Brian at the Waterfall |
I think I'm going to be staying in San Diego longer than six months.
It looks like I might get a two year contract. Paper work, lawyers and all that stuff need to be finalized, so it could all change, but as of this writing, I think it will happen.
Ugh. I have to think about what to do with my house in Austin. If I sell it, it has little to no appreciation. Heck, my realtor says I might have to come up with money in order to sell it. I could try to hold on to it, rent it out, and wait for its value to go up. Dang! Why did I refinance?!
Oh well, spilled milk and all. Gotta move forward. Whatever choices I have ahead, I got lots of good advice. I trust Bill Evan, my realtor, to watch out for me, and make the best deal possible.
But buying a house here in San Diego, that's gonna be awful. The sticker shock! They start at $450,000 and you sure don't get much house for that. Everyone keeps telling me, “Yeah, but Bryan, the quality of life and weather here is the big trade off!”
Whatever. Austin's weather is just perfect for me, and I can make half of what I do there and live 3 times better.
Don't get me wrong. San Diego is awesome. I just don't think one could honestly say paying a million dollars for a thousand square foot house can be justified by “nice climate.” Sure there is the beach and mountains, but there is the hill country and the lakes in Austin…and they ain't so dang cold.
I've been off work for four days, and when I end up at my apartment for that long, I get all crabby and pine for my big 'ole house. So this prolly isn't the best day to be writing about it in my journal.
With all this mind, I really want to make this work. Sure I am dreading going back and selling most of the stuff in my house. No way I can fit 5 bedrooms worth of stuff here, and yikes, who would want to pay to move it all. Time for a Fire Sale!
Seems strange. Four or five years ago I was starting completely over from scratch. I had $200 in the bank and owned my pillow. If you have been following the journal, you know I have been working hard to “acquire” the lifestyle that evaporated back then.
Now I am just dumping most of it. Hmm..funny. It's Just Stuff. Like it was Just Stuff that I left behind before. As they say, “They'll make more!”
It's not a total loss. Just a much needed downsizing, and this time I guess I can make a little money selling a lot of it off.
My friend from San Diego, David, is living there. He is building a new house, and should be done about the time I get the house sold. Hopefully that will be perfect timing.
My roommate Bill is still struggling with finding business in Austin. He has invested heavily in a big media project, and has his life on hold till a yeah or nay comes his way. I think he said if he doesn't know by Christmas, he will just come move here with me.
I DO like living with Bill. He takes care of me. Though, my new job isn't nearly as stressful. I have more free time. I scaled back on my commitments to the website. Doing the journal less often helps a lot, and I definitely cut back on ambitious projects for the site. It's in auto-mode right now.
And if all goes as planned, I will have even more stuff to put in the Bio4ms Gallery. I'm pretty excited by this new opportunity, so hopefully it will happen…maybe by December.
The guys who host my site tell me they have made a lot of progress with the billing problem for the PPV movies. Could be December or January when that gets finalized, though I seem to have lost interest in shooting video for my site. I fear the vids may never see the light of day, especially if I can't find a convenient and safe way for members to pay for them.
So that is where everything stands right now. Up in the air, but with some sort of plan coming together.
White Elephants and Birfaday Socials
I have talked about my assistant at work before. His name is Chris, and he is just a kick to be around. He tends to Know everyone, and always has something going on.
He informed me that his family was doing a White Elephant gift exchange, and that he wanted me to take a picture of him for a coffee mug. We did some studio shots and he got all kooky-like.
I took the base artwork and created “Chris's Infinity Mug”. If you notice, it's him holding a cup, holding a cup, holding a cup. I feel sorry for the family member who get this present!
We also played around with a few other poses, and Chris did this hysterical pose. When we looked at it on the computer, we couldn't stop laughing. It looked like he was tossing/spilling his coffee mug. I really wanted to add a coffee spill to the shot. A couple days later, we brewed up a big pot of coffee, and Chris threw it across a white backdrop. We finally got just the right splash. Ok, so it wasn't an Industrial Light and Magic blue screen effect, but it looks pretty good.
Chris is planning on doing this one as a t-shirt. Everyone in the office wants one. I think it would be funny if we all got one, and all wore them on the same day.
And Chris has been busy the last couple weeks. He was in charge of his buddy's surprise birfaday party. For the theme, they picked an Ice Cream Social.
This is Chris's best friend,Carl. They organized the party.
Carl is a hoot to hang with. He's a saucy witty guy, and we have hung out at several parties I have gone to. We hung out for most of this party. I finally met Jim, his mysterious boyfriend, who is never around. Turns out he is a flight attendant, so travels a lot and misses a lot of the functions.
On the right is the birfaday boy Bryan, and on the left is his equally sexy partner Greg.
I had a great time, and met even more of Chris's extended group of friends. They have a gorgeous house in North Park, and I was missing my home even more.
Mission Trails
My buddy Mike turned me on to Mission Hills trails. Wow! This place is just 10 minutes from my apartment. The trails are a little steep for mountain biking, but the dogs love it.
We went over there twice with the dogs. Mike's dog's name is Sleeper, and her and Kitty! get along great.
Kitty! and her both run off the leash. Sleeper is good at keeping Mike in site, but Kitty! often needs to be called out to stay nearby . She does try to keep me in her view, but she gets distracted easily, and suddenly can't remember what her name is.
She runs around like her tail is on fire. Even after an hour and half of hard climbing and running, she still has energy. I wonder if she is as old as the doctors thought she was?
The best part of Mike taking me to these trails, is we discovered a wee little waterfall! I have been looking around and asking anyone I know if they knew where one was. I was informed that this WAS San Diego after all, and with 7-8 inches of rain a year, I was never going to find a waterfall.
I think I need to use a different term. I think people think giant Hawaii type waterfalls. I need a fall that is about 4-5 high. Nothing crazy big. Otherwise the model gets washed away.
Anyway, Mike showed me an area where the water cascades down a slight drop. I don't think Mike knew what I was talking about when I told him a coupld days later that I had taken some shots of a model there. I sent him a samples picture and he was like, “Where was that at?” On our second visit, I showed him it, and he couldn't believe it was the same location. Sneaky!
Sir Patient Fancy
On Friday night I went to see a play at a Balboa Park theatre. It was called Sir Patient Fancy. Sam and Rich invited me. Sam is the guy that works out in the mornings at the same time. One of the personal trainers, Brian, had a role in the play.
The play was incredibly well acted, but geez, it was loooong. The writer definitely needed an editor. Brian and everyone was amazing. Lots of rapid fire delivery, all done in a quasi-post Shakespeare lingo. Tons of characters too.Very hard to follow who was who, and took a while to get into it.
I was impatient to get out of there. I had gone home at lunch to let Kitty! out, but didn't have time to let her out after work. I went straight to meet everyone for dinner, then to the play. The play ran from 8pm to 11pm….almost 3 hours. I just don't like leaving Kitty! alone for more than 8 hours..and it was getting close to 11 hours. She does fine, but it makes me uncomfortable.
The play just kept going on and on, and I just wanted get home. I was cursing and wishing that I had my house with the dog door. I never had to worry about kitty! and now I am a bad daddy.
The next day I saw Brian at the gym and we talked about the show. Brian has an amazing body and an amazing look. I really wanted to photograph him because of an opportunity that finally has come together.
I got a contract from Village Lighthouse (10Percent.com) this week. I think they are committed to doing a 2006 calendar of my images. Well, I signed the contracts anyway, and they have made the final selection of images.
There are a few I'm not real keen on. The calendar is a non-nude calendar. They have a contract with Falcon Video, so they have plenty of naked guys, and tell me that they want a non-nude one so they can market it to wider audience.
I tend to focus my best shots on nudes, so the clothed shots don't tend to be my favorite or where I put the most effort.
So the contract for the calendar happened, and I was talking to Brian at the gym and I thought, why not ask him to pose for me? I knew he wouldn't do full nudity, being an actor and all, but I didn't need full nakie for this project.
Brian reminds me a lot of Andy. Tons of positive energy and very gregarious. He said yes right away, and we made arrangements to do a shoot this last Saturday.
AND I had a new waterfall to try out!
We met on Saturday and drove over to Mission Trails. The water was very cold, and I had a lot of focus problems (I always do with water…it throws off the autofocus on the camera) But we got 3-4 key shots, though this one above is at the waterfall, you don't really get the sense that you are at a waterfall, I just liked it.
We then came back to my apartment with the makeshift studio I have setup. Geez..it is tacky!
Bill over-nighted me two more light boxes. That was expensive. He could have flown them and hand delivered them for the same price. Still a LOT cheaper then buying two new ones.
With three 1000 watt bulbs going, I tripped a breaker, and was worried I wouldn't be able to get enough light. Grrrr! Fortunately not all the outlets in the apartment are on the same breaker, and I ran an extension cord to one of the light boxes.
I have really been refining my lighting technique and really concentrating on getting it just right.
I love working with Actors too. They change there expression easily and with Brian I got 130 excellent shots.
This one of him in bed is my favorite, and I am hoping they will use it for the calendar.
Though this more artsy one is also pretty cool, though I think the calendar wont have any black and white or sepia version…all color.
Brian was great to work with. I'm not sure what I will do with all these images. He certainly deserves a gallery, but when I post galleries and there is no winkie shots, members get mad. I dunno. I think he is so hot that it wouldn't matter. What do you guys think?
Speaking of hot guys, there have been some hot guys over at Sean Cody.com.
You all should go check em out. Dominic is the latest, and there is some pretty cool stuff in the video.
And something seems familiar…though..I have no idea what it could be. ~wink~
Turkey Day
I did three turkey day meals. I think everyone knew I was not in my element, and I got quite a few invitation. I went to visit the guys from boysinc.com, the guys that host my website. I have been here two months, and I can't believe I am just now meeting up with them.
I visited with them for an hour, but had to get to my next dinner. Actually I only ate at the last one.
My new employers had a small get together, and got a tour of my bosses house.
The good was great and the company was fun. But I had to cut it short, cuz..you guessed it, I had to go let the dog out. ~sigh~
Surprised by Riddick
Pitch Black was an ok movie. Stereotypical monster drama with a few nice twists and some very interesting camera work.
I bought The Chronicles of Riddick on DVD the other day, without having seen it. I own Pitch Black, and I am such a Completist that I figured I should add it to my collection. (but I'm not going to get The Fast and the Furious or XXX..I'm a completist..in the genre sense..not the artist!)
I was blown away by this movie. It was pretty dang good! It has tons of plot, tons of characters, and some real depth to it. There were some cheesy way over the top stunts, but the movie was nicely paced and balanced.
Honestly, I put this up there with Dune, and I guess Blade Runner. You feel like you really are in a different universe, with a completely different set of rules, species, politics, and religion. Took me a while to figure out who was who, and who was dupping who.
Lots of exposition and intrigue too.
So I am embarrassed to say, this is one of my newest favorite movies. ~sigh~
Does anyone think Vin Diesel is gay? I know he has a girlfriend and all, but there was an Extra on the DVD that had him giving a tour of the set, and there was a little sugar in his step. Not that it matters of course, but the guy is HOT despite his monosyllabic lines.
Check it out if you missed it in the theatre. If you like the genre you might be surprised as I was.
Well..that's it.
CYAIN7
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