I Wonder...CON

Thanks to a co-worker I have been getting back into things that I was into as a kid. One of these things are comic conventions. The other weekend I had the privilege of attending a smaller convention called Wonder-Con.

Wonder-Con is normally held in San Fran but this year it was moved to Anaheim due to the fact that the convention center in SF is under construction. Now Wonder-Con is no where near the size of Comic-Con (witch I will blog about in a few months when I attend that). But this one was really fun, it was two and a half days long. Day one was a half day and the main thing this day was the Regular Show Panel. The Regular Show is a cartoon that I enjoy watching and going to this panel was a must. They had all the artist and voice actors at it to talking about up coming episodes and answer questions about past episodes. But the high light of the panel was the sneak peak of an upcoming episode. This episode is made from an old 80's movie called The Wizard. The preview was amazing and I can't wait to see the whole episode.

Here is the Preview.

The Next Day was even more important then the first. Today was the day of the Adventure Time Panel. Adventure Time is another cartoon I watch and have been watching since the pilot. After this panel was over the creator and the the artist and voice actors did a signing. I was planing on trying to meet the creator and this was a perfect way to do it. Now I wanted to meet him for two reason. One he is the creator of a show I really love. And two I have designed a original piece of art that I wanted him to see. So at the signing I pulled out this art I had done and well....got the the reaction I was hope for. His eye lighted up and he loved it. Not only did he love it but the heads of Cartoon Network also loved it. They Loved t so much that they were asking if I could send them the file. I am working on making a deal for the file if they are going to use it in any mass production. Later that day when I was walking the floor right before the show ended for the day I came across the creator again. He was taking over a table in the up and coming artist area know as Artist Alley. He had a some little scraps of paper and was doing little drawings for people. Lets just say this little convention turned out to be well worth it. Here is a photos of the art I made and the art creator made. Along with some other photos from the event

Pen doing my personal art

Me and Pen

Personal art from Pen

My Personal Art I did

Me and Gonzo

Little Kid Cosplaying as Tin Tin

And I Would Walk 1000 Miles

Over the past few weekend I have been getting back into hiking. I don't really know why but it is nice to get out and just enjoy nature all day. No cell phone service no one bugging you just you and your thoughts.

Last weekend me and a friend of mine hit up Holly Jim for a 10 mile hike. The hike took us to almost the highest point in Orange County. We were about 7 miles shy of that point.

But the view was still amazing. It was a little foggy down along the coast so you couldn't see the ocean but it was still nice.

The were a few of these along the trail that gave it that different feel.

Little Waterfall Along the Trail

This Was My Hiking Party

After we finished we took his monster truck out for a little off-roading. The day was good fun a great work out and really enjoyable. There is even talk of an over-nighter with the boys...that will be a weird one.

Summer Time In The LBC

A few weeks back I had the privilege to go and photograph the

Grand Opening of a new Skate Park in LBC.

I am always looking for ways to get my name out there and make myself more of an asset in this industry, so when I heard about this event I jumped at the challenge.

I have never really shot skate before... well besides shooting my friends on our back yard ramp and and stuff. But I didnt let that stop me. I have skated long enough to know what to look for and where to stand to get killer shots. The event turned out to be a BIG deal, with tones of people at it. I dropped some names, pulled some string and somehow get myself let in as press.

Tony Hawk was on hand to do the ribbon cutting and say a few words.

But he was not the only one a bunch of other LEGENDS showed even my all time favorite

Geoff Rowley.

The event was a big success and I am looking forward to going back and skating next time. Here are some more shot that I took form the event.

The Legend Daewon himself showed up

Cross Streets

Oh and by the way, after shooting this I am now in the market for a really good fish eye or wide angle. Time to step it up another notch.

Stop To Smell The Roeses

Man has it really been over a month since I have posted.

"Life moves pretty fast.

If you don't stop and look around once in a while,

you could miss it."

This is a pretty famous quote I hope all of you know it. But in the last month it has been my life. Most of you that know me well know that I have had a pretty crazy start to a my new year. LIfe has been up in the air and sometimes out of control. But the dust is starting to settle and things are looking up.

The years started out great. I took a little extra vacation time after the holiday to enjoy some time by myself doing what I love with out the holiday crowds. Well I can't say totally away from the crowds. The first thing on the list for the new year was to check out the Rose Parade.

The Rose Parade played host to an estimated 900,000 people this year. I did really feel like camping out so I skipped go to the parade and chose to just go to the post parade to view the 43 floats up close and personal. I got lucky and just so happen to talk to the right old man standing in his driveway. He had free tickets to the event and offered them up to me, saving me $20 and having to wait in line to buy them.

Me and my friend Liza squeezed our way up to the front of the crowd waiting for the gates to open and once they did we made quick to get in and start seeing the floats before the place got to crowed. Here are some of my favorite floats.

Next on the calendar was to get some surf in down in Mexico. sadly I don't have any photos from this because I didn't want to risk leaving anything in the car or getting stolen so I only took my passport, some cash and my surfboard. Here is a photo I pulled of the net. The location is out in the ocean off this little island. It was super fun I have never surfed there before so it was kind of scary. Mainly because of all the wild life around it felt very sharky. Oh well it was still fun.

After my vacation was over and I had to go back to work I had to come back to some sad stuff. One of my co-workers was leaving Billabong to move back to Chicago to start a family and move on to bigger and better things in work. It was a very sad day Brad had been a good friend to me since I started at Billabong. He is the one who got me into Mopeds and a lot of the games I play on my iPhone. He was a fun guy and he will be missed. We did a little going away gift for him.

Over the next few weeks I did some little things.

Went to my cousins Eagle Court of Honor

Attended my friend Sean Collins Memorial Paddle Out

Went to Disneyland and almost got the high score record on Toy Story

And lastly um I took a little long weekend trip to the island of

PUERTO RICO

As I said in my last blog post this trip was already planned. So about a week ago I jumped on a plan after thinking I wasn't going to get on (stand by is very stressful when you on a schedule) and headed to the bahamas. I was gone for 4 days... 4 days of non stop fun. I did more then I ever though I would do in that short of time. I think I saw every street of Old San Juan where I was staying. Checked out the old fort there. Went swimming in a nice little bay in the rain. Saw part of a huge Music Festival that their local bank was putting on. Jumped off a bridge. Snuck into a hotel to go hot tubing then went to a better hot tub on the roof of an apartment building. Ate some yummy food (this was hard to do cause I'm on a diet and everything was fried).

But the best part of the trip was going to the Rainforest. Where I did cliff diving, played on a rope swing, and slid down some natural water slides. Here is a little video from that part of the trip.

We were the only people there because it is not a place the tourist go its a locals only place.

So yeah thats been my last month and a half. Sorry if I was MIA from any of you but as you can see it was crazy and this isn't even everything there is some stuff that can't be said :)

Years End

Well its New Years Eve and I got so much to show for it.

This year has been filled with so much fun I can't even tell you how great my life is. I have made new friends, traveled to new location all over the planet and just grew as a person.

BUT now is the time to look to the future and what it holds.

So here is a look into my future or what I hope it will be. I guess the best place to start is my New Years Resolution. Last year was to surf 150 day in the year. I am happy to say I did complete this goal. And just like last years goal this years is about surfing also. My resolution this year is to Surf 20 new locations that I have never surfed before.

I have two already planed, in a few weeks I am heading to Puerto Rico to visit my friend who lives there. I also have already booked my next big surf trip to Mainland Mexico in September for 10 days. I also have a lot of places in LA and Santa Barbara that I have not surfed so this should be an easy one to complete. So I have also decided to try to do the most popular resolution out there. Yep you guessed it weight loss. I want to try to get back down to 150-160 lbs. This means I need to lose about 15-20 lbs. Doesn't sound to hard right, Well you talking to the fast food king of Orange County and the Candyman of Billabong. And on top of that they always say the last 10 lbs. are the hardest to lose.

So moving on here is a little update in my life. This is a little of what I have been up to the last few weeks and what I am going to get into next year.

Next year I am getting more into becoming more of a watermen.

So I am go to be taking up

Body Surfing

And a new thing called Dolphin Surfing. It is just like body surfing but you ride under the water behind the wave. I can already body surf pretty good so I am hopping to pick up and get better at both of them really easy. Next I am going to try my hand at skim boarding.

I was luck to get this beauty for Christmas and can't wait to give it a try.

That about does it for new things for next year.

So here is what I have been up to.

*Hanging out with my good friend Bay at here house.

This is us at her families Christmas Eve Party.

This is me sledding in her backyard in CDM.

They have snow made for the whole neighborhood to come and have a

White Christmas.

Went shooting with some of my friends from work. We shot rifles, hand guns and shotguns all day from like 10 to 5 it was a great day out and we had tones of fun.

Got myself a Universal Studios pass. Don't know how much I will use it seeing I did almost everything the day we got the pass but who knows it could be fun to just go back and hang out.

Went and looked at Christmas lights in Balboa it was fun had a good time (some people have way to much time on there hands) this house had a soap blower on the roof to make it look like it was snowing and the lights blinked in sync with the much that was playing.

And last of course was play with my camera. I have been having so much fun taking photos with it. Be it shooting around Disneyland or of my friends jumping on the tramp. I love my camera best gift I could have got myself.

Well I hope you are having as much fun as I am these last few days of 2011. And I look forward to seeing all you next year. The last year we will be here Dec. 2012 (haha if you believe in that crap)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Naked and Famous in the Rain

No I'm not talking about the Red Hot Chili Peppers song.

I'm talking about the latest concert I went to. Last night I enjoyed a great concert by

THE NAKED AND FAMOUS

The Naked and Famous is a band from New Zealand and have only been out since late 2010. I have been into them since about December 2010 when I came across their song Punching In A Dream on a blog I follow. Since that point on I have been a fan.

I tried to see them a few weeks back at Belly Up down in San Diego, but tickets sold out before I could get any. So When I found out they were playing down the street from my house at another small venue I didn't wait. I quick called the box office and snatched up some ticket and cleared my calendar. Needless to say it was well worth it. Turns out the venue SOLD OUT the next day, I guess it pays to be on Myspace sometimes still. Seeing this was the site that sent me the email first informing me that they were playing there. Well anyways the show was amazing the venue is under new management and it's looking better then even and the sound system is amazing. My only down fall was once again I couldn't bring in my good SLR camera in only point and shoots. So you will have to settle for some iPhone photos instead of others. I am working on getting a Press Pass so I don't have this problem any more.

But until then enjoy.

Here is a little video I made from the the night.