Hollywood Dog Park

After some chilly weather and gloomy skies, the sun showed its face with an absolutely gorgeous weather right before Christmas, and I took this opportunity to go to one of my favorite spots in Los Angeles. The "unofficial" Hollywood Sign Dog Park. I was first introduced to this place by my cousin and his friends as they were taking their dogs here to play.

I love candid shots when I am shooting around for fun. I love to catch people on their most natural moments... I decided to try the same thing with the canines and try to capture them at play.

While I was there, I took advantage to take a few pics of the Hollywood sign.

- "Where did I put the ball?"

For those of you who celebrate Christmas, I would love to share this lovely picture of the talented Christina Byron Silvoso w'th whom I had the pleasure to work a few years ago.
Merry Christmas!

Razor Holiday Party

Razor Holiday Party

I shot a corporate Holiday party last week and the venue was wisely chosen as the Long Beach Aquarium!  The employees mingled with cocktails on hand before the dinner, which took place under the Blue Whale.  They had the chance to observe many different sea creatures while enjoying the lovely night.  Live music and a Vegas style casino action was also included.

I was fascinated with these spider crabs!  They are huge, they move slowly and every single move of theirs is intimidating!

More creatures for you!

The dinner tables were decorated with beautiful hand-made wreaths using fresh pine foliage.

The menu had a minimal amount of seafood!

The stage was right in front of a beautiful tall aquarium.

At the end of the night, there was a raffle. Everyone who was invited had a chance to win one or all of the first three gifts... The rest of the gifts were for employees only, and it was by drawing of employees names... For the first three gifts raffle, the organizer came up with a brilliant idea: every guest would get casino chips and would play and they would either win or lose, but at the end they would exchange whatever chips they have left for raffle tickets! The casino action was hot!

This original location witnessed a fun night for everyone involved. The executives of Razor and the organizer awarded all of the employees whose names were not drawn during the raffle by giving them a gift card each! Click to learn more about Razor.

A Lazy Winter Blog

Well, calling this lazy is not really fair to this blogger.  I have been busy with work in several areas and although had a few things lined up for this week's blog, I couldn't really pull it off.
However, inspired by the lovely cold weather that hit Los Angeles and the fact that I had to endure that cold very early in the morning several times this week (Wednesday morning it was around 35F), I decided to share with you a blast from the past.
This picture was taken in the winter of 1998 in Asheboro, NC.  A few days before I got married in Asheville, NC.  The landscape of frozen trees is still in front of me and this picture of the tip of a tree branch in front of the house of my Mother-in-Law sums it up pretty clearly.

Next week, Los Angeles goes Metro! Stay tuned! ;o)

This is the new Jaguar

I got an invitation to the presentation of the 2011 Jaguar this past week, thanks to a good friend of mine.  In order to portray the ambiance accurately, I did not use flash during this shoot.

There were several models at display but my favorite was the gorgeous XJL Supercharged. It will be available in Spring 2010.  Now that India's Tata Group owns Jaguar (and Land Rover), they seem to go back to the pre-Ford era in their approach, and forget about making Jaguar an affordable car. The XJL Supercharged starts with an MSRP of US$90,700.00.

Look at this wild cat!

The event, held at the beautiful Milk Studios in Hollywood, was very well organized. Open bar, very helpful and courteous staff and great music until the "presentation" started. After the presentation, there was a nice try of combining a DJ mixing popular "chill" songs with a 12-piece classical orchestra. I say nice try, because it didn't always work. However, the "countdown to presentation" piece was marvelous. I asked the DJ and found out that it was composed by a German DJ/Producer Ralf Neumann aka White Zone. There are many links on that page linked to his name for you to download his beautiful minimal techno music.

I think spending this kind of money on a car is ridiculous. But, sitting in this monster that has a V-8 engine with 510hp, I observed the interior to be large, stylish and very comfortable. I closed all the doors, rolled up the windows, the sound isolation is great. The other cool thing about this event was the fact that they broadcasted the music playing in the event inside the cars. Jaguar is proud to partner with Bowers & Wilkins, which equipped this luxurious car with a 1200W, 20-speaker sound system...

I turned on the radio... Oh! Heaven! This is really the "fastest concert hall in the world"! The sound system in the car is incredible.

Apparently the car caught the attention of the superstar Jay-Z too, as he was allowed to use one of 6 of these cars and he painted on it! There was a sneak peek of Jay-Z's video for "On to the Next One" and you can catch it in January.

The following 5 pictures are of Jag XKR.

And I bid you farewell this week as I said hello, with the eye of the monster.

Thank you as usual for the support! Any comments on this page, via Facebook, twitter or email are always appreciated.
Peace!

Cement, Glass & Steel

Sometimes, when you lift your head an look up, you may see everything differently. I am sure you've been there, it's like changing your perspective or angle, literally or figuratively.... That feeling is interesting. I was out to shoot on Thanksgiving morning... And, the light of the morning sun, the beautiful Los Angeles weather, the music on my car's stereo.... For some reason, it inspired me to take these pictures....

I am thankful for life, for being able to make a living doing what I love to do.... I am thankful for my entire family. I am thankful for my lovely wife...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Don't go nuts on the Black Friday!