Advertising: Figge Cellars

A few months ago, I did some advertising photos of wine bottles for Figge Cellars.

If you visit their website, I shot the opening photo of the table setting with a bottle.

It was a good experience and we did some shots of wine bottles outside and they turned out pretty neat.

Hopefully this is the beginning of much more advertising photography to come.

~ nic

Dance: A Tribute to Kalisa Moore

A few weeks ago, the "Queen of Cannery Row," Kalisa Moore, passed away.

She was a good friend and icon in the belly dance community and friends and family hosted a tribute night at the Paperwing Theatre in Monterey last week.

I love shooting dance and there will be some more soon, so stay tuned...

~ nic

Travel: Hawk's Shadow, Big Sur

I took a nice opportunity to visit the ridge-top property of my "serial" artist friend Ed Leeper.

He called the place Hawk's Shadow. It's located up a windy, dirt road off of Palo Colorado Canyon Rd. near Highway 1 near Rocky Point Restaurant. I know the canyon well, because it also houses the Boy Scout camp I worked at for 10 summers.

Ed spent a lot of time at Hawk's Shadow working on projects and being "off the grid." It's a fantastic spot that I'll be revisiting when I can.

The main building is this great cabin straight out of a beat novel.

There was some great light coming through the window in one of the other cabins, so I took a self-portrait.

All around the cabin were these great details showing a person's history.

Including a lot of weird, random stuff in the yard, but that's Ed Leeper for you.

The road up to his place was a bit gnarly, so I parked safely below and walked about 50 yards up, but next time I'll drive as I found a good place to turn around further up.

This was the view from where I parked. The cabin is up to the left.

I shot a lot of film as well and will post some when I get it back from the lab.

~ nic

Travel: South Monterey County

I traveled south with my friend Aaron today.

We went as far as San Lucas, which is an interesting town.

They even have a library!

I saw a man riding his horse into the sun, so I snapped a few photos. It's interesting to see how small town folks use their time and how they live off the grid.

We ate dinner at El Huarache King in King City. It's this great, local Mexican restaurant we have been to before and has become a bit of a cult location for us.

We ate their delicious signature dish (below). It's a big meal.

I need to get down there more and shoot a lot more photos.

~ nic

Archive: Color Film

These photos are from my film archives, from a roll of Fuji Reala 160. I shot them on my (missed) manual focus Minolta XG-1, probably with a 50 f/1.4.

I loved that camera, because I got it on eBay for like $50 to sort-of replace an old Minolta XG-M of my dad's that was stolen from my car. That was one nice camera...

~ nic

Zombies!

Can we say "dream assignment?" I think so.

I shot the annual zombie walk through downtown Monterey yesterday afternoon.

Good turnout and great makeup and effects.











~ nic

Adventure: Live Music at Fernwood.

I wandered down to Big Sur with some good friends last night and shot some photos.

As I've lamented before, shooting bands is kind of for the birds. It's kind of unspoken that you don't put them in portfolios, but as I always try, I brought my cameras in hopes of making different pictures. So I did.

I also had a bag full of film, of which I shot none...

~ nic

ABS Climbing Competition.

Yesterday afternoon I wandered into Sand City to Sanctuary Rock Gym where they hosted the annual ABS Bouldering Competition.

I climb myself and love shooting it, because it's a different sport. It's simple, yet intense.

~ nic

Kerouac's Big Sur

This week's cover story was about a new documentary about Beat writer Jack Kerouac in Big Sur.

The story even got featured on AltWeeklies.com.

The cover photo and inside art brought me down to the same areas in Big Sur where Kerouac wrote his famous novel at fellow beat Lawrence Ferlhinghetti's cabin (below).

The article's writer, Stuart Thornton, and I took the beaten path near Bixby Bridge (seen from below in the first image) to find the hidden cabin.

It was a really cool find. I packed a handful of lenses and my trusty D700 in a small bag and wandered away.

There were all these great little details about the house, like the hand-painted signs and tub in the yard.

~ nic

Time-Lapse.

Here's a sample time-lapse video I shot this afternoon while drinking an Americano at Acme Coffee Roasting Co. in Seaside.



This was the first time I've played with it. I gotta get the timing down a bit better. This was at 1 frame every 5 seconds. I plan to do a few this weekend, so more to come...

~ nic