Here are the entries for the annual gingerbread competition

Only a couple days left before the OC fair leaves town.  You’re missing out on chocolate covered bacon, deep fried butter, deep fried oreos/twinkies/hamburgers, and so much more!

domo arigato mr roboto

Re-blogged from my brother’s link:

Click here to see the video

No matter how old you get, you’re never too old for fireworks

For anyone who has ever been interested in photography, the key to any great photo is made up of several elements–of which the most important is light.  Lighting can make or break your picture….it means everything.  For instance, if you shoot in the mid-afternoon, the strong light creates harsh shadows on your subjects and has the effect of making colors dull and less true-to-life.  If you shoot too late in the day (sunset, etc.), the subject gets lost in the background, noise and pixels become a problem, and details are lost.  Perfect lighting conditions therefore are hard to come by, but exist when cloudy days arrive (the clouds act as a natural diffuser and softens the light), using natural reflectors (buildings/mirrors/reflectors that help bounce light onto your subject), and in my case–slot canyons–where focused beams of light gently light surrounding canyons and rocks like glowing cryptonite.  Light means everything, and the slot canyons are a perfect photogenic spot not only because of the light, but also because of the details found within the caves created from years of wind and water chipping away at the rock.

Mama light beams

So much detail…

Light beams and sand beams

Cool spirals

Baby light beams

Just awesome light and cave details

Random openings

Beam us up, Scottie!

And more rocks!

So my brother and I had been planning a trip to see the slot canyons in Arizona for quite some time now, but it’s never really worked out.  There’s always been an excuse: “we’ll go next time” or “it’s so far” or “we don’t really have the money or time” or “I like using my own bathroom for #2′s”.  Well…we finally ran out of excuses and went.  Since my brother is leaving for Texas to complete his residency this week, we decided (and by “we”, I mean “I”) it would be nice to have some bonding together before he left .  He’ll be missed, but at least we had some time to catch up, hang out, and have some fun on the road.

Peter thinks he’s as good a photographer as I am…

Maybe he’s right…

Lake Powell and the Horseshoe Bend

Watching the sunset over Lake Powell….we weren’t alone

Sunset over Arizona

We’re brothers….Identical twins, as you can see….

I’m on top of the world!

We drove about 500 miles in one day…stopping only at In n Out to eat in Las Vegas. I know it’s not the norm, but there was no gambling or debauchery at all in Vegas..we were actually pretty excited to get to the canyons, so we drove as fast as we could, edging ourselves along the interstate and passing up big rigs (sometimes with more of a close-call than anticipated), but we made it in one piece. Some stats from the trip: Highest temp was recorded at 106 degrees. Number of stops per day: 2 (one to sleep and one for gas). Number of states we hit in one day: 3.  Highest recorded mph: 65 (of course we didn’t break the speed limit).

Since this was sort of our man trip, we ended up taking shelter at a Super 8 Motel for one of the nights (luxurious…I know), ate some subway (fine dining at its best), and got only the best gas from reputable stations such as “farrelgas” and “super gas”.  It doesn’t matter what we did, what we got, or how long it took, we got there, and it definitely was worth it.  Here’s just a glimpse of what we got to see:

Jesus Rays….pretty awesome stuff

So I’m taking a break from posting Italy pictures and taking a quick detour into the realm of local art.  (To be honest, it actually doesn’t stray too far away from the art found in Italy, since there’s such a profound interest in street art in Italy too), but whether you call it graffiti or art, I think it’s safe to say that these people are talented.  For the next month or so, you can catch local and international street artists and their works at the MOCA in Los Angeles.  I went a couple of weeks ago and it was definitely interesting.  Here’s a peek:

Security camera footage of a pinata getting a beat down by Banksy

Various Artists – Banksy, Space Invader, and others

Thomas getting violated by banksy

Local graffiti/art from LA