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.

Booked and Pinned Weekend

The three day weekend was more of that minimum D+ that you had to get in order to graduate from high school. Nothing too spectacular like my friend's baby shower the week before.

Went to Northridge Fashion Center on Friday to buy a St. John's Bay black long sleeve shirt from the JCPenney there. That shit was 10 bucks and its the only place where they sell St John's Bay products, which I've been wearing for the past two years since the Lakers won their tite against Orlando. Damn, I STILL miss the NBA. But anyway, I was about to cop the mockneck longsleeve akin to the one Steve Jobs would always wear. Only difference is that his is furnished by St. Croix and that brand sells their clothing products for over $200 at least, and his black mockneck sells for $190, real talk. I'll just leave the link here to prove my point. http://www.stcroixshop.com/stcroix/product.asp?s_id=0&prod_name=Full+Turtleneck+in+Cotton+%26+Microfiber+Knit&pf_id=PAAFICGMGMCHMCID&dept_id=3032

Tried out the mockneck, then had second thoughts about it, so instead I got the long sleeve shirt instead which is closer to the mockneck. As I was walking around and leaving the mall, I've noticed that the place is now started to get more occupied with people in high school or those in college who look like their in high school. Every thick chick and boots with leggings and every thin dude there with an overpriced snapback of a team they don't even like. Obviously the mall was packed cause it was on Veteran's Day. Plus they already had the freakin' Christmas Tree and the decorations up already. I blogged about the same thing on here about early holiday decorations last year when I went to go take photos of Cindy Crawford in the Glendale Galleria, and that was in October.

I then went to the Westfield Promenade to go pick up the Steve Jobs biography book at the Barnes and Noble there. Didn't stay long, just paid for the book with a Barnes and Noble gift card I got a few weeks ago and dipped my way home. I had the e-book version of it, but it only went up to one chapter since it was a trial. The book is very addicting and like I said before, it details Steve Jobs life very deeply and I learned so much stuff that I never knew about from the previous bios and history of the deceased Apple co-founder, and the book IS THICKER THAN THE ASS AND THIGHS OF SOME HORNY GANGSTER'S TWENTY YEAR OLD EX-GIRLFRIEND IN THE VALLEY! Right now I read six chapters already and there's alot left to go.

Later on I then hit up my friend Tina to go watch a film cause I really wanted to get rid of the AMC movie passes I got last year during the holidays. We went to one of the 3 AMC theaters in Burbank and I can't remember more than one parking garage that was literally full, with no where to park. So we managed to find parking 20 minutes later and had a tailgate like dinner at Fuddruckers right next to the theater. The place was like The Habit mixed with the environment and atmosphere of TGI Fridays, which I only went to once on my sister's 14th birthday in 2003 and I don't plan on ever going back there cause their Onion Rings fucked me up that day. And what makes Fuddruckers separate from all the other burger joints (still haven't tried Unami and The Counter yet) was that you get to pick what size patty and the kind of cheese you want and then you take your burger over to a section where the lettuce, onions, tomatoes and pickles, as well as the condiments, are provided for you to prepare, which I though was cool. After we got full, we the went to the theater, got the tickets and watched J. Edgar. That movie was alright but it wasn't what I expected it to turn out. It mostly focused on the gay overtones between Hoover and his assistant Clyde Tolson more than his 40 something year stint as the first director of the then newly formed Federal Bureau of Investigation and the chronological order of the film will get confusing for a while. The film started at 9:30 and it ended at Midnight. I didn't think it was gonna be a long ass film. After that, we left and I went back to my place.

Woke up late as usual on Saturday. My friend's band Aftergloam was scheduled to perform at this small venue right across from Amoeba Records, but the show was cancelled at the last minute sinced it rained that day. I REALLY wanted to attend and I enjoy watching the homies Tianna, Elvis, and their new members Kimi Quinn and Albert Rubalcava putting those instruments to work. What made the day much worse was that the internet/phone service was cut off from my place in Sylmar just like that for the entire weekend. I lived in Sylmar for 13 months and this was the first time that ever happened. Usually when the service is down, one of my housemates has a short cut sneaky way of getting it working, only this tine it didn't budge after we spent the day trying to fix it. But I didn't really need to upload or download anything right now. I spent the rest of the day reading the Steve Jobs book and watching some pro-wrestling DVDs with my housemate for the rest of the night until I was tired.

Then on Sunday, I went to Lee's 4 Cocktails to watch some NFL games there and to digest the unlimited Pepsi and hot dogs that was provided (thanks again Dafnee). The Niners/Giants game in the afternoon was the game of the week. Unbelievable that San Francisco is 8 and 1 with their sixth straight win and I can't say anything about the Indianapolis Colts. On top of all this, the Oakland Raiders are first place in the AFC West, something that I haven't seen in a LONG time. I didn't watch the Sunday Night Football game between the Jets and the Patriots cause obviously tom Brady knows that First place of the AFC East was at stake and didn't want his team to lose three in a row, so I knew that they were gonna win over New York.

That's the end of my three day weekend. It looked like I did alot, but in person, it wasn't that much. Now I have another appointment meeting this Thursday, so I hope this one doesn't get fucked up in the last second like it did two weeks ago. Other than that, thanks for your time reading this and have a excellent rest of the week.

Just Another Day

I'm not gonna spend the whole time, or any time at all on here, building constructive criticism on why Christmas Day is overrated and how the media and corporations overshadow the true meaning of the holiday, because hate it or love it (word to Curtis Jackson and the Game), its gonna keep going like this for the rest of our born natural lives. Even though I'm not that much into holidays since I like to always keep myself busy, its all about spending time with family and nobody is gonna have time to hang out with their friends. In other words, everything is gonna be off limits today. That's all I'm gonna say say.

By the way, speaking of the Holidays, here's a photo I took with some of Santa's hoes (no offense ladies) at the Toys for Tots drive (no pun intended) hosted at Platinum Motorsport on Melrose near Fairfax High school. I'll leave it at that.

One last thing. Here's a sneak peak of my new website in the works. I'll bring more information about it on the next post. Have fun this weekend.

http://www.wix.com/justforsneaks07/randomshots4

Free Mason

In the next 17 years, Mason Dash Disick will have to deal with his "Baby Gap" pinstripe suit swagger and unique creative photoshoot concepts with his extended family like this one for Holiday Year 2010 until he becomes a legal adult. They need to hire me in the future.

By the way, Khloe Kardashian-Odom looks hot in that portrait, yet her husband had to be photoshopped in this cause he had practice at the same time. This shows that Digital Imaging is legit.

October Month in Review

I want to get this quickly off myself first of all.

Yes I know I'm late on this but FUCK THE NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION FOR DISQUALIFYING THE TROJANS INTO THE PLAYOFFS FOR THE NEXT TWO YEARS. I've said this before and I'll probably say it until they make a movie out of this shit which will never happen. Some people here worship the Lakers, some idolized the Dodgers, I'm not sure about those who devote themselves to the L.A. Kings, but for me, its all about the USC Trojans football team. Out of at least 30,000 or more schools in this country, regardless of any division, why the fuck is the University of Southern California the one taking the heat. Oh yeah, its those agents willing to feed and fuel the athletes with gifts to make them play better and feel good about themselves. Its like steroids without the steroids.

Why did I bring this up again? The game against Oregon yesterday made me very upset. I didn't see the game on TV but the only thing I saw was the score online. Shit, this was at the Coliseum in front of a national television audience. If this was 2005, either the result would be the other way around, otherwise if the score was the same, then Keith Jackson would be speechless or whatever just like the 2006 National Championship game, which I don't want to get into. The only thing you would hear after the game is the Ducks fans texting their colleagues outside the Coliseum that their drive from Eugene to Los Angeles was totally worth it. But sadly, the Trojans aren't playing for anything this year, and for some people, there's no point of watching them this year. I just watch them cause they're the only team that I actually liked for a long time. They beat the shit out of Berkley in their previous home game, which really impressed me.

Another thing that I wanna spill out is that I really dislike Halloween and everything about it. The only positive thing about it is looking at the females dressing up like whores and strippers, but its more convenient if your wife or significant other was with you in that attire, otherwise its gets dried out really fast. Again, I do not like Holidays, including Christmas. I say Christmas cause everyone views it as a marketing tool for the corporate "white collar big wigs" in the Fortune 500 companies to generate such extraordinary revenue for themselves. This person form my church said that its all about getting "free stuff", which is... in a sense, true. I wanna go to a church with somebody on that day, regardless of any christian domination and just enjoy the holiday spirit by watching and listening to the choir telling the story of Christ's birth in songs. I could care much less if I get don't anything in December 25th, cause, that's kids stuff.

Plus its amazing how they're already hyping up the holiday frenzy already since last week, and October is damn near not even finished yet. I was at the Glendale Galleria last Thursday to take photos of Cindy Crawford (who looked the freakin' same after all these years) promoting her signature skincare product at JCPenney. As I was waiting, I walked by Macy's and they already had CHRISTMAS TREES up at their fragrance department. I was like shit, why not make Christmas Day a month early? But that's already been superseded with the annual "Black Friday" shopping event, the day after Thanksgiving. I'm surprised that those traditions are still going on during the recession where the unemployment rate is STILL increasing.

I wanna touch up on that real quick. Yesterday, I saw a 60 Minutes documentary on how those people unemployed had 99 weeks to be financially taken care of by getting unemployment checks during that period until they find a stable job. But unfortunately, after 99 weeks, those people are still unemployed , and they can't get unemployment benefits after that timeframe expires. So now those people, who went to college back when compact Japanese import vehicles like Honda's Civic, Nissan's Datsun line, and Toyota's Corolla gain notoriety during the oil crisis, are not working since they are almost close to reaching their retirement milestone. The sad part is that they also can't find work and be hired cause of the younger generation, or those under 25, are pretty much dominating the entry level lower-end workforce. I don't know whether to view this as ageism, which is like racism towards age, but I've seen people who I thought looked like they should be a CEO or an exec of some company in a high rise building in Downtown Los Angeles working in places my little brother should be working at. Very sad to see this and embarrassing if it was one of your parents in those positions or worse. All I can say is that to those fortunate enough to make a decent living at the least, just be glad and blessed with what you have, and hold on to it tight. I mean, VERY TIGHT, with knowledge. Just remember where it came from and how you got it.

As for myself, the past month has been pretty much a whirlwind. More like 50/50 or 85/15. There have been some fractures in my family recently (nobody died by the way) and it got to the point where I HAD to move out. So thankfully, my mom's knows this Filipino lady who I think she worked with a while ago and she lives at a house in Sylmar and taking care of her disabled family, who are all older than me. There were a lot of rooms in that house, so she reserved one for me. I might be there until everything turns out well at my legal address, but from the looks of things, I don't even know when' I'll move back there, or how long I might live here in Sylmar. Its a weird coincidence cause the place I'm residing at right now is less than 30 seconds from my church and my friend Frank's house. Other than that, I'm doing fine here. Spent a month already here, don't have to pay rent cause lady knows my situation with not getting hired for the past two years. Plus they have a lot of great food, and I've been trying out some Filipino entree's that I've never tasted before, which is fantastic to the max.

I've been very busy like a fuckin' beast for the past few weeks also. I've been taking a lot of photos, test driving a bunch of cars and meeting celebrities. I know that sounds like the shit I've been doing every month for the past year, but this was somewhat a premium version of it. I spent a lot of time with my good friend Nicole Stetter and her friend's group Darger De Milo by supporting them in their recording sessions. Nicole had a lot of people she knew who had a number of parties and kickbacks, so I took photos of those and made some new friends/clients/acquaintances or whatever you want to call it. I can't describe all of those gatherings in detail cause there was a different one every other day which made it look like it was 2007-08 all over again. It was very fantastic, including Aftergloam (one of my friend's music group) bassist Cecilia Navaratte's birthday at Universal Citywalk. I've never thought that I would witness a party where they had a surprise proposal, a bachelorette party, and a drunk 40 something woman who would hit on me in front of her husband, who WAS COOL ABOUT THE WHOLE THING from his own words. Like I said, those events were too indescribable to put into sentences.

One of my favorite things I did this month was test driving the all new Nissan Leaf, which is the first all electric car to have absolutely no emissions whatsoever, meaning no smog checks, no gasoline, no CO2's being emitted into the air, none of that shit. It was in invite event which took place at Westfield Century City mall in Century City that was operated by Nissan of North America. We had to be schooled on the origins and the dissection of the vehicle, and it was worth capturing my attention. We even got to drive it around Century City, which made me and those who also attended the first ever people in Los Angeles to drive this car. Keep in mind that this car is not gonna be out in a year and its still going thorough some approval process from the government. To me, when I was driving it, it felt like you're driving a golf cart with options and a body around it, cause like I said earlier, this car is, as Nissan simply stated it, 100% electric with no gasoline whatsoever. Nowadays, people can care less on what kind of car you drive, whereas five years ago, you were doing it if you pushed a Chrysler 300c or a Infiniti G35 or a Cadillac Escalade. But the recent economic recession has changed a lot of people views on many financial aspects, which is why I wrote earlier that the holiday shopping hasn't changed its traditional habits. Speaking of finances, they didn't say what the price for the vehicle is, but I'm guessing its gonna be between 17 grand to $30,000 at the most. I could go on all day with this car.

Yep, its been a stressful, exciting, interesting, useful, decent, and challenging month this year. I did my best to make it full of positive energy. That's how every month should be, minus all the family drama, negative politics and bullshit. I really need to rest and catch up on the NFL. I've been missing watching some games from editing and scanning all the photos I took this month, but hey, I'm a photographer, so I have to maintain my "Ryan-Seacrest-busy-all-over-the-place" grind.

Oh yeah, major shoutout to Cadillac for letting me drive your whips as many times as you let me this month. Even though I'm a Japanese automobile person, y'all are and always will be underrated and I respect your heritage in the American culture. And shoutout to Tianna Edmonson, the drummer for Aftergloam, for hosting all those kickbacks at your place this month. Its always an experience every time I go there. Also, shoutout to Universal and AMC for re-showing Back To The Future in theaters again for two nights. I FUCKIN' ENJOYED IT! I should've brought someone with me, but it selling like crazy and I spent 15 dollars on a Large popcorn and a Large Cherry Coke (they didn't have Pepsi). Yes, 2 of those for 15 dead Washington's. I've never though I'd see this movie in a large screen, but they remastered it and made it look sharper and clearer. Plus I went home with 5 limited edition posters of the movie they gave away. I don't even know what I'm gonna do with them, seriously. Finally, big shoutout to Amber Marshall for letting go berserk in your Mercedes-Benz CLK convertible last week. Damn, I drove a lot of cars this month.