They See Me Rolling.

Rolling shots are something I've been meaning to do for a longgg time! The only problem was that we needed another car to take pictures from. Luckily my friend ben, who has been getting the mod bug as of recent, came to our aid and offered his car.

Friday afternoon around sunset, Ben, Jenny, and I headed North on Highway 1 along the coast just as the sun was setting. Ben drove his car while Jenny leaned out to snap some photos of my car. After some time, we turned around and swapped positions so that I could take a few rolling shots of my friend Ben's Versa. Here's one of my favs that Jenny shot.



After this, we dropped my car off back at home, grabbed Jenny's '93 Miata, and headed to a nearby parking lot. Along with trying to the get the hang of Jenny's stick shift, we just hung out and snapped some more photos. The photo below is one fo my favorites. In order to achieve the shot I had to be in Jenny's trunk hanging my camera and fisheye out as far as it could go. Not to mention I was attempting to shoot each frame at 1/10 of a second while she was turning around the light post. Not as sharp as i would have liked, but I love the feeling of movement in the frame. Looks almost like she's drifting around the corner.



Had a great time last night, hope to do it again after I get some more stuff for my car!

New Filmic Endeavor.

As for every film production student at UC Santa Cruz, it is a requirement to take some sort of senior production course before completing the major. So for my advanced film production class (196), I have decided to tackle a very challenging style for my upcoming film.

I am attempting to tell two seemingly disconnected stories simultaneously with the aid of split screen. Using a number of graphic matches and similarities/juxtapositions within the frames, I hope to unite the two images. In the end, the two stories will merge and come together, but both sides will still remain somewhat separate and disconnected. If this was not already a challenge enough, I also plan on telling one of the two stories backwards. I just pray I don't give my audience a headache. It will be an experiment, that's for sure.

Here is a recent fram grab from the male's side of the film.



Also, a friend linked me this short film entitled Symmetry by a company named "evernone." It is very effective in the way it plays with the split screen imagery. Overall, a really beautiful film that really challenges the emotions and expectations of the viewers.

Haha

Too funny. My friend Shelby had a little too much fun in Photoshop. Apperently I like to give Kaws Companions piggy back rides...

Spontaneous Trip to the City.

To relieve the stress of school and bills, I headed up to San Francisco with a few friends and the pug. There was nothing in particular we went there for, but just needed an excuse to hang out in the city we all love.



While there, I mentioned that I wanted to get some shirts so my friend Shelby took us to The Hundreds store by Union Square. This place looked like the bat cave inside. The lights were dimmed and store appeared to be carved out of the inside of a rock. Props to them on the look and feel of the place. I definitely got the hater vibes from some of the employees because I wasn't decked out in Hundreds gear, but that's what expected in those high end clothing boutiques. I picked out a limited San Francisco Hundreds shirt, and we were off.



Eventually, we wound up on Haight Street again. We grabbed a bite at a place called Cha Cha Cha. The Fried Platanos (bananas) were delicious. Definitely a place I'd love to go back to. We peeked in a few of the other stores and I ended up getting another cool shirt featuring the Star Wars AT-AT walker with a dog cone on. Around 7pm, all the stores started closing so we figured it was a good time to head out.

Before heading home, I took Jenny and Shelby up to a place that looks out over the city. The sun just so happened to be setting so I snapped a few images while there was still some light left. The image below is heavily photoshopped, but the sky was gorgeous.



While walking around trying to find the best angle for the city with my telephoto lens, I noticed my car was looking extremely photogenic. I snapped a few hundred photos or so of my car just hanging out on the side of the road with the wheels turned in. I think a few of them came out pretty cool.









Overall, had a great time with some great people. Hope to go back again soon!

Today, my Pug Turns Two.

Today (April 20th), my pug Coco is two human years old. I'm not sure how long this is in dog years, but I know it's up there.

I got Coco when she was about 3-4 months old, so having her and taking care of her this long is a big deal! I feel like one of those dog weirdos who treats their animal like a human, but my pug has a personality like no dog I've ever seen. She's down to lay around all day or go for a five mile walking adventure around San Francisco. She has a multitude of very unique expressions that always put a smile on my face. She's what I look forward to go home to after a stressful day of work or school. Just the way she waddles her butt and barks to greet me whenever I walk into the room. I love this pug, and today is her birthday.

A Source of Inspiration.

Today, I decided to check my YouTube messages and came across this awesome little note:

"Hey Doug, ive been following your work now for the last few weeks and each one of them are amazing in their own way. I'm only 17 and currently a year 12 student down in Australia which is our final year of schooling and for our media subject we are required to produce a short film due around november and i am currently looking into any ideas i can, i just have to say that your videos have inspired me the most and ive put together a few ideas inspired by segments of your work. I just wanted to say thankyou and if you can give me any tips that would be great, i love the film aspect of media and i wish to pursue it further as an occupation hopefully. My only video on my account was created when i was at the age of 14 from memory my first ever film and sice then have only created 2 more. Thanks a lot and i will let you know when i have finished this piece i will be working on although it will not be ready for a matter of months.

Chris"

I really like what sites like YouTube and Flickr have done. They allow their users to look at different artists' work from all over the world. It's great to know that I can be a source of inspiration to someone thousands of miles away in Australia.

Here's a film Chris made when he was 14 entitled "Real Life Pacman." Great work buddy, keep it up!

Bazooka Lens.

I was a bit hesitant about loaning out a Canon battery to a friend this weekend, but once he said I could borrow his Canon 100-400mm L lens in return, I was sold. Needless to say, I spent a good amount fo time this weekend playing with the new glass.



At 400mm, the background is soft and creamy, giving the image an almost dream-like element. It was a bit tiresome to hold this beast of a lens up, but the trade-off was well worth the sore muscles. My only qualm is that the auto focusing mechanism was a bit slow. This could aslo be the result of my Canon 5D's measly number of AF points. My girlfriend and I took our pug to romp on the beach while I snapped some photos. Because of the slow autofocus, only about 10% of the images were in focus. After awhile, I gave up on the autofocus and just went straight manual. This was a little better, but it was still hard to tell if I was shooting at critical focus. I'm sure with some more training and use with the lens, I'd get the hang of it much quicker. Luckily, I was able to get some really awesome photos that I'm happy to walk away with.

Thanks Eric for letting me shoot on your beast of a lens!

Here are some of my favorite captures from the day, most of which were shot at 400mm.