Okay, okay, So My Last Website Was a Bust...

RIP www.timmonzonphoto.com.

Haha. It was totally cool until I realized I wanted to integrate my blog and my portfolio into one site.

So then I made another one!!!!!

www.timmonzon.com

Yep. I basically dropped the "photo" part of it, haha.

And if you decide to read the blog, leave me a comment, just to let me know what you think of the new site!!! I need as much feedback as possible people!!!!! Even if I don't know you!

I've really been trying to learn as much as I can about web design, so any type of feedback at all would help.

I'm also going to be deleting this blog soon too.... :( I know, sad day.

BUT!!!! It won't be so bad! I'll be importing everything over to my other blog soon enough.

Anyways, check it out! Please!




... that's all.

Umm......

Go here: http://www.timmonzonphoto.com/blog/

So while I'm twiddling my thumbs at home...

I'm trying to figure out just how to implement a blog onto my photography website, www.timmonzonphoto.com. In retrospect, I probably should have bought a the domain name www.timmonzon.com, omitting the photo thing, in order to make the site a little easier to remember, as well as have it pertain to more than just photography. I mean hey, if you wanted someone to take pictures of you, wouldn't you want to get to know them a little first?

So I've been learning as much about web design as I can, and let me tell you: this stuff can be pretty complicated. Web language can be pretty daunting stuff for the unitiated, but I am learning quite a bit. I'm also trying to learn a bit about Flash, in order to better use it on my website, but we'll see. I may not have the flashiest website (no pun intended), but at least I don't have to pay someone to do it for me :).

So the fair's been in town for about a week now, and I've already been 3 times! I love the fair. The great food, all the exhibits, the animals, the rides. There's a little something for everyone. In an interesting note, my friends and I decided to check out the photography exhibit, featuring photos from people in an attempt to either sell their art or to win in competition. Anyways, my friend had a particular interest in a certain artistic photograph, which, with all due respect, I could easily recreate. In fact, anyone with a basic understanding of Photoshop and light could reproduce it. Anyways, all the photos on exhibition were on sale on request, and my friend asked a guide how much this particular photographic "collage" was on sale for.

The lady was unsure, so she went to the back to look up the price. When she returned, she had quite an astonished look on her face.

"$2700"

My friend was floored. I was floored. Even the guide was floored. Two thousand seven hundred for that?!? I think we all had the same thought going on in our minds: "its a good photo, but its nowhere near THAT good". I honestly couldn't believe it. I don't think I've been able to sell a photo for more than 200 bucks. And for me, even that's a lot. But wow.

Maybe I should enter a photo or two into the fair competition next year.

By the way, here are some photos from the fair:

So the month of August has flown by....

.... and I didn't write a single thing. Well, I have, but it's been mostly little blurbs on my Twitter and on Myspace. I don't know, I just couldn't get myself to hunker down and write a long post. This last month has just been an emotional and spiritual rollercoaster for me, so I didn't really feel like going off on a writing rampage, knowing that I'd have so much stuff to try and release. Anyways, I'll try to summarize my month of August as best I can.

In the month of August -

• I took a weeklong trip to Florida for the first time. It was very awesome. It's actually my first trip to a state east of the Mississippi, so yay for that. It was also a perfect time for me to leave reality behind for a moment, since I was getting way too caught up in work and stressing myself out.
• I took part in a 12 year elementary school reunion. Go Diamond Point class of '96! Haha, it was actually pretty fun, and somehow so surreal at times. Who would have thought, that 13 or 14 years ago, as we all sat together and drank milk at the lunch tables together, that we'd all be drinking alcohol at a bar together. It was an interesting comparison indeed. Capping off the night with a nighttime "break in" of our beloved elementary by 40 or so 24 year olds is a memory I will definitely carry with me.
• I took part in an extremely delicate balancing act of juggling multiple jobs. I decided to tack on another job by freelancing with the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, and it was absolutely stressful. Although the pay made up for it in the end, jockeying for position when it comes to selling photos is something I abhor. Just visualize Jonah Jameson's character as portrayed in the Spiderman movies, and you have an idea of what I had to put up with. I was okay for a couple of weeks, but I've had to put that on hold for a while. Mainly because....
• A few weeks ago I got myself into a major car accident. Well, major for my car anyways. My car is totalled. People don't believe me when I say that as much as I loved my car, it was cursed. Just ask Bryan Valdiviezo. Or Kina Grannis. Everytime either of those names were involved with my car, something bad would happen. Why? I don't know. But anyways, to make a long story short, it wasn't my fault. However, the other guy involved in the accident is adamant that it was my fault. So adamant, in fact, that he's trying to take me to court. Ridiculous. Which means his insurance carrier will refuse to pay me until a verdict is made on who's at fault within the court. Which means I don't have a car. I know I'm going to win the case, thanks to a police report in my favor and the other driver who constantly tries to change his statement in order for it to seem like he was in the clear. Problem is, I just want to get this over with now. Not six months from now.

So yeah, life's been kind of hectic this past month. But September is here now. And my birthday quite literally around the corner, I'm hoping for a relief from this frustration.

Hehe, Whoops

Okay, so I obviously haven't been updating this thing, but I have a few good reasons, which I'll share with you in a bit. Sorry to those who read this blog and haven't gotten anything out of it lately. I owe it to you. And thanks to those of you who kept nagging me to update, I think I owe you guys the most =).

"Why We Fight" 5/28/08

The above is a photo I took about a month and a half ago participating in Walnut's Relay For Life. I've done Relay For Life for 4 years now, but this was a special one, because I was a team captain this year. It was also adventurous, because I actually made an effort to stay on the track all 24 hours. And yes, I did it. And it was painful. But I raised 700 dollars! But my biological clock has been off ever since. I took a visit to the doctor and was recommended for sleeping pills. Yikes. Not cool. But it was worth it.

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So since my last update, a whole lot has happened, the majority of which has kept me from blogging:

• I've started at a new job, and we all know how that is. Transitioning between jobs can be a bit hectic, especially that period of time when you're working both at the same time, so things have been a little tricky, if not stressful for me. However, this will definitely help in paying off any extra bills and saving up for even more photographic investments.
• ..... or then again, maybe not. With what started out as a simple freon recharge for my car has blossomed into a busted A/C compressor. Which means I'll have to shell out 800 bucks if I want to have AC again. For the time being, I'm running my car just fine with a 20 dollar bypass system, but once September and the humid weather comes, I just might be screwed.
• I'll also be traveling down to Florida in a couple of weeks, so that's something else I need to save up for. Disneyworld! As if going to Disneyland all the time wasn't exciting enough for me =). It'll be my first time, so I'll definitely make sure to document as much of it as I can.
• I've been keeping real busy with fashion shoots lately. Most of the time I'm working as a second shooter or lighting assistant for someone else, which is fine, because what I'm mainly working on is continuing on building up my own studio. Lighting is extremely expensive stuff, but I don't mind. In a sense, the investment is what makes the gap between those photographers who really have a sense and drive and passion to do it, and those who aren't really sure of what they want yet. I know what I want, and I'll keep working at it until I get it.

Okay....... that about sums it up. Oh, by the way.... The Dark Knight was INCREDIBLE!!!!!! I absolutely loved it. I already had high expectations for this movie, and yet I was still blown away :). And, just like everyone else has been saying, Heath Ledger truly made the movie, and the role of The Joker, his. As I watched, Heath wasn't even there. It's like he made his role an absolutely real person, and I was very afraid of who this person was. He truly left this world at the peak of his acting, which is a real shame. I'll bite and give into the Oscar buzz hype. I think he did an outstanding job, and I would love to see him win Supporting Actor posthumously.

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Since I'm working on photos over the weekend as I write this, I might as well share some with you. Friday night was Grace Ricafranca's debut, and I actually had lots of fun working this, even though I didn't have a chance to take a break and grab a bite to eat =P. I've only got the photos I put up on my Flickr, but I'll be sure to release more as I continue to work and edit.

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Okay, as always, time for a Youtube video! This one's been on the internet for a few weeks now, but I was lucky enough to see it just as it hit. Maybe you've seen it already, but it still blows my mind every time I watch it. I can't help but laugh =). And I hate this song too.... out of all of Usher's singles, this is probably the lowest quality in my opinion. And I've been a fan of his since I was in the 7th grade 10 years ago. Anyways, take a look:

I Can't Sleep

... so I might as well write.

"The End!" 6-8-08

It's interesting, because I had this shot all planned out in my mind, and even though it took a few tries, we managed to get a good one going. Amor was pretty camera shy, so it was hard for her to get out of her stiff positioning. I was hoping she's look a little more fluid, a little more... you know, happy to graduate college =). But I digress. The shot was great, and she was a great subject, and this is just one of many great shots that we took during our session.

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I love words, and I love wordplay. As a writer, this is obviously important to me. Having an expanded vocabulary is especially important when trying to depict an accurate picture of the emotions and brevity of a certain situation, without becoming too exaggerated in the way you write. Being able to use the right words in the right contexts and situations is a definite way to impress me, while over exaggerating or understating things is a big pet peeve for me.

For example, a few days ago a coworker of mine was hurrying to finish up her work so she could take her lunch break. When she finishes, she exclaims, "Finally! I can eat now! I'm STARVING!". To which I quickly and politely replied, "No, you're not starving. You're very hungry. West African kids on tv are starving. There's a difference".

Coincidentally enough, she became agitated with me. Maybe it was her hunger pangs. Possibly the realization that I might be right. Maybe both. In my defense, I wasn't doing anything to try and spite her, I was merely trying to highlight the importance of proper word usage. As a fellow writer, you'd think she'd understand. It's not all her fault though.

Here in the US, I think to some extent that we're encouraged to make boastful claims. Everything's bigger in Texas after all. You know, stuff like that. We try to exaggerate things to the extent that sometimes, we're not sure what to believe anymore. If you work for the government, the opposite also applies. You can dumb things down to the point that the public ends up becoming very wary of what you're saying. Unfortunately, I believe its a major cause for concern for me. Nothing tends to live up to the hype anymore, because we hype things up to the point that the expectations suddenly become impossible to reach. The word Love has been diluted to the point where almost half of the marriages that took place within the last 5 years have ended up in divorce.

It would be nice to know that that 46 percent of couples who said they loved each other really meant it.....

Choose your words wisely.

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And support a kid. They really do need the food and the help.

A New Concept

"The Big Jump" 5/26/08

This was taken in Waimea Bay during my Hawaii trip. See the guy with his arms flailing in the air? That's me. My shorts and my body kind of blend in with the rocks, so it might be hard to see me at first. That was a fun day though. Second time in 3 trips that I've gone to Waimea to jump off that rock. I believe the top of the rock's about.... 30 feet above the water? Something like that. If you know me, you know this is quite an accomplishment for me. I'm deathly afraid of heights. When I get up the rock, I have to jump off immediately. Every extra moment I spend up there is completely spent on thinking I could die, so the sooner the jump, the better. =)

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Okay, so I've been planning this thing for a while now, and I'm hopefully gonna try it out with my friends within the next month or so. It's a new game, that I like to call Kick-N-Slide. Basically, it's a combination of the much loved playground game kickball, and everyone's favorite cheap summer thrill, the slip-n-slide.

Gameplay is as follows: the kickball area is set up similar to a baseball diamond, with the 4 bases all equally away from each other. So nothing new there. Players take turns going up "to bat" one after the other. The ball will be your standard red ball that everyone is familiar with from having played with them all throughout elementary school. The only difference is, the "pitcher" will dip the ball in soapy water before every roll. This will make is somewhat harder for the defense to catch the ball, considering everyone's gonna be at least in their 20's and should have fairly good catching skills.

Here's where the slip n slide aspect comes in. The run from 1st to 3rd will be the same as usual, with players rounding the bases. However, the run from 3rd to home won't be a run at all. It'll be the slip n slide. And players will be required to slide the whole way. That's about 40 feet or so. We might have to shorten it a little if we decide it's too long to try to slide all the way down. Making your own slip n slide is pretty easy, you just need some strong smooth plastic (easily purchased by the yard at stores with a gardening section), lots of water, and a little dishwashing soap to help with the slipperyness. Bodyshots are allowed, headshots are not. If I play this with lots of guys, this can easily turn into a very brutal game.

Also, in an effort to keep the defense a little wet as well, each baserunner will carry one water balloon up to bat. After the ball is kicked, they're allowed to use that one balloon to either disrupt a fielder trying to catch the ball, or throw it at a baseman and render them immune from being tagged out by them. Quite a catch, no?

I just wanted to add the slip n slide cuz I figure it'd be a great way to add to the summer fun when playing in a park or something. And come on, when was the last time you got to play a nice friendly game of kickball? Unless you just finished the fifth grade, its probably been some time.

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I'm still tweaking out the rules a little bit, in order to create fairness in a game that's meant for kids, and to make it more challenging, but to keep it as simple as possible and as fun as possible for everyone who plays.

So anyways, if you happen to be in the Chino Hills area sometime around the end of the month, you just might be seeing us at one of the parks playing our game. Everyone's definitely invited. I'm really hoping this'll be fun! I'll try to post up extra information as it gets closer to the end of the month.