Thursday, October 30, 2008

Halloween at the Photo Department

halloween at cypress college is always interesting. the theater department sells off some of the costumes they no longer use for $3 - $5. i found this amazing red robe for $3. as you can see, we had some fun with it.



Monday, October 27, 2008

Halloween Donut


for halloween michael brydges, a communications instructor at cypress college who happens to be taking a few photo classes, brought some krispy kreme donuts in for the photo department staff. he even got me the special pumpkin one i thought was so cute. thanks michael!

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Mike and Nong Nang's Wedding

Mike and Nong Nang's wedding was a small and intimate affair. every wedding i go to is special in it's own way. there were less than 20 guests and half were photographers!

after a minor fiasco at the hair salon, mike and nong nang finally made it to their wedding half an hour late and i made it there 15 minutes later, but long enough to miss the entire wedding ceremony. in any case, we made it there in typical thai time.


mike and phi nong were married in a gazebo overlooking the ocean in laguna beach. i wish i could say the wedding was beautiful, but frankly, i missed it. luckily, mike is a photographer and he has a lot of photographer friends to help take pictures that i get to see. two of the guest were yvette and roman galvan, amazing wedding photographers. hopefully, i get to see it on ron's video one day too.

the reception was held at madison square and garden cafe. it seems to be a place that sells unique and whimsical trinkets for your home and garden, as well as having a small dining area in the back. the garden cafe area is just dreamy and i would love to have a back yard like that one day. the good news is that they also seem to offer landscape planning & design services.

lunch was a simple yet flavorful salad. i had the pear salad (fresh cut romaine lettuce with candied walnuts, gorgonzola cheese, diced poached pears and tossed with balsamic vinaigrette) while randy had the shanghai chicken salad (mixed greens, carrots, wontons, red cabbage, rice noodles, and grilled chicken in a plum mustard dressing). i always get food envy when it comes to what other people ordered so randy was nice enough to share half of his salad with me.


i have no idea where the wedding cake was from, but it was good! it was some of the best wedding cake i've ever had. maybe it tastes extra special good because it's a wedding cake.





i wish mike and phi nong many happy years together. thanks for allowing me to share in your wedding day!

Boo & Co.

while walking around target i saw these totally adorable halloween decor items from boo & co. one day i'll have a place of my own and i'll buy all this stuff to decorate my house!

pumpkin bath mat,


halloween themed wash cloths,


and spider web place mats!

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Michael's Motion Demo

tonight mike did his motion demo for the class.

stop action


blurred motion


panning



and just for kicks, cory and i decided to stay in the studio and see what we could come up with for some lights he had using the bulb setting on the camera.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Kitchen Remodel

the kitchen remodel is coming along quite nicely. we have walls again! pretty soon randy will install the cabinets that we bought from ikea.

thank you arian and manny for all the help you've given us with this project.

Xtreme Bowling for Markus's Birthday



For markus's birthday markus, claudia, randy, and i went out to dinner at tulsa rib company in orange. they pretty much have the only ribs i'll eat. i'm sure there is better out there as my friends from texas all tell me, but i haven't had them yet. i am always on the hunt for good food, so if you know if a kick ass rib place, let me know.

yes, i've been to lucille's and no, it doesn't compare to tulsa rib company.

after some good feasting we went bowling at Carter Lanes in Fullerton. It was time for cosmic bowl. i really liked it. the place wasn't crowded like Linbrook and everything just seemed a lot cooler.


i suck at bowling.


my favorite part about Carter Lanes were the shoes. They were pretty new and even the stiching glowed quite nicely under the black lights. I want a pair like these now! I have no idea where to get them though.

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Jonathan's Birthday


the cypress college photography department is like a family. as with a lot of families, we take time to celebrate each others' birthdays. this time, it was jonathan's birthday. we got him a chocolate silk pie with a batman candle then sang happy birthday to him.

i'm sure he thought that was it, but there was more. shortly after jonathan's class started another instructor, clayton, took his entire digital photography class over to jonathan's classroom, barged right in, and broke out into "happy birthday".



we like to make learning fun.

Cliff's class gets comfortable


in order to get students to feel comfortable and open up, cliff abandoned the normally formal seating arrangement in the classroom for a more campfire circle feel. comfy chairs were brought in instead of desks (although some still chose to sit in desks) and an air mattress was even laid on the floor for whoever wanted to chill.

i'm not sure if it worked to get students to feel more comfortable, but it definately made class more interesting.

James Huston @ Cypress College


James Huston, author of many books including "Farewell to Manzanar" and "Snow Mountain Passage" gave a talk about his books and the stories behind writing the books at Cypress College today.

Normally, this is not a talk I would attend, but my speech professor Dr. Donna Friess had us go as part of our class. I'm so thrilled I got to go because the stories behind the books were quite interesting. Mr. Huston also spoke about the process of writing the books and there were a few funny anecdotes behind them.

I even got his autograph! yeah!

Sunday, October 05, 2008

Happy Birthday Arian

happy birthday arian!


i've had ice cream cakes before, but this is the first time i've had ice cream cup cakes! awesome! i'm not the only photog in the family. tisha is too and i think great minds think alike. we are both taking pictures of these delicious treats.


Bowling at Linbrook


so, i went bowling again yesterday, this time with the filipino family instead of the photo family.


there was lots of beer.


randy bowled a turkey!