Black Friday is upon us (almost) and it’s time for some savings. I’m getting into the game with my biggest coupon yet, 25% Off anything in my Zenfolio portfolio! That’s right, any and all photos, products, downloads, etc. are 25% off. If you don’t see something from my flickr available to purchase, just let me know and I’ll upload it. Now is the time to get that perfect gift for someone on your list…or even yourself.
Enter the coupon code BF2011 to receive the 25% discount. This coupon will expire on December 3rd, 2011.
As always, I am offering 8×10s printed myself for $10 or less. See my previous blog post for details.
Happy Holidays!
Well, I broke down and bought a photo printer. The main reason was for the Castle Convention on November 12th where I will be the official photographer doing all the photo ops. But I’m going to use it for so much more. It’s a Canon PIXMA Pro9000 Mark II and it prints awesome studio quality photos.
So here’s the first thing available to you. Do you have a favorite photo on my flickr stream? Do you want an 8×10 of your very own? Then have I got a deal for you! Any 8×10 will be $10. Buy more than one and save a few bucks: 2 for $18, 3 for $25 and 4 or more prints will be $8 each. These prices are up to a 33% savings over my Zenfolio account pricing.
Just send me an email with the name(s) or a link to each of the photos you want. Include how many prints you want if it’s not 1 per photo. Shipping will be $2.50 Domestic or $5.00 International for up to 10 prints. Once I receive your email, I will send a Paypal invoice for the total amount. If your Paypal account is not linked to the email you send your request with, please include that as well.
If you have any questions (shipping, cropping for 8×10, etc.) please send me an email or contact me on Twitter.
I was thinking the other day about how both my knowledge of taking photos and the gear I use have improved over the years. What better way to show the progression than with photos? But I needed a single subject to use for consistency. Who would complain about my choice of subject for this series? It’s the Captain himself, Nathan Fillion. (I’m not a stalker, I swear!)
February 19, 2005
I think this was the third time I saw Nathan at a convention. The first time was at the LA Shrine show for the DVD release in 2003, and the second was at the Comic-Con 2004 Serenity panel. I took this still using my video camera, a JVC GR-D93. We had to stand pretty far away from the autograph line, so I’m sure I was using digital zoom. I was much more into recording the panels on video at the time and sharing them with other Browncoats. The few stills I took were just to have something from the autograph area.
December 10, 2005
I took this photo at Flanvention, a convention featuring almost the entire cast of Firefly. It was taken using a borrowed Kodak point and shoot, maybe 4 megapixels and a 3x zoom. I was sitting in the front row, so this is pretty much what the view was from my seat. This moment I captured was Nathan assisting a young man (not pictured) propose to his girlfriend. I was concentrating on recording this panel with my video camera, so the photos I took were an afterthought when I had time.
March 4, 2007
These two photos were taken at WonderCon. I was again using a borrowed camera, this time an Olympus Stylus 300. It’s a 3.2 megapixel camera with 3x zoom. The first is during the Drive panel. You’ll notice Nathan is a fuzzy figure on the left side. We had decent seats, but with only a 3x zoom and low light, there just wasn’t much chance to get a good picture. The 2nd photo is from the limited signing Fox held after the panel. I took this when I was next in line and used the flash. Unfortunately, they were moving the line quickly and not allowing photos when you were up at the table. At this point, I was just trying to get the camera to capture something, not really worrying about much else.
April 11, 2007
Taken at the Drive event at Universal Citywalk. I was using the same camera as WonderCon, the Olympus. But I don’t know if I actually took this photo. I recall that most of the day, if not all of it, my girlfriend at the time (who owned the camera) was the one taking photos. Either way, this was more of a chance to show another photo of Nathan than to show progression of skill or equipment.
October 28, 2007
Taken at the first Firefly/Serenity Creation convention using the borrowed Olympus. Since I was working the table for the SoCal Browncoats, I wasn’t spending a lot of time getting a good seat for a photo. There is also the fact that all the good seats are pre-sold at higher prices. Normally they only have one guest on at a time, but Nathan decided to be the moderator for the rest of the day. He stayed on stage through Summer Glau and Sean Maher’s panels. Alan Tudyk showed up even though he wasn’t scheduled that day just to bug Nathan during his panel.
The first photo is from the seat I found near the back of the room. It was easy to come and go without bothering anyone if I needed to get back to the table. The second photo is from the center aisle near the front. A friend had good seats right on the aisle and let me sort if sit there for a few minutes to get photos. Even that close, with only a 3x zoom I wasn’t able to get very close shots of the guests. Again, I was just trying to capture something and was starting to get frustrated with the limitations of the camera. I think I started thinking about getting a better camera with a larger zoom around this time.
November 4, 2007
The one and only Starfury LA, since they never did another convention in LA. Held at a club in Hollywood, this wasn’t exactly a great venue for a convention. I had the Olympus still and this was the convention that finally convinced me to get my own camera. For this shot, I was sitting as close to the stage as possible, and used the flash. Pretty much every shot I took that didn’t use flash came out blurry. Add in that I didn’t sit close to the stage on the other days and the lack of good zoom or low light performance really convinced me to get a new camera. As for Nathan, he wasn’t even supposed to be there that day. He showed up and surprised Jewel, Morena and Christina. We all add a blast watching them having fun interacting with each other, as you can see.
December 7, 2007
The Writers Strike. Mutant Enemy Day. Fans4Writers. Lots of people converged outside Fox Studios on this cloudy December day. All of us walking the picket line in support of the writers striking against the studios. This was organized by and for fans of Joss Whedon’s projects, and not only fans, but actors and writers showed up. Nathan was there walking the line just like every other person. This was taken with my brand new Panasonic DMC-TZ3, a point and shoot 10x zoom camera with decent low light performance. I had bought it in time for the Browncoat Cruise, which we had just gotten back from the day before. With this new camera I bought a few 8gb memory cards and I was off to the races. I figured with digital I could take shots as long as the battery lasted and there was room on the card. And that’s what I did. I like to call this my “drunken monkey” phase. I eventually got over having to take way too many photos at one event, but I only scaled back to “a lot”. Which basically means at this point I wasn’t thinking much about taking photos, I was just pushing the button. Sure, I was messing with the settings whenever possible to make the photos as nice as possible, but this camera was mostly automatic and I couldn’t change much.
March 20, 2008
Halo The Show at the UCB Theater in Hollywood. Nathan, Alan Tudyk and a few of their friends who all game together showed up to talk about Halo. They did a Q&A, showed some clips they recorded of their Halo games, and there was even a few songs from an 8-bit digital musician. UCB is a small theater, holding no more than 100 people. We got pretty good seats and I was able to take full advantage of the 10x zoom on my Panasonic to get some good shots. The lighting was just good enough to allow most of the shots to come out clear, with minimal blur. At one point in the night the moderator turned around and asked if I was a robot, since I was holding up the camera so much. I won a bottle of Gefilte Fish from that. Nathan is known for making a lot of faces during appearances, and this night was no different. The photo below is one of his standards.
July 25 & 26, 2008
San Diego Comic-Con. This was the year the California Browncoats were raising money for Nathan’s charity, Kids Need to Read. It was also the year of Dr. Horrible. I still had my Panasonic and despite its limitations, I was enjoying using it. I did start looking for a DSLR around this time, since I knew I wouldn’t be satisfied with a point and shoot for much longer. The first photo is during the Dr. Horrible screening. The entire cast and all the Whedons showed up to do an intro, and this is Nathan entering from the side door. There was really low light, which you can see in the shadows on his face and motion blur of his arms. The second photo is right after Nathan did a signing at the CABC booth. He took photos with all the KNTR and CABC volunteers. He is famous for being able to take a good photo of himself and a fan while holding the camera. My only problem with this shot is I look so small!
April 14th, 2009
The Dr. Horrible PaleyFest panel. I have a DSLR now! In August of 2008 I bought a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi. I took it on vacation to Arches and Bryce national park first, but after that I got to use it at a lot of panels. For this shot of Nathan, I used the 55-250mm lens. It’s not a very fast lens, f4-f5.6, but it was cheap and I’ve been able to take some good photos with it. In panel situations the guests usually have a decent amount of light on them. Not enough that I don’t have to put the ISO up to 800 or 1600 though. I also had to learn how to edit photos. In this photo and up until now I am using Canon’s Digital Photo Professional. I expect I’ll be switching to Photoshop in the future. I learned right away to shoot in RAW so I could have much more control over the final product. I still was taking too many photos at this point, well over 1000 during this hourlong(ish) panel.
April 18, 2009
Just a few days after the PaleyFest panel and it was time for a book signing. Nathan and Alan Tudyk showed up to support their friend PJ Haarsma, the author of the Softwire series of books. PJ is also the co-founder of Kids Need to Read. Since I didn’t need to get anything signed, I spent the entire signing taking photos. I used the 18-55mm kit lens and was able to use available light. All three guys are fun and entertaining and I got plenty of good shots. This particular photo was pretty grainy due to the high ISO and tight cropping needed. In those cases I will sometimes use the grain to my advantage by making it black & white.
July 26th, 2009
Quite possibly my favorite Nathan photo ever. I took this at San Diego Comic-Con on the last day of the con. Nathan had surprised us by showing up and doing a Q&A during the CABC meeting room. He then raced down to the booth and did a signing. At the end of the signing, which turned into him crowd diving to get to everyone left in line, he went over to the QMx booth and took a look at their Serenity “Big Damn Replica” prototype. And then he kissed it. I am so lucky to have been in the right place at the right time.
March 16, 2010
Another Paley event, this time at the Paley Center in Beverly Hills. This was for Castle and the entire cast showed up. The theater we were in was very small, only about 150 attendees. I arrived super early along with some friends and we were still not the first ones there. I did manage to be in the 3rd row though. In that room it meant I could get some really good profile and close-up shots with my 55-250. The lighting was also pretty good so I wouldn’t need too high of an ISO, I think I used 400 most of the night. The only drawback was my penchant for taking too many photos. Apparently the Paley staff thought I was a paparazzi or something. It didn’t help that my camera was also incredibly loud in the small room. I think I need some WD-40.
July 23, 2010
Once again taken at San Diego Comic-Con. Nathan decided to have a little fun and crashed the Q&A line for Joss Whedon’s panel. This is his disguise. His appearance was enough of a surprise that I didn’t have time to change my camera settings. I had everything on manual and set for taking photos of Joss on stage. The crowd was obviously not as well lit. I had to play with a lot of the settings in order to get something worth posting. Making it black & white was really the only way to have it look decent.
While going through my photos to prepare this blog, I came to realize just how much of a Nathan stalker I am. Or we just show up in the same place all the time. As for my photo gear, I plan to get a new camera as soon as I can afford it. I’m also going to get some new lenses. Low light performance and the quality of the glass are the two main factors in what I need in new gear. I’m looking at the Canon 5D MkII. It’s a full frame camera and has amazing low light performance and the ability to shoot full HD video. The first lens I want is the 70-200mm f2.8 IS USM II. I think I’ll be renting the lens for Comic-Con this year to see if it’s what I need.
I’ve decided to close out the remaining days of May with my first sale on photos and other products. If you have hesitated clicking the buy button, now’s your chance. Until the end of May, use coupon MAY2011 when checking out at my zenfolio site and get 15% off your order. Thanks for looking!
Buy me!
UPDATE Part 2: After last night’s 2nd set of emails, I thought we were done. But no. Today I received an “ignore all previous emails” message. And tonight, over the course of 5 hours, I found out the Final FINAL results. Which are just the same as it was when I went to sleep last night. Hopefully I’m done updating this page.
UPDATE: Apparently every email they sent me was wrong. So instead of 3 entries, I got 1. I’ve fixed the results below.
I received the emails today for the photos I entered in the San Diego County Fair Exhibit of Photography. And the results are:
1. Accepted!
2. Not accepted.
3. Not accepted.
4. Not accepted.
There you have it. 1 out of 4. Thanks everyone for helping me pick these. I’ll find out on June 10th if I win any monetary prizes or ribbons.
Thanks to everyone who voted for their favorites. I’ve decided on the following 4 photos to enter into the San Diego County Fair.
1. Every single person who voted put this somewhere on their list. I was going to submit it no matter what, but it’s nice to see everyone agrees with me. 
2. Tied for 2nd most popular photo. I wasn’t 100% sure about this one, but you all convinced me.
3. This one tied for 4th. Out of the others before and after it in votes, it fit better into the categories available in the contest.
4. This one didn’t receive a ton of votes, but I think it fits the Fair’s theme (Race to the Fair) very well.
There you have it. For all those who voted for ’spiral of pain’ (or any other favorite), I just couldn’t figure out a good category for it to fit into, and I only have so much money for entry fees. I’ll find out on May 4th if any photos have been selected for display at the Fair.
I’ve decided to keep a list of all the events, parties, conventions, trips, etc. that have photos sets waiting to upload. I’m going to update this list as regularly as I can so I can track how I’m doing.
If you have a particular set you want to see sooner rather than later, leave a reply below or send me a tweet or an email (if you’ve got it).
To do:
10/10/2009 - Day 2 of NoCal trip. SF Browncoats meetup, Golden Gate Bridge, Pacifica beach, Nona’s Kitchen and Elizabeth’s birthday party.
11/21/2009 - Creation Adam Baldwin panel
11/21/2009 - Creation Feldman twins panel
11/21/2009 - Creation Morena Baccarin panel
11/22/2009 - Day 2 of Creation’s Firefly/Serenity Salute. Random photos
11/22/2009 - Creation Alan Tudyk panel
11/22/2009 - Creation Jewel Staite panel
11/22/2009 - Creation Mark Sheppard panel
12/25/2009 - Christmas
3/13/2010 - PaleyFest Glee panel
3/21/2010 - Ennis House, Griffith Park Observatory and Carousel
4/3/2010 - WonderCon Resident Evil panel
4/3/2010 - WonderCon Sorcerer’s Apprentice panel
4/3/2010 - WonderCon Toy Story 3 panel
4/4/2010 - WonderCon Chuck panel
4/4/2010 - WonderCon Human Target panel
7/22/2010 - San Diego Comic-Con RED panel
7/22/2010 - San Diego Comic-Con Salt panel
7/23/2010 - San Diego Comic-Con Caprica panel
7/23/2010 - San Diego Comic-Con Girls Kick Ass panel
7/23/2010 - San Diego Comic-Con Stargate Universe panel
7/23/2010 - Marian Call Space Travelers Emporium concert
7/24/2010 - San Diego Comic-Con Captain America panel
7/24/2010 - San Diego Comic-Con Chuck panel
7/24/2010 - San Diego Comic-Con Cowboys & Aliens panel
7/24/2010 - San Diego Comic-Con Let Me In panel
7/24/2010 - San Diego Comic-Con Paul panel
7/24/2010 - San Diego Comic-Con Resident Evil panel
7/24/2010 - San Diego Comic-Con Thor panel
3/26/2011 - LegoLand
4/8-11/2011 - Michigan Trip
4/9/2011 - Butterflies at Meijer Garden
4/10/2011 - Meijer Garden
7/16/2011 - Dave & Emily Pre-Wedding Shoot
7/17/2011 - Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog LIVE
7/21/2011 - San Diego Comic-Con Day 2
7/21/2011 - San Diego Comic-Con Sam Axe Panel
7/21/2011 - San Diego Comic-Con Psych Panel
7/21/2011 - San Diego Comic-Con Ringer Panel
7/21/2011 - San Diego Comic-Con Game of Thrones Panel
7/21/2011 - San Diego Comic-Con TV Guide Fan Favorites Panel
7/21/2011 - W00tstock 3.0
7/22/2011 - San Diego Comic-Con Day 3
7/22/2011 - San Diego Comic-Con Torchwood Panel
7/22/2011 - San Diego Comic-Con The Walking Dead Panel
7/22/2011 - San Diego Comic-Con The Big Bang Theory Panel
7/23/2011 - San Diego Comic-Con Chuck Panel
7/23/2011 - San Diego Comic-Con Being Human Panel
7/23/2011 - Nerdist Live
7/24/2011 - San Diego Comic-Con Day 5
7/24/2011 - San Diego Comic-Con Glee Panel
7/24/2011 - San Diego Comic-Con Supernatural Panel
7/24/2011 - San Diego Comic-Con Doctor Who Panel
7/25/2011 - Terriers Locations Shoot
8/13/2011 - Dave & Emily’s Wedding
10/29/2011 - 6th Annual Browncoat Day at Disneyland
11/12/2011 - Castle Convention
12/4/2011 - Disneyland Vacation Day 1
12/5/2011 - Disneyland Vacation Day 2
1/1/2011 - Disneyland in the New Year
That’s 60 sets left for me to finish.
Done:
4/20/2009 - PaleyFest Battlestar Galactica/Caprica Panel (1/28/11)
4/23/2009 - PaleyFest Fringe Panel (3/15/11)
4/25/2009 - Marian Call San Diego House Concert (4/18/11)
4/29/2009 - Marian Call Concert at Portugalia (4/18/11)
5/2/2009 - SoCal Browncoats at the Ren Faire (5/4/11)
5/30/2009 - BotCon (5/22/11)
6/6/2009 - Rosecrans National Cemetery (1/8/11)
6/6/2009 - Hatmandu (Todd’s birthday party) (5/24/11)
6/12/2009 - Hanging out at Dwight’s playing zombie games (5/24/11)
6/27/2009 - My friend Erik’s triplets 1st birthday (5/15/11)
7/4/2009 - 4th of July at Erin’s (5/28/11)
8/8/2009 - Juliet Landau and Brian Lynch at Golden Apple (5/28/11)
8/8/2009 - Tabin’s birthday party (4/18/11)
8/12/2009 - Seagulls at the beach (5/29/11)
8/16/2009 - Hanging out with family (6/12/11)
9/19/2009 - CABC annual meeting (6/12/11)
10/9/2009 - Day 1 of NoCal trip. Computer museum mainly. (11/6/11)
10/17/2009 - Final day in Evansville, IN on a work trip. (2/20/11)
10/31/2009 - Halloween (11/6/11)
11/21/2009 - Day 1 of Creation’s Firefly/Serenity Salute. Random photos, QMx Serenity replica (1/13/12)
11/21/2009 - Creation Tim Minear & Jane Espenson panel (1/8/11)
12/20/2009 - Morro Bay (2/19/11)
2/28/2010 - Fontana Street Racing at the Speedway (1/5/11)
4/3/2010 - WonderCon Prince of Persia panel (2/28/11)
6/13/2010 - Pontiac G8 and Dodge Challenger photo shoot (2/19/11)
7/23/2010 - San Diego Comic-Con Bones panel (11/6/11)
2/05/2011 - Los Angeles Zoo (2/7/11)
2/20/2011 - Truckhaven (3/16/11)
2/26/2011 - Grandma’s Cat (4/18/11)
4/1/2011 - WonderCon Friday (4/6/11)
4/1/2011 - WonderCon Fallen Skies Panel (4/5/11)
4/1/2011 - WonderCon Green Lantern Panel (4/6/11)
4/1/2011 - WonderCon Saturday (4/17/11)
4/2/2011 - WonderCon Immortals Panel (4/6/11)
4/3/2011 - WonderCon Sunday (4/5/11)
4/3/2011 - WonderCon Doctor Who Panel (4/17/11)
4/16/2011 - Truckhaven (4/17/11)
4/27/2011 - Back to the Future w/ Bob Gale Q&A and time machine Delorean replica (6/5/11)
5/13/2011 - Downtown San Diego from Coronado (6/12/11)
6/25/2011 - Can’t Stop the Serenity Los Angeles (6/30/11)
7/20/2011 - San Diego Comic-Con Day 1 (1/8/12)
7/21/2011 - San Diego Comic-Con Covert Affairs Panel (12/20/11)
7/23/2011 - San Diego Comic-Con Day 4 (1/10/12)
7/23/2011 - San Diego Comic-Con Community Panel (8/9/11)
9/22/2011 - Spider in the tree (11/5/11)
11/26/2011 - Thanksgiving in the desert (1/8/12)
12/06/2011 - Disneyland Vacation Day 3 (12/6/11)
12/7/2011 - Disneyland Vacation Day 4 (1/8/12)
I’ve added almost 200 items to the flickr set of items I have for sale.
Everything is still listed alphabetically. You can also just search my flickr stream for something by typing a name and the words “for sale”. Example “buffy for sale” will get you this. All the prices are listed in the description of the item. I’ve posted the front and back, plus some close-ups, of every item. So if you see 2 photos, there’s only 1 item.
I’ve added a “round 2″ tag to all the new photos, so this search will let you see all the new items. You can click here for the entire set. Or the photo below
If you are interested in buying any of the items, you contact me through a variety of ways. Comment here, Twitter, Flickrmail, email or phone. Paypal will be the easiest and best form of payment for me to take. I’m open to offers if you don’t like the price on any item. If you need it shipped, that will be extra. No handling charges though, just the exact cost of shipping from me to you. If you’re local (San Diego), we can arrange a pick-up or drop off.
If you want to help, please pass this along to anyone you think may be interested.
Thanks for looking!
