welcome, beautiful people...

...my name is Derek and thank's for stopping by my new blogsite.  There’s a saying that goes something like "find something you love to do and you'll never have to work a day in your life." Well that “something” for me is photography.  I have admired different forms of atristry ever since I was old enough to appreciate it but it wasn’t until recently that I discovered my passion for photography.  Since then, I haven't put a camera down and my obsession continues to grow every time I step behind the lens.  I’m just one person doing what he loves in life and I hope to bring you along to enjoy the ride.  Feel free to take a look around and leave a comment if you feel compelled to do so or just send an e-mail and say "HI".  I look forward to meeting each and every one of you and hope to hear from you soon!

it’s time to geek out in vegas | project 2010365

Tomorrow I will be boarding a plane to Las Vegas, NV for my first appearance at the Wedding & Portrait Photographers International Annual Convention and Trade Show! I am incredibly excited and can’t wait to learn, network, and meet a bunch of other photography geeks that dig what they do as much as I do. If you’re going to be there, let me know and let’s meet up! I will be M.I.A. from the blog about a week or so but I will most likely be updating my personal Facebook and Fan Page throughout the event as long as my phone doesn’t die… which will most likely happen given that my battery only lasts like 6 hours on a full charge (…on a good day!) and I’m doubting I’ll be in my room long enough to ever charge it, blah!

Also, since last weekend ended February and another month of my Project 2010|365 I will leave you with those images to keep you occupied for the time being.  Please enjoy!

In the word of the Governator… ”I’ll be back!”

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turn up the volume | the kids international

Last week I had the pleasure of photographing a kick-ass band based right here in Fresno, The Kids International.  We got a bunch of awesome images, too many to share, but here’s a few of my favorites… and be sure to check out their music!!

http://www.myspace.com/thekidsinternational

I also want to give a huge thanks to Jeff Starbuck for taggin’ along and helping me out!

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what do you wanna see?

As I come to a close on February’s month of images for Project 2010|365 find myself scheming on new ideas for pictures that I want to capture by the end of the year. I thought to make it even more interesting, fun, and challenging (…as if it’s not challenging enough to REMEMBER to take a new picture EVERY DAY!!), I would incorporate not ONLY my ideas but the ideas of YOU, my clients, friends, family, and fans.

How to participate:

  • Whether you email, call, text, twitter, myspace, facebook, etc… send me a comment, text, private message, wall post, call, email, snail mail, or send a letter delivered by pterodactyl (…which would be totally awesome by the way!), I need your input on what you want me to try and capture and include in the project. Your idea doesn’t even have to make sense, leave it open to interpretation, it can be an object, shape, color, subject, verb, noun, smell, sound, person, emotion, word, punctuation, number, blah blah blah… be as specific or vague as you want, send 1 idea or 100 ideas, whether unrealistic or simple I want to hear what you have to say!

I will then gather all the ideas/suggestions into a spreadsheet with who suggested what and start checking them off the list, one by one, updating you on my successes and failures. What do you think? Sound like fun? What are you thinking of RIGHT NOW? Take 30 seconds and send me what YOU want to see!

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doin’ some shootin’ of a different kind…

Yesterday I headed up to my uncles place in Auberry with my Dad and good friend Sean to do some skeet shooting that was long overdue and the weather held out on us just long enough!  I think between us we shot close to 300 rounds and my shoulder is definately paying for it today with a nice bruise to prove it.  I took my camera along and got a few pics i thought i might share.  Here ya go!

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project 2010365 | 01

At the beginning of the year i began a personal project that i call project 2010365. The numbers standing for the year 2010 and the number of days in the year 365.  What is it?  Well, to sum it up in one sentence; Take at least one picture a day, every day of the year in the year 2010. It could be totally random, a pattern, texture, abstract, event, person, self portrait… whatever it is, it was something that i saw that day that inspired me to add it to the project.  It’s only been a month and it’s already become quite challenging to remember to take a new picture EVERY DAY, much less come up with new and fresh images.

When i first heard about the project i was stoked and couldn’t wait to get started and i’m definately excited to get a finished product at the end of the year!  I have no idea what to expect or exactly what im going to do with the images.  I’m thinking i may produce a coffee table style album that would contain all the images, maybe some sort of collage, maybe a series of prints… i’m not sure quite yet and open to ideas if you have any?!

All of the images within this project throughout the year will be taken with my iPhone using the application Shake It Photo.  I will not enhance or alter the actual photo in any way.   What you see is what you get.  At the end of each month, i will collect all the images, put them in a slideshow format and produce a blog post to share with you all.

That’s it.  Keep an eye out for next months wrap up!

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clear skies and green fields | jaime : latwan

Jaime, Latwan, and I headed just outside of Fresno so get a little fresh air for their engagement pics yesterday and what a wonderful day it turned out to be!  Perfect clear skies thanks to the recent storms and these gorgeous green fields are all around us.  I actually took their pictures a few years ago when i was first starting out and getting into photography.  Now here we are with their wedding coming up this coming October at Holland Park West but until then, these will have to suffice for your enjoyment!

…work it girl!

Possible Tommy Hilfiger ad below… yeah?

…and how about some sunset silhouette to end the day?!

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cirrus, altocumulus, nimbostratus | clouds

The recent set of storms on the west coast last week brought so many awesome clouds with it (…along with the ridiculous amount of rain and snow!), so i thought i might share a few of them here with ya!  All the pics were taken using the ShakeItPhoto app for the iPhone.

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i wish i had a real one | traxxas slash

If you don’t have anything to do this weekend and have some extra cash lying around, go and get yourself one of these to play with!  Michele’s brother in law got one for himself and his son for Christmas and they are incredibly fun to play with.  I, of course, grabbed my camera for a few pics to drool over while i eventually save up to get one.  To the girls out there, sorry this post won’t much apply to you, but to the guys… these are sweeeeeet!!

The video below is a promo for the Traxxas Slash (same truck as above) that goes back and forth between the actual race truck and the RC car.  Check it out!

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high heels are the new snow shoes | talia : ryan

Last weekend Talia, Ryan, and I escaped the blah of the Fresno fog last weekend and headed up to Shaver Lake to grab a few rockin’ engagement pictures.  Last time I was up in Shaver I shot Ty and Tara’s engagement shoot where we ended up on top of the highest peak at Sierra Summit but I wasn’t so sure the truck would make it to the top of the mountain this time of year!  No problemo though and since I try my best not to shoot at the exact same location twice we took a detour on a few side roads to scope out some spots and some awesome spots we found.  All in all a great trip and good times and I can’t wait to shoot their wedding !

Oh yeah and in case you didn’t realize from the title, Talia totally rocked her heels the entire shoot and didn’t complain a bit when i asked her if she was down to trek it through the snow… although i probably got a dirty look or two when my back was turned ;)  my clients kick some major ass for putting up with my crazy ideas, yup!

Luckily traffic was slow that day!

shaver lake engagement picture

fresno engagement picture

The sky and light was absolutely gorgeous.  You think i’m gonna miss an oportunity to capture it… i think not!

Once again, an amazing sky and great colors!

I wasn’t planning on doing this type of image for this shoot but i thought it may look cool with all the trees and such and Talia and Ryan were up for it so we found a nice open spot just outside of Shaver Lake and went for it.  For the technical mumbo jumbo and a little FYI, the picture below is compiled of 39 individual images in post processing, using 1 hand held flash, a tripod and remote trigger, and me running around like a mad man in the dark through the snow aiming the light at everything i thought the camera might pickup.  Lots of work (especially in post), but a lot of fun and definately work it!

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pictures in motion | laura : jason wedding video

You may remember back in October when i posted the wedding pictures of Laura and Jason from Lodi, CA.  Well there is now a kick-ass wedding video to go along with the experience.  Jacob Lewis is the man behind the lens and did an absolutely wonderful job shooting and producing the video.  Take a few minutes to check it out, you’ll be glad you did!

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