[Photo] The Trumpeter

Sorry again for the lack of posts as of late. I have several planned in the near future. For now, here's a photo I grabbed on the streets of San Diego. As a musician, I love stopping to listen to buskers. This cat was great...and loud. We heard him from way down the street. Grabbing this shot right in front of his horn nearly destroyed my ears, but it was well worth it. You could actually see the volume in this shot. Just look at the amount of air in his cheeks. Ridiculous.

[Edit] So according to reader, Andrew, that's just bad technique in his cheeks. I don't play any brass or woodwind instruments so I wouldn't know. Thanks, Andrew! Do you have anything to add? Is Andrew right? Let us know in the comments!

[Photo] Rose Parade: The People

As promised, here is the second post on the series covering my time at the 123rd Rose Parade in Pasadena, CA. Today, I will feature the people of the Parade. Hopefully this will offer a slightly different point of focus than other peoples' coverage of the event. Above, we have some jolly old men on the Shriner's Hospital float called Soaring for Kids. Check out yesterday's post for another photo of the float.

Here we have the mounted rider my friends and I lovingly called "The Asian Cowboy (with a Fu-Manchu)." We really liked his stache.

Of course every group of horses was followed by an equally (or in most cases, more) exciting group of poop scoopers! Everyone loves these guys and gals. They get cheered on as they do their work in the wake of the horses. The woman leading this group was especially excited. Fight on.

Even if you camp out early to save a spot, it can be hard to see over the heads of everyone in front of you. Luckily we had primo accommodations and got access to some great vantage points. However, if you were stuck behind droves of people, you should take notes. These guys are actually on top of a ladder. Genius!

Now, if you don't know yet, I'm a photographer. Photographers tend to be a bit nosy curious when it comes to what gear someone else is using. Naturally, I couldn't help but notice what people were using to photograph the parade.

Here you have the oh-so-common iPhone. It takes great pictures. That's a fact, which is why you see people everywhere taking photos with them.

Next, I spotted a relatively small tablet sticking out of a crowd of iPhones and SLRs. It must be a bit awkward to take photos with, but oh well, it works.

Now, an iPad. It's just too big to be comfortable to use as a camera and frankly, it looks ridiculous. I'm not going to judge you if you do it, but others might.

Okay, this one just dumbfounded me. A Nintendo DS? Huh? What's going on? Yeah...I've never seen this before. I guess there's a first for everything.

I hope you all enjoyed my coverage of this year's Rose Parade as much as I enjoyed watching and photographing it! If you want more information about the parade as well as more coverage, check their website out here!

[Photo] Oakland Chinatown Photo Walk

I went to Oakland's Chinatown with a few friends over the weekend for a casual photowalk. I know I haven't posted in a very long time, so here's a ton of photos! [slideshow]

Full resolution photos are available for viewing on my flickr page.

Feedback in the form of constructive criticism is always welcome, and please let me know if you prefer viewing the images as a slide show or if you want individual images or thumbnails instead.