Don't just sit there...

What a comfy little existence most of us Americans live in where we can at a whim, pop something in the microwave whenever we have the urge to eat or spend all day in front of the television mindlessly taking in the many various interpretations of the current events, yet what matters the most in my opinion is the simple act of actually doing something about the many ills that plaque this World.

Just last evening, my buddy brought over some food from Taco Bell and there are 2 tacos left that will not be eaten. The shells are now soggy and besides, I already had a bowl of cereal for breakfast and I got to thinking about the children starving in my native country of the Philippines that struggle daily to even eat a bowl of rice for the day. I suppose I felt ashamed and so decided to write about it and also research the organizations that I can trust in giving donations to so I can do my small part in helping.

Here is one of the links one can go to if one feels inclined to assist in whatever way possible whether it be a small donation or in passing around the information to those that can.

http://helpkalibo.com/2008/07/02/helpless-starving-and-dying-filipinos-in-kalibo/.html

Also during this Thanksgiving, one might consider volunteering at a homeless shelter for women and children. I personally have always felt inclined to visit an orphanage in Mexico during the holidays and hope that a good number of my friends will join me in that endeavor this year.

In addition, besides donating money and or time by visiting, one can also help mentor and or tutor disadvantaged children in their community. The link below is an example of such a program in the Los Angeles area.

http://www.volunteermatch.org/search/opp220898.jsp

Yet there are many resources out there in determining how one can help those that are in need. I know I know, there continues to be that sentiment that some of these people put themselves in this situation by the decisions they made in life and at one point in time, I suppose I even felt cynical in the concept of helping those that in my opinion created the very predicament that they are in and if they were foolish enough to have children, they are not mine so why should I care.

The simple answer is that as disappointed I am at times in the shallowness and materialism exhibited by the American culture, I can not forget the opportunities and education this country has afforded me and so I feel obliged to help not only those that are suffering here but to those in need in my native land as well.

See the link below for a list of homeless shelters in your area and see what part you can play in assisting in some small way.

http://www.artistshelpingchildren.org/shelters.html

The CaliOptix Project

This summer, among the other various projects I was pretty overwhelmed with, I tired to incorporate all the needs of a few people that needed my help. One of the folks who worked with me at another job had gotten fired and so since one of my friends Donna who owned a eyewear boutique in San Marcos needed some added exposure, we embarked on a project to see if we could do just that.

The name of the shop is CaliOptix and the place offered very reasonable prices on high end sunglasses/ eyewear as well as various services that others did not. Donna had been in this line of work for quite sometime and so decided to open a shop of her own. I asked my friend Nikki along with J. Treez to model some of the eyewear and the many ideas we had for the photos as an inside the store slideshow to show off the various brand names and styles was a good start. In addition, these photos would be posted on the website and it would have eventually expanded to include a few other models with scenes at the Oceanside Pier and CSUSM.

Here are some photos from inside the boutique and many people seemed to really like the way they came out...













Unfortunately, there were many more issues at her shop than what I came to expect and or fully understand. Donna ended up selling the place after only having been open for 11 months and I just happened upon the situation towards the end of that period. Wish I could have came upon the scene a little earlier since I believe there were plenty of potential and opportunities yet I do thank her for the opportunity to gain some invaluable experience in putting a photoshoot together especially from a marketing perspective.

Extreme Autofest and Imagine Media

What a good time I have been having assisting in taking video footages and photos for various groups in substantiating my photojournalistic endeavors. I know I still have so much to learn yet being in this type of environment is very exciting especially when you get to meet a few celebrities here and there.

In covering the Extreme Autofest Events, just to see the enthusiasm alone in those who put so much time, effort, and investment in their automobiles as well as the folks that come to appreciate all that work can be pretty infectious. Most of these cars although differing in style are just absolutely gorgeous.

























At the Autofest in Anaheim on August 10th that I had the privilege to cover, along with again experiencing the excitement that crowd brought with them and seeing the beautiful works of art in the automobiles present...











I got to meet and be on stage with the Game and LL Cool J. That was a really big "WOW" for me although I acted pretty down to Earth and nonchalant about the whole deal. One just has so much adrenaline going through the veins that it all just becomes part of the whole scene as if I had always belonged in this type of environment.





Which maybe I do, hehehe, but I got to send a shout to Emil and Ed of Imagine Media for just letting me do this thing ya know. Much love to ya and all that you do. They put so much work into these productions and I am always glad to help out in any way I can.

110th Filipino Independence

This event happened on June 7, 2008 at the Mira Mesa Community Park. This was a joint event put together by the Council of Philippine American Organizations of San Diego County, the Aguinaldo Foundation and Mabuhay Alliance.

Along the parade route, I took this nice picture of Rita Buencamino-Andrews, President of COPAO, with one of the Philippine Faire Beauties.



This was a very well attended event with numerous organizations participating in and around the county. Students from various schools took part in showing their pride and solidarity as well as engaging in their civic duties in helping to uplift and be involved in their community.









Darrel Issa was on hand to pay respect to the many Filipino-American World War II heroes and that really made me feel pretty good since many of our brothers, fathers, and grandfathers had served in that war and seemed to have been forgotten.



Here are a few other pictures of the event and as I mentioned, many representatives were on hand from various Filipino-American groups that I know I am neglecting in mentioning so please everyone forgive me for seemingly lacking in depth on this blog.













I just was unsure what my full capacity was at the time and had only considered volunteering in order to share my pictures and footages in the hopes that they could be used on websites and or organizational literature. I thank those that have shown their appreciation in that regard and since I have finally decided to try and establish a multi-media entity of my own, I will be more prepared in the near future to get all the information possible on the participants of future events.

Just to wrap up June's Events

Boy, just too much material to work through and it didn't help that I basically had lost a bit of will to just get things done. I suppose there are those out there that know what I am talking about.

So, my friends and I have been canvassing the county for some suitable peaks to climb. We have climbed Mount Bernardo a few times, the view is magnificent and I did have a decent panorama from an old camera but I can't seem to locate the file which doesn't bode well for my organizational skills maybe? Not! It was pretty early in on my photographic forays like 4 years ago and I have re-formatted my laptop at least 5 times since then and so it was inevitable that I would lose a picture or 2. Shouldn't happen again and I should have updated pictures of the view from Mount Bernardo soon and from my new Canon EOS 40D which is just an awesome camera.

Battle Mountain is located just across Lake Hodges from Mount Bernardo towards the southeast. In the picture, Mount Bernardo is just slightly behind me to my right.



Here it is without us out of the way, notice the evidence of last year's fire on the branches of some of the shrubs.



We climbed Battle Mountain on the morning of Father's Day before the gig at the Oceanside Amphitheatre. The plan is to film some sequences from here and then climb Mount Bernardo to do the same and basically get like a unique multi angular perspective looking across one peak to another so stay tuned for that ongoing project.

After the climb, we went to Oceanside for the Old School Father's Day concert at the Amphitheatre. Since my friend John and his crew were part of the sound crew, I got a really behind the scene access to the event. That's him to your left passionately throwing up his hood, just joking, he is a really cool guy and I thank him and his friends for hooking it up for me.



Unfortunately I couldn't stay long since I had to meet up my family for Father's Day dinner but I did get to meet and hang out with Lenny Williams formerly of Tower of Power. This guy is a legend and many hip hop artists sample is work to this day. He even gave his direct contact number and we have been talking here and there on some possible future projects next year. Those type of endeavors take a lot of hard work though so we will wait and see what happens.



Here are some pictures of the event. Notice the playa's in the house just kicking it old school style. I have a video of Lenny's soundcheck as well which should be viewed in high quality. I wish I could have stayed for the whole event when they got all decked out and really pimped out the whole show. For those that don't know, anytime there is a word in red in my post, it is a link like to a video, website, etc.











The day ended with a Father's Day dinner at Black and Blue at Valley View, pretty fancy but I am not up on all that although company like family is always good. Since it was close to my birthday, someone decided to kick in a fancy little cake? or whatever it was. Very indulgent, thanks mom and whoever helped ya with this particular surprise. It was most definitely the finest and fanciest kind of cake I have ever had.





Yet still, I am not big on splurging and or casinos but I am looking forward to hopefully covering some of the concerts and bands that are performing there in the near future if I am not all booked up especially since I hopefully will be meeting up with LL Cool J and The Game at the Anaheim Autofest in August.