Know My Art

My Truck

2011-11-23T22:00:00.001-08:00

11th Annual Camping Trip

2011-09-12T18:26:00.000-07:00

We once again survived the annual Camping Trip. Photos of the new and improved TREBUCHET I made with Ben and Roger will be posted once it is complete. Pictures of the Vizsla can be found on Couragethecampingdog.blogspot.com,including closeups and stories of her rattlesnake bite.

The Drunken Woodpecker Corral Bar was supposed to get a whole new metal roof this year...instead it got half of an old rusty one. It now stands as yet another fine example of how little can be accomplished when alcohol is involved. Hopefully after an hour or so with a calking gun it will be as leak proof as the tarp was, and a bit more permanent.

A couple lazy afternoons were spent lounging upcreek at the Waterfall and lovely day spa...

The waterwheel was once again an epic failure. I just needed way more fall than I can get in that location. Hopefully I can reconfigure it so that it will be up and working by next spring. Other than running a couple hundred feet of 4" line with Dr for that little experiment, I spent most of the days cutting trees for the trebuchet and building ladders with Ben and Roger. As I was running the saw most of the time I don't have any shots of it, but the compleated trebuchet will have it's own post- hopefully by Halloween...I need to get some pumpkin chuckin' in this year!
Below are some night shots, which I have a lot of, as it seems that the only time anyone wanted to do anything photo worthy was when it was too dark cold to sit in the creek doing absolutely nothing photo worthy.

Surprisingly enough "The Property...the Game!" came out only once in the 9 nights we were there. Of course, that might have had something to do with the fact that we had to play 3 games of asshole and 2 games of waterfall to get through it! We must be getting old, we used to enjoy playing those games! As usual it ended with one team shirtless, Red in a dress, and Gilly pissed off complaining. At least some things never change.

Throwing a large rock off the top of the crows nest was much easier with the new three foot wide handicap ladder, and was an all around nicer experience than having to jump into the creek in the middle of the night, which I was lucky enough to get to do on my first turn of the game.

Dr and his beloved shotgun rock...if you don't know, don't ask.

The beginning of the end...
This years Edward 40 Hands winner was once again the Gilly Monster, although Ben was a close second. Red came in last, and was the loser to say the least, but that's another story for another time (with pictures!)

After spending 9 days in a constant rotation of sleeping and sitting in the creek, Gilly finally decided to start doing things, like drinking gas...

and deep frying sausage...and spam...and corn....and Cheese Horns.

Thats about it. More photos can be seen in the Official Camping Trip Book, 11 years of blurry photos and blurrier memories when it comes out in hardback this winter.

The Campin' Trip is a Comin'!!!

2011-08-01T22:18:00.000-07:00

Just got these in the mail today. Its the first time I ever actually paid to have property shirts printed, I usually just stay up all night making them myself with stencils and various iron on junk that tends to peel off or fade in a matter of months. But these babies are Nice. Had them done at Uber Prints, and so far I'm liking them a lot. The pink Onesie is for one of my buddies bambinos, and no, they are not coming on the Camping Trip! Its the annual man trip damnit, no girls allowed! Especially not underage ones in pink onesies! Get with the program here people, my next post will be of the 11th Annual Camping Trip!

Scout Scout Scout

2011-06-13T18:11:00.001-07:00

A good month for shooting clouds

2011-05-27T11:50:00.000-07:00

Birds of Indian Valley

2011-05-27T11:46:00.001-07:00

Snake Lake, Plumas County

2011-05-27T11:43:00.001-07:00

Shootin' at the Quincy Gun Range

2011-04-21T19:09:00.000-07:00

Sighted in my .22 last week while I was working up in Quincy. Also brought the 12-guage just for fun.

I'm not sure how far away these top targets were, it's hard to walk in paces up the hill- maybe another 50-60 from the 80 pace targets?

This is the best "shot" I could get through the scope. Its an old Redfield 18x with VERY limited eye relief, so sighting through the camera and it at the same time wasn't as easy as I'd hoped.

Marlin 925 bolt-action with Redfield scope

This is the Target at the end of the day. The lower random shots were from sighting in the scope, the upper cluster represents 60+ rounds. There are many more wild strays that I'd like, but there are also a LOT of shots in the center, which was pretty much obliterated. Also, it was getting very cold out (snowed most that day) so by the end I wasn't as patient as I should have been. These were all shot from the bench, as shown in the first photo. No sand bags or bi-pod assist (or I'd have had a much tighter grouping!).

Post Apocalypse Party

2011-04-08T07:59:00.000-07:00

Birthday party extravaganza. I didn't spend as much time decorating the house with this one, so I got to put more time/effort into my costume. The drawing is what I'd planned on it looking like, I think it turned out pretty close.

Deadwood Party!!!

2011-04-08T07:50:00.000-07:00

These are a few pics from Em's Deadwood theme party. I turned the back deck into a thoroughfare and we drank whisky all night...it was amazing.

Camping Trip 2010

2011-03-25T17:13:00.001-07:00

I've finally decided to take advantage of the rainy weather and edit some pics from last summer...better late than never!
Here are a few from the 10'th annual Camping Trip and The Property

Just a couple pictures from Quincy

2010-07-24T13:38:00.001-07:00

Risk

2010-04-11T19:28:00.000-07:00

Just having a good time with a little thing called world domination...

My new lamp

2010-03-23T12:43:00.000-07:00

Don Quixote Portrait

2010-03-09T14:14:00.000-08:00

I HAVE A PUPPY!!!

2010-03-09T13:19:00.000-08:00

She will have her own blog soon, here is a sneak peak...

Having a good time...

2010-03-09T13:17:00.000-08:00

Camping Trip 2009

2010-03-09T13:09:00.001-08:00

Spring cleanup at THE PROPERTY

2009-05-12T16:24:00.000-07:00

In an effort to keep the roads open to fire trucks we had a road clearing weekend. Along with cutting a lot of trees and brush, dragging them to camp, and burning them, we cleared a new bathtub in the creek and enjoyed spring.

Spring camping

2009-05-12T16:22:00.001-07:00

CAMPING TRIP 2008

2008-09-09T21:26:00.000-07:00

Another annual camping trip has come and gone. New to this years list of fun was a chain saw mill, a fire pit with grill, and half a pizza oven. but these things are not important. neither is the amount of wood milled, bullets shot, or beers drank. What is important is this- Our summer camp is cooler than your summer camp:

we built this on the first Sunday for a swimming hole, which ended up being a good fishing spot as well as a great bath tub.

For the most part Gilly cooked all of our meals, which usually consisted of chorizo, tortillas, and whatever else he decided to mix with the two.

Male bonding takes on a whole new meaning for some of these guys...

As part of the greatest drinking known to man, "The Property: The Game!" led us into a whole slew of drunken activities, one of which was carrying a large rock to the top of the Crow's Nest and holding it over your head while yelling like a battle troll. Just the usual drinkin' game stuff.

Classy fellows we are.

Enough of that, on to BEERMITTON!!!!!!

I decided to take a few night shots of the camp one evening, below is the Drunken Woodpecker Corral Bar, Red Devil lighting the propane lamp, the upper field, the Tree House grove, and the last shot I took before my battery died,on the last night of the trip:

Pre-campingtrip Property visit

2008-09-09T14:20:00.000-07:00

So a couple weeks before the annual Camping Trip extravaganza a few of us headed up to the property to take care of the high grass and weeds that had over run the camp, and clean up all the scrap metal and other junk that has accumulated over the years.

I made a dragon

2008-04-28T19:32:00.001-07:00

what do you get when you combine a raccoon, chicken, and turkey? A dragon, thats what you get.

THE PROPERTY!

2008-02-21T17:49:00.000-08:00

"buckin' trees and draggin logs" was the theme of the weekend. these logs came down a couple years ago in a storm, so we cleaned them up during the break in the rain saturday.

Since we were clearing out all the dead trees around the camp we had a lot of branches, small trees, brush, etc. to burn that night.

Gilly decided to read the paper by firelight...it worked well at first.

Mighty Zayante

2008-02-21T17:46:00.000-08:00

Q-Town

2008-02-21T17:26:00.001-08:00

So JohnBoy, Ogre, Big H and I went up to good ol' plumas county the other week, and it was snowing the whole time. All the way up the canyon it was coming down heavy. Good times. This is a shot of spanish creek, about half a mile from my old house, on the bridge to snake lake, the dump, the shooting range, and a load of other great places I spent as much of my time as possible at.

Bucks Summit, end of the line for snow plows. Notice the complete lack of snow gear...we didn't bring any. Why? I don't know. I actually brought my Snow boots to S.F, but when I found out no one else had any, I left them behind. Stupid.

So after a short stay in Quincy we went to Greagle and then back hove via Highway 49. Three and a half very fun hours later we made it to Nevada City. This is what the road looked like for the entire three and a half hours.

We saw this big fellow crossing the road and did what anyone in our situation would do, stop in the middle of the road and jump out to shoot some pics. It was snowing pretty hard and getting dark, so this is the best shot I could get.

Yuba river bridge, at about 8 PM. We've been here many times, but this was the first time at night, and the weather ws nice for a change, so we got out and stretched our legs.

Fight Night at the HP Pavillion

2007-11-12T18:41:00.000-08:00

It's not really my thing, but my friend asked me to go and I got a free ticket, so there I was, at the "Shark Tank" for a night of boxing, and they said that my camera was too professional looking and had me check it. So, before the last fight I was able to get a media pass and suddenly I went from a 75 Cent ticket (no joke) to RINGSIDE! Of course, that meant I was shooting at point blank with a 80-200 lens. These are the results.

Studio Lighting Products

2007-11-07T18:23:00.001-08:00

Recreation of old photographs

2007-11-01T19:13:00.000-07:00

I am in an alternative process photo class and doing Van Dykes right now, so I decided to make some Van Dyke Era pictures to print up. One full day of shooting and a lot of photoshoping later, this is what I ended up with. I'll put the V.D. prints up once I'm done printing them.

studio lighting Glass Project

2007-11-01T19:09:00.000-07:00

The thumbnails don't pick up the lighting, click on the pic for a bigger and better version of the photo

Grand Prix, San Jose

2007-08-02T16:53:00.001-07:00

A visit to the property presents us with unusual wildlife

2007-08-02T16:27:00.000-07:00

Alright, so we've been trying to fill this big empty dirt bowl that Bartlett called a pond for something like seven years now. The first few years were very weak attempts, I admit, but still SEVEN YEARS is a long time to look at a dry dusty pit and be told that it was once a lush Eden full of frogs and bugs and all the other cool stuff boys like to play with. So finally we decided that enough was enough, and made it a point to find the source of the pond, and get some water into this thing. Long story really short, we hacked into the middle of a blackberry patch (more like dense jungle of thorns, Brair Rabbit style), and found the giant valve which delivers life giving water to an otherwise desolate arid region of the property. this is the pond after about 16 hours of filling. We then stocked it with Blue Gill (see below) and crawdads. I am so excited to see what its become in our absence. I think apon it daily. Its almost an obsession. Seriously, I don't know if this is healthy.

So I guess Scott wasn't full of it, and there are a whole lot more Rattle Snakes out this year. Great. Fun, fun. But, other than constantly wondering if your going to be painfully injected with poison every time you walk through dry grass...AKA the property, I guess they're OK. Well, as long as I get to shoot 'em. Yep thats right, I shot this one only to find that it was a mama. Gilly counted ten of these eggs in it. Now some people might say that I'm a bad person or something because I killed a mama snake and her ten babies, but those people probably don't spend as much time hiking around the proberty as we do. Sorry, it's a rough life I guess.

Oh, look at this! While fishing the big water of Wolf Creek we found these little fellows. Blue Gill in the creek? Looks like it, which at first we were not so sure about, 'cause everyone prefers to have trout in there, but after filling the pond we realized what woderful luck we had finding such a hardy species on the property. We quickly caught five of them for the pond.

4th of July

2007-08-02T15:59:00.000-07:00

The road to Sean's Pond proves to have exellent views

Upper Spencers, although not quite as beautiful as the lower lake, it takes a close second. This is the stream that flows down the mountain side from one of the many springs in the area, pooling a few times before hittling the lake in the background.

The perfect time of year for wild flower viewing. The entire place was like a garden. Any location with water had flowers, lots of 'em.

Class Project

2007-05-08T10:13:00.000-07:00

Kevin Payne, kevinsterlingpayne@hotmail.com,61 M/W
5/8/07
692 Words
Personal Movie Review Blog
Headline: Hot Fuzz
Subhead: This Isn't Your Ordinary Action Flick

Hot Fuzz had a tremendous fan base right off the cricket bat, as its creators are the same pair that brought the world Shawn of the Dead back in 2004. Rest assured, fans of writers Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg will not be disappointed. The Brit Duo followed the same premise for this one as with Shawn of the Dead, making a well thought out parody of a overdone genre. The result is a movie that is fresh, interesting, and a ton of fun.
The film's plot seems simple enough. Trained in everything from advanced driving and cycling to chess, Officer Nick Angel is London's top cop, but there's a problem. He's proved to be too much for the department, and is making the other cops look bad. So Angel is reassigned to his nightmare job, working as a beat cop in the sleepy little English town of Sandford. The seemingly boring town has been the proud winner of the "village of the year" award many times over.
Like Shawn the first half of the film isn't exactly a action thriller. With the scene set, the audience is introduced to the townspeople as Nick Angel is. He finds their character, or persona's as it turns out, to be a little odd and can't help feeling that there is more to the quaint little town than people would have him think. On his first night he arrests the town drunk, only to find out that He is his new partner,Danny Butterman (Nick Frost). Butterman has an obsession with Hollywood action flicks and seems to think of Angel, the big city cop, as one of the heroes from his rather extensive movie collection. The Childish Butterman seems to emulate the police heroes of his movie collection so badly that doing actual police work is beyond him. Angel tries to get Butterman to look at Sandford's townspeople with a critical eye, but all he sees is the good hearted folk he grew up with.In the end Angel is right, the people of Sandford are not what they seem, and the entire town is blown to hell in this larger than life small-town spectacle.

"Taking the piss" out of all the 80's and 90's action packed, gun slinger cop flicks Wright and Pegg show us what the Hollywood action genera truly is, an absurd spectacle. Unlike parodies of the past, such as the Police Academy flicks and Airplane, the humor you find in "Hot Fuzz" original and reaches far beyond simple parody. This is not a film of silly puns and bad takes on other movies. This is a film that does everything the standard "buddy-cop" Hollywood shoot 'em up does, only better, plus it does so in a way that makes you realize just how bad most of those movies really were. Gone are the days of the Naked Gun parodies.
An example of Hot Fuzz's humor is when we are shown a clip of Keanu Reeves in Point Break, and later on the scene is reenacted by Butterman as he is pulled into a similar situation. Drawing a bead on his own father as he runs away from him, Butterman, who's lying on the ground, cannot shoot his beloved father, no matter how bad the man is. He fires his pistol into the air repeatedly while yelling at the top of his lungs in rage and frustration.

The audience was rolling with laughter, and at the same time trying desperately to stop so we could see what was happening next. And that's just the point. If it had not been a spoof of a cheesy scene from Point Break, Buttermans actions would have been accepted by viewers as an emotional scene in an action flick. But Hot Fuzz makes us conscious of how absurd those scenes are, which makes you laugh on whole new levels.

As a "buddy-cop" action flick, it blows away the competition. As a comedy, the original humor in it is better than most films I've seen. And as a parody, it is second best only to Shawn of the Dead. Creators Wright and Pegg are true masters of their trade.

END

Thesis: Hot Fuzz is an excellent parody that everyone who likes to watch action movies, laugh, or do both at the same time should see.

CONFLICT

2007-05-02T13:54:00.000-07:00

What can I say? If you wern't there, you should have been.

An hour in the woods

2007-04-24T18:00:00.000-07:00

2007-02-17T19:47:00.000-08:00

Well evidently Blogger is now owned by Google, Awesome. It seems the whole world is an oligopoly. Anyway, I went on a few hikes over the last month or so, here are a couple pics from them. The waterfall is in Big Basin, and the sunset is in Quail Hollow. Both are State Parks by my house.

Just a quick pic from years past-Happy New Years

2007-01-05T22:14:00.000-08:00

Junk from the house

2006-12-13T22:27:00.000-08:00

OK, I had to liven it up a bit for the last one, cleaning up garbage isn't exactly a bag full of excitement. But DAMN! Mono never seemed so fun.

I OWN A HOUSE!

2006-12-13T22:01:00.000-08:00

It just went through on my birthday (yesterday). This is definitely the coolest B-Day present I've ever heard of. I'm so stoked. It's gonna be a lot of work,but I wouldn't have it any other way. I already started clearing it out, still lots of cleaning to do...

Russel Valley

2006-12-03T22:39:00.000-08:00

This field is a short walk from Bartlett's place. It's an old sheep farm, now National Parks land. I couldn't believe that there were so many little fish living in the stream, as parts of it were only an inch deep. Dr and I walked around out there the day of the Halloween party.

Some pics from today

2006-11-29T21:56:00.000-08:00

OK, so I've not posted in a while, and I've a bunch of photos I need to add. I still haven't posted Halloween downtown, the cool pics I took with Dr in Russel Valley, and a couple other shots I should really be throwing up here to keep this thing in order. But I'm not really feeling in the mood to post all of those tonight as it's 10:00 and the coldest night of the year in a house with no heat (Buuurrrrr) so, here are some from today that I was able to take during my last class of the day, which was cancled. See all the great photo ops I'm missing out on by sitting in Photography classes all day?

CAPOEIRA!!!

2006-11-13T15:53:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pics from my housemates Capoeira sessions I've been photographing lately.

B-FUNKS PARTY

2006-11-02T17:15:00.000-08:00

HALLOWEEN...WHO'S READY???

2006-10-16T22:14:00.000-07:00

Zombification will run rampant throughout the land as people try their hardest to have a good time...but will they survive the night? Only one way to find out, Bartlett's party. We'll see who makes it out alive. (above pic: the Bartlett in action, feeding time) Bwahahahahahaha

A few of my old B&W's

2006-10-16T22:05:00.000-07:00

PEACE Be With You

2006-10-06T22:17:00.000-07:00

BOWLING NIGHT

2006-09-24T18:07:00.000-07:00

Nothing to get excited about, just another friday night at the ol' Boardwalk Bowl.

CAMPING TRIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-08-29T20:23:00.000-07:00

2006-08-29T20:18:00.000-07:00

2006-08-28T18:32:00.000-07:00

2006-08-28T18:23:00.000-07:00

Got A New Camera...First Shoot

2006-08-23T13:56:00.000-07:00

2006-08-23T13:52:00.000-07:00

2006-06-24T19:53:00.000-07:00

went to a ranch last weekend. I used a friends camera to get some pics of the place

2006-06-12T19:54:00.000-07:00

2006-06-12T19:48:00.000-07:00

This is lower spencer lake, for which my nephiew was named after. Cheers to the most beautiful place on earth

Summer time

2006-06-12T19:38:00.000-07:00

for me, summer means two things, work and play. Actually, that's probably what any season entails, but SUMMER means construction for work and Camping for play. Hopefully lots of both. So, just to give this season a jump start I decided to post some pics of last summer to get me, and anyone who bothers to look at this site, some insentive to get out of here and go camping....like we need some insentive.

Another R.I.P.

2006-04-25T15:56:00.000-07:00

I just found this while going through some of my older photos, so I decided to scan it and throw it up here.

Stuff from monday

2006-04-20T12:11:00.000-07:00

My friend Chris and I drove around on monday lookin' for shots, I got a couple for my R.I.P. (rust in pieces) ongoing project.

Photojournalism sport shots

2006-04-20T11:55:00.000-07:00

a couple shots I took on tuesday after class at SJSU and before my Cabrillo night class...

Second project

2006-03-22T20:04:00.000-08:00

I've been protesting the war in Iraq since before it began. I was in San Francisco on feb. '03 to protest sending troops there in the first place. The next year I was at an anti war protest show in London. Last year I was back in San Francisco being chased by riot cops on dirt bikes through the streets until they were able to stop our protest with their barricades of bikes, cops, and batons. This year I was back in S.F. again, and it was a joke. Instead on a protest, I found myself in the middle of a parade. The same ass hole cops were there this year, taunting me and itching for a fight, but nobody gave them one. I doubt if most the residents of the city even knew that there was a protest going on. The way people are acting lately, I wouldn't be surprised if some of them don't even know that there is a war going on. Or maybe our society has grown even more apathetic. Scary thought.

First project

2006-02-22T21:18:00.000-08:00

This is my first project for my Digital Photo class. It's a continuation of my Don Quixote project I've been working on for the last six months. These photos will be seen in the next chapter.

Lazy Weekend

2006-02-20T18:33:00.000-08:00

2006-02-19T18:06:00.000-08:00

2006-02-19T17:48:00.000-08:00

A few pictures from last weekend of the the beach off Davenport Landing Rd.

2006-02-19T17:17:00.000-08:00

2006-02-12T20:24:00.001-08:00

2006-02-12T20:24:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple pictures from last weekend, I've not cleaned them up or anything yet though. Both were taken just a little bit north of Davenport. The car is just off Highway One across from the Pigion Point light house. The barn is up a road close to there, in a large land preservation plot of over 8000 acres. These were taken about two and a half weeks ago, but I've been up around this location twice since then, so hopefully I'll have some more pictures of the area posted on here soon.

2006-02-05T13:57:00.000-08:00

End of the line...about 800 feet(???)

train tunnels

2006-02-05T13:50:00.000-08:00

These need a lot of work, and I'm planning on going back and shooting with a telephoto flash. I hope to get some better ones to work on soon.

second attempt

2006-02-02T17:35:00.000-08:00

I'm still trying to figure this thing out, heres another picture from the other weekend, hopefully I'll be able to add some from an old train tunnel we were exploring the other day as well, but they need some work in photoshop, maybe I'll just post them as is and then re-post them later.

First Blog

2006-01-30T19:22:00.000-08:00

This is a blog for my digital photo class. I'm not sure exactly what this is supposed to say or look like, as I've honestly never looked at a blog before. I guess I just have not been able to take anything that someone would name a "blog" seriously. Well, I guess I'll try to post a couple pictures I took last weekend, maybe that will make this thing more interesting.