600 flash unit to my uncle in Lancaster, cause he had a gig to go take photos at around that time. So after I dreaded the 14 freeway North and chilled at his place for a bit, I then took the beautiful-ass flawless Sierra Highway back to my pop's house in Granada Hills. When I got home, I read that one of the Aftergloam members was throwing a last minute potluck kickback at her place, and I just bought 2 Double Cheeseburgers and a Side Salad from McDonald's before I got home, which I haven't eaten yet. So then I took my untouched $3.61 plus tax lunch to Tianna Edmonson's place, who happens to be the excellent, talented drummer for the band Aftergloam.

Usually whenever I go to her place, which is not too far from where I'm staying at, there would always be a grip of twenty somethings that would fill up her pad, but when I got there around 4pm, there was about like 6 or 7 people that attended. I think I shut down the entire potluck with the McDonald's in my hand but I just gave one of my sandwiches to one of the dudes there that was starving. During that time I mingled, took photos, watched some decent amount of television at their living room such as a portion of the USC-Arizona Wildcats game, the movie Biker Boyz which I haven't seen since my trip from Nigeria on the airplane as an in-flight movie back in 2003, and I got a chance to check out Inside the NFL on Showtime, which I thought was a damn good show unlike NFL Live and alot of other pro football related highlight programs. Man, Phil Simms even cussed during the discussion about the situation with the Dallas Cowboys after the first five minutes at the start of the program. No wonder this shit used to be aired on HBO. Big shoutout to the De La Torre family for for getting to know y'all more, making me feel at home, and for the excellent, delicious Pupusas you guys served me.

The next day I was supposed to cover a wedding on that Sunday, which I happened to found out at the last second when I turned my phone on after I woke up. I tried calling my uncle back, but he didn't pick up. I could've made at least $200 that day. Instead, I did some laundry, helped my pops around the house by doing yard maintenance, and just kept it low key for a while. For some reason, I didn't feel like watching some NFL games that day, but I followed up some of the games online during the score updates.

Later on that day, I drove to Chatsworth to go pick up my friend Natasha to go hiking at Stoney Point next to Topanga Canyon Boulevard and the Santa Susana Pass intersection. I always drive by that place over the years and I never got a chance to check it out. It was a very great spot, especially for doing photoshoots. Took a good amount of photos there, mostly landscape pictures of Porter Ranch, and we just talked and had good discussions as we were hiking. Natasha and I went to the same high school and I started talking to her back in 2005, but only for a short while. I ran into her again this past summer when I started going to Nicole's house, since they're both young mothers and good close friends. Small ass world, isn't it. She's a very cool person to be around with. Hell, she even introduced me to the film American Psycho on Friday, which I heard of but never saw. For some reason, I always think of Kourtney Kardashian's son's father Scott Disick instead of the Patrick Bateman character the film. They look and dress TOTALLY alike.

After I dropped Natasha off at her place, I then drove to one of my friend's crib Burbank to watch the Los Angeles Lakers go against the Phoenix Suns, which was a disappointing loss thanks to Hedo Turkoglu crazy ass 3 pointers, which was almost a record that night, more like a Ray-Allen-in-the-2010-NBA-Finals type performance. Thanks to the Galvez family for inviting me over and thanks to Ginger for the slice of Pumpkin Pie, which was my first time trying it.

I'll just end this post here. Seriously, I really can't ask for more. I'm pretty much already full and stuffed with all the blessings I counted this weekend, as well as this past year so far. To me, there's really no need for Turkeys (not Hedo Turkoglu's country by the way). I rather give them to those unfortunate people who really need it more than I do. That's the type of person I am, especially during the upcoming holidays.