Event: San Francisco Food Festival 2010 (08/21/10)

My girlfriend happily walks to the San Francisco Food Festival. After a long day at work for her, she's ready to eat...

...for me, I'm happy to be here where I know I can eat to my heart's content in which I only brought $20.

While the lines were long [averaging about 15-20 min] it was definitely worth it. While you had to be selective, most of our eats were really good.

1st stop was Los Cilantros' corn that has been spread with mayo and then sprinkled with salt and spices.

And yes it was goood. It happened to my girlfriend Cher's favorite.

Quick story: the whole corn is $8 while half of it is only $3. We figure we'd be ok if we just got the smaller corn and when we paid a total of $6, the cashier forget what we ordered and the guy fulfilling the orders just gave us two whole corns. We quietly and quickly...walked away... haha

On to my favorite.. the fried chicken from Aziza! I love their organization: the girl took the orders, wrote your name on a Post-It and then went through them in order.

The primary reason why it was my favorite: just look at that fried spicy goodness!

Here's Cher enjoying [another] corn.

While waiting in line for our fried chicken, I figure a quick sweet bite would be nice and here's Neococoa's bittersweet chocolate truffle brownies.

If I had cold cold milk with this considering it was a nice and sunny day, it would've been so much better.

Cher and I agree: the major flop was these Korean Tacos [and I won't say from where to save some embarrassment if they ever come across this]. I will say they're near the Ferry Building in SF though... First off, it happens to be a "taco" because the seaweed isn't rolled... hmm ok. But worse is when you bite it--you can't! The seaweed is already chewy due to the heated meat meaning this isn't bite-food. The solution? Cher and I stuffed the entire thing in our mouths and then it resembled what it was: a sushi. haha It tasted good, but execution was quite bad.

Now bang for the buck, this wins: $3 Bacon-Wrapped Hotdogs =) from Lucero's Hot Dogs.

That's the base but I added a bit of mayo and some ketchup, mustard, and some jalepeños.

Cher wanted the spice so she added a whole lot of jalepeños!

Lastly, to top off our full stomachs, we got a $5 pint of Cookies and Cream from Three Twins Organic Ice Cream. Delish!

My high school friend Lauren [pictured on the right] was able to make it through and brought along a friend to enjoy the food.


Definitely worth the trip to a busy SF/24th & Folsom street! When this happens again next year..totally down!

Quick tip: Before coming to the festival, I bought a 6 pack of Fat Tire beer and emptied 3 bottles to my Nalgene Bottle. So I had about a liter of beer for the same price of a cup that they sell at the festival. =)

BTS: Photoshoot: "Confused Reality" by John Enriquez

This time around, I helped MotionScope photographer John Enriquez on his shoot for singer Jan Marc on Rockaway Beach in Pacifica, CA. I've been teaching John for this past summer in photography [as well as best business practices] and it's good to see him grow within the past couple of months. He's been helping me in a number of shoots so the least I can do is help him with his shoot.

Will post/link images from his shoot once they're completed!

Photoshoot: "John and Jane" (07/24/10) Edits

A collaboration with stylists MyBFCloset.com and Jane Park, stylist of MotionScope Studies for an androgynous photoshoot.

Big thanks to everyone involved for a practically 10 hour photoshoot!

Full Credits:
Talent: Jane Park
Photography: JJ Casas
Make Up: Karen Wan
Stylists: Jessica Phan & Agnes of Fernandez of My BF's Closet
Stylist Assistant: Tristan Orlino
1st Assistant: John Enriquez
2nd Assistant: Rina Pera
BTS Photographer: Nicole Velazco

For BTS photos, check em out here!
For BTS video, check it out here!

Check out the final photos below. It is the quick story of "John and Jane" who meet and greet, have a great time, to only find themselves in a troubled relationship. Hope you enjoy it and all our hard work put into this long shoot!


"The Meeting"

"The Picnic"

"The Morning After"

"The Night Out"

"The Argument"

BTS Video: "John and Jane" Photoshoot (07/24/10)

A collaboration with stylists MyBFCloset.com and Jane Park, stylist of MotionScope Studies for an androgynous photoshoot.

Big thanks to everyone involved for a practically 10 hour photoshoot!

Full Credits:
Talent: Jane Park
Photography: JJ Casas
Make Up: Karen Wan
Stylists: Jessica Phan & Agnes of Fernandez of My BF's Closet
Stylist Assistant: Tristan Orlino
1st Assistant: John Enriquez
2nd Assistant: Rina Pera
BTS Photographer/Videographer: Nicole Velazco

Video produced by JJ Casas
Song: "Be Still" by Big Boi feat. Janelle Monae

Photoshoot: "The Sound Lab" feat. IQ [07/17/2010] EDITS

For San Jose-based rapper IQ, I developed a concept involving his childhood dream of becoming a scientist and his rapper name IQ. Together along with MotionScope Studies members, I was able to bring this concept into reality.

Here's some links leading up to the final edits shown below:
Concept: The Sound Lab for IQ [06/17/10]
BTS Photos [07/21/10]
BTS Video [07/29/10]

Full Credits:
Talent: IQ (sickasounds.com)
Manager: Row
Photographer: JJ Casas
1st Assistant: John Enriquez
2nd Assistant: Diane Ayson
Stylist: Jane Park
BTS Photographer: Nicole Velazco
BTS Videographer: Vinette Guiterrez

Now without further adeau, here's some of the final edits that rapper IQ and manager Row approved. Be on the lookout to see these images on the web soon!








Thanks for coming by and hope you enjoyed the series!

Importance of Catching Up

Velo Rouge's warm Breakfast Croissant served with fresh fruits. This at 10:30am is heaven.

Last Wednesday, I met up with my friend Aileen, former USF classmate and contributing writer to 12ftdwende.com at SF's Velo Rouge Cafe. You can also find her blog Deep Fried Funk in the blog world. She wanted to have a "creative catch up" session and because it's always good to see friends, there's definitely time to make it possible.

This blog post is merely a reflection of why I feel it's important to keep in touch with friends. Before I get into the "why," I've listed some "rules" about catching up so continue to read if you're interested:

First off, it needs to be genuine: Everyone needs help in their life and we're bound to ask another friend for help. Yet, to catch up with someone to ease your way into their graces in order to ask them a favor is not a genuine move. Relationships cannot exist because it is just beneficial to another person. Instead, relationships exist because both people can enjoy each other's company and are really interested in each other's life, and their endeavors.

To catch up means to ask questions: The reason why you're meeting up for food and/or coffee is because you want to know what's going on with your friend's life. This is especially easy if it's a one-on-one meeting since all your attention is directed to the person you're sharing a few bites with. Ask what s/he has been up to since the last time you saw her/him; ask if s/he has ate at a nice restaurant lately or anything else that s/he can enlighten you with. When it's your turn, your friend will ask these questions.

Share resources: If you're meeting up with someone and it has been awhile, chances are you've seen/talked to this person quite a few times in the past and so you do have an idea of who s/he is. Because you have a basic understanding of who and what this person is, you should be able to pitch some resources that s/he may be interested in. For example, Aileen mentioned how she wanted to be better in networking, so I told her about the books I've read that may help her: Dig Your Well Before You're Thirsty by Harvey Mackay and books by Seth Godin were my top recommendations for her. Maybe it was a documentary you saw or an article you came across in the news that may be related to what s/he does...point is, make whatever you've come across recently that reminded you of your friend known. These resources you've found may be useful for your friend now or in the near future.

To catch up means to listen: I already mentioned that you should ask questions but sometimes, the tendency is to direct the other person's reply back to you. "Oh yea! That reminded me of one time when I...." or "Yeah, when I watched that movie, I definitely had a good time. My favorite part was..." You asked the question, so listen to their answers first and let them finish their thoughts.

Make it a routine: After catching up with your buddy, immediately schedule your next catch up session. If yall can't meet up again in person, make a note to email that person or an old-fashioned phone call. Let the other person know too when you'll want to talk again and s/he will be ready to update you accordingly.

Now you're waiting to know "Why is it important to catch up?" Here's my analogy:

We are all spiders. Yes those creatures with 8 legs who spin webs. And the key here is that spiders spin webs. From my experience of finding spiders, they have all been independent living--no one but themselves and their web.

We humans on the other hand, are social creatures dependent on our interactions for practically everything--food, entertainment, love, etc. Yet, we drive ourselves independently--we choose to do what we want to do because we can.

Relating ourselves to being spiders and spinning webs, we all need to construct this web. It's vital that we make a big strong web, aka our network, in order to survive in this world as well. If you ever watch a spider construct a web, he has to go around and create each web link one by one. If one web link is weak, then the entire web is weak as it can collapse when the flying prey gets caught. Just like us, we need to make our links strong and reliable. And just like the web, all the links are connected.

I've learned recently the importance of networking as it can get you really far [number one marketing tool is word of mouth and that's not possible if you're not part of a network]. In my opinion, a genuine network is not just accomplished by merely knowing a person of importance or who is connected to other people. It needs to be nourished, cultivated, and repaired one link at a time just like a web is constructed. Should your links get neglected, take time to revisit it and do whatever you can to refresh it.

ADLs: North Beach

"North Beach"
Taken on August 10, 2010

It was a good friend's birthday and so wanted to try this place called Melt in San Francisco's North Beach. Can't say how good fondue always is and to be sitting in this quaint area of SF, couldn't be better to share food and wine.

Cheers!

--
The blog roll "ADLs" is a series of images of my "Activities of Daily Living". It is a nursing term to describe a patient's activities that s/he does in a daily basis. This is my feeble attempt to combine my trade nursing and passion photography together.

Photoshoot: "On A Journey" [Sutro Baths, San Francisco, 06/26/10] EDITS

Long overdue, but I finally completed the edits for the shoot "On A Journey." If you haven't scene the BTS [behind the scenes] post, check it out here! Also, here's the BTS video!

Full Credits--be sure to click the links to see their talented work!:

Photography by JJ Casas
Assisted by John Enriquez (MSS)
BTS Photography/Producer: Nicole Velazco (MSS)
2nd Assistant: Jane Park (MSS)
Model: Veronica Girma
Model: Paris Warr
Clothing Designer: Cara Antoinette Ramos
Clothing Designer: Jocelyn Santos
Jewelry Designer: Cecille "Ses" Basila (Queen Swaggerly)
Stylist: Brian Advincula
Stylist: Angelica Garde
MUA: Bianca Guido
MUA: Michelle Vega

Model Veronica Girma



Model Veronica Warr



I will say I love Veronica's hair and this may be my favorite photo from the set.









Many thanks again to everyone involved and who worked the long hours at the very cold San Francisco late afternoon to evening!

Can't wait to work with you all again in the near future =)

Be sure to visit my Facebook page and "like it"!

Keep Me. Protect Me. Share Me.

It's an oldie but a very good ad video on the importance of photographs made for Kodak.

"Keep me. Protect me. Share me...and I will live forever."

What a Mango Taught Me

Here's a short story my mom shared while eating fresh mangoes for dessert after lunch the other day.

While eating the scored mango halves with spoons, my mom begins her story.

"You know when I was little, your lola [grandmother] would cut these mangoes and we would all fight for the halves." My mom is referring to her 9 brothers and sisters--a scene of chaos I can imagine as endless hands fight for the delicious fruit in the hot Philippine weather.

"Because she knew that we all wanted the halves and not the center with the bone [seed], what she did was cut the mango so that more of the fruit was on the bone." She continues, "The halves we usually wanted were so thin that we now wanted the bone since it had most of the fruit."

I sat there, eating my half of the mango and gestured for her to take the bone [seed]. I never wanted that part since I was little because I knew there wasn't as much fruit there. Now if my mom cut it up so that more of the fruit is now on the bone, then I'd think different and fight for that bone as my mom's brothers and sister would.

A fan of Seth Godin's blog, this short story resonated with me a lot because of how business-minded I've become. In short, how do you make something undesired desirable? That is the million-dollar question for any businessman.

Abbot and East Moltke: "Bed Frame with Drawers"

I haven't updated this blog roll in a bit but I do have several images that I've added to this collection since the last post. This was taken today before I ran my errands and it seems like the most common items from my observation has been bedroom-related items with mattresses being the number one counted item.

I've been working on this series for more than a year and it's interesting to see items come and go. I talked to my friend and editor Catherine who will will be working on this book as well and we've thrown some ideas here and there for the introduction that she will write.

Also, I do have an idea as to what I'd like to tie this project in after watching No Impact Man--if you haven't watch this documentary, go and get/rent it! Awesome film and some very good moments dare I say that are cute and heartwarming. That idea I'll keep under wraps until I figure out when this project is completed.

I'm still undecided when to close this project but until then, enjoy the series for now!

Abbot and East Moltke is an on-going project documenting the various items left by households at the corner of where I live. Different items have been left already and some of which I've already unfortunately missed. This photo series will continue for an unknown period of time and is planned to be [self] published once body of work is completed.

J-Ricz: New Single "Go"

Cover of single "Go", photo by JJ Casas

My friend J-Ricz just released his single "Go" off of his new album MusicPhiliac which is coming out at the end of August. I've worked with him before too producing the images for his debut album Genesis.

I just bought his single and yes I'm affiliated with him but this song is dope and I've been having it on repeat.

Do yourself a favor, skip the candy bar [since it costs] the same and buy his single! It's just as fulfilling! =)

Go here to buy his single!

(http://www.ubetunes.com/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=410)