In the most generic sense of the word professional, meaning one who is paid to do something, I am now a professional photographer. Walter organized a fancy ball for our friends, and he hired me to be the official photographer for the event.

I had a lot of fun, since I was basically paid to do what I would have been doing anyway, and I didn't have to buy a new dress.

Pics are here. For those of you who attended, you will shortly be receiving an email with the Kodak Gallery link where you can order prints (high-res and unwatermarked.)

A huge congratulations to Domi for matching at OHSU, her top choice!

I knew you could do it.

Happy Birthday to Me
Happy Birthday to Me
Let's not be late
'Cuz now I'm 28!

Okay, I admit that was lame.

That is all.

Since my car doesn't have a tape deck, I've been using an FM transmitter to listen to my iPod in my car. Over the weekend, it must have fallen halfway out of my car, because when I discovered the next day that it was sticking out of my car door, and someone had ripped off the iPod connector, leaving me with bare wires and a $60 piece of plastic crap.

I hate people.

Edit: I hate people even more. Apparently that FM transmitter is being discontinued, and has been replaced with a model that has an average rating of 2 stars. Boo.

Uploaded to Flickr on 5th March, 2008.

Yesterday I attended a one-day lighting workshop with Neil van Niekerk, a wedding photographer from New Jersey.

Neil's workshop was about being able to use on and off-camera flash effectively, something that many photographers tend to be afraid of, since they don't want a picture to look flashed-out. But the point of the day was showing us ways to use flash such that it looks natural, and many times better than the same shot taken without flash.

We started out the day at the Golden Gate Club in the Presidio, where Neil gave a presentation that lasted until around lunch time. After that, we took a few shots inside and around the building, before heading over to Baker Beach to grab some sunset shots. After dinner at Tiernan's Irish Pub (where, incidentally, an Irish band was singing Johnny Cash songs...awesome!), we walked around Ghiradelli Square to take some night shots.

The workshop was so much fun, and I learned a ton. While I don't think I took any blow-me-away shots, I do think that I learned enough to have a solid base from which to start practicing and growing. Definitely worth it, and very...illuminating.

If anyone is interested, I'll post some of the same shots without flash so you can compare a shot with and without flash.

Happy 29th Birthday, Amanda!

Had another nice weekend. Saturday I took Stinky McEnzo to the self-service doggy bath, and he came out moderately less stinky, and about twice as fluffy. Later in the day I went to the mall with Yar, Jan, and Rahul (how very high school of us), where we all had a very productive shopping day. Afterwards, we watched The Host, which I thought was awesome. Yar and I both appreciated the rapid switches in tone. In one minute, it is pure slapstick comedy, and in the next, it is telling the story of a man trying to make up for being a failure of a father. But mostly it's just great Asian cinema weirdness, which I highly enjoyed.

Sunday we took a hike at Mount Tamalpais, which was really beautiful. The day was so clear that we could actually see the Inner Sunset from the mountain, which was pretty cool. Afterwards was Japanese food and chocolate cake in Berkeley, which was yummy.

In a completely unrelated note, I've been getting a lot of Spanish language songs on my iPod when I play it on shuffle. I guess that's what I get for always downloading the "Canción de la Semana" on iTunes...