It has been way to long since I have signed in here for a post. For those of you who don’t know, this year I took part in the Sawdust Festival summer show for the first time and this past Sunday was our closing night. The Sawdust was quite and experience…. 66 days straight from 10am to 10pm, granted I was not there for every opening hour of the show but I tried my best to be there a lot and in the end I would say I saw about 85% of the open hours of that show. The entire experience was something else, exciting, encouraging, draining (both mentally and physically) and also quite expensive to get the entire thing up and running. (Who know credit card terminals would set you back so much?)

You think to yourself, it can’t really be that hard to sit in a booth and sell some photos… come on now? Contrary to popular belief though it really takes a lot out of you, you are not only selling your artwork but also selling yourself. People want to buy something that is beautiful for their homes but also want to by a piece of the artist. That’s why it’s wonderful to hear praise but also extremely difficult to not take things personally when someone critiques your work (mostly to your face and often with a hint of cynicism) . Most of the time it’s all positive and I thank everyone who came out to support me and even bought a print this summer… Thanks! It was a huge learning curve and I really look forward to bringing some new things to the table this winter and even more so at next summer’s show.

I’m also grateful for a number of the friendships that I formed while spending my entire life at the Sawdust this summer…. there are definitely a few characters floating around the grounds.

Here is a picture of Stacey, Jesse and I hanging out at the dust

In the business world there has also been some other exciting happenings. I found out a few days ago that my image was used for the cover shot of this months issue of Laguna Beach magazine. They were doing a special issue on local beaches and my shot of Main Beach was used for the main spread. Below are the images from the magazine along with a wave shot of mine and also another image from a Sunset at Aliso Creek Beach last fall.

In addition to that, I was contacted by the Orange County Tourism Bureau to use some of my shots for their summer ad campaign that ran across the country. Below is is a sample of the rack cards that were on display all over the country… the surfer image on the right and the coast shot on the left are mine.

For the September sunset I decided that it was time to go back to my roots… it has been a couple of months since I put a sunset shot up for the Wallpaper, so here you go. This was taken at Sleepy Hollows in Laguna Beach with my new Canon 5d Mark II that I got a few weeks ago. Still trying to get the hang of it but super excited about it’s video capabilities, so check back here soon for some video work that I have been putting together.

Remember to click on the image below and then right click to save it as your desktop.

Finally, I want to thank all of my family, friends and special friends who came to visit me from far off lands for this summer. It was a wonderful time filled with smiles, music, good times and the occasional glass of spirits to be shared with loves ones. Thank you!!!

Funking out to these two albums right now… can’t get enough. Sawdust is winding down and I will give this blog a jump start in a big way in early September!

Well, Sawdust in now in full swing. We have surpassed the half way point and the days are flying right by…. I fund myself in a bit of a Groundhogs day feeling, waking up and needing a few moments to remember what the actual day of the week is. I have also found myself daydreaming lately of a far off beach with nobody on it, so I thought for the August wallpaper we should all take a little trip to nice tropical beach in Thailand with no one around. Cocktail anyone?

Sorry for the extreme slow down in my posts for the last few weeks. Sawdust is in full swing and if you are yet to come on down hurry up and do so, we are quickly approaching the half way mark! It’s crazy to think that I moved down to Laguna Beach 2 years ago for the sole purpose of getting into the Sawdust Festival. Now, not only am I in it, I’m enjoying it and the days are flying by. Make sure to come on down, we’re open daily from 10 am to 10pm.

That being said… the marine layer returned today and it was thick again. We had one of the worst Junes and starts to July that I can remember… backed into an extreme heat wave and not the cold has returned again. This thing has got to start burning off soon because I am getting sick of these gray days.

Below is a little shot from the Laguna Beach Independent and a photo that I took of the firework show here in Laguna Beach, Enjoy

I came home today to find a package from the beautiful country of the Philippines… and in it??? The latest issue of Metro Home & Entertaining from Manila of course! In it there is an article about the guys over at Tao Philippines and a journalist who recently took a trip with them and wrote a nice article about it. The guys at Tao contacted me and asked if I would submit my images for use in the article and I was more than happy to oblige.

If anyone is planning a trip to Asia in the near future, I would go out there and say that this is a journey that you are really missing out on if you don’t take. There are not many things out there that anymore that are quite as authentic as this trip. Spear fishing for lunch, island hopping to exotic uninhabited islands and chilling on… in my opinion, the worlds most beautiful beaches. Get over there!

Here is the article

I’m running a little experiment for this months wallpaper. I am wondering, do any of you actually you the calendar on the wallpaper ? Or does everyone just use it as a new background every month? If there is an outcry from the people about me leaving the calendar off of this month’s image than I will gladly put it back on…but if I don’t hear anything than this might be the new trend.

Thoughts? The floor is now open.

*Remember to click on the image first and then save it as your background*

Last Tuesday night was the opening night party for the Sawdust Festival. I have been to a few of the opening night parties in the past but this was my first go as an exhibitor and it was an experience. People come out looking to party and that is exactly what they do, for about 2 hours you can hardly even move out of your booth. I didn’t see it this year but in the past I have witnessed a few people so sauced they were actually laying in the Sawdust trying to swim…. which they were having a tough time doing. ha

Anyways, thanks so much to my friends and family who came out to the opening, we all had a blast and I am looking forward to my first full summer here at the Sawdust. I have the final booth shots on my other computer, so I am going to post a few shots from the opening night below. Enjoy


My first sale of the summer

I am thrilled to announce that my image of The Namgyal Tsemo Gompa in Leh has been published as the cover image for this months issue of Unearthing Asia. In addition to that, this was also the first time I had a travel article published along with my photography. I wrote an article about my adventure through Ladakh on motorbike which was featured in a 10 page spread in the magazine.

For those of you who are wondering what exactly Unearthing Asia is:
“The Unearthing Asia magazine is a beautifully crafted 120 pages of travel tidbits covering all kinds of content – Lifestyle, Culture and Attractions, all over the region of Asia. First launched in December 2009, the quarterly magazine is distributed in major bookstores all over Singapore, Malaysia, and major cities in Indonesia – Jakarta, Bali, Surabaya, Yogyakarta, Bandung, and more.”

This was my first adventure down the path of travel writing and I can tell you that it is far more challenging than I first thought. I thought I would simply sit down and drop some Hemingwayesque piece of literature and be off to the races with my new career in writing… I was sadly mistaken. I hope to hear what some of you think about the piece and whether or not I should simply just stick with the photos! ha

Here are the screen shots of the images and you can also read the entire magazine online at this link: Unearthing Asia Online

If any of the images are cut off and you can’t read the article, then just click on the picture and the full size will show…enjoy!