Welcome to the Sky

21/04/2008

I’ve wanted to go skydiving for a long time, out of the blue I told Yohana, “Let’s go Skydiving on Friday!” She agreed. That weekend I had Fri-Mon off so the idea couldn’t of come at a better time.

About twenty minutes into the research phase of looking for a possible sky dive facility I found Skydive Perris (No I’m not getting paid if you click on their link. Although, that would be nice… cough cough…☺). They were my top choice just because of their track record, professional looking company, and they are one of three schools in the United States to adhere to a drug-testing program for instructors, pilots, and mechanics! Interesting isn’t it? Only three schools in the United States, WOW!

Anywhooo! We arrived, checked in, did all the paperwork and legal matters, and got video taped saying that we understood what we signed and todays date…haha sounds intense but stuff happens right?

After all of that, we were waiting in their little lounge area watching the previous skydivers maneuver into safe landings. They called our names! We were next! AAAAH!

We went into a storage-like room with suits and someone came up to me and said, “Welcome to Skydive Perris, my name is J.C. I’m your instructor”. He handed me a suit, after suiting up and strapping into the skydive gear, J.C. started giving me special instructions and took me into a cut out plane to show how we would exit since we were both above 6′ 1″ in height :P

As we were walking towards the loading zone we saw the plane arriving and getting ready to drop us off at thirteen thousand feet. At this point, I already had a permanent smile on my face. I wasn’t scared, I was just excited and wanted to jump!

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Backpacking the Grand Canyon 2007

14/04/2008

This Grand Canyon trip we took was in September 2007. This is an old blog but it’s definatively worth posting. For Official park information visit the Grand Canyon National Park Page. For tips on my experience with the Trekking Grand Canyon click here.

The master plan was to take the South Kaibab trail approx. 7.1 miles to the Bright Campground stay there for a night and then hike out via the Bright Angel trail approx. 9.5 miles.

Overall it doesn’t seem like a bad hike… We showed up without permits at the lodge a few hours before they opened. When someone finally got there, we threw our packs on the scale, mine was 45 lbs. + my camera bag… Yohana’s was roughly 35 lbs.

So we got a permit, the rangers were giving us tips about the terrain, flash floods, mountain lions, etc… They were very surprised we were valiantly taking the challenge when temperatures reached 107 F degrees. We thought about that and that is why we decided to make it a night hike…

Since we got there with plenty of time to spare, we drove down to see the challenge. As I stood there, staring down into the Grand Canyon, it hadn’t hit me yet… It didn’t hit me that I would be trekking all the way down there… I used the 70-300mm and I could spot tiny people and mules carrying stuff…

Here’s the view…

Click to view large version..

(photo by Alvaro)

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Greetings From Thailand!

4/04/2008

Sawas Dee !

Greetings from Thailand!!!

Greetings! Still in Thailand, I’m now in Bangkok. After 10 days in the northern part’s like Chaing Mae, Chaing Rae, Lampang etc… We have arrived in the capital of thailand and oh man! It’s wayyy busy…

We are staying at a 5 star Hotel called the “Magestic Grande”…pretty snazzy for our last nights in Bangkok

On our way to Bangkok we stopped by the Monkey Temple at Lopburi, looks pretty cool…
Monkeys were literally all over the city, in the temple, outside the temple, on the lightpoles EVERYWHERE!

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Shame on Carson Arco

26/03/2008

Not exactly travel photography, or web design related, but this is my blog and i have the right to exercise my rights…

Well, i live near the biggest polluter in the south bay…and who is that? well they make tons of money.

Here's a hint…they sell gas for $4.00 a gallon!!

DING DING DING!!! The gas company….To be more speficic…The Arco Gas refinery in Carson. For some reason when it's foggy there seems to be alot of "Fog" coming from that area…hmmmmm weird….

 Anywhoo, i'm sick of it and today they were making alot of noise and i heard this loud flame and well see for yourself…is this legal? Who knows… it stinks…

 

I do my part not to make these people any richer than they already are…

Feel free to leave a comment expressing your emotions to the community polluters…

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Havasu Falls Trip 2008 Part 2

9/03/2008

If you have not read part 1 , Check it out here…

Firstly let me say that these pictures don’t do justice. You HAVE to see Havasu Falls with your own eyes, It’s not only a beutiful place, but its a fun 10 mile hike :)

On Another note, i do have prints available for the waterfall photos or any photos posted on my site just contact me :)

It’s so hard selecting what images to show of the waterfalls because they are all great! :P you can multiply what’s here by 5 and that’s how many more photos i have :)

Oh, and sorry about the watermakrs ;)

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Canon IP4200 Continous Ink System

30/01/2008

I've been asked a few times if i print my own photos. I used to, but it got more and more expensive over time. There's  whole conspiracy about cheap printers and expensive inks but that's another blog..

I own a Canon IP4200 that i bough from craigslist for 25 bucks. Ran out of ink and purchased a countinuous ink system for about $50 bucks.

There is many Ink system brands out there i think any will work as long as you have quality ink. Prior to buying this i did some reasearch and couldnt find too many videos in english! So i decided to show the boring printing process…(I'm not a chipmunk, i sped up the video to shorten it :)

This method of printing at home produces great quality prints, by all means NON Profesional or lab quiality but sometimes you want to test stuff or you just want privacy…

 

 

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Crossroads Boxing Poster

22/01/2008

I had the pleasure of working with Eddie Gonzalez of Crossroads Boxing and some photography as well as some design to promote the new event. We are printing out 18" x 24" posters which i had to shoot the fighters and the band to use on the poster. Finally i got to do both of my passions graphic design and photoraphy…

Here's the poster…

Crossroads Boxing Poster The New Generation

www.crossroadsboxing.com

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Fake Tilt Shift

9/01/2008

Well, last week i was stomped! Spent all weekend with glue and paint, i finally finished my model of downtown LA :P

Just kidding!

Really cool tutorial from Christopher phin’s Receding Hairline blog

Downtown LA miniature fake photo

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1984 interactive featured!

7/01/2008

Proud to announce my web design portfolio / blog has been featured on csstux, light on dark.com and a few others…

Whoo hooo!

Featured on www.csstux.com

screenshot of my web design portfolio featured on csstux.com

 

Also Featured on www.lightondark.com

screenshot of my web design portfolio featured on lightondark.com

 

Other sites my web design portfolio is featured on:
www.dailyslurp.com
http://www.cssclip.com/

http://csszoo.com/

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Death Valley National Park Trip 2007

29/12/2007

So this past weekend 2 brave souls and I decided to take a trip to Death Valley NP. I was living in my tent for 4 days :P…

I was told that it was going to be FREEEEZIIIINNNG!!! When we arrived it was pretty cold, I’d say mid low 30’s. Wasn’t too bad actually, I expected it to be colder. After setting up my tent i started taking photos of the floor like a weirdo that i am by other peoples standards…and oh man! I feel in love with the textures all around the ground… Tree textures by the tent.. Tree texture by my tent in Death Valley NP

Tree texture by my tent in Death Valley NP

Photo taken by: Alvaro G.

After snooping around the campsite we went over to the Borax Mines pretty nice there too! Wagon in Borax Mines… Wagon at Borax Mine In Death Valley NP

More awesome Death Valley ground Textures…

Cracked ground in Death Valley NP

To my surprise Death Valley receives nearly 2 inches of rain per year! Death Valley NP dry ground

Death Valley NP dry ground

Death Valley NP dry ground

The sky was also amazing i was able to grab snap a few photos and i stitched them together…
Borax Mine Death Valley NP Panorama

Borax Mine Panorama High Res…

After all that we headed over to…

Sand Dunes Death Valley NP

YUP! The dunes in Death valley are awesome, they seem small, but wow the feeling you get once your there is indescribable… Death Valley NP Sand Dunes

Death Valley NP Sand Dunes

Death Valley NP Sand Dunes

There was spots in between the dunes where it was solid material like this… Death Valley Dunes

Alvaro decided to walk as far as he could so i could snap a photo and show how big this place was… He found a good spot…sat down…and i snapped the photo!…

Alvaro big dune

Doesn’t look too big does it?… I took that photo at 300mm with a 1.6x crop camera…making my focal lenght 480mm!! I don’t know the exact distance but thats very very far! heres the same shot at 70mm..

death valley Dunes national landmark /><br /> At this point my exitement level has skyrocketed and i look at my battery and i say...

Artist Pallete

View Artist Palette Panorama High Res

The last image before my battery died at Devils Golf Course! Devils Golf Course Death Valley NP Overall it was a good trip, we plan on going back for a better photo experience :)

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