MY TRIP TO LA!!!

The last two days have really been a trip!!! DJ and I left for LA early Saturday morning for a photo shoot at a horse race in LA. I took DJ to the track, dropped him off and went shopping for nice pants, a shirt, belt and shoos. I had to buy them because I left all my nice dress cloths at home. So I did that, talked to Dayna for an hour on the phone, drove to the LAX AIRPORT to get some airplane footage (couldn't find a good place to shoot them so I skipped it) blo,blo, blo..... Well 4:30pm rolled around and DJ called to say that he was done shooting, so I went to pick him up. After picking him up we punched in PASADENA CALIFORNIA and hit the road. On our way down he was telling me about the race and how this horse busted out of the gate charged ahead and stayed ahead the entire race, but as it rounded the last turn to the finish line, it's front leg snapped and it crashed into the ground. He said the horse behind ran straight into the fallen horse and both jockeys went flying. Apparently when a horse breaks its leg they have to kill it, so a team of guys ran out onto the field, put up some white sheets and killed it. They loaded it up on a cart and away it went. Crazy!!! After that we checked into a hotel dropped our stuff off in the room and headed out to down town Pasadena to meet up with Rodeolo Arpia. (a very well known spanish wedding photographer) We ate dinner while Rudy told us his life story. (which is just crazy) In a nut shell He came to the us with nothing but $30 in his pocket, no friends nothing. He worked very hard and is now a very successful wedding photographer. Great Story!!!

The next day came and we got ready for the wedding. The wedding was being held at Santa Anita Park. Santa Anita Park is this amazing race track that sits right outside the mountains here in Pasadena. It was cool, a little depressing though:) I think the groom cared more about the place then he did his bride. They took pictures before the wedding and when he saw her for the first time he didn't even care. He just started talking about the track and the horses and all that....He barely gave her a hug and didn't kiss her... I couldn't believe it!!! This guy is the vet for one of the best horse trainers in the world. They own their own 747 for transporting the horses around the world. They send all the horses to Santa Barbara, where they have exercise pools, spa treatments and a lot of other ridicules stuff. They cost like, 5 million dollars each and half a million to breed!!! CRAZY!!!

Anyway at the wedding, I met this guy named Pepe Valencia...

I sat at his table with he, his wife and two kids. Well come to find out this guy is no fly by night. He is a 3D graphic artist with quite an extensive resume. He joined Sony Pictures Imageworks in 1996 where he served as Animation Supervisor on “The Aviator”, “Peter Pan”, and “Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle”. Other credits include “Surf’s Up”, “Open Season”, “Early Bloomer”, “Stuart Little 2” (winner of the VES Award for Best Character Animation in an Animated Film), “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone”, the Academy Award(R) nominated “Hollow Man”, the Academy Award nominated “Stuart Little”, “Godzilla” and the Academy Award nominated “Starship Troopers”. He did Director’s layout with Robert Zemeckis on “The Polar Express” , Gil Kenan on “Monster House” and the opening sequence of “Superman” with Brian Singer. He is currently working on next Robert Zemeckis film “Beowulf”. Before joining Imageworks, he worked at Cinesite as a Technical Director on “Space Jam” and at a number of smaller production houses. He served as a member of the Animated Short Films jury for the 2001 ASIFA Annie Awards and has written articles for Cinevideo 20 and Campana. This guy was amazing!!! We talked all night about what he does... He gave me his e-mail address and told me to e-mail him. I told him if he was ever n KC to stop in for dinner. He and His wife said they would love too. Anyway after the wedding we headed up to LA and crashed at Gary Fong's condo. Woke up this morning met with Jeff (a marketer) and then came home...

OK im off to bed it's late:)

Night~