Irish Auditions
Irish is auditioning for an acting program in college so we met on Saturday to record music and videos for his audition tape. Irish is a very good actor and recently has taken classes to improve his singing voice so that he could pursue a career in acting. I think he has the ability to make it happen. Ever since he was a young boy he has taken to the spot light and used to perform rap and dance routines at any school function he could. He also used to customize songs and raps at every family wedding. He was always the hit of the any event that we went to. The kids got talent and looks like a real leading man if you ask me. Don’t forget, you saw it here first.
Village people of Sa Pa
Sa Pa is a quiet mountain town in Northern Vietnam that is home to a great many ethnic minority groups that have been living in the region for thousands of years. It is a pretty special place in Vietnam for many reasons. The most obvious difference from the rest of Vietnam is that it is cool and mountainous while the rest of the country is very tropical and low lands near the ocean and water. Sa Pa is a place where the climate is very similar to that of France and so when the French were occupying Vietnam earlier this century they would send soldiers for vacations to the region to make sure that they didn’t leave the country. When French soldiers left back to France for their vacations they sometimes didn’t return so the French Military created Sa Pa as a vacation destination for those soldiers.
Sa Pa is beautiful, but the ethnic minorities are very poor. This is the place where you get to see how people lived thousands of years ago untouched by all of the modern amenities like TV, transportation, internet and IPADS. One thing that was obvious to me when I was there was how much happier people seemed to be even though they had almost nothing besides each other. It was a very transforming experience for me to see these people and the way that they live. This woman was wearing large earrings. They say in their culture that when the earrings fall off the ears that they are ready to go to heaven. I saw many elderly ladies where the earrings were just centimeters from coming off their ears. I bet that they were pretty happy to see that. Just another thing that makes this place so special.
Irish is heading off to College
Irish was just a small baby last time I remember and now 18 years later he is heading off to college. It is truly amazing how time flies when you look at in the perspective of your nieces and nephews and how quickly they grow up. Irish has always been a very genuine and respectful kid and has more natural acting, musical and dancing talent in his pinky than I could hope to have in a hundred lifetimes. Today he came over and recorded some music as he is entering the acting program in college and needed to submit his musical talent and head shots. So we did both and next weekend we shoot the music video for his audition. I think we are looking at one of the next great actors on the big screen or Broadway. Ladies and Gentlemen, meet the next star Irish Giron.
Perfect winter weather in San Diego
San Diego is turning out to be quite miraculous this year. Everyday I wake up, I look outside and there are blue skies and perfect weather. I am not sure why we are so blessed this year but everyday I think to myself that this is the best weather that we have had in many years. It is winter you know and most parts of the country are tormented with freezing temperatures, rain, snow and all the other painful winter effects. But in San Diego the sun continues to shine on us as never before. In fact we are projected to have another weekend of 70 degree plus temperatures. Part of me feels guilty for stealing all of the best weather and part of me gloats about it. We are truly blessed here in San Diego. Here is a picture of Tu that I took last weekend at sunset. Most sunsets are like this in San Diego these days.
When your smiling, the whole world smiles with you
There is none cuter than the adorable Darla. There is not much more I can say to prove this to you then to tell you to just watch this video.
She loves to hug
Darla is the cutest little baby you could ever lay your eyes upon. What makes her cute is not just the fact that she is adorably cute to look at but the fact that she is so happy – laughing and smiling at everything. I do not think I have ever seen a happier and more content baby then her. When you walk in the room and smile at her, she will smile right back at you and let out a joyful scream of delight that you are looking and smiling her way. It is truly amazing.
I took a picture of her with my other adorable nephew Oliver. She was so happy and loving to him. When he came in the room she dropped her doll and gave him big hugs and patted him on the back. It was amazing to watch her joy of life and how she just wanted to share the love she was feeling inside with him. It was quite possibly one of the cutest things I have seen in my life.
Run, Get your camera
Ever have a moment when you walk in a room and you say, wow, I need to get my camera right now because something special is happening. I had one of those moments tonight when I walked into Geno’s room (my nephew) and saw his mom Camille reading him a bedtime story. The moment was real. I could see how much it meant to both of them, this ritual that helped comfort each of them each night. Camille had just finished a pretty rigorous dance schedule in preparation for a dance show and it had required her to spend hours practicing late into the night. Unfortunately it meant that she missed this nighttime ritual with Geno. She told me after I took this picture that she didn’t think she would do another dance show because this particular moment with Geno each night was so important to her. Sometimes a picture can paint a thousand words. I think this one does.
Using Photoshop to make eyes pop
Eyes are the windows to someones soul. In any photograph it is very important to make sure that someones eyes are sharp otherwise the photo will look dull and not very interesting. While there are probably thousands of video tutorials to help people use Photoshop to sharpen eyes, I discovered a pretty interesting technique using the High Pass Filter in Photoshop to really help sharpen someones eyes and make them pop. I have a video tutorial here on Photoshop of exactly how to do it. It only takes about 30 seconds to improve any picture by using this technique to make the eyes really pop in a photo.
Here is a sample photo of Tu where I used the technique.. Look how her eyes sparkle.. It only took 30 seconds to get this effect.
