I Write-I Shoot-I Live

California Experience

novaboii — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:13:58 +0000

Above are some photos I’ve taken in California and Las Vegas for my brief stay there. I was on the National Student Exchange program at California State University San Bernardino and loved it! Studied film and a bit of journalism, held an internship at a newspaper, and had fun in the sun. From downtown Los Angeles to Colton to the Las Vegas strip, it was a blast and these are only a few of the memories I’ll hold from the experience. Definitely looking forward to heading back some day.

Borracho Shoot

novaboii — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:12:35 +0000

1/19/12

I had the pleasure of shooting in a 3 man camera crew (Me, Kevin, Jerry) for rock band Borracho last Sunday at a rented out theater in DC. The shoot was cool and went well, everybody got a long and we had a good vibe between the crew and band. I was shooting with my Nikon d3100 DSLR, Kevin was shooting with his AF 100, and Jerry with his HVX (think 200 can’t recall). Had some troubleshooting problems with how to ingest the files on a drive and the AF 100 had a bit of trouble with it’s Atomos Ninja recorder. But we worked through all that and had a pretty good shoot.

photo: Chris Smith

The set up we had was cool I was working between my glidecam and shoulder rig w/ d focus system, the HVX was either handheld, tripod, or jib. And the AF 100 was either “man cam”, dolly set up, or on a ladder(yeah i’m serious) hooked up to a monitor most of the time. I got a little (no seriously a little) bit of BTS footage during the shoot, check it out below.

Least to say it was a great shoot covered from all angles and I think the band will really like the video. I encourage you to check out their music if your into rock .<>

They gave me a copy of their album and a cool T-shirt. Took a listen and it has a real cool hardcore vibe. I’m more of a alternative rock type of guy, but I think this is a band I can continue listening to most definitely.

One track on the album “Never Get it Right” is something that gets me going. Starts off slow and really builds the song up one instrument at a time and had me zoning. It then speeds up to a steady tempo accompanied with the grungy vocals. The thing that I like about this track is that it switches up the feel of the song enough to keep you engaged.

My favorite track has to be “Concentric Circles” though, really high paced, awesome lyrics, drums on point, guitars on point, and bass on point.

One thing your probably wondering is which songs was the music video done for? Your going to have to wait for the next post to check it out and see for your self.

Windy Day

novaboii — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 20:15:14 +0000

Was on the way to a production meeting and saw that a tree was down. Whether due to the high Santa Ana winds or workers cutting down in fear of falling I am not sure of.

photography: Chris "Nova" Smith

There was a ABC 7 Eye witness van out in front of the downed tree area though. Most likely covering material for their afternoon news block.

photography: Chris "Nova" Smith

Other than that me and my group for my TV production class met and planned out the set for our final project. It is about a soap opera gone wrong and as of today I will be the actor in the scene. This will be my 6th production that I am talent in. I can’t wait to get my reel back at the end of this quarter. Should be funny.

photography: Chris "Nova" Smith

Shooting Trail

novaboii — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 02:26:08 +0000

Decided to go out and shoot for a bit near the Mountain by my Cal State school. Enjoy

photography: Chris" Nova" Smith

photography: Chris "Nova" Smith

Old cars

novaboii — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 06:16:03 +0000

Was looking through my photographs to spruce up my portfolio and totally forgot about how I covered a car show last month. Felt a bit selfish so thought I’d share some from the Colton Car show.

photography: Chris "Nova" Smith

Of course since I’m on the west coast most of the cars were low riders and chevys, but the one above definitely caught my eye though. Reminds me of the Beatles and the film Blow Up. Maybe because I just saw that in film class the other day…..very frustrating movie….pretty brilliant for its time, but frustrating all the same.

Oh yeah whats West Coast Car shows without a little hydrolic action?

photography: Chris "Nova" Smith

Reminds me of a scene from the Fast and the Furious. Still haven’t seen fast five either

This one though…..

photography: Chris "Nova" Smith

Is one of my favorites, except for the one that is on my desktop background and that is just for me to enjoy haha.

Anyways till next time.

Prolonged Too long (Las Vegas)

novaboii — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 07:16:16 +0000

Been pretty busy and lacking on the blogging lol

photography: Chris Smith

Las Vegas was an awesome experience. It truly is Sin City though, legal public drinking, legal prostitution, and legal everything basically. Other than public drinking I didn’t participate fully in the Sin factor.

photography: Chris "Nova" Smith

Didn’t eat at too many special spots, but I definitely partied at some hotspots. Also getting in for free isn’t a bad thing at all. I ended up partying on the Eiffel Tower in Paris, no not France, but the hotel & casino spot. The nightclub called Chateau was pretty amazing with a large array of costume party-goers.

For more info on my trip to Vegas check out my story for the <>

photography: Chris Smith

Update

novaboii — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 07:47:01 +0000

Hey I’m heading to Las Vegas for this Halloween Weekend. Not saying what I will be yet, have to solidify my costume. But here is a picture of me if you haven’t seen me in a while. And expect plenty of photos from Vegas!

photography: Self Made

In honor of (NBCAM)

novaboii — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 04:01:32 +0000

Hey haven’t posted any new entries for some days. Been busy having fun, going to classes, networking, meeting people, and other things.

Really it’s more so I’ve been busy with this internship I have with a small newspaper known as City News Group along with working with my campus newspaper The Coyote Chronicle.

Mostly I’ve been on assignment for CNG and recently covered a walk benefiting cancer research out in Downtown Redlands, CA. I captured some cool shots. Check out some of the photos

photography: Chris "Nova" Smith

People from the surrounding communities came together to celebrate life, raise money, and help the fight against cancer anyway that they could which today was to walk or run.

photography: Chris "Nova" Smith

Humans weren’t the only ones out walking.

photography: Chris "Nova" Smith

Signing rocks in memory of loved ones

photography: Chris "Nova" Smith

A lot of people had on unique get-ups like this for their walking team.

photography: Chris "Nova" Smith

SURVIVORS.

bless.

Meddi Eat Spot

novaboii — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 19:12:33 +0000

Went for a nice little drive with a couple of friends to get away from the San Bern scene for a bit. Didn’t do too much walking around and sightseeing, but it was refreshing all the same to come down from the mountains lol. Got to see the Flynt Publications building.

photography: Chris "Nova" Smith

You can say all the bad stuff you want about that man, but at the end of the day he did a lot to make some of the necessary changes to what has become today’s guidelines to Media Law.

I saw a nice old school car with white wall tires among other things, but taking pictures while driving isn’t such a good idea especially in LA.

photography: Chris "Nova" Smith

After a lil’ cruise through the city we decided to check out a Mediterranean restaurant that some went to before and as I’m always up for a good Kabob I didn’t disagree with the move.

photography: Chris "Nova" Smith

Shamshiri Grill down in Westwood has a romantically welcoming environment, truly a great date spot with various movie theaters not too far away. The service is on point and the employees are very nice and accommodating. And the food is flavorsome, coming in a pretty big serving size. I highly doubt you’ll finish the plate and that’s a good thing so you’ll have some for later.

photography: Chris "Nova" Smith

The wait on a busy night might be ten to twenty minutes. Its funny the seating area is in the middle of the restaurant so your directly across from someone devouring they’re meal. Odds are your eyes will be all up in their plate. The cool thing is that there is a window behind you so that you can see the chef’s grilling up and preparing the food.

They give you complementary flat bread, butter, lettuce-ish stuff, onion, and radish before your food comes. I had some fun with this, because we ordered some type of sauce and yogurt stuff and meshed that to make a tangy tasting snack.

photography: Chris "Nova" Smith

Shamshiri has a good variety of dishes: wraps, soups, seafood, veggie dishes, chicken, beef, and lamb. Yeah…..I got the lamb.

photography: Chris "Nova" Smith

The Lamb Kabob dish comes with onions, peppers, and tomatoes. Along with a ton of rice and a lemon sprinkle for zest. I found wrapping it all up in flat bread delivers some bold flavor.

photography: Chris "Nova" Smith

And that is it for today. If you get a chance go check it out. Now I leave you with this cool Dodgers jacket.

photography: Chris "Nova" Smith

@SoCalNova

Leftover LA shots

novaboii — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 05:09:27 +0000

Had a couple of photos I never posted and decided let me post em’ to keep the blog fresh with some new content. enjoy…..or not. lol

photography: Chris "Nova" Smith

Right after we got off the airport at the rental car building. Planes were coming in for landing pretty low. I feel like its going to transform into a decepticon or something.

photography: Chris "Nova" Smith

Nice view from the highway.

photography: Chris "Nova" Smith

These 3 guys look like they are just in the moment of life….just living. Looking quite fly too i might add.

photography: Chris "Nova" Smith

everyone’s a artist

photography: Chris "Nova" Smith

Running with a purse? ok…..

photography: Chris "Nova" Smith

Location where T.I. tricked the rest of the gang in the movie Takers

photography: Chris "Nova" Smith

self-explanatory

photography: Chris "Nova" Smith

So spiderman walks everywhere and not just that, but walks everywhere with a suitcase. Mary Jane kicked him out.

photography: Chris "Nova" Smith

Cupcakes in the bag! :-9

photography: Chris "Nova" Smith

Well…zombies are walking around hollywood….and spiderman isn’t doing a thing about it either. Oh yeah her sign says enough.

photography: Chris "Nova" Smith

Their make-up is LEGIT.

photography: Chris "Nova" Smith

The premiere of Cars2 was just a couple of hours before this in June. Looks like the hollywood riot just happened. DJ KASKADE!! “ ME+BIG SPEAKERS+MUSIC=BLOCK PARTY!!!” lol