Alex's blog

have you heard?

2011-03-28T18:20:00.000-07:00

well, I have recently given my undivided attention to www.blue-atom.org

I have asked a few friends to help contribute as well as have it as my go-to when people ask

Learning French

2010-10-11T16:48:00.000-07:00

Learning French is cool, here's why I think so.

Of course France is an amazing place to visit, and even spend time at. I would love to be able to go to France on a whim. It would be even more amazing if I could establish myself there so that I can spend extended periods of time there. Being able to stay in France for months at a time could be quite an adventure.

Just like English, a lot of paces in Europe speak France. I dont know how popular English is on that side of the world, but Im sure France ranks up there in the top five languages to know. I do know that there are many parts of Africa that speak French, and there are also parts in Canada that speaks French.
From those few reasons alone Ive decided to purse French. I don't know exactly how long it will take me to learn nor how easy or difficult it will be but I do know that I want to be fluent in it.

finally made it through RTC

2010-09-17T19:20:00.000-07:00

I graduated Navy Recruit Training Command Sept 10th 2010, I was in division 304 out of ship 09. I will always remember being yelled at to shave with 80 other guys and to be done in 2 minutes. I will never forget running into the head to use the shower water to shave and looking over at the urinals only to see them being used as impromptu sinks for shaving.
For me, showering with 40 other dudes was never an issue, but for some people it was. After about 2 or 3 days of being there, you were able to smell who these people were. The term "bird bath" was used and used often, at first it was humorous, but then became synonymous with a foul stench, comparable to vinegar and salt.
You were given 30 seconds to get out of bed, put on your shoes and get on the "toe line". This was an arbitrary line of tile just at the foot of the racks we slept in. We were required to stand there at attention whenever the RDC yelled out "get on the toe line!!!" Whenever we heard that and we were not getting out of bed, it usually meant we were about to endure an intensive training session as a group. They work out out until your cloths are soaking with sweat, and one by one as people quit they documented that on their record. I was always able to hang, often times not even breathing hard, but other people couldn't. If one person took 35 seconds to get out of bed, they would IT the entire division. For about the first 4 to 6 weeks they always found a reason to give us IT, and they always waited til about 45 minutes before taps and after we were all fresh and showered. They enjoyed having us go to bed all soaked with sweat, and by "they" I mean the RDCs. Recruit division commanders.
Towards the last few weeks, everyone started to become complacent and stopped following the rues. This frustrated me the most. Instead of doing or saying anything I just stood by for an IT session. Since I didn't get as much exercise as I was expecting, I never took IT as a negative thing, or not as negative as others did. Ive seen people snap after being IT'd whenever someone would talk or do something they weren't supposed to.
RTC for me was a walk in the park, the people in my Div just made it difficult. There were a lot of recruits who had absolutely no military bearing, no respect for others and just didn't care about getting the Div in trouble.
Im not going to say it was a great experience, because it really wasn't. I wish I had got into a spec-ops program. The 900 division seemed to have more discipline and teamwork than any other division. If it wasn't for the people in my div who didn't care about anything, we could have got the acedemic flag and battle E. We were .05 away from it.
My advice to you reading this, get in shape. If you cant do 100 pushups in 2 minutes dont even bother, if you cant run a mile in under 6 minutes dont even bother, if you cant do 100 situps in 2 minutes dont even bother. If you are not a B average student... dont bother. Wait, get into a spec ops program. Bring a lot of addresses with you to write to, bring a lot of stamps, be prepared to be isolated from the world for 2 months. Carrying the stupid water canteen and gaurd belt with the parka is a pain in the ass but you have to do it. Dont make friends, they will either get ASMO'd or medically discharged or both.

LAPD foothill div. ride-along

2010-06-16T21:54:00.001-07:00

I went on a ride-along this past Tuesday with Sgt Jomini of the Foothill div.

I learned a lot from him, he was very knowledgeable and he shared with me a lot of his wisdom; I felt bad that I did not bring my notepad with me or at least a voice recorder.

He shared with me the three rules you need to follow in order to be a cop of integrity:

1. Dont make your job personal.
"There are a lot of different kinds of people on this job: some might not like black people, white people, brown people, yellow people, green people from mars, gay people or straight people, but you can never let that get in the way of doing your job. You have to treat everyone equally" I said "well thats easy, just hate everyone equally" his reply "haha yeah thats probably the easiest way to look at it, but you have to be fair to everyone and just follow the rules and run everything by the book"

2. Dont be a cop when you are off duty, just be a good witness
"There are people who still act like cops when they are off duty, they try to be a hero and would try to stop a crime from happening. The best thing you can do is just stand aside and be a good witness. You have to be smart about what you are doing in order to stay alive... which reminds me of rule number three

3. Stay alive.
"You have to trust your gut feeling, sometimes you get this feeling and you listen to it. Many times it can save your life or the life of your partner. There is no need to be reckless; you can get yourself killed, or get your partner killed. Trust me you don't want that."

Dont go to Ballys North Hollywood

2010-06-04T23:18:00.001-07:00

After my shitty experience at Bally Total Fitness North Hollywood, I decided to send this email to the manager.

------------------

I was there today to speak with you about the 7 day pass and everything. I was greeted by your salesman who was on staff at the time. From what I have gathered he is the only armenian there. I did not see his name his name tag was messed up.

He does not know how to sell me, he did not determine my needs or offer me any options. Being as unprofessional as he was really upset me to the point where I simply left. He wasted my time and bullshitted me.

He informed me that the "policy" did not qualify me for a 7 day pass because I was going into the service in a month. Him and I went back and fourth for a while about this. I told him that Jeff called me and he knew I was going into the service and that he would have told me right there and then if there was a problem. Only after he pissed me off he mentioned that I can buy a 10 dollar/a day pass or a 30 day pass.

I originally wanted a 30 day pass way before I was even contacted by you, If I didnt want a membership I never would have filled out the free pass knowing a staff member would contact me. He had no position to deny my 7 day pass, he wanted me to buy a membership before even setting foot in the gym. I told him I wanted the pass to get a feel for the gym and see if I liked it. I would not pay for a membership for a gym I am not familiar with. (this is where the 7 day pass solves that problem)

He said, before I said anything "You are going into the service anyways you dont have any intention of buying a membership" I replied "Yes thats true, but I also wanted to buy a national membership, so that I can go to any location.... New York, Connecticut, San Diego or even Los Angeles."

I am not the only person who has complained about your salesman. Many people have told me to stay away from that gym and that idiot salesman but I ignored them because the gym was located near my work and it would be easy for me to go to the gym on the regular.

Looks like your incompetant salesman lied to my face about my free 7 day pass and access to the gym.

"You now have full access to our huge selection of cardio and resistance-training equipment, and you are welcome to try a variety of our Group Exercise Classes*, including Yoga and Pilates Mat."

Even though ballys north hollywood is the nearest gym to my work, the poor excuse of a salesman and his failed attempt to help me out made me decide not to join and I will not be recommending that gym to anyone I come in contact with. I will be posting a copy of this email to my website, my blog, my fitness message board and sharing this experience with everyone I know.

Please dont contact me.

another chick in the wall

2010-05-22T02:51:00.000-07:00

I kept it simple: while my friend mike kim was borrowing my lights and triggers to shoot a car, I used my bare canon 550ex on-camera.
We were posted up somewhere in Northridge and instead of being somewhat bored, I got creative.
I pointed my bare flash into a silver collapsible reflector. I had my friend hold the reflector and tilt it towards my subject.
Sandra, who had no idea and against her will, volunteered to be my subject.
Light adjustments in Lightroom2, I did some skin smoothing on one. It may have been a little more than I wanted but eh… I like it

IFA results for 5-20-10

2010-05-21T13:14:00.001-07:00

First IFA (initial fitness assesment) (date unsure, maybe 4-01-10?)
37 push ups in 2:00 minutes
42 sit ups in 2:00 minutes

Second IFA three weeks later (4-22-10)
45 push ups in 2:00 minutes
71 sit-ups in 2:00 minutes

50 push ups in 2.00 minutes (5-20-10)
75 sit ups in 2.00 minutes
1.5 mile run in 10.22 minutes

And I was a bit dehydrated from some light drinking I did the day before.

it works every time

2010-05-04T00:11:00.000-07:00

her: (while looking at my ID) Romo... Tony Romo huh
me: hes my cousin.... to bad he plays for such a crappy team
her:*looks at me to get a good look, probably to see any similarities*
her: hey now.... Im a Cowboys Fan
me: well they are still a crappy team
her: well what's your team
me:Chargers
*silence*
her: well Im a lakers fan too!
me: *rolleyes* you are just saying that because you are in LA, everyone is a Lakers fan right now
her: *confused stare*
me: okay, since you are a lakers fan name a player who isnt Kobe or Lamar Odum...
her: uhhhhhh mmmmmmm that one guy.....
me: what, hes black right?
her: no, hes uhm, short....
me: Famar?
her: no hes bald.
me: five, four, three, two, one, zero....
her: Fisher!
me: oh my god hes not short, hes like 5'8, its because you are wearing like eight inch heels thats why
her: hes shorter than everyone else!
me: wow, you call yourself a lakers fan? haha okay
her: *gives me the most flattered/confused look*
me:you should be a 76ers fan
her:you mean a spurs fan
me:whatever
her:uh huh
me: well nice talking to you I got to go now, I'll see you later lets keep in touch....

Fitness update

2010-05-01T15:58:00.001-07:00

May 1 2010

Weight #147 (up from 139 back in Feb)
Max Bench #135
1.5 mile run without stopping 10.36 (was not pushing it)

(Im too embarrassed to take pics of my progress haha)

quitting fizzy pop diabetes in a can

2010-04-30T01:32:00.000-07:00

I decided a few years back to kick the coke habit. I loved drinking the stuff and I would never go a day without drinking something bubbly and loaded with caffeine and high fructose corn syrup.
It all started when I felt a painful heart beat. I found out it was a cardiac arrhythmia, and I thought that maybe I should stop drinking sodas and energy drinks and anything that had caffeine.
After weening myself off, well no, actually I quit cold turkey; the pain associated with my beating heart seemed to go away after just a few days. It was then when I started to also look more deeply into the ingredients and concentrations of contained in the very popular coke a cola.
I worked with a few doctors and I knew their brains were loaded with information and figured they would be the best people to ask. I also have a very close friend who is a Ph. D (so is his wife) and very knowledgeable in what I wanted to know.

I asked what did 38grams of sugar mean, what did high fructose corn syrup do and what about "diet" coke. I found my answers and doing so helped me never to crave this shit again.

Ive heard, from Dr Ray Strand http://www.releasingfat.com, that you are better off if you got a cup of sugar and spoon-fed yourself 35 to 40 tablespoons of sugar. Natural cane sugar is lower glycemic, meaning it had less of an impact on your blood sugar, you didnt get the spike. High fructose corn syrup was a high glycemic cheap alternative sweeter.

A credible source I then went to was the Journal of American Medical Association. Found in this link http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/292/8/927 I read a few other problems associated with HFCS. Coke will help you gain weight, and you will have a higher chance of getting type 2 diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes used to be called "Adult onset diabetes" but they renamed it because so many young adults and children have started to develop diabetes.

Makes perfect sense right: dont solve the problem or warn the public, simply rename the condition.

If you took the time to read this and you have decided on your own, with the help of this blog post, to quit soda, carbonated high sugar beverages, high fructose corn syrup food, and energy drinks then Ive done my job.

Fuck you high fructose corn syrup.

SpeakEasy’s Double Daddy

2010-04-27T15:49:00.000-07:00

This is one IPA that packs a punch. IPA typically has a very bold taste and this one is no exception. Compared to other India Pale Ale’s out there, this one is a little higher alcohol content then most. 9.5 percent to be exact. Brewed in San Francisco, this IPA contains double the hops and double the malt to give your pallet about as much flavor as it can take, thus its name “double daddy”.
Not many people might have the sophistication to appreciate the taste of this kind of beer; I am still building up towards it. I dont think I can ever drink a fizzy yellow corona the same again after this.
Enjoy responsibly.

Fitness update

2010-04-22T16:51:00.000-07:00

First IFA (initial fitness assesment)
37 push ups in 2:00 minutes
42 sit ups in 2:00 minutes

Second IFA three weeks later (today 4-22-10)
45 push ups in 2:00 minutes
71 sit-ups in 2:00 minutes

I think I'm good

Navy DEP IFA

Modern day philosophers

2010-04-21T21:21:00.000-07:00

In many of the philosophy dialogues I have studied they have almost always taken place in a bath house. People get into a debate that becomes crazy enough to last hours or days or weeks and then someone decides to chisel it into a clay tablet for their archives, later to be discovered and made into a subject worthy of majoring in.
Today's gym experience made me think: we still have philosophical debates. These debates are had by the strangest of people in the Sauna of the Gym that I go to.
So far I have just side-lined whenever a debate starts or when I happen to walk into the Sauna and there is already a debate going. The people and the debates seem to always be the oddest and pretty far fetched.
I know my day will come when I have to put in my two cents and have the people around me soak it up like water to a dry sponge. I just hope I don't stigmatize myself.

Personality change pinpointed

2010-04-21T21:17:00.000-07:00

My Mom told me she knows when I changed. I was in the 10th grade in high school and she told me that is exactly when my personality started changing.

I used to be an introvert. The biggest introvert anyone ever knew. I was a wall decoration who would cling to the bricks of the outside of woodshop during Nutrition and Lunch. In the group of friends I had I was the most quiet.

In the 10th grade I joined the wrestling team and I was to become familiar with the most extroverted people of the entire high school.

Little by little they took me under their wing and trained me. They directly trained me in wrestling skills and maneuvers but indirectly showed me the ways of socializing.

I was never really that good in wrestling, might have been due to my introvertness. I was always so timid and shy that I let that get in the way of winning matches, but I guess now that is a thing of the past

Formula D Long Beach

2010-04-12T00:11:00.000-07:00

I was invited to formula D long beach and I took my camera with me

I got myself into blogging for Dstroyr and I made my first blog entry highlighting formula d long beach's event

check it out here!

http://dstroyr.wordpress.com/2010/04/11/formula-d-long-beach-4-10-10/

My only complaint were the "media access" photographers. I bumped into quite a few who were talking to models I wanted to photograph. Not wanting to interrupt I would just stand waiting for a chance to ask the model for her to pose and its like someone handed a bunch of these guys a cheesy cliche pickup script. I heard at least three or four of them say things like "I have a hookup with a magazine, although I cannot guarantee anything right now, we need to get together and do a more intimate shoot... etc etc"

I dont, in any way, want anyone to ever think of me like that. I felt as if too many people try to milk being a photographer and use it as a way to talk to girls. I always knew about situations like these, but this weekend I was able to witness this first hand. I dont want them to ruin the image of other photographers like me who just do it for fun.

My house and a college dorm share similarities

2010-03-31T01:18:00.000-07:00

The kitchen:
Dishes pile up as high as the ceiling, my brothers wash the stuff they need to use and thats it.
I have a community refrigerator: whatever you put in there is up for grabs. Expect for your leftovers to be rapidly consumed by an unknown assailant
There is always cereal but never any milk
Random stuff gets piled onto the kitchen table never to be cleared or claimed.
Something spills it never gets cleaned, only ignored. Dont ever walk barefoot
Trash can does get emptied out, we just compress it down with some foreign object as soon as it tops off
Fridge gets emptied out and will stay empty until someone breaks and goes out grocery shopping

My bedroom:
People wander in and take stuff without putting them back. I find my belongings strewn about the house [not really]
I find chips and other food crumbs on the floor and no one to come fourth about it.
Both of my doors have been once locked and ultimately kicked in. One is rigged to lock, the one leading to outside is always open. I just barricade myself in from the elements.
I never clean my room. I just rearrange junk to allow easily accessible bed, desk and clothing drawer.
I often find random beer cans in here of which Ive never drank before.
I can turn my room into an impromptu photography studio when needed [been done before]
My computer gets used without my permission [i dont know how to put a password on it, its windows 2k8 server]
If I have some people over late at night and making a lot of noise, I get a phonecall telling me to keep the noise down

The bathroom:
Surprisingly it gets cleaned often frequently, but not frequent enough.
After anyone takes a shower, the entire floor is flooded with about one inch of water.
If you leave a bath towel in there it will always end up on the floor.
You find out the hard way that we ran out of toilet paper.
Never leave your toothbrush in there. Someone seemingly goes out of their way to knock it on the floor near the toilet.
Leave your brand new bottle of body wash or shampoo in the shower, it will always end up on the floor un-capped and 75% empty.
Razors and shaving cream are okay, no one uses them other than their respective owners.

Outside:
If you park your car too far in, someone will park behind you. They are usually in a hurry and get picked up, taking the keys with them.
Yard gets cleaned every great now and then, my junk is strewn about so I guess I cant be that upset.
If you show up late someone takes your spot.
There is a car parked here thats been here for friggin ever. Nothing is wrong with it, just never gets driven.
I find beer cans from people walking by. They just love to chuck them into my yard. [we recycle, this isnt really a complaint]

Neighbors:
They throw kick ass parties. You are never invited but if you stumble into one of their shindigs you are welcomed with open arms and a cold one.
Someone gets shot, stabbed or into a fight, when the cops show up no one saw anything.
At any given time someone is out in their yard throwing a bbq and drinking.
Handing someone a beer is a universal peace offering.
People you dont know show up to your parties, but you dont care because they bring beer with them.
Someone really drunk ends up parallel parking perfectly infront of your driveway [true story]
Randomly bringing a 12 pack to a neighbor = instant party!

random weekend

2010-03-23T14:51:00.000-07:00

I went to the beach with some friends directly after shooting a project. I had all my camera gear with me and so I decided to use it. I wanted to shoot something a little off the wall and out of the box. This is what I came up with. I used off-camera lighting and some post processing. I edited my picture using the original jpeg. I edited Terry's picture using the original RAW. I never realized how much of an editing buffer you get with RAW. Its not even comparable. You get so much more room with RAW than you do with jpeg.

Edited jpeg below

Edited RAW files below

The skies look different because they are. I swapped them out with photoshop. The original sky was super bland, grey, ugly and dead looking. I wanted my pics to look at least a little decent.

Monday we trekked on over to Apple Valley to this natural hot spring. It is a two mile hike to get there. The twist: clothing optional. I am one to always try new things but this is where I drew the line. There was a very attractive chick there whom I acquainted myself with while I was there. She was nude; it was really difficult to look at her in the eye without my eyes wandering to her boobs and the rest of her hot tanned body.

There was also a film being shot there too. Horrible acting by the way.

Pack your shit.

Very nice view from ontop of the hike trail, we went to the river that you see below.

These guys

she buys wax from brazil

2010-03-08T01:34:00.001-08:00

This is Vickie. Shes hot.

pensée de jour

2010-02-11T10:28:00.000-08:00

who would have known that running an even tooth gear set on my fixie would result in popping my tire?

It makes perfect sense: for every crank revolution my rear wheel spins a even number of times. whenever I lock up my tire it will lock up every single time on the exact same contact patch

not paying attention will result in the contact patch wearing through and ultimately popping your tire

I was fortunate that my bike ride had already ended prior to popping my tire, I would have been very far away if it happened any other time, especially skidding everywhere like i was that night

oh well, i fixed it temporarily. I cut a piece of cellphone wallet holder, put it under the wear hole of the tire and patched the tube

I am still going to replace the tire, but I am also going to look into getting a 17 tooth cog or a 51 tooth chain wheel. I currently run a 52 tooth chain wheel and a 16 tooth rear cog, in case you were wondering.

save a whale

2010-02-10T02:03:00.001-08:00

swimming in calm waters is always relaxing. the waters are warm and tropical. once underwater everything is crystal clear. you are swimming with marine life and they seem to be enjoying your company

you've heard many stories of people drowning in water, people getting attacked by sharks and even large populations of people on ships capsizing and losing their lives.

but when you decided to enter that water, it was calm. the sun was up and it was just a warm breezy summer day

the clouds started rolling in and it got darker but you remained calm. you see other swimmers getting out of the water and packing up. but you choose to ignore those people, and ignore the obvious signs that there was a storm a brewin

the clouds are really dark, they look like dirty wool that has been soaked in water and its just starting to sprinkle

this whole time you think to yourself that it is a false alarm. many of the times you got out of the water nothing ended up happening so you decide to stick around and wait it out

suddenly the water you are in feels ice cold and all of the friendly marine life has evacuated your surrounding. you are now left alone in this murky, icy and choppy water, but you decide to do nothing

you now realize you are too far from land to swim back, and as you attempt to swim to shore it starts to rain heavily. thunder cracks and explodes the atmosphere around you, and lighting illuminates the entire sky above

you start to panic and you are trying to swim to safety but the rip current is bringing you in

and this is when you realized: you saw the warnings, you knew this was going to happen, but you had too much trust in yourself and in the weather when you should have remained cautious.

you are getting tired of swimming, and you are losing sense of direction. you begin to lose hope.

at that very moment you stop swimming your head goes under the surface. you close your eyes and welcome the sweet release of hypothermia when it happens

your feet touch the ground and you open your eyes. you see you are at the shore and when your head comes above water all you see is someone standing there, you also notice the water is warm again and the sky is blue. the storm must have turned off like a light switch

someone that didnt seem to notice the storm is wearing a smile. and the moment your eyes meet you forget that you almost became worm food

spontaneous combustion of a motor vehicle

2010-01-19T22:23:00.000-08:00

welp, my mom and bro are driving along minding their own business. My mom's van decided to catch on fire. My brother smelled something burning, looked back and saw the rear portion of the van was on fire. They parked it at the KFC parking lot and jumped out.
Why they decided to take the time to drive and park it is beyond me, I would have just stopped right there and then

More pics here

bodywerks auto in Van Nuys

2010-01-13T02:33:00.001-08:00

bodywerks automotive rx7 exhaust clip from Alex Romo on Vimeo.

Let me know what you guys think!!

my reflection on 2009

2010-01-02T18:08:00.000-08:00

I dont really remember too much in 2009 mainly because I tend to live in the moment.

I sold my beloved 1985 toyota corolla GTS. It was a fully built drift and handling machine that looked like complete shit. It looked that way on purpose so I wouldnt have to worry about getting my car broken into or even stolen. I miss that car, but I do not miss the problems it had.

I started to hangout a lot more at bodywerks.

In school, a girl from high school remembered me and got in touch with me, I have not seen her in over seven years. She lived in Davis while going to school up there. I guess timing is everything.

Since I lost hope, I feel much better.

I skipped a semester of school which just ended up biting me in the ass.

I attempted again to worked full time, but it just wasn't happening.

I acted for a popular tv show on cbs, it will air in feb.

I shot a lot of photography gigs, but none that I can 100% say that I am proud of, there is always something that I could have done better.

I was crushed a few times in 09.

My major purchases were made when I was not working a typical full time job.

Its not about money, its about time. I can always get more money, but I can never get more time.

I applied to csun in 2009.

I took the asvab in 2009.

I quit two full time jobs in 2009; one after the other.

I took bartending classes in 09 and I had the worse drunken nights in 09.

Ive done it in public in 2009.

Eccentric Images was started in 2009.

I went on at least three or four week long vacations, and a few mini-vacations.

I stopped working under other photography companies, Ive decided to work only for myself.

2010 will not be like 2009.

hire me!!

2010-01-01T19:07:00.001-08:00

I am bilingual in spanish
I have professional problem solving skills
I can sell ice to an Eskimo, fire to a fire-ant, and water to a whale.
I am really knowledgeable in professional photography, digital image enhancing and lighting
I am familiar with adobe photoshop, dreamweaver, lightroom, ftp, vbulletin, wordpress, and all windows platforms
I can repair computer software and hardware problems. I can upgrade your ram.
I can brainstorm ideas for award winning movie scripts and short stories
I can travel if needed. I have a clean driving record.
I can fix bikes. I can work on cars and forklifts, but I hate doing that.
I am a lethal over the phone.
I once defended my office from an army of ants by using a glass of water and a toothpick.
I can paint blue in five different colors.

50th anniversary

2009-12-29T19:54:00.001-08:00

P1010589
Originally uploaded by alejandroromo

I was invited to photograph their 50th anniversary.

I decided to try out my lights to see what kind of results I would get. I took a backup camera and put a trigger on it. I still used my canon and flash with bracket as a main camera.

I should have placed these lights better, I was told at the last moment that they were about to dance. I just placed the lights anywhere at that point.

Gabe's Graduation and a some random pictures

2009-12-22T17:18:00.000-08:00

random video from lunch on saturday

2009-12-13T17:11:00.000-08:00

jon from dstroyr tells us about his vegetarianism from Alex Romo on Vimeo.

All in a day's work

2009-12-05T17:07:00.001-08:00

IMG_6893
Originally uploaded by alejandroromo

well...

2009-12-04T02:35:00.000-08:00

From this post on I will be posting personal blogs. I still have www.blue-atom.org but I wont be posting personal stuff on there, just photography related things. I find this to be the most reliable blog and I dont have to worry about not paying the hosting bill. lol

I will be posting up stuff I encounter, find interesting or just whatever seems to be on my mind at that place in time.

www.blue-atom.org

2009-10-21T02:21:00.000-07:00

I finally managed to configure wordpress and have that tied to blue atom. I have imported ALL of the previous entries from by blogger blog on over to blue atom. Feel free to hop on over to BA as I will be now updating it a little more often. And way more often as soon as I can figure out how to get flickr to work.

Thanks,

-The Managment

Marcela

2009-10-20T08:27:00.001-07:00

IMG_6895
Originally uploaded by alejandroromo

Finished a set on Sunday with Marcela. She is a very fun and spontaneous person to work with. Made everything flow really smoothly and she helped me out tremendously with her ideas.

Balloon boy

2009-10-15T20:45:00.001-07:00

Balloon boy
Originally uploaded by alejandroromo

subie fest

2009-10-11T14:25:00.001-07:00

subie fest
Originally uploaded by alejandroromo

subie-fest 2009 was a blast. A lot of nice cars and a lot of nice people. Subiefest 2010 here we come, hopefully by then I'll have a subie :)

FC2000

2009-10-05T14:29:00.001-07:00

FC2000
Originally uploaded by alejandroromo

This car was completed almost a week ago. It has a full urethane FC2000 kit by RE amemiya. Custom front mount by BodyWerks in Van Nuys.

polaris predator at pismo

2009-08-31T15:27:00.001-07:00

polaris predator
Originally uploaded by alejandroromo

We all went down to pismo beach for my birthday weekend. we were all there since thursday up until sunday. I took this pic the moment we arrived at our camp and I think its the best pic ive taken throughout the entire trip

my lil bro

2009-08-25T20:04:00.001-07:00

my lil bro
Originally uploaded by alejandroromo

I finally got a decent off-camera lighting setup and I got a chance to use it. My little brother out of almost everyone I know was the only person willing for me to test my light gear on.

my future photography project

2009-08-18T23:24:00.001-07:00

IMG_2908
Originally uploaded by alejandroromo

Well in spite of a better photography portfolio, i want to offer a complimentary photoshoot. here is the thing, in order to help myself out, i want to offer the following photoshoots: headshots, portraits, e-sessions, and up to a wedding photography photo session. if you are in the socal area contact me. If you are pretty far from the san fernando valley, i am willing to travel if you kick me back with some travel expense $ to cover fuel. but im willing to travel as far as san diego. contact me at alexromo@gmail.com

:)

Photogroup

2009-06-26T00:12:00.000-07:00

I noticed there are not too many people I know that are into photography. I seem to be the go-to photographer for almost everyones needs. While that is fine it makes me wonder how many other photgraphers are out here in my area.

I stumbled on this blog and one section it detailed "5 steps to starting a photography group in your area" and I got a bit of an idea. It would be very fun creating a photography group locally. We can all motivate each other and bounce creativity around.

Lets see how this goes

p.s it would be cheaper too: Everyone buy 1 pocket wizard and 1 hot-shoe flash

I've always wanted to buy 3 wizards and 3 hot-shoe flashes along with the supporting gear but its going to set me back quite a bit

Fernando's graduation

2009-06-18T14:00:00.001-07:00

Fernando's graduation
Originally uploaded by alejandroromo

Fernando invited me to his graduation at UCSan Diego. I always love going down to SD so gladly I went. I took my camera gear and tried to fire off a few decent photos. I had to fight a swarming crowd of tourist-like parents taking pictures of their kids in order for me to get this shot. I fired away violently and this was one of the shots I was able to get. The smile on Fernando's face was not because he was getting his picture taken, he saw me struggling to fight my way through the crazed mob of people in order to get close enough to take his picture.

Dream building

2009-05-25T18:45:00.001-07:00

I hear a lot of people say that it cant be done, but when you meet people that have done it and are willing to teach you how to do it, what is there to lose?

IMG_3062
Originally uploaded by alejandroromo

Olvera St.

2009-05-16T03:21:00.001-07:00

IMG_2884
Originally uploaded by alejandroromo

Went to Downtown Los Angeles one day with my cousin and our cameras. He was there trying to shoot landmarks for a school project and I was just there for fun.

Check my flickr for more of the pictures

Samantha's charrioit

2009-05-11T23:39:00.001-07:00

6
Originally uploaded by alejandroromo

This was her wedding day, the 25th of April 2009. She was getting hitched to Miguel. Ive known Miguel for quite some time and when I was asked if I could do his photography I immediately said YES!

Jin's legs

2009-05-08T02:45:00.001-07:00

jinkim
Originally uploaded by alejandroromo

so I took pics of my friend jin a while back just for fun and I stumbled upon a set of pics that she edited in photoshop

here is her description: "Using new techniques in Photoshop CS3
and learning Corel Painter X
were the main purposes of making this piece.

Everything in this piece was done from scratch.
the bg wallpaper pattern was hand drawn and scanned.
The flowers were drawn with markers.

The picture frame was sketched with charcoal
from one of the picture frames at Norton Simon Museum,
and then was digitally painted in Corel Painter X.

The picture was cut out from one of the studio photos that
Alex Romo took of me."

I am impressed!

hooka

2009-04-30T02:07:00.001-07:00

IMG_2620
Originally uploaded by yeathatalex

dusted off the hooka, then thought it would make an interesting picture

helped someone get into print modeling

2009-04-28T22:59:00.001-07:00

jane cho
Originally uploaded by stockshortblock

i was checking my voicemails and out of nowhere i got a voicemail from this girl i met at school. she was asking if i could help her get some headshots because she has an appointment with one of the biggest talent managment agencies in hollywood. needless to say she was really on a last minute deadline. her appointment was for the next day at 4pm. we shot her photos at my friend's studio, ran over to my house to upload and edit them. we then ran over to my photo lab to get them printed. she was really nervous and she kept thinking she was going to be late. i tried my best to assure her that everything would go smoothly. at her interview i was also called in. they asked who took the pictures. the person doing the interviewing said the pictures did a good job of capturing her look

she is now represented by this managment agency and it hasnt really sunk in yet that i helped her out.

on the drive home she was telling me how negative she was about the whole thing. first she forgot her cellphone at home, when i went to pick her up i was not able to get ahold of her. then out of nowhere i saw her and i called out her name. then she was telling me that she didnt think i was going to call her back and that she was thinking of not going at all. she also thought that i would be too busy to help her out, me calling her back might have sealed the deal

she owes me bigtim

My first wedding

2009-04-21T02:41:00.001-07:00

ohsnapzsadf
Originally uploaded by stockshortblock

The day was December 31st 2007. I was asked to help out with wedding photography as an assistant. and it was made clear to me that my images would not be used on the final album. needless to say ALOT of images, including this one, made its way to the final wedding album. When they were putting the rings on each other's ring finger some stupid lady videographer they hired got in my way. she wasnt even dressed nice: she work jeans, a coffee stained sweater and sneakers.
she got infront of them blocking my view of them as i was snapping away, i thought i missed the image. When i got back to the office and uploaded the images, i was surprised to find this one turn up

The moment that I captured is pricelss!!!!!!

flashlight fun

2009-04-13T21:49:00.001-07:00

flashlight
Originally uploaded by stockshortblock

I finally tied my flickr to my blogspot and now i can blog easier than ever

expect to see many more photo blogs from me

impromtu photoshoot

2009-04-13T21:39:00.001-07:00

IMG_1407
Originally uploaded by stockshortblock

We were at home and we decided to improv a photoshoot

what first started off as a joke turned into something pretty good

San Diego

2009-02-09T00:36:00.001-08:00

2009-01-22T00:49:00.000-08:00

It was a quiet day today until about 3 this afternoon. I heard some gunshots outside down the street but thought nothing of it. Gunshots seem to be the norm around my city. I then noticed a lot of my neighbors were coming outside of their houses to see what was going on. I joined in on the action but only after I ate and did some other stuff inside. I went outside and found the whole entire block was closed off. Someone was shot and killed. The victim was a fifteen year old kid that was on his bike. He was not a bystander he was the target. People have told me the person who shot him put about six rounds straight into his upper body.

Such a sad thing to be around.

2009-01-20T01:02:00.000-08:00

The dog shaking my hand is paco, the one in the background is fluffy. These are my two favorite dogs in the whole world. Last saturday we lost melon, paco seemed to be super bummed out for a while about the whole deal. Fluffy gave paco a lot of support which was cool to see. Today for the first time ever paco shook my hand!

2008-12-22T15:57:00.000-08:00

photoshop fun

2008-12-12T23:19:00.000-08:00

sun was glaring directly into my camera, i used an off camera flash camera left to kill the shadow

home studio up and running

2008-12-01T21:30:00.001-08:00

This is what happens when you are bored and have some resources to your disposal. I got a random (brand new) bedsheet and use it as a backdrop. It was pretty fun but the batteries in my flash were near dead.
Click the link for the rest of the images
Click this text the rest of the images

2008-11-28T17:22:00.000-08:00

My grandma with her two sisters

paco

2008-11-09T16:10:00.000-08:00

I never met a dog as lazy as paco

Jane photoshoot

2008-11-07T19:11:00.001-08:00

tonys car

2008-11-06T12:44:00.001-08:00

its a car, and it belongs to tony

i should have put more effort into this image: i should have moved the truck out of the background. oh well, with the little time i had i think this is a decent image

more to come, with more preparation too

photoshop burning tool fun

2008-11-03T23:18:00.000-08:00

Its 3am, finished my digital photo assignment

2008-10-28T02:37:00.000-07:00

I finally finished it, i had missed class for the greater part of last week and now, i have to finish this assignment the day before class. The good thing is now I get to start on my 5 page paper!

photo assignment

2008-10-26T22:46:00.000-07:00

third street screwball

2008-10-25T01:51:00.000-07:00

This guy at the third street promenade in santa monica had quite a crowd on him

i shot this picture incognito obviously because he would have talked some more nonsense pertaining me and my camera and such

self portrait

2008-10-14T14:32:00.001-07:00

Easier on the eyes, I just need a better background

*shoot through umbrella upper right of camera. camera set on timer.

it was really hard getting it to focus

sylmar fire

2008-10-14T14:29:00.000-07:00

Waking up to the smell of smoke is not a pleasant thing to wake up to. The sunday morning was a dull orange and the smell was over powering.

This stuff is the best!

2008-10-07T15:29:00.000-07:00

All your carbonated high fructose corn syrup sweetened beverages need to bow down to this.

self portrait

2008-09-15T21:14:00.001-07:00

Self portrait that I took, olympus camera with IR remote, set at 2sec wait. I held two wireless strobes: one above and one below the camera

Interesting light

2008-09-08T23:21:00.000-07:00

This simple looking lamp looks very ordinary, but there is nothing ordinary about the light you see it shining. I put a strobe with a wireless trigger just above the lamp and had it go off with the exposure. Interesting to say the least

we saved a puppy

2008-08-18T18:52:00.001-07:00

We got puppy last week, he had a nasty burn on his left shoulder. My brothers have named him Fluffy, but I dont think that name will strike fear into the heart of anyone. He has quickly grown on us, and he has already made a new friend.

Flash snoot

2008-08-05T19:51:00.001-07:00

Experimenting with a single flash using a snoot

Adrian

2008-08-02T19:29:00.000-07:00

I have no idea what is going through his head at this very moment, but something tells me that he is up to no good.

2008-07-31T01:34:00.000-07:00

Wireless flash trigger finally came in from Hong Kong. My cousin took the pic and said the flash looked like a lightning bolt. I thought about holding it to the electrical outlet just for fun.

my grandma

2008-07-28T17:10:00.001-07:00

My grandma is a very quiet person. Lives a simple life, enjoys anything that is on TV, enjoys her fruit and enjoys her warm sun. Dont get on her bad side and dont upset her. She can unload about fifty different bad words every thirty seconds

Paco and Adrian

2008-07-22T20:31:00.000-07:00

He had such a hard time holding that dog. I think paco weighs more than him.

His favorite word is pepperoni

2008-07-17T23:21:00.000-07:00

My little brother Adrian got such a kick when my other brothers, or I, would even mention the word pepperoni

ग्रपेस

2008-07-17T00:28:00.000-07:00

My mom told me "alex, take a picture of some grapes". I was like, why the hell would i need to take a picture of some grapes? Grapes are grapes!! She then told me these grapes were not store bought. These grapes were home grown. I never seen a batch of grapes this nice. They usually dry out, birds eat them, or someone beats us in harvesting them.
One simple picture turned into a strenuous photo session. At first i used on camera flash, and this picture you see here, i had my brother holding a little strobie over a shoot through umbrella, a little behind the dish, overhead. I think it came out good

My cousin's quinceñera

2008-07-14T01:17:00.000-07:00

A picture is worth a thousand words, so I'll let these pictures I took speak for themselves

Please dont use these without my permission.

aww puppah aww

2008-07-09T16:03:00.000-07:00

This is paco, he is my roll dog.

my brother adrian

2008-07-08T23:25:00.001-07:00

This little tiger is about five years old, yet has the vocabulary that can rival a few people I know

The sun was going down, and the sky looked weird. I grabbed him from his animated soaps, and had him sit on this wall out in front of my house. He had no idea where he was going, or what I was going to do, but he came along without hesitation

My sample photo gallery

2008-06-22T12:06:00.000-07:00

Chicken fajitas

2008-06-18T16:25:00.000-07:00

Never let anyone else prepare your food before you cook it, here is why:

This picture was taken with my "point-and-shoot". Photography critiques need not apply.

FINALLY!!!!

2008-05-29T19:41:00.000-07:00

After many many attempts at trying to log into my blogger account, I finally managed to figure it out. Apperantly i tried to sign in with my google email, whereas i was signed up under my yahoo email

go figure

My first official blog

2007-03-21T21:28:00.000-07:00

This is my first official blog. I do have xanga and a myspace, but none of which fall into a reliable category. I dont really take xanga too seriously, its more of a kids blog. Myspace is just a fad, and myspace blogging is a joke. I do have a live journal, but I only created that account to read a certain someone's postings.
Well as long as I have a few minutes and internet access, I will update this blog as frequent as possible. I recently moved and my new place does not have internet yet, so stay tuned.