I guess it’s safe to say that I’ve been extremely spoiled the last couple of seasons so even with the weak forecasts, it’s hard to get too disappointed. Here is a video of one of the sickest trips from last season to help get everyone stoked for this season even if we aren’t going to see major pow.
My first couple of days were last weekend. I recorded a little video of us riding some groomers so I’ll hopefully try to get an edit together.
It only took 5 months before I was able to get back on a snowboard and hit up Mammoth Mountain on opening weekend this November and as crazy as it is, it is only January and I already have half as many days ridden as I did my first season. I don’t know if I am getting better every trip, but I am enjoying every trip I go on more and more. This video is from my New Years Eve trip up to ride at June Mountain and Mammoth. It snowed the last two days as we rode in what I would consider to be some of the best conditions I’ve ever experienced. It might not have been as good as the 20:1 snow in December but most of the mountain was still closed last year and I don’t think my riding got anywhere near where it was in this video (perhaps it was the Venture Helix I am riding in the video that made all the difference though)
Still a lot of riding to do! 
On Saturday I attempted to summit Mt Baldy via the Bear Canyon Trail in 7 hours. 
Unfortunately it took an hour to find the trailhead which left me with 6 hours. 
Needless to say, I failed miserably. About 3.5-4 miles into the hike I realized that there was no way I would be able to summit and descend in time so I turned around and headed down. 
The trail was relentless at almost 920 feet per mile the entire way. 
In retrospect I should have attempted to summit via the Ski Hut Trail. Time to plan my revenge… 
The good news is I made it back to OC in time to hit up the Foodie Fest where I got to try out some pretty sweet food truck food. 
We were so hungry from the hike that all the food trucks and the smell of BBQ in the air was like heaven. Too bad you have to pay for your ticket, pay for parking, then get in 10min lines just to order food. :fu: It was a lot of fun trying out different food trucks though, although it was a bummer that the event organizers decided to prohibit trucks from selling drinks so that they could gouge people on $3 bottles of soda or water. 
After I plan revenge on Mt Baldy I’m going to have to track down the Dan Dan BBQ food truck to get some more of those short rib tacos or sliders… 
Finally took the Civic in to get an oil change which was long overdue; the oil light finally started flashing and was counting down into negative miles. 
What drained from the oil pan had to be some of the most epic oil ever though. It had cycled through the engine throughout northern and southern California on journeys and expeditions that I can only describe as legendary. It will definitely be hard to top the multiple trips to Mammoth Mountain and June Mountain chasing POW, a solo trip to Yosemite to explore the valley, an epic 3 day hike through Cottonwood Loop where we ran out of food, or even navigating through a road that some say is only possible to traverse with a 4×4.
A couple weeks ago I took my Olympus 28mm f/2.8 and it served me well for landscape photography (pictures of that trip coming soon!). I couldn’t help but feel like a 24mm would serve me a little better so I created an eBay search to try to get a version of this lens for cheap.
. I was planning on trying to get one for around $70 but gave in but when I saw this SC for $130 shipped (everything at the time had bids up to $100 already, even on single-coated versions). It arrived today and the glass is near mint and the body is in pretty good condition despite what the auction said so I am pretty happy. 
I am always a little impressed when I see how small Olympus was able to design these OM lenses. It’s pretty interesting to see how it all packs so tidily into the leather case. Compactness was definitely the goal with OM and it shows. It’s too bad no one is currently in the same mindset.
Shot with my Canon 5D Mark II and Sigma 20mm f/1.8 lens – 400+ shots @ 20mm f/2.0 ISO3200 30s
I can honestly not believe the amount of views this video got because for me it was a huge disappointment. I drove out to Anza-Borrega Desert State Park with a pretty specific vision in my head. I wanted to capture as many meterors as I could and create a time lapse of them. The sky was going to be dark and ABD SP was listed as one of the top spots to watch the shower so on the peak of the Perseids, I headed out and maneuvered my Civic past 4 miles of sand to get to Font’s point. Immediately, I realized this wasn’t the ideal place to be. To the east, I saw a low looming layer of smog or pollution rolling in and city lights in the distance. It was going to be a challenge but as I began to shoot my timelapse and chimp on the rear LCD, I realized I had a much bigger problem–air traffic. The amount of planes were ridiculous; at times there would be 4-5 in the sky at once. 
At this point I was tempted to turn around, hike back down to the car and go home until I got the call from my friend, Joe, who was planning to meet me up at Font’s Point. His truck was stuck only a couple hundred yards from the entrance.
At this point it was already completely dark and my fear of getting stuck in sand 4 miles from the road were definitely creeping in so I kept shooting with my camera hoping to at least piece something together. This is what I came up with. The only saving grace is that I was able to witness some of the shower with my own eyes, even if I didn’t capture many on camera and I did make it out of the sand alright. Heres for hoping the Leonids in November are better!
On Thursday I took the plunge and decided to order the 35L with overnight shipping (thanks Amazon Prime). Unfortunately I overslept on Friday and ended up driving to the UPS sorting facility in Anaheim to pick the lens up at 8PM which was perfect because today was my sister's birthday and I got a chance to take it out for some real world samples using one of the hardest subjects to photograph, kids! We went to the supermarket where I was able to snap some shots of my niece, Adeline having a blast. More pictures after the break!
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It’s been a long time but I’ve finally reacquired the Canon 35mm f/1.4L. I can’t even remember my reasoning for selling it; the 20mm was one of my most used lenses on 1.6x crop which has an effective focal length at 32mm. Logically, this would mean that when I upgraded to full frame the 35L should have been one of my most used lenses but I ended up selling it and never replacing it for whatever reason. Fortunately I found one on Amazon Warehouse deals for $1290 and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to “cheaply” repurchase this lens. I put cheaply in quotes because the price on this lens went from ~1200 to ~1400 since I sold it. Unfortunately when the lens arrived it was missing some accessories but Amazon is making up for it! 
Based on the condition in which the Canon EF 35mm Lens arrived, we’d like to offer you a refund of 20% of the purchase price of this item, of $256. 20, if you are interested in keeping it. If this is acceptable, please let us know.
So overall I am pretty excited to get this back in my hands. I’ve heard a lot of bad stories about buying open box stuff on Amazon Warehouse deals but so far everything seems fine. I’m going to test the lens for a couple days to make sure the person who returned it didn’t have a good reason and then I’ll probably take Amazon up on their refund offer.
Hey guys! This is my first post on this site. I am very excited. Honestly, an update to this site has been long overdue. It is insane to see the technologies in use with web design now. I’m seeing all these terms being thrown around and I have no idea what they are or how to use them. Overwhelmed, I decided to just give in and go with something premade so I switched from movable type to Word Press 3.0 and purchased the BigFeature theme to go along with it. So far I am really impressed with how far along things have gone. Hacks and customizations that I painstakingly and crudely pieced together for my old site are now standard features or easily installed widgets!
Anyway, I am excited for where this is going and to be blogging again. 