|Family & Friends| Thanksgiving 2010

Ahh, Thanksgiving break. A time for relaxing, family, friends, turkey, and crazy shopping. This year was no exception, spending too much time relaxing and not enough time studying.... Over break I spent time with my family and friends, watched HP, bought fish and coral for my tank, camped out for a high-def 42-inch flat screen LCD, and even had assisted on a photoshoot. Overall a great break.

I spent Thanksgiving lunch with Rita and her family. They had a tons of great food- even fresh crabs driven in from Maryland. I am definitely Thankful to have them in my life. After lunch and chilling with Rita and family, I left and headed to my tito's house for dinner. I spent the rest of the night eating, watching movies, playing games, and scoping out where we were to camp out for Black Friday. We ended up camping in at Meijers, which was great. Indoors, heat, and chairs. There were other good deals at other stores, but that entailed long lines waiting outside in the cold. By 6AM Friday morning we were back at my cousins house with three 42inch flat screens and a PS3. Friday was also my cousin's birthday, so we had another family get together.

I could keep typing about my Thanksgiving break, or I could just let the photographs to the talking. So here are the photos, I spent too much time editing and blogging.

Enjoy and comment!

|Shooting till my fingers turn blue| Mt. Holly

Ended Christmas break with some snowboarding at Mt. Holly. It was a good, but also bad end to break. It was a whole lot of fun boarding, but it was pretty painful waking up this morning. It hurts to walk, forget about running. Anyways, I really wanted to make a video of the day, but after a couple wipe outs (and not having my neck strap)I thought it was best to just take some stills. Also, if it was not for the beautiful scenery, I do not think I would have shot. Shooting in freezing conditions sucks. It slowed down my camera, drained my batteries, and constricted my peripheral veins to the point where I could hold my camera.

Here is what I came up with.

Hope you enjoyed the photos, let me know what you think! In other news, my last semester of nursing school starts tomorrow. Maybe I should bring my camera to capture my last first day of college?

Kurt Belen

|Featured Photographer| Jarvie Pascual

Every now and then, I will be featuring a guest photographer on my blog. It will consist of a short interview and a couple frames of them at work taken by yours truly. This features aim not only to help to showcase talent, but also to show the vast range of photography styles, ideals, and philosophies.

Meet Jarvie Pascual, a Filipino-American photographer from Rochester Hills, Michigan.

Give me a brief history of your photography journey and how you get into photography.

Jarvie - "After years of using a compact camera, I started to feel limited. So I bought a used DSLR. It was a Nikon d40 back in 2009. It’s a little nice compact camera. I learned basics of photography from turning it ON to properly expose my images. Then it grew my interest in photography and from there, it’s just been a seriously expensive hobby. Arts has been my passion. I liked to draw when I was a kid. So, when I get into photography, I got fascinated with the pictures I captured! Photography is an art."

What is your favorite thing about photography and what do you like to shoot?

Jarive- "I like what photography's offered me because the world is completely different when it's seen through a viewfinder. I’ve always been interested in taking portraits, because I like meeting new people. I like shooting people. It's fascinating how one can see their personality by just looking at their pictures. I like capturing their moment."

What is the most trouble photography has gotten you in?

Jarvie- "Of course! When you, Jeff, and I went to into the abandoned Michigan train station downtown. It was thrilling and at the same time fun!"

Lastly, how has photography influenced/effected your life?

Jarvie - "Since I started photography, I have met a lot of people and become friends to them."

Enjoy the photos!

Check out JARVIE's work at his blog.

-Kurt Belen

"Step one for camping, have a complete tent"

"Thermal Imaging on...."

"We need a  Duraflame!"

"So who's isnt cold?"

More pumpkin carving with extended family.

Taken the day before Halloween 

Cousins carve pumpkins. 

Fastest Carver - Count Von Count
Second Fastest Carver - Batman

Slowest Carver - Count Chocula

Newest Carvers - Thor /Patrick Star

Youngest Carver - Patrick Star

Myrtle Beach. 

Minimal photography; Maximal relaxation. 

"Cook Out goodness"

"Yup, those are sharks in the water..."

"Put-putting with your leg"