This is day one with the new gear: Canon 50D, Canon 10-22mm USM lens, and Canon 50mm f1.8. It didn't take long before I was able to spot some killer tallent. "Drewbie" and Zach, representing Tactics in this shoot.

Heather and I ventured to San Diego, Cali. We started off going for a skate together, and ended up running into some cool cats skating in the area. Here's the unedited frames from our skate sesh. These kids are going to be ripping in a neighborhood near to you when they get older, so stay tuned!

Heather and I gathered the paparazzi to obtain new pictures of us together...and boy do we look good together!

A sleepover with my youngest brothers was long overdue. So what do we do? What ever redblooded man does! Stay up late watching Pokemon movies and guzzling cream soda and chowing on the best food on earth: popcorn.

One of the most interesting lenses you will ever come in contact with is a spring loaded bevel-type lens called a Lensbaby. My friend Kelly was patient with my endless shooting on the new lens. I can't say that I have the lens mastered, but here's a little taste of the effect. It must be noted that these have not been touched up in any way. The blur is a natural result of the lens!

The simple explanation? My roomie and I wanted to see how hard it could be to make a flaming drink. That's the simple of it.

My old friend (Dylan Anitok) was in town for the weekend from Boise, and so a little celebration was in order. It was a memorable night in a number of ways. (And yes, pictured below is Joe Covington laying on a couch rested on a third floor stairwell handrail...)

Any group function with a family of 7 tends to demonstrate the chaos theory. 5 kids crammed in the back of a Chevy Suburban for a road trip, always a reason to bicker and complain. Coordinating the whole family has always been a difficult -- though rewarding -- task. This venture was different though. Each "child" is getting to a certain age of maturity, and for the first time everything just clicked. No territory battles in the car. No constant bantering of "are we there yet". No bloodshed.

We didn't follow tradition in a number of ways; not everyone got a pumpkin (though strangely the pumpkin didn't seem to be the highlight of the trip), no one was concerned with time, the entire trip was relative bliss. I'm definitely happy with how the family has turned out. We couldn't ask for a better "nest".

A good evening with good friends and good drinks. The neighbors (from downstairs and across the street) joined us for appletinis.

		photo by Lia Vader

Recording the song Lose was an arduous task. Many new pieces of hardware including compressors, tube preamps, and equalizers slowed our progress. Though I still have much to learn with recording, it was a good experience -- and a fun evening with Aaron Matthew and Lia Vader.

photo by Lia Vader	photo by Lia Vader
photo by Lia Vader

I went out shooting with a friend, Keith Miller. Among taking me to school on a number of the EOS' functions, he also let me toy around with his lensbaby 2.0. It's safe to say I now want one. I must note that none of the photos have been retouched or modified. Resizing is the only change that has been made since these photos came off the camera.

Here are a few sketch photos from Tiffany's birthday dinner at Los Dos.

Photo shoot with Dan Morris and his beautiful son, Ashton. More photos from this shoot to come...

This will be what, our 16th year in a row going to Beverly Beach? Yes, something like that -- and we love it each year more than the last.

We through a shindig for our friend Chris, who was going away to bootcamp to serve our country. Many good friends, and some new ones. Some trouble, but all the memories are worth it!