Not a terrorist! hahaha

I am a Photographer. Not a terrorist.

I am a Photographer. Not a terrorist.

This may be a repeat for my Facebook friends, but the T-Shirt made me laugh so hard and cheer so much that I decided almost instantly to buy it. It’ll be here in a couple weeks :)

Photographers have been receiving increasing pressure from over-zealous security guards and police officers not to take photographs in public places, despite it being perfectly legal. I’ve been confronted by this on just a few, though pretty intimidating occasions and it’s left a mark.

But more than that, I like to joke that I’m a terrorist. Why? Because nothing, and I mean NOTHING, could be further from the truth.

The notion that I’m a terrorist is so far beyond absurd that casting myself as one always gets me a laugh. It also tends to break down the uneasiness many might feel (especially in Utah where there’s not very many of us Arabs) when I tell them I’m from the Middle-East.

Them: “Where are you from?”
Me: “I’m from Lebanon. It’s in the Middle-East”
Them: “Oh… Cool…”
Me: “Don’t worry, I’m not gonna blow you up.”

Laughs all around, followed by great conversation.

In no particular order and for no other reason other than the fact that I can, here are some things I wanna share on the blog.

Ready.

Steady.

Go!

My 8-year-old and I were talking about outer space not too long ago (he seems to have a real fascination for it) and he asked me the following question: “Dad, if there’s no air in space, how come thrusters work to keep the ship on track?”

Uhhh… [Expletive]… I don’t know…

Two months later, when I finally had some time to research it, I discovered the principle of Reaction Mass. It’s basically material expelled by a rocket to provide thrust. What I struggled to understand was HOW that worked. And for that… Just… Just Google it, I’m not gonna make any sense if I try to explain it and I can’t find the link that made the most sense to me. I’m gonna have a hard enough time trying to explain Reaction Mass to an 8-year-old as it is.

Some questions:

Do dentists hate going to the dentist’s too?

If Justin Timberlake sang “I’m Bringing Sexy Back“, doesn’t that mean he still has it and isn’t sharing it with anyone? He didn’t sing “I BROUGHT Sexy Back”. Next time someone gets divorced, go sue Justin Timberlake.

Does a bear really poop in the woods? Isn’t it possible he sometimes poops in a lake? Or in an abandoned vacation home?

And now, some statements:

I had a great 4th of July. Went swimming at the Grand America, then hung out with a friend and her family. Thanks Lexi, for both of those! How was your 4th?

I was playing a game of soccer last night. We needed an “awesome goal” to call it a night. I SCORED THE AWESOME GOAL!!! YEEEESSSSSSSSSS!!!!! I bet someone will break both my legs on tomorrow’s game. Maybe that can be the “awesome injury” that ends the game.

I was at the dentist’s yesterday morning and couldn’t feel the left side of my mouth for almost five hours afterwards. When the feeling finally came back, it really rushed back, and all I could think of was “I can feel my lips!! I need to just grab someone and kiss them!!” I’m glad I didn’t. I’d rather stay out of jail.

This looks like my kinda funny movie: Vampires Suck

This is my kinda music: Zack Hemsey’s “Mind Heist

On a related note (to the music thingy just above), Inception is gonna rock like no other. Thank you Hollywood, for allowing original stories to seep through. Yes, Iron Man 16.3 is great, but it’s nice to have something fresh every now and then.

And speaking of movies. Sin City 2, Machete and Predators. Robert Rodriguez is finally back! Let’s see if he’s still got the chops he used to.

Time to throw in some photography. I had the privilege of sharing a scouting expedition with my good friend Brittany who likes to goof around with her own camera. We headed down to Eureka, a creepy, half-ghost-town with lots of interesting stuff. I’ll have more (hopefully) when my roll of Diana shots are developed. Specifically from the breathtaking view atop the Tintic Standard Reduction Mill.

Blue cat, red bat, black cat, dead cat

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to get some cheesecake with random strangers! Kind of a sharp turn from a dead black cat, I know…

Ok, here’s some of what you’ve missed out on.

Day 293/365

If it weren’t for this shot, I would have forgotten to take anything that day. I thought it interesting that a chair was just out there (iPhone photo)

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Day 294/365

Family shoot.

DISCLAIMER: Both my good friend Heidi and I were shooting with my camera that day. On the same memory card. For those who have been following my blog, her gear was stolen recently, so she needed loaners as she worked to get back on her feet – which she is now; she bought all the new gear she needed! Yay!! Anyway, what this means is that I’m not completely sure these are all my shots. I’m pretty sure most of them are, but I’m not 100%

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Day 295/365

I can’t post pictures of Kenzie’s bridal shoot until after her wedding on December 16th… But I have a good deal of cool stuff to show you when I’m allowed. Put it on my tab!

Day 296/365

Scouting for new locations. Best day of my life.

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Day 297/365

I absolutely LOVE being on movie sets!!

This was from a goofy short film a friend of mine wrote and directed called “Takito: The Quest to Save Rivendork”. It was, believe it or not, a prequel to another short film he wrote and directed called “Takito: The Revenge of Dreyfus”.

Yes, it’s a spoof. It’s a joke film. I mean… “Takito”. We’re alluding to taquitos.

It was a spoof on a largely unknown feature film called Shikito, by Utah Wolf Productions. Now, I’m not one to talk smack about other artists, but these people make some truly, TRULY atrocious films… As if that wasn’t enough, they’ve willfully infringed on an unbelievable number of copyright laws while insisting that you don’t infringe on theirs.

Andrew (the writer/director for Takito) and I found this incredibly funny. Particularly because Utah Wolf Productions seem to take themselves so damn seriously. So Andy decided he wanted to make a short film out of it last year. The original Takito film. I found this to be dangerous, not just because he’s stealing the movie from Utah Wolf Productions, who are stealing things from giant corporations like Sony, who probably stole their ideas from some schmuck in Arkansas, but also because… Well, how do you spoof a film that sucks? Make it suck MORE?… Andy decided to make it more obviously silly (ie. make it a comedy) while making the cool stuff cooler (ie. better production values).

Regardless, it was enormous fun shooting on set. I shot on days 2 and 3. On day 1 I wasn’t available.

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Kim wasn’t an experienced actress. She needed some reassurance.

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Director Andrew James overlooking the work of his DP (Director of Photography)

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Day 298/365

Day 2 for me, day 3 for the production of the film. The last day of the shoot.

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Fight scenes!!

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The ominous bad guy, Dreyfus.

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Look! Kanye West!! “Yo Andrew, I’m really happy for you and I’m-ah let you finish, but STEVEN SPIELBERG IS ONE OF THE BEST DIRECTORS OF ALL TIME!!! ONE OF THE BEST DIRECTORS OF ALL TIME!!!!!!!”

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It was unspeakably cold up there, and the wind didn’t help.

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Day 299/365

My new price sheets! (iPhone photo)

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Day 300/365

Location scouting again

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Nothing new to report, and I’ll be blogging with new images soon, but I just thought of something kinda funny and had to share. Hope you get a good laugh :)

I made some tabouli the other day and messed it up. I must have been distracted, because I forgot that the onion, for some reason, can’t be thrown into the food processor. You have to just tough it out and cry through chopping the onion.

What happens when you throw the onion in the food processor is that no matter how hard you try to fix it afterwards, the whole thing ends up being way too bitter.

Lesson learned! Throw the parsley in the food processor, leave the onion out and chop it up instead.

This concludes another exciting episode of…

DON’T PUT THAT IN THERE! <— FUNNEH!!!

It finally happened… I made a mistake with one of my daily shoots, and although I didn’t forget to take pictures on April 6th, I deleted them from my memory card before yesterday’s shoot (April 7th), thinking I’d already downloaded them…

You’re just going to have to trust that I did take some pictures. I actually took some shots of the head of my acoustic guitar from various angles.

Those pictures are gone forever now.

And that does mean something to me. I have made it a point since I first started taking pictures digitally (summer of 2003) to always back everything up. The great photos, the crap photos; I downloaded them all, and I backed them all up. Always.

So the fact that I have a photo shoot, as small and insignificant as it was, which is gone forever, is just a touch upsetting. But, seeing as it’s not the end of the world either, here’s my (hopefully) funny approach at kinda sorta posting something anyway:

Day 85/365

rip

Ok, onto the normal stuff.

I think the next few days, April 3rd, 4th, 5th and 7th deserve their own posts. I don’t want any one shoot to win out over another one. So I’m going to start where I left off, with…

Day 82/365

Courtney is an actual bride, not a model :) Although I think she does dabble in modeling.

She’s getting married in California, but I was unfortunately booked that day. She insisted that I be responsible for shooting her bridals.

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