Alina & Chris

Xmas Lights 2014: Candy Cane Lane + Trader Joes

Location: Hickory Street (aka Candy Cane Lane), Poway, CA 92064

Friends. Lights. Food. Fun.

Nadia & Joby

Nadia & Joby: behind the scenes

This was one I won’t be forgetting any time soon. It started with a 6:30am direct flight from San Diego to Chicago. An arson fire knocked out a flight tower that knocked out Midway airport in Chicago. No matter, rerouted to go from San Diego – Reno – Chicago and landing later that evening. Would miss the rehearsal dinner but at least get in on time.

By the time I landed in Reno the nation had figured out just how bad this was becoming. The fire had effectively knocked out both airports in Chicago rendering all east-bound flights into Chicago futile. Roughly 2500+ flights would be canceled that day. Unfortunately my time in the air rerouting through Reno also meant the rest of the nation had booked most of the available flights into near by airports (St. Louis, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Urbana all out). The next best thing they could do was fly me back to San Diego and fly me out to Chicago on Sunday, effectively missing the entire wedding on Saturday.

In a frantic 3-4 hours in Reno, I buried away at my laptop looking for another flight and any other option. At one point I realized how crazy this was and my last ditch effort to get on a flight was sidetracked by an epic meltdown of another customer in front of me. I called the bride and informed her the news and wished her the best. I couldn’t image dealing with such a thing a day before getting married…Nadia and Joby had some serious calm.

I remember sitting down and thinking just how fruitless this all seemed. I sat defeated and uttered a prayer. In all the chaos, I had tried everything I could with my own hands. I wasn’t even praying for a miracle, but that the couple would have a glorious day and that the people that really mattered (bridesmaids, photographer, and bride’s family) would make it.

I decided to look one last time and found a flight. Could it be?! United had a criss-cross nation flight…and it would arrive in Chicago at 9am on Saturday. With the wedding at 10am…un-believe-able!

The journey which started at 6:30am Friday, detoured through Reno, would land in SF with a red eye to Philly and land in time for the wedding. I I purchased the last tix and boarded the flight. The next morning I landed in Philly and ended at the gate to Chicago. The gate boarding screen displayed “FLIGHT DELAY 30 MIN”. Cutting it beyond close but still possible.

“FLIGHT DELAY 60 MIN”

“FLIGHT DELAY 90 MIN” my heart sank. 3200 miles later and I would land 30 minutes into the wedding. I couldn’t come this far and have this happen!

The delay ended up ~75 mins and they made up some time in the air. Divine providence would have it that my new flight was with United and having traveled to Singapore a few times last year my silver premiere status finally came in handy as my luggage was one of the first off the plane. My sister’s friend Esther gracious picked me up and got me to the church in a hurry.

As I entered the church I dropped my luggage in a corner and got to work. It was already near the later half of the ceremony and I knew I’d have to make up a ton of footage of the reception to make this worthwhile. Adrenaline carried me through most of the day. At the end of it, I was extremely bummed I had missed key moments in the ceremony. Not that anybody could have done anything, but I still felt for the couple.

As I was unwinding, my mom nudges me and says “hey, look what I captured on my phone”. Now if we can pause right here. This was an asian wedding…and so yes there was invariable an ipad, a few phones sticking in the air taking pics. it’s the bane of every photographer and videographer, but I was so tired at the end of the day I humored my mom.

footage courtesy of Mom and Kam K

I jumped out of my chair. This would be a crowdsourced video! At this point, I have to give a huge shout out to my mom who realized I was going to be late and asked the guy next to her with a camcorder to record a few clips. Between my mom’s footage and a family friend with a camcorder, I had the vows, the rings, and the bride’s entrance! No joke here…my mom’s smart phone is a Nokia 521, that goes for about $65 unlocked. It’s quality should be no where near usable footage but it’s there in the final cut! I still can’t believe it!!

At the end of the day, I could not be any happier how this video turned out. It’s one for the ages for me.

God is so unpredictable.

Swing!

King Of The Swingers (The Swing Ninjas) / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

A few weeks back I was approached by my coworkers J.Wong and R.Patel about a quick shoot that could help promote the swing dance club at work and potentially be used for talent acquisition purposes. Most of the people in the club were in my old group so I thought it’d be fun. Totally blown away when I went to one of their lunch meetings to do some scouting but once the beat dropped they really started doing their thing! It was really impressive!

Concept-wise I went back to an commercial from way back in the day. I remember being in 8th grade when this commercial hit and around this time my core teacher started up a swing club at our middle school. Never was any good at it and I remember more than a few close calls with my arm being bent in different directions. Still, I always loved the vibe and feel of swing so I was looking forward to this.

Here’s some of the test footage for reference. The dancers were all improving and so it was a bit tricky but necessary to get them used to the idea of repeating improved movements since I’d be shooting with a single camera on the day of the shoot. They all went back and brushed up their moves and threw in some new ones!

On the day of shooting, SD was a little warmer than usual, hitting highs of 95*C. Even though we were indoors the heat made the floors a little sticker but everyone was still super excited. It’s super apparent they’re having fun and I’m just there hitting record. Finally, a little color correction warmed the shoot a little. I tried to emulate a little of the eye popping red that is in the music video for Cissie Redwick’s “Gimme that Swing” (link)

Couple more videos coming out soon in quick succession. stay tuned!

Jen & Ivan Tie the Knot

Ping Pong Dojo. 9mm Sig Sauer. 10 frames. Taco party pack. Sugar free red bulls. An open mind and decades-old friends is apparently the recipe for one epic spontaneous last night send off.

Got the groom to the alter. Got them married. Beautiful wedding. All is well that ends well.

San Diego Comic Con 2014

An interesting comic con. A year after missing out because of a trip to Singapore, I was back, thanks again to San Diego’s FM radio 94.1 comic con correspondent Dexter Odani! The layout this year was all kinds of weird and there were definitely a lot more displays outside of the convention than previous years. Companies took huge booths outside the convention center to feature Constantine, Black List, Assassin’s Creed, Game of Thrones, and much more. Inside the convention hall the summer hollywood movie blockbusters no longer held center square and they really separated the games from the comics from the movies this year.

As always the cosplayers came out in full swing, even in pretty hot heat. Super impressed! At the end of the day, I came out of the convention to check out the zombie walk and catch up with some coworkers. Long day but always fun to people watch!

Photobombing the News

photo from Times of San Diego
http://timesofsandiego.com/business/2014/07/15/top-biotech-illumina-plans-major-expansion-city-help/

Press conference at work today announcing our new future building. PR tapped a few of us to represent. Nice break in the middle of the day. Oh and I met San Diego’s mayor Kevin Faulconer.

fun fact: they were very adamant that we turn off all cell phones so nothing would disrupt our CEO or the SD mayor’s press conference speech. in the middle of their speech…BOOM…BOOM. sounds of dropped weights from upstairs weight room. guess no one told them there was a gym above us. that’s us laughing about it in the photo at the top.

Company Shutdown: Intense week!

A recent company employee survey indicated people were struggling with work/life balance, senior management decided the answer was to give everyone a week off and have us spend it recuperating, spending time with families, and gearing up for the second half of the year. Plus with people taking time off for July 4th weekend, there’d be reduced productivity anyways. GREAT idea!

The thought was to take the week easy, do some easy reading and rest. Most of it was really chill, but man there were intense moments. USMNT soccer’s down to the wire world cup game vs Belgium. Watching that at the San Diego Del Mar fair was quite a memorable experience.

Brazil vs. Columbia World Cup Quarterfinals: goooooooooooooooooooool!

Watching Brazil vs. Columbia in a house full of Brazilians is a whole ‘nother thing! Every save and penalty was pandemonium and this was an amazing picture capture by one of K’s uncles. Neymar’s injury at the end really put a damper on the mood but their in the semi’s with a shot at the finals. These people love their seleção brasileira futbol.

Giants vs Padres: This was insane.

Eugene’s wife got him Giant’s tix for father’s day because he’s a bay area nut. They have a 3rd kid on the way and it was a really sweet gift to let him relax his mind before the new one arrives (g’luck E!).

The original seats were great, the lowest I’ve ever been at a baseball game. We went to get garlic fries in the bottom of the 2nd and when we came back a couple was in our seats and it looked like they were talking to their friends. The guy asked us if we’d be willing to switch seats and he pointed to seats a few rows lower. We agreed and he showed us his ticket and they’re row 11…that’s 4 rows from the dugout!!!

It is seriously a whole new experience when you sit so close to the dugout the players can actually hear you. Combine that with an extra innings win for the Giants to stop a long losing and offensive slump and it was FUN!! thanks Eugene!