Monthly Archives: April 2014

“Luke, I am your father.”

“Luke, I am your father.” I always wanted to say that. While this has nothing to do with Star Wars, it does have to do with someone named Luke, Luke Steele, and his band The Sleepy Jackson (Sorry. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to use the quote). But, back to The Sleepy Jackson. Sadly, I only saw them perform twice. The first time I saw them was a fluke. I went to a show to watch Tom Morello and came out being blown away by them. I remember them being funky, energetic, fun, and incredibly talented. Discovering them that day, is still one of my favorite concert memories. Their show was so good that I had to buy their CD, “Lovers,” right away and came to absolutely love it.

The second time I saw them was at the Troubadour. Again, they were awesome. I had just purchased a Digital Rebel (an upgrade from my point and shoot camera) and I snuck it in. I didn’t have any fancylenses, but their light show was phenomenal and those pictures are stilll some of my favorites. While I was shooting them, I remember I was trying to make my camera “bend”. Many times when I’m photographing, I’m just going through the motions, but I know I have something special when I feel the same way I felt that day. It’s as if I can make my camera bend to my will and produce something that captures both what I’m feeling and seeing. The goal always is to chase that same feeling. When I manage to catch it, it’s a great day.

Side note: I don’t usually listen to Electronic music, so I have no clue what’s new or who’s who. The other day, while trying to find hashtags for some of my pictures, I discovered that Luke is in Empire of the Sun. It’s no surprise. The dude is seriously talented. Luke, I am your fan.

 

My Journey with Camp Freddy

IMG_8539 copy

Taken at the HOB show I snuck into in 2005

I lost count how many times I saw them. They were one of my favorite addictions. I always said the Camp Freddy experience was like a straight shot of Rock ‘n’ Roll to the veins. My journey with Camp Freddy went from fan girl, to fangirl with a camera, to fangirl with a camera who took really good pictures, to photographer who shouldn’t have smoked some of B-Real’s joint, to “where’s WendyBird?”.  The first private show that I saw them in, I snuck in. It was at the HOB and we literally just opened the door from the restaurant and made our way in. It was afreaking awesome show. I remember fearing that someone was going to catch on, and we were going to be thrown out. But that never happened (side note: one of my pictures from that show taken with a point-and-shoot camera made its way to rollingstone.com). But I digress.  After that, as I got better at my craft, I didn’t have to sneak in any more. Still, those butterflies (actually more like fireworks) in my stomach never left. In my head, I was still that chubby Mexican girl from the SGV who snuck her way in through the restaurant door. Eventually, I let all my fears and insecurities get the best of me, and I removed myself from the scene and thus stopped doing what I was born to do. I will forever regret that. What I didn’t realize back then was that even if I didn’t feel like I belonged, and even if I felt like all the other photographers had more of a right to be there, my contribution was just as valuable, and that I was, via my documentation of it, part of the experience. I didn’t need that shot of Rock ‘n’ Roll because my veins already oozed it. Ha! Maybe I’m going a little too far there, but you get the point. So now that Camp Freddy is over, if I get the chance to be part of the Royal Machines experience, I’m going to pack a ton of Tums and show the world my world, one kickass foto at a time. Here are a few Camp Freddy shots. I’ll post more in the Gallery section of my site tomorrow. Sweet dreams world. XoXo

PS. The moral of the story (besides that Camp Freddy was a freaking kick ass experience) is that there are many people in the world who are going to bring you down, you don’t need to be one of them (this advice was given to me and I’m finally getting it).