Run-away Photographer, er, I Mean Runway Photographer

Last weekend I got the opportunity to shoot photographs of many wonderful models at a fashion event put on by Kami Shade. It was called Shop Til You Drop and it was held at Basics in San Diego. I had a fantastic time taking photographs of all the the great models, making some new acquaintances and practicing my photography technique.

Every photoshoot is an experience and this was no different. I'm a little more used to shooting in studio settings and/or where I can control the subjects and hopefully the lighting a bit more, so this proved to be a challenge. The event started before I knew it and so several of my first shots were spent adjusting my camera for the light, and the environment. After a while I got things together and feel I got some nice shots. There's always more to learn about photography and that's why I enjoy doing it - so I can learn and adapt to each new situation. Overall, I like the shots I got - There are of course things I'd have changed in hindsight, but hey - that's life. For those of you models and other photographers checking out my site and these photos, feel free to comment or contact me about the photos.

I look forward to hopefully working with many of these wonderful models again in the future and wish everyone involved in the event MUCH SUCCESS with your career goals!

The Killing of the Mocking Bird at CCPT

To my special Thespian Leon, and the rest of my readers and friends at CCPT and beyond, I'm finally posting a bunch of photos I took at the wonderful final performance of To Kill a Mockingbird". I really and truly enjoyed the show and I'm VERY impressed with the three young actors playing roles in it. Of course all the actors were really great and it was like visiting with my family because I knew several of the actors from my involvement last year. Special Kudos to Leon, Eric, Milton, Hilary and Dean! On an emotional level it's a hard play to watch because of some of the themes address in the story, but it was performed well by all and I am deeply moved. Enjoy my slideshow (yes Leon, even though I'm not Jewish, a little guilt can be effective). Great job by all and of course I wish everyone MUCH SUCCESS in their life journey's whereever that may take you!

--Rex Hoss

On Taking Pretty Pictures

Well, it took a few days to sort through all my photographs from this past weekend. If you weren't paying attention in my earlier post, I had the opportunity to shoot a bunch of models and actors for IMT Agency this past weekend. We gathered around 9am near Will Rogers Beach Park, and then the beach for a knock-down, drag-out photo shoot. There were 7 photographers including yours truly, and about 15 models throughout the day. It was a lot of fun, and more than a little stressful for me since I do most of my "better" photography indoors in controlled light. This was done outdoors, with bright sun. I tried to minimize the sun bu shooting in shade and directing the light with reflectors, but this was new territory for me, and a good challenge. It was also interesting since we shot a variety of people, in no particular order, with varying skin-tone so there are constant adjustments to the camera to get a well exposed picture. Things got even more challenging as the day went on and the sun got higher in the sky. Most photographers agree that the mid-day sun is the worst light for shooting in, but that's exactly what we had.

Overall though, I'm very pleased with most of the photos I took. The slideshow above is by no means all the pictures I took - just a selection to highlight the day.

Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments section.

--Rex Hoss

Smelly and Hungry - a Pictorial

Here are pictures I took during the Premiere of The Smelly Janitor and Hungry last night at Trent's Gala Premiere.

Special note of thanks to Trent's Korean 'brother' _________ (I've drawn a blank on his name) for taking the pictures where you see ME. All the other photos are by me.

-- by Rex Hoss

Wild Animalz II - not quite a sequel

We'll I posted below a video I created with at Animoto.com. The pictures were taken at San Diego's Wild Animal Park. Now, since I'm cheap and don't want to pay for a full membership I can only create 30 second videos. Thats' way too short for a chronic photographer like me. So I give you my Picasa video. Many more pictures but no audio. Perhaps I'll buck up (after payday) and get a full membership to Animoto, but for now, I'm just experimenting. So enjoy more of my day at San Diego Wild Animal Park.

-- By Rex Hoss

Wild Day in the Park

Some photos I took during my day at the San Diego Wild Animal Park.

I'm still experimenting with Animoto animation site. These photos I took last Sunday at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. Don't ask me what some of the animals/birds are called, I can't remember what their names are (except the obvious ones). I'll probably post a Picasa video also, as I can put more pictures in Picasa (but no music).

--By Rex Hoss

Tech Tips

My tech tip today is a little self-serving. We're going to talk about Browser add-ons. Now if you use Firefox, like I do, there are a TON (literally) of cool add-ons, especially if you use GMAIL for your email. Anyway, I also wanted to let you know about Adobe Flash Player. It's a browser add-on that allows you to view Flash Animations (pretty much the standard for cool web animations these days). If you don't have it installed, it's easy to do go to Adobe's site and install it. If the little "F" Icon does a dance, you're set, if not, download and install it. Note: This may not be possible if you don't have administrator rights on your PC. Many corporate environments prevent users from installing software on their PCs (mine included).

Why do I bring this up you might be asking? Well for one, my Cool Picasa (By Google)slide shows which I've been posting various pictures in, won't work unless you have the Flash plugin (add-on) installed on your computer! So, now you know. B.T.W. it's free (love the sound of that word) so go for it!

Tribute to the King - Part 2 (or is it 1)?

In a somewhat circular fashion, I'm posting more pictures of King Midas, for those fans and friends (and cast members) of the show. I say circular fashion, because these pictures from from the biginning of the show through where I started in my other post. Sunday I was able to watch the show from the beginning. Well, if you're not completely confused by my explanation by now - enjoy the pictures!

Much Updated Photos

Hi everyone. Thanks Much to my friend and fellow Nikon aficionado, Larry Matsui who attended the Sunday show of Much Ado About Nothing, and took some amazing photos of the show. So now I have some really nice pictures to show of the show! I tried to get at least one good, or interesting picture of every cast member (I think I got everyone at least once). I didn't want to inundate the posting with hundreds of pictures, and for those not involved in the show, I want to leave something to the imagination as an incentive to COME SEE THE SHOW!

Did I mention, there are only two more weeks left? For the full schedule see my previous post or visit the CCPT website. For now enjoy the pictures, I can't wait to do it again this weekend! Cudos to all the great cast and crew of the show! You've all made this an amazing experience for me!


P.S. Feel free to post a comment and let me know what you think!

Tribute to the King

Well we made it through opening day of both King Midas and Much Ado About Nothing. I won't say it wasn't without it's glitches - at least for me, but that's live theatre and I'm working hard to make every performance better!!! Anyway, I did't get any pictures of Much Ado, but I did manage to get a bunch of King Midas (well the last few minutes anyway). You guys were GREAT! I hope to see the whole play tomorrow and get more pictures for you. Leon, you make a great King. Feel free to pass this along to the Midas people, since I don't have their email addresses.

Much Tech Ado

Hi everyone, we had a VERY productive weekend of rehearsals. We had our second (and last) tech rehearsals in the Park (before opening this coming weekend). We finally got a sense of what the costumes will look like and are still putting finishing touches on them this week. We have a full week of rehearsals to tighten up the show even more and make it wonderful for everyone. Here are some photos I took over the weekend. Notice the variety and sometimes lack of costumes we had. It was fun for everyone to get to perform in the space and at least partially in costume. As an actor, things really start to gel for me once I'm in costume and can really start to become the character. Everone is SO GREAT in this play, I'm proud to be a part of it!!! You guys all ROCK! Just a note - If I don't have a picture of you in this bunch, it's not because I don't want to, but it is difficult to be papparazzi AND perform so I only got to snap pictures when I wasn't in, or preparing for a scene. (In the credit where credit is due category - thanks Leon for the great pictures of me!) If anyone has pictures they'd like to send me to add to the collection, let me know!!!

Weekend Get Away

For a much needed weekend get away I visited Red Rock Canyon State Park in the Mojave Desert over the weekend. I found out about it from some Google searches and decided it would make a fun outing. So camera in tow, me and a friend I often travel with took off. It was fun, if HOT. Got some interesting pictures and even took my freshly washed car on some dirt roads - that is until the dirt started to turn to sand and I was afraid of getting stuck. It made for a fun weekend.

Now it's back to 'real life' and of course learning my lines for the play. The Director Ken MacFarlane wants us off book (meaning we KNOW our lines) for Tuesdays rehearsal. Some of the actors have their work cut out for them. I have a new respect for learning Shakespeare monologues! Thankfully, I don't have any page long monologues to learn, but I'm still not completely off book myself, so I have a lot of memorizing to do in the next few days.

Much Ado Rehearsal Pix

Hi all. Well I was told in no uncertain terms that I HAD to post some pictures I took last night at rehearsal. My Buddy and fellow actor in the play Leon Cohen threatened me within an inch of my life (OK, not really, but I'm an actor - you'd expect something dramatic right?) to post some pictures. Actually I went a little crazy taking photos but since I wasn't actually in most of what was rehearsed last night, I had a lot of free time to play at being the paparazzi.

I have to give credit where credit is due so any of the photos that I'm actually in, and some at the end of the group were taken by Leon - I asked him to take some with my camera. Actually you should have seen him lusting after my Big, Fat, Well Equip ed Camera... We were taking about pictures you know - get your minds out of the gutter. OK, so my camera is pretty impressive, but remember, you have to know how to USE it to get a good picture and I'm still very much a beginner when it comes to photography! Anyway... On to the pictures. I've created a sideshow for easier viewing, but the pictures are also available online if anyone wants to download some. - I can send a link.

King Kalimari - a Tribute

Well here goes - my own little tribute to the great actors and all our hard work making King Kalimari the Musical come to life. These are the few pictures I had from the show. Most are from our load in day where we first got to the theater. The first few are a couple pictures taken the very last night of the show. I'm sorry I didn't take more. If any of my fellow cast mates have pictures they'd like to share, let me know. If you don't know how to share them on the Internet, I'll be happy to help. I'll have some pictures from our Wrap Party which took place over the weekend in a future post. Until then, enjoy the show!