April 25th Pic!

Internet problems! can't update blog for 3-4 days....will take pic's though and load them by end of week...stay tuned! - Thanks!

 "Slide Rule 2.0"

OK! Blog Officially back up and running on May 3rd! Thanks to my Internet properly working again. I'm back from the dark ages ruled by slide rules and men going to the moon. 

All pic's were in fact taken on the date listed in the title..no days skipped! As you may have noticed my crutch is macro photography when I can't think of anything else...this trend will only heighten when I start my Marathon training and get a Macro lens! 

April 24th Pic!

"Pig"

I went to the Dollar Store today to pick up some props for a pic I wanted to do, didn't find anything I liked but saw this really fat pig on a wooden base. I carried it around for 15mins before I decided..."ehh it's just a dollar". I just liked the way it looked...now it sits on my computer desk!

April 23rd pic!

"Hotels Only"

Got myself a new Monopoly game today! It's a vintage Monopoly set, not any of the new crap!...they have new Monopoly games now that use credit cards, inflated property prices etc etc! I prefer my Monopoly 1930's style...wood, metal, and Paper! and when I pass go I only want $200.

This vintage series game, which comes in a cheap wooden box btw can be bought at Target for $19.99, or on Amazon for $39.99, a rare instance where Amazon has lost the price war to a Brick and Mortar store. I also bought UNO...it's officially back to 6th grade in my house!

April 22nd pic!

"Howl"

What better pic to commemorate Earth day than a pic of Joshua Tree Nat'l Park sticker on my Prius! Maybe a pic of a flower? That's against my blog rules, a Tree? That's too cliche...who doesn't like to look at a Prius anyway!? Ever since I've put this sticker on my car, it's been called the "Hippie Mobile" by SOME people. 

Next time you're driving around in your less than 55mpg cars, don't feel bad I'm driving slow enough for all of you! :)

April 21st Pic!

"Gossip"

My Aunt asked for a pic that illustrated "Gossip" for her website...so I recruited Eva, a National Geographic magazine and went to work! Hopefully we look like a couple of gossipers!

This was taken outside of Crush restaurant @ Biltmore...their Duck/Goat Cheese/Fig pizza was amazing...next up Pizzeria Bianco, hopefully they're not all hype!

April 20th Pic!

"Amare"

An Eva contribution...although in her defense, I threw the camera at her and told her to take a pic for my blog! 

We were leaving the Diamondbacks game and I'd realized that I hadn't done my picadai yet, so I gave the camera to Eva and told her to shoot some pics that told a story out of my car window. The pic is of Amare Stoudamire a Power Forward for the Suns.

April 19th Pic!

"Taking in the Light"

As I was driving around looking for a story to tell with my Pic today I saw the light reflect on this farm near my house...it was took cool to pass up. So here's the story, it get's sunny in Phoenix, but the sky is clear and the farms look amazing. NY Times bestseller! ...ok maybe not but I work with what I'm given...I'll get a better story pic tomorrow, going to D-Backs vs St. Louis Cards.

April 18th Pic!

"To tell a story"

Sunday was the National Geographic Seminar on Travel story telling with Pic's....after spending 6 hours learning about how to tell compelling visual stories using pic's I took the gem above. It shows a group of people practicing their Segway riding skills SD while Eva looks back...I have a version where Eva isn't looking at the Camera but this was more interesting in my opinion. 

The pic conveys a story about California and the west coast culture....we're dorks, and we love new toys that supposedly enhance our experiences. Nothing is better than Asians riding Segway's to drive (no pun) home the point! 

"Infinite MPG"

As a Prius driver I can appreciate the utility of a Bike! I just prefer to get where I'm going in comfort while processed air cools me down. This pic doesn't really tell a story other than "This photographer saw a bike and took a pic of it!...awesome" but if I had to tell a story with each one of my pic's my blog would be called picaweek or worse...picamonth, and my readers would be sad.

April 17th Pic!

"Lifeguard on Duty"

Second day in SD...this was Mission Beach. The place was busy but not as crowded as the beaches in LA, Hermosa Beach is a zoo compared to Mission Beach.

"Danger!"

Eva was adamant about going on the Roller Coaster in Mission beach...after finally getting there (the traffic was crazy, 20 min drive took us an hr! I didn't even get lost). I hadn't been on a roller coaster in a while, after having grown up across the street from an amusement park they aren't as fun. The old wooden coaster in Mission was a blast though! ...the traffic to get there was not fun ;)

"Ocean is"

"Message Board"

The two pics are from the same source, the bottom pic must be some sort of a mailbox of some sort, or a non-electronic (manual?) message board for the lifeguards. I liked the word "Deep" on it...I don't know why. 

"Puddles"

"Fiery Crash"

Sunset at La Jolla (Hoya) cove...it was amazing.

April 16th Pic!

"Fountains with Mom"

On the second day in San Diego, we went to Balboa Park, a lot of cool things in Balboa like flower exhibits...since I have a rule that I won't put up flower pics on the blog I wont bore you with the amazing flower pic's I took. The pic above is Mom and daughter watching the fountains.

"Fountains with Dad"

The kid in the pic fell pretty hard in the water...it was funny, you had to be there, his Diaper was soaked! 

"Jazz man"

"Coronado Sunset"

That's a National Geographic shot yo! 

"Segways ok?"

A funny sign located in Coronado island...I like the pics.

April 15th Pic!

"Splat"

- Off to San Diego...big update on Monday for dates 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th!! Thanks for checking :)

 Updated: This pic was taken in Yuma, about half way to San Diego. The drive wasn't too bad till we hit the mountains in San Diego, the fog (clouds?) at 1000ft elevation were really thick and visibility was piss poor! Eva and I managed (barley) to not kill each other while maneuvering this thick fog. The bugs all over my car however were not so lucky...in the bug community I'm Stalin...I ordered the geno....err pesticide.

April 14th Pic!

"Ribbons"

These are the ribbons used to tie down fat suitcases. Next time at the airport go hang out by the international terminal...you'll see these bad boyz all over the place. If you're real lucky you'll even see Indians (dot) carrying around cardboard boxes stuffed to the top tied if ribbons or string, it's a sight to see! 

I'm just an over packer...for a 2 day trip I'll take 10 clothes and 4 shoes and 3 computers and 10 cameras...you get the idea....so Ribbons are vital!

April 13th pic!

 

"Tennis?"

Went to play Tennis with Chris after watching LOST! ...can't remember the score, we couldn't finish because the lights went out at 11pm! 

This shot was taken with the camera on the ground and me laying flat behind it, the problem was the camera kept focusing on the background and not the ball...so I had to use the flash along with 20 sec exposure to get a reasonable pic without too much light.

April 12th pic!

"Nine 4 Five"

Found this building number While walking outside the Gregio, I forgot to bring my tri-pod so I was out of luck if I tried to take a pic of the lake or a guy riding his uni-cycle (really). So in absence of my tri-pod this sign will have to do...I like the lens shift effect, I figured since I can't hold the camera steady enough for a legit non-blurry shot I'll have to do something creative...Eva showed me this cool trick :) she read it in a book which I bought but was too lazy to read...camera manuals are so blah even for a dork like me! 

San Diego in 3 days! National Geographic Seminar on Travel Photography...which should hopefully mean that there will be better pic's from my travels on this blog...actually it all depends on how good of a note taker/listener Eva is, I'll most likely be distracted by the drapes or the pattern on the carpet. 

April 11th Pic!

"Backyard"

There's this lady that sells pic's of flowers from her backyard for $800+ online...the Pic's look just like the one above (ok maybe a little closer because she uses a Macro lens). If you'd like to buy my pic, I'll only charge $149.99...but wait! buy today and I'll sell it for a low low price of $99.99. 

If you decide you're not in the mood to pay for pic's of random flowers in my backyard, I guess you can simply print the pic free of charge...just know you're robbing from me :( 

April 10th Pic!

"Jerry's"

Probably the brightest sign in all of Tempe...lazy picadai weekend :( San Diego this coming weekend...I promise some excellent pic's (or at least Eva's) along with some fun adventures.

"Slow Fountain"

Last of Pete's pics from Napa! I like the detail in the droplets.

April 9th Pic!

"Loose Change"

I'm too damn lazy to roll up all this change for the bank...oh well I guess I'll just take it to those coin star machines. 

Those machines are genius...10-20% cut for counting your change, whoever invented those pretty much mints money!

 "Hangin out"

Pete's pic from Napa!...nice.

March 8th Pic!

"Ran"

Ran 6.5 miles today...felt amazing to run outdoors after running on the treadmills for so damn long! 

Goal: 1/2 Marathon in September! ...not sure if I want to put my body through training for another full marathon!

Above was the medal I got for finishing a Tucson Marathon back in 08' it's by far one of the coolest finisher medals I've gotten...best I've seen was the Surf City Marathon (Long Beach, CA)...that will be Jan 2011, it's a surfboard medal! 

"Rock Shrooms"

Part of the Pete's trip to Napa series...such a cool pic, I wonder how the rocks balance that way!?

April 7th Pic!

"Prettier on the Inside"

Trust me, it tastes a lot better than it looks! Lean Turkey Sausage, Tomato, Onion, Jalapeno, Lime juice, and a cabinet full of spices. All over Jasmine Rice :) Lean Protein + Carbs + Hot Hot Spices = Win!

If that wasn't appetizing enough here is Pete's pic for today! 

"Just plain sweet"

His pic's from Napa, looks like dessert, Creme bule (creme blu le?) on the left and a bowl of some chocolate thing with a scoop of Vanilla ice cream on top. Nice! 

When Eva and I went to Joshua Tree we went to a restaurant called Bistro 29 (Highly Recommended), the dinner I ordered was really late because they did not have what I requested so they had to go get it, in the meantime they gave us a bunch of free food...including Creme Blue Lei (I'm just not going to Google it out of principle!), it was excellent!

That better make-up for my dinner pic! ...Trust me it tastes great! It really does. really.

April 6th Pic!

"Against the Odds"

Why is it that the tomato often finds its self in the losing end of most of these battles, is it the soft skin, the delicious red innards? Who knows but the Organic Vine Tomato above decided, to the hell with that and took out poppa Onion! 

Hopefully the toxins for the sharpie will be gone once I cook it long enough! The tomato was a last minute addition, the original idea was to have the knife and the onion cut in half with the crying onion in the background and the caption "Cooking massacre", but the Tomato was just sitting there and I couldn't resist. 

"Ketchup"

A guest submit by Pete, another pic from the Napa album. Ketchup is what the poppa tomato told the baby tomato when he was falling behind.

April 5th Pic!

"Eva approved 3-1"

What can I say even dark guys like me don't have melanin in our lips...I need my SPF 15 sunscreen chapstick. 

I hate chapstick! I hardly ever lose anything, not my sunglasses, not my keys, not even my pens! Chapstick on the other hand I can't seem to keep for more than 2mins without losing it. To conquer this problem I created a system that is expensive to implement but cost effective in the long term. 

I bought 12 sticks of Chapstick from Costco, I leave one next to my bed counter, one on my computer desk, one on the counter in the living room and 2 at my office desk, if I lived in a colder climate I'd have a few in my car also. The system works this way...If I don't ever carry a chapstick...I won't lose it! ...I happened to find 2 sticks from a few months back that I thought I lost, so I'm 14 chapsticks deep! 

I did not do break-even cost analysis (buying 12 sticks vs. buying one each time I lost one) because I've never held on to a single stick of chapstick long enough to know how long they last...that query belongs with the other age old question, how many licks till the center of a tootsie pop!?...The world will never know :(

This week I'm giving a shout out to Pete, he took some jaw dropping pic's at Napa. It seems everyone is going Wine tasting these days! (Note to self: remind Eva to take awesome pics at Sedona)

"Glass Half Full"

Ok one Pete pic at a time...I picked out 5 others to last me till Sat. Thanks for the awesome pics buddy!

...I need to step my game up!

April 4th Pic!

"Through the Goggles"

There's always something cool about a blurry pic that's composed well. A contribution by Jenny (Eva's cousin) and Katie. Pic was taken on our way home from the Bar (Drift, Scottsdale), needless to say no one in the backseat was reading the camera manual ;)

"The Photographers"

They actually took some non-blurry pic's of themselves but I like this one because it stays with the out of focus theme in today's post. Plus If they ever commit a crime I'd submit this pic for the Wanted poster...I figure it'll give them a few more days to run since people wont recognize their non-blurry faces.

"Peace!"

Eva kept reminding me how she'll kill me if I get a DUI. At one point during our drive home a cop car pulled up directly behind us....based on the smile on Eva's face, this pic was taken prior to that.

"Soft Focus"

To sum up our out of focus adventure...I was told to turn around for a pic and this was the result :) 

Thanks for the cool pic's Jenny and Katie!

P.S. The pic's were taken way past mid-night so technically speaking they're April 4th's Picadai (s)...Happy Easter!

April 3rd Pic!

"Evolved"

Its been a while but an Eva contribution above...from the Desert Botanical Gardens in AZ. When we went to Joshua Tree we had hoped to find a plethora of flora and fauna but not much luck since it didn't rain at the right time! Eva was lucky enough to find flora and fauna in AZ instead. At Picadai we prefer local shit! 

"Slapped"

I have a rule of no flowers on my blog, when Eva asked which pic's I wanted today I chose the two you see...no flowers! I put one up a while ago but that was an exception to the rule. Eva was excited about all the flowers she saw the garden too...but the rules are rules. A contribution by Eva.

April 2nd Pic!

"Streetwise"

@ First Friday, I set my camera on a tripod close to the street level at 5 sec exposure....hence Streetwise. Since First Friday is also an arts festival Streetwise is a shout out to a Jazz Musician on Cali who did a cool jazz album based on Dr. Dre's greatest hits! Streetwise does Dre.

It was a few years ago in a Circuit City (remember those?) during black Friday at some ungodly hour (5am?) I was standing in line with my sister when I head some familiar music. I thought to myself, "who the hell plays Dr. Dre in a family friendly retail chain?" no wonder these losers where going out of business! but the more I listened the classier it got...because it was Jazz! with Dr. Dre! Genius! I ran out of the line (on a black friday!) to check out this awesomeness, after a few sec's of looking I got the last CD on the shelf!....this also happens to be the last time I bought a CD.

After giving it a few listens the initial excitement wore off and I wished I'd just gotten the original Chronic by Dr. Dre...I mean why settle for a Substitute!?

April 1st Pic!

"with Goat Cheese"

Dinner was an Eva contribution, pic was mine :) 

Pita with Goat Cheese, Caramelized Onions, and Grape Tomatoes with Lentil Soup (not pictured). 

The pic makes me a bit uneasy, it's not focused right, each time I look at it I want to see the plate that farther away but thanks to my poor framing the bottom plate is in better focus. I don't know it looks like a pic that would be in some food magazine.