Los Angeles: One Hour in Melrose

This past weekend I had the opportunity to network and meet some great folks.  It was a hectic schedule.  It was jampacked with meetings and networking and providing my client with some event coverage.  It was really a crazy time.  In the middle of it all, I visited the folks over at Izzi as they partnered up with the new Instagram (as a platform, not as the company) curated magazine. 

The cool part about meeting those cats organizing all of it, is that they gave a lot of respect to "We Are Juxt."  They told me that it was because of that collective that they learned the ropes.  They watched us with our hashtag campaigns, showcases, stories, photowalks...they watched and learned and more importantly, built on it to keep it relevant to an age group/demographic that normally doesn't work with the Grryo collective.

Again it was real nice to know that they saw in us what they would like to do.  They saw the direction we took and focused on it.  

Either way, I had some free time and decided I was going to walk Melrose until I had to be back into meetings and networking.  My latest page has been updated with some of the photos I took during that time.

Hip Hop you don't stop!

Melrose - Los Angeles - November 2014

Melrose Rat Rods!

Melrose - Los Angeles - November 2014

World Champion Cheerleader: @jacquelineablao

Meet Jackie Ablao!

I recently had the opportunity to take some portraits of an awesome woman in Seattle.  She's a dancer first and secondly she's a cheerleader for the Seattle Seahawks.  My fellow creative - awesome photographer and videographer - Rod Habon, came along and joined in on the fun.

Jackie is a true professional as I provided little to no direction during the shoot.  Rod and I would get set up and once the grey card got handed over to us, she was ready to go.  It was clockwork and even though we ran out of time, Jackie was up for more.

I had a couple lenses in mind for this shoot but stuck with the Fuji 56mm f/1.2 (85mm eq) Non-APD.  It worked great. It was responsive and fast. There were a couple times where it lagged a bit.  So as far as a rating on the focus speed, it was about a 4.5/5.  All the images I shot were between f/1.8-1.2, with the bulk of the images shot wide open. The lens is sharp and the bokeh was awesome - both 5/5. As a portrait shooter, this is my favorite glass in my bag.  So do I get the APD version or not? Fuji-heads, thoughts?

Next assignment with Jackie: urban lifestyle/ fashion work? You game, lady?

Big thanks to Jackie and Rod for the opportunity and look forward to the next shoot!

You can see some of my favorite shots by hitting "latest" at the top!

Rebel Souljahz - Jazz Bones, Tacoma

I absolutely love island reggae.  Seriously.  Although it was an attempt to interview the band (hard to wrangle individuals in a band I guess), it ended well with just being able to watch the guys perform from the stage vantage point.  These brothas sure know how to rock a crowd. Big up Souljaz Massive.

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Azteca Boxing Club - Renton, WA

Big thanks to the folks over at Azteca Boxing Club.  They were open to my interviewing some of their young star boxers for an article I am writing.  It was really inspiring to watch the kids train.  A lot of them were really proud of the work that they were doing and they all were disciplined enough to self-train with minimal amount of work from the number of adult trainers around.  They were all very proud of their gym and took great pride in their gym nestled in old town Renton.  Look out for my article featuring some of these kids.

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