Photos
Photo Shoot: Light
Apr 16th
Here’s another nude set I shot with Monique. You’ll quickly notice that I went a little bit further with these than the “Shadows” set with her. Well, I’ve got to get comfortable with my foray into shooting nudes. Slowly ;)
These were shot last October, right after our night at the Playboy Mansion Halloween Party. Monique’s outfit was a Diamond in The Rough, which makes an appearance in some of these. Monique and I love this set of photos, and both feel like they should be shared.
I love that “Shadows” set with her, but this “Light” set are some of my favorite photos I’ve ever shot (and I’ve got quite a lot of photos out there now). Both sets are good counterpoints to each other.
Shooting in bright light instead of the dark makes shooting nudes, well a lot more nude. I intentionally let the grain remain for the edge I wanted, and to differentiate these shots from shooting porn (which I have no interest in ever shooting). No disrespect to porn, but I’m trying to do something a little more thoughtful and compelling. A major difference is that most porn embraces the social stigma that nudity and sex is dirty, taking that baton and running with it into far raunchier territory. I’d just rather ignore that stigma entirely and focus on capturing the most beautiful and most captivating photos I can. I’m growing with my photography hobby. Though it seems it’s now clashing with my experience in dealing with difficult aspects of our culture.
I’ve experienced some awful behavior from a world so consumed with insanely twisted thoughts regarding the sin of sex. This isn’t the moment for an articulate argument about it. These pictures are my protest. If you could look at something beautiful and publicly denounce it as dirty, does that make you a better person? Does disavowing that which is attractive and hot demonstrate your virtue? Then you can go ahead, give it a try…
Photo Shoot: Shadows
Nov 21st
This is my first time shooting nudes. It’s funny that Monique pushed me to be edgier than I intended to be. This girl is braver in front of the camera than I was behind it. She knew I’d only capture something tasteful, so I guess she wasn’t worried. So much respect for that.
I’m in love with these photos. I was considering keeping them private, but we’re both proud of them, and both agreed they should be shared.
My idea was to create images from some foggy shadowy surreal dream on the verge of disappearing that you’re struggling not to wake up from. I wanted to capture that in a way that was hot as hell and sensual, yet beautiful, edgy, and human.
I’m not pretending to be a professional. I don’t have professional equipment. This is clearly not a professional environment, which is obvious because my cat’s litter box is in many of the shots. And there was no way I was able to keep my damn stubborn cat from walking through some of these, no matter how many times I moved her away. I used my pocketable Sony NEX cranked to the max ISO sensitivity, which did remarkably well in virtually no light, creating the rawer grainier look I wanted.
Hope you like these ;)
Photos: Libertarian National Convention – May 2012
Oct 23rd
It’s October in an election year, so you know what that means.
It’s Politics Time!
Embrace it my friends, don’t fight it. It’s good for us once in a while to think about what the fuck the government is doing with our money. Yeah, thinking about this stuff can get aggravating very fast, there’s certainly no shortage of negative energy in the realm of politics. So I actively try to mix in some positive energy into an often very negative world. One of my tools is my camera, which has become pretty much biologically attached to my arm for the last 2 years:
My Sony NEX.
This was my first time at the Libertarian Party National Convention, and I WAS SHOCKED!! Imagine what would happen if a car company fired all its salesmen and stuck all the car engineers in a room and said “You’ve all helped engineer a truly exceptional car, now we want you guys to work together and agree on this year’s comprehensive marketing and sales strategy for the company within 3 days.” Yeah that’s what the Libertarian Party National Convention was like. All out brutal warfare! Nastier because it’s nerd warfare, and they sharpen their arguments to hit as hard as possible, with no account for the damage and fallout.
Continue Reading >>
Movie Review: Atlas Shrugged Part 2 – A Big Middle Finger to Hollywood
Oct 17th
What if you were staring at Jesus as he is lifted onto his cross? Suffering and bleeding as the spikes go in, but he doesn’t turn the other cheek, he doesn’t ask God to forgive you because you know not what you’re doing. Instead Jesus spits blood in your face, gives you the finger, and smiles. Here’s the blood you wanted, now go fuck yourself and die you ignorant fools.
Unfortunately none of our ancestors ever wrote the Bible sequel “Jesus Strikes Back!”. Fortunately we have Ayn Rand and Atlas Shrugged.
Hollywood has come out with some worthy revenge flicks, like The Crow and Payback and some others that focus on retribution for a few violent thugs. It takes a lot of balls to create a revenge film that delivers retribution to pretty much all of society. You know, there’s a lot of shock jocks and non conformists out there trying to get a rise out of people. Silly amateurs. It is rare to see to see a movie that culminates into such an aggressive and cleverly well orchestrated middle finger. Atlas Shrugged Part 2 is that middle finger. Those greedy businessmen, how many times are they villains in Hollywood films? Well, in Atlas Shrugged Part 2 it’s the back room business deals that flagrantly violate the law that generate the fondest moments of empathy. It is the affair with a married man that is exalted, and the unloved wife who is the bitch.
Can this movie leave us anything holy without disgracing it? No.
The virtue in the concept of the public good? Fucking smashed!
Money is the root of all evil, right? I don’t think so!
Love your brother, I mean your actual biological brother? Pffft
Government must do something to help us in a time of crisis? HAHAHAHAHA
When money ceases to be the tool by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of other men. – Francisco d’Anconia in Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
So yeah, I enjoy the attitude of this film. It holds true to Ayn Rand and her vision for the novel. It’s refreshing to see something so bold and intelligent. These are times of extreme political correctness, honesty is very offensive. This movie shows little concern for that. That’s cool :)
About the quality of the movie… Part 2 is a HUGE improvement over Part 1 in many ways. First off, this doesn’t feel like a TV movie anymore, Part 2 is FAR more cinematic and feels more like a studio film. The cinematography, the sets, the action sequences, much better. Being the middle finger in the face of Hollywood that this film is… Continue Reading >>
Photos: Hong Kong – February 2012
Oct 5th
To know me is to know that I’ve had a Sony NEX camera attached to my arm for the past 2 years. I get a million messages a day asking for photos, and I’ve come to realize I’ll simply never be able to physically get to all of them, I have many 10s of Thousands of photos waiting to be sorted through, individually edited, and organized into Facebook albums. Cranking out 2 facebook albums a week isn’t going to cut it, there’s too many. But I will definitely get around to the good stuff. I watermark each photo with HustleBear.com because I have absolutely no intention to ever make a professional career out of photography and figured I might as well bring eyeballs to my blog. I’m not a professional photographer, I’m a hobbyist, but I’m heartened to see so much enthusiasm from so many people over the photos. 
It’s insane, but I have over 1000 (!) Facebook profile photos out there among my friends. That’s pretty fucking cool man. Whenever I log in I see mostly my photos in my friends list. To date I’ve got 819 email notifications that someone used my shot as their profile pic, and much of the time I’m not notified, and never when it’s a cover photo. So yeah, that helps make it feel like a worthwhile hobby. Since the pics are watermarked to this site, and with all the activity my Facebook albums have been generating, people often ask me why I’m not posting these photos up on my blog.
I don’t have a good answer. It’s a good point.
So here you go, I’m going to start posting some of my favorite sets of photos more regularly. I’ll start with my Hong Kong trip earlier this year. I was there for only about 3 days, but it’s an interesting story. Continue Reading >>
Memories from Freedom Fest 2012
Aug 15th
[Photo Album at the end of article]
This is the most epic set of photos I’ve ever taken, not because they are my best shots, but because I’ve never captured so many living giants in one photo album. Just about every person in every photo in this album below has had significant impact, or clearly will have some significant impact, with many people in our culture. These are the incredibles. And I was struggling like hell to try to capture some human element from them. Which is challenging because they are often so guarded, and usually when they see some guy with a camera they tell him to fuck off. So like the bastard that I am, I made it my task to find a crack in their armor and capture that human moment. Not some awkward defensive goofball reaction, but something true and authentic.
Here you go my friends, if you’re a fan of anyone in this album, you can see that the legend is a human, like you. Reach out, pull up, join them.
[more info and MANY PHOTOS after the break]
I organized an event for Peter Schiff at my house, some difficulties ensue… (with Photos and Video!)
Nov 16th
Whoa man, my house has been packed before, but never like this! Last week I held a cocktail party with a short talk from Peter Schiff. About 300 people came over, and most of them piled in my living room all at once to see Peter speak. It was so tight that the photographer actually had a hard time lifting his arms to take pictures. I was honestly terrified by the sheer number of people I knew would show up that I’ll somehow fit in one room; but hey, we made it work! And it was a great time!
Everyone looked amazing. Check out all the pictures below:
(Many more photos below at the end of this article)
As many of you know, I’m a massive fan of Peter Schiff, he’s had a significant impact on my economic understanding, and I watch all of his videos that get posted online. I even named him “Man of the Year” in a previous article. To say the least, I was extremely excited to have him over to speak at my house. I know I was warned a thousand times by many people that he can be difficult to deal with. Still, I was surprised that for a moment even I was pissed with the guy.
Continue Reading >>
Photo Shoots: Ashley, Stefanie, Kristin
May 6th
Everyone’s got hobbies. Some follow sports. Some play video games. Lately mine is photography.
I’m not a photographer. I’m humble here because I have no formal knowledge of the craft at all. It’s just a hobby for fun. I don’t charge anyone, and I don’t intend to. It’s more like I’ve got a toy that I play with a lot and I’m getting better with it. I don’t even know what an F-stop is. I know my photoshop skills are still a bit amateur (I just discovered layers). I do know how to frame a decent shot and snap it. Last year I got a compact SLR (I’ll review later it on this blog) and I’ve been taking it with me everywhere. Now I’m taking more pictures than a Japanese school girl. I love how it’s going so far, and as I get better with photography I’m enjoying it more.
We live the moments of our lives, and then those moments are gone, forever. I’m happy when I can capture one of those moments in a striking and dramatic way. And I’m eternally grateful to the rapidly evolving technology that allows me to do that more easily.
I’ve been getting some good reaction to my photos, and since this blog is my way of sharing, from time to time I’ll start sharing a bit of my latest hobby with you. I’ve already shared a ton of pics from my recent Burning Man trip. Today I’ll share some shots of one of my favorite subjects to shoot, cute girls :)
I don’t know if I can call these “photo shoots” since I was just walking around with a camera in my hand with no setup and often terrible natural lighting. Especially because I’ve never even been to a real photo shoot and have no idea what it’s really like. But anyway yeah, fuck all that, here’s some pics from 2 “shoots” I did. Let me know what you think :)
[Full Gallery after the break]
My First Burning Man Experience – 2010
Sep 11th
The world has come to an end.
Civilization as we know it is over. And all 50,000 survivors came out to the desert to celebrate with the biggest party the human species has ever seen. That’s what Burning Man feels like. The rules and social norms you’ve lived with all your life don’t apply in this city. Black Rock City. The most amazing city on the planet that exists for only one week each year and then disappears without trace. Leaving 200 square miles of endless dust blowing over dry earth in the extreme weather without any sign of life. Nothing lives on the playa, not even spiders or scorpions or ants. Until next year…
[photo gallery and videos below after the break]
