Friend's Take Time To Give Advice

When I asked a couple of friends through Facebook or Twitter on their opinions on a specific camera choice, I got an overwhelmingly response. They all gave great insights coupled with personal experiences and I just wanted to post my experience and my gratitude. First the twitter story.

Olympus OM-D 5E Conversion

After months of reading, waiting and asking around, I finally made my decision.

Storified by Elijah Nicolas · Fri, Jul 20 2012 23:10:50

I post the initial question out on twitter and facebook.  
Clock is ticking! I need a new setup for my little girl that's going to be crawling around the house! Olympus OM-D, Mark III or NEX? #cameraElijah Nicolas
@jaythreepio replies first
@eejay i'd say nex just because it's more portable/compact but still has the interchangeable lensesJames
@jaythreepio check out all the reviews on http://dpreview.com and then tell me what you think. // http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/olympusem5Elijah Nicolas
@eejay based on the reviews, i'd say Canon. I do like Nex cuz of its compact design, but I've had bad experiences w/Sony in the pastJames
@jaythreepio did you read the one on the OM-D? It’s still a third of the price of the Mark III and formidable.Elijah Nicolas
@eejay oh, i didn't look at the price. haha i only compared the features/ratings. between the olympus & the nex... tough.James
@eejay how much video/moving pics are you going to take? because the NEX wins out on that compared to the OM-DJames
@eejay man, both are very solid. a real toss-upJames
A great conversation with @b737officeview
@eejay bottomline? nothing will compare 2 a true DSLR & people photos w/indoor light is where the 5Dmk3 specializes. 4/3rd is a compromise.b737officeview
@eejay BUT college is expensive and a lower end DSLR is STILL better than 4/3rd. look at TS4i, 60D, 7D too.b737officeview
@eejay I use DSLR for the forever jaw dropping photos of my kids, and my iPhone for on the fly.b737officeview
@b737officeview I like the distinction between the two. What DSLR do you use? I like the 7D but it’s a little “old” now.Elijah Nicolas
@eejay a 50D w/17-55, 10-22, and 70-200 lens options. I would DREAM to get the 5Dmk3. Nothing produces bokeh and DOF in portraits like DSLR.b737officeview
@eejay the way u get amazing kid photos is natural light and firing away with a high speed shutter… again the domain of the DSLR.b737officeview
@eejay if u are new to DSLR glass always is more important than body. Don’t blow the cash on a 5D only to put a kit lens on.b737officeview
@eejay buy a lower end body, get a 50mm 1.4 prime and a 17-55 (or 25-70 full frame) and upgrade the body later.b737officeview
@b737officeview I definitely appreciate all the input! I’ll be reading a TON!Elijah Nicolas
All the while, I read @stevehuffphotos review of the OM-D 5E
The Olympus OM-D E-M5 Digital Camera Review. Micro 4/3 finally matures...for real. By Steve Huff | STEVE HUFF PHOTOSThe Olympus OM-D E-M5 Digital Camera Review by Steve Huff Micro 4/3 finally matures..for real. Well here we are in May of 2012 and Olympu...
@stevehuffphotos after reading all about the OM-D 5E, I’m about 80%. I need a cam before Aug 15th for my baby arriving & thinking Sony?Elijah Nicolas
he's busy so no reply.
of course, I read about the lenses he likes
The Panasonic - Leica 25 1.4 Summilux Lens Review for Micro 4/3 | STEVE HUFF PHOTOSThe Panasonic - Leica 25 1.4 Summilux Lens Review for Micro 4/3 Finally! The lens I waited months for finally arrived! The Panasonic/Leic...
IT'S IN STOCK!
Panasonic 25 1.4 for Micro 4/3 is IN STOCK now! | STEVE HUFF PHOTOSThe much sought after Panasonic 25 1.4 for Micro 4/3 is IN STOCK now at B&H Photo! Normal price, not the jacked up price some have sold i...
My dumb butt waits four hours until I wake up and it's gone. I use his link and buy it through Amazon through J&R.  I still haven't heard about when it's going to ship 4 days later. 
@stevehuffphotos sold out but five left on Amazon for only $538.88! Well, four now since I just bought one & don’t even have a cam yet!Elijah Nicolas
I've been interacting with Gage through DM for the last few days.  
@GageCaudell bought the Panasonic 25mm f/1.4 Leica DG Summilux Aspherical Micro 4/3 Lens for the OM-D! Haven’t bought the cam yet :PElijah Nicolas
@eejay I've had the Panasonic 25mm f1.4 for a week now and really like it. You will love the OM-D. Let me know when you get it.Gage Caudell
@GageCaudell so are you using your OM-D a lot?Elijah Nicolas
@eejay I use it a lot for work and use when wanting to catch my little girl in action. Still use my Leica lot more.Gage Caudell
Trying to find the iOS app that gives me the proper / ideal settings for each camera lens. Can anyone point me the direction? #camera #DSLRElijah Nicolas
@eejay did you buy one? #DSLRGage Caudell
@GageCaudell no, not yet. I’m set on the OM-D 5E but can’t find a place that can ship one now =( I’m just going w/ B&H //cc @stevehuffphotosElijah Nicolas
@GageCaudell Although, now that Canon has shown off their M, I’m wondering what to do. We’ll see next week w/ the official announcementElijah Nicolas
@eejay I have a feeling it will be worth passing up the canon for now but could be wrong. B&H or Amazon is best.Gage Caudell

Now a post from a great friend from High School.

I'm actually shooting with an Olympus Pen EP-3 (with misc panasonic/ oly/ third party Micro-Four Thirds lenses)

The NEX-7 is a nice camera, but Sony's native lens selection is kind of lacking. It's worthy of praise because you can use old manual lenses that benefit from Sony's focus peaking. Also, due to the large APS-C sensor size and flang mount in relation to a streamlined body, the NEX lenses are designed to be inherently big. It feels like handling a smart-phone with a soda-can attached. Kind of defeats the purpose of a smaller form factor when there's little to no native compact pancake lenses available. Plus, they try to bury every feature in the menu screen, requiring a proprietary learning curve... if only it worked like an apple product.

The OM-D EM-5 is pretty much an evolution of the EP-3. A compact Micro-four thirds camera with some "raise-the-bar" type features like the 5-axis stabilization, weatherproofing, fast rate viewfinder etc... The stabilization provided some extra stops for low-light hand-held shots. (Great for non-flash shots when your child is an infant, and better hand-held when the little one takes off running) In the flesh, this thing is pretty small. It's about the same size as my EP-3 sans the view-finder hump. I'd say MFT cameras had a lot of catching up to do in the last couple of years, but the current generation MFT cameras are the shit.

As for the full-frame 5D's: No one will argue against the Mark III as the current industry standard. (And some confess: most of the time it's just to appease the clients). As a matter of fact, I was introduced to the smaller MFT cameras from a bunch of guys who have to lug around 5D's for a living. From a practical standpoint, the Mark III is a big investment on just a body when most of us don't get paid to do this. Not to mention, once you get the essential full-frame lenses you'll be lugging around a lot of equipment, averaging the cost of a Hyundai under the baby stroller. Try to chase your toddler around with all that.

To conclude, you should base your decision on what you like to shoot and the overall system. The body is pretty much dated in a year or two since the consumer camera industry is as, if not more fickle than the computer industry.

^Being a gear-head, I'm sure you already know all this but I figured I'd share my thoughts anyway. Good luck with the camera shopping man, there's a lot great choices. Just make sure you do it soon so you'll have a handle on the hardware before the baby starts to grow up quick.

Let me know what you go with and if u have any questions on the MFT side of things. And read up...we're all biased in some way.

BTW- Congrats to you and Adelle.

Friends rock! Thanks everyone!

Google Getting It Right

Even without using the device, I can already feel Jeff Bezos squirming in his chair at Amazon. I wonder what Apple's play will be this fall now that the new price point is $199! Because of Google Now, I'm even intrigued to give it a shot. Joshua Topolsky on The Verge

"The Nexus 7 delivers way more functionality than I expected, and it delivers it in a package that’s sleek, smart, and affordably priced. Believe it or not, the last time I was surprised by a product with those same qualities, it was called the iPad."

Google's Nexus 7 Review | The Verge

Does upgrading matter?

Yes, I have upgraded my MacBook Pro 5,1 (late '08 unibody) by increasing the RAM and changing out the hard drive. I did that about one and half years into ownership because I could. Have I ever wanted to upgrade the memory on my iPhone or iPad? Yes, but instead I select the device that I feel will max out my experience for the given life. Am I sad that I can't upgrade the new MacBook Pro with Retina display? Maybe just a tad because I cannot purchase a model with 16GB at the store unless I select the highest model. I can't just buy the one with 8GB and upgrade it myself but boo who, I'll just spec it out myself online and be at peace. Rafe pretty much sums its up beautifully.

"...I was very pleased to be able to take it apart and replace that hard drive myself. That being said, I’d rather have one of the new MacBook Pros with Retina Display than that old MacBook any day of the week." -Rafe Colburn

via rc3.org

The Best Laptop without a Budget

Here's a great video review of Apple's latest MacBook Pro with Retina display by Ross Miller at The Verge.  It's short and sweet and gets right to the point.  You can drool over the beautifully written review too! It's been over three and half years since I bought a laptop, the first unibody 5,1 MacBook Pro, and I definitely think it's time to upgrade.  If you ask me, I'm all for choosing the higher tiered model at $2,799 then upgrading to the faster  2.7GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7 because of the higher cache on chip = 8MB L3, and then going with 16GB RAM.  Yes, it's an extra $450, but worth it since you can't upgrade later on.  Spec it out now and be happy for the next couple of years.  And no, I don't think that upgrading the hard drive to the 768 SSD is particularly worth another extra $500 as you can get a Thunderbolt drive for that kind of price.  Spec it out!

"It is the most expensive MacBook Pro out there, one of the most expensive laptops out there, but… if budget is not an issue, this is the best laptop you can buy right now." - Ross Miller, The Verge

Here's picture of the Retina display up close. AMAZING!

I wish I was worthy to receive a review unit!

iPad 2012 Summary of Reviews

As of 2100 EDT on the 14th of March, the media embargo from Apple was lifted and the reviews are in. Everyone LOVES the Retina Display and LTE.  I might as well reiterate it again; EVERYONE LOVES THE RETINA DISPLAY!!!

Truth also be told, I'm glad I went with the 32GB Verizon model and can't wait to pick mine up on Friday.  Some have already asked and yes, I might end up asking if I can up it to the 64GB version being that applications are coming in weighing at at least 1.5 times the size and some even up to 5 times larger!  Here are a couple of snippets from the sources that I believe run true to the way that I analyze new hardware, tech and software.

"...it just looks otherworldly; like a glowing piece of paper." - Joshua Topolsky; The Verge

" The new iPad is the most functional, usable, and beautiful tablet that any company has ever produced." - Joshua Topolsky; The Verge

"It has the most spectacular display I have ever seen in a mobile device. ... Using the new display is like getting a new eyeglasses prescription — you suddenly realize what you thought looked sharp before wasn’t nearly as sharp as it could be." - Walt Mossberg; WSJ: All Things D

"Since it launched in 2010, the iPad has been the best tablet on the planet. With the new, third-generation model, it still holds that crown." - Walt Mossberg; WSJ: All Things D

"Reading on the big retina display is pure joy." - Jon Gruber; Daring Fireball

Techcrunch has a great review with pictures detailing the difference in Tweetbots's iOS Twitter client; Retina vs. non-Retina.

Check it out:

Props out to Tapbots for hurrying up the development of Tweetbot for iPad and getting it rushed out into the Apple App Store Ecosystem! SWAG! (you'll be getting my donation in first thing on Friday!)

Here's another close up from The Verge on the difference in screens of non-Retina vs. Retina.

Update 1: One of the newest and one of my personal favorite sites, The Wirecutter, also just posted their tablet recommendation. I've also included The Loop's review as well.

"This is the tablet you want." - Brian X. Chen; The Wirecutter

"The bottom line is that it's the best tablet and everyone who reviews one agrees. And even people who love Android phones kind of can't say much about how Android tablets stack up against the iPad. And unlike with computers or stereos or cameras, you don't really need my help, or anyone else's help, to understand that. So, I will end here." - Brian X. Chen; The Wirecutter

"So, what did I like about the iPad? Simple — the experience. Nobody in the market today can touch the Apple experience." - Jim Dalrymple; The Loop

Evolution vs. Upgrades

Ryan Block intelligently argues why the next generation iPad (2012) is a buy. I agree 100%. The screen of every touch device is the experience. You see what you get and in this case, you fall in love. via gdgt:

So when a device comes along like the iPad that doesn't just display the application, but actually becomes the application, radically improving its screen radically improves the experience. And when a device's screen is as radically improved as the display in the new iPad, the device itself is fundamentally changed.

Here's a new quote taken from Sir Jonathan Ive, Senior Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple. (via This Is London)

Our goal is simple objects, objects that you can’t imagine any other way. Simplicity is not the absence of clutter. Get it right, and you become closer and more focused on the object. For instance, the iPhoto app we created for the new iPad, it completely consumes you and you forget you are using an iPad.

The only tablet is the iPad

One of the biggest insights into today's tablet market can be read in this fine article by Slate's Farhad Manjoo.

It’s been two years since Apple’s tablet went on sale. Rivals have released dozens of alternatives, but the iPad still represents more than 60 percent of market share. Worse, the rest of the market is dominated by two devices that are being sold at a loss—Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble’s Nook.

Simply put, if you think about what people use as their MP3 players today and the last ten years combined, does anyone think of anything else besides an iPod?

Read it in entirety here: The iPad Is Unbeatable

PlayStation Vita has potential by Gieson Cacho

The fact that I wasn't in line nor a first day adopter says a lot about Sony's losing appeal. No, I don't represent the masses, but if you knew me, you'd know I'm usually the first to be in line the night prior. This time around, I've skipped multiple consoles in favor of iOS devices and I'm going to sit back and wait to see how the upcoming months shape the Vita.

It's not perfect, but it can become a must-have machine. It just needs to evolve and take steps in the right direction.

via Contra Costa Times

Another Giveaway Entry for DCRainmaker

What another awesome excuse for a post. If you haven't entered before or even seen a post here on elijahnicolas.com in regards to DCRainmaker's blog giveaway, check it out again. More specifically, check out the post here or just click on the picture of the Garmin 310XT below.  Ending tonight at 11:59pm Eastern, Ray Maker is giving away another Garmin 310XT. What makes his giveaways awesome is that he is actually purchases these gifts for his followers. If I start rolling into that kind of dough, I'm PROMISE, I will start doing the same. Granted his blog is amazing in terms of reviews and just overall content so I have a lot to learn. Here's to making three entries for the latest and greatest!

TriRock San Diego: My First Triathlon (Sprint)

Preface:I knew that I wanted to participate in a triathlon ever since I started cycling. The idea might have actually been planted in my head when I first found out that my AP Biology teacher, Mr. Rankin, was rumored to be an Ironman contender. Maybe it was after I completed my first 10K (Cow Harbor Race 2006), but that's all history. I will admit, that from couch potato to 10K taught me an important lesson in how sore one can get after a race like that, but it also started a chain of events that led to me to this.

First and foremost, I never really enjoyed running. Dating back to fifth grade, I was always a middle of the pack runner panting and breathing heavily and was the guy that insisted on walking around each of the four backstops that made up our track. I knew that I could swim since I was in the "advanced" swim class in high school phys ed. but it's been a ages (~14 years) and cycling extended distances with my Uncle Romeo and friend Ryan Espiritu forged the thought that hey, I just might be able to finish a sprint triathlon. My roommate for a short 2 months, Michael Mangan, another tremendous athlete, provided a little bit of encouragement to sign up, so I said, "Why not?" I also had another friend Kristen that was considering the goal. For my first triathlon, I set out two goals: To finish under 1:30:00 and not at the end of the pack; second to last would suffice.

I bought a book entitled Your First Triathlon by Joe Friel and began reading. I should have probably finished earlier than 1 week prior to the race and followed the 12 wk plan (being that I had a full 14 weeks before the race when I took delivery) but I guess I do what I do best; procrastinate.

Bought this book a couple of weeks back & just now learni... on Twitpic

Training: I did a couple of bricks (bike workout followed by a jog or a swim followed by a bike) and began the slow and steady journey to getting into shape. That is until the month prior to my wedding when things started really piling up, I fell off the face of the earth. In other words, my training went from semi-existent to non-existent. I never really swam that much (laps in an apartment complex pool) or trained for that particular event and sporadically the occasional light treadmilling. I knew that I was just doomed from the start but I didn't give up on the idea. Essentially, you might as well just say that I did not train.

Day before: I decided that I needed a wetsuit primarily for the water temperature but more importantly, I knew that it would provide extra buoyancy. It's more than awesome that Xterra Wetsuits happen to be not only one of the best triathlon wetsuit companies but the fact that it is headquartered in San Diego fits into my procrastinating habit! I set out, tried one on and decided to rent last minute as the price tag proved to be a little steep. I missed the 40% off sale by one day and it was my first sprint tri so I settled on the Vector Pro. That same Saturday was the TriRock Expo and packet pickup so I went back downtown, grabbed my bike and I decided to head over .5 miles to the Embarcadero Marina Park.

Anxiety is setting in during this swim brief! #trirock #triat... on Twitpic Got swag for a triathlon?! Check out the TriRock San Diego go... on Twitpic
Organized and well put together, I signed up for USAT membership, picked up my packet and swag (schwag), watched a well put together Basics 101 by one of the San Diego VAVI representatives. (I recorded it on my iPhone 4 but unfortunately the sound didn't come out that great at all but at your request, I can make it available)

I felt good after watching the him set up his mock transition area using my bike as his example and then that night, I laid everything out. I don't usually go that far but my nerves got the best of me so setup my own mock transition area. Every piece of clothing and race equipment I would be using, I checked it off using the checklist provided by Joe Friel with my wife calling out each item. I was a definitely nervous and then I found out that a buddy of mine, Renato Villena, was also racing! I had a buddy and that alone makes things a lot better. I put on the race tatoos (I got the age group one upside down, but I rocked it like it was intentional) and then went to sleep.

Ya think I'm ready?! Packing up & going to bed! #tri... on Twitpic Putting on my race numbers was almost too easy...till I #FAIL... on Twitpic

Race Day: I woke up, already packed and just threw on some clothes. I threw on my new 2XU Tri Comp Short and Vest which ended up being a little tight and as Ryan Espiritu would later say, it make him feel like he wanted cupcakes! I was lucky to have my wife drive me to the race where I met up with Ryan and we set out to find our cubbies in the transition area. We got there rather early but it was relaxing. Near the time of the race, we put on the wetsuits and made our way to the start. The swim portion was starting off in the water already along with a band on a catamaran to entertain (as part of the Rock 'N Roll experience) but I would later find out I would be able to pay any attention to them. My nerves were calm, the swim didn't look too bad, I was ready.

Tri gear all laid out. Last minute inventory...check. Ready t... on Twitpic

Swim: I would just sum this portion up by saying, I need to find a coach and go at this with A LOT more training and effort. If it wasn't for the Xterra suit, I would have probably drowned or panicked but there were times where I was just floating there and near the end, since there were others backstroking, I started to backstroke too! I got out of the water and was definitely exhausted. I didn't come out last, but definitely near.

I also recently read that I could train or find a coach at the UCSD Swim pool and am excited to venture out that way and see what kind of training schedule we could come up with.

Transition 1 into Cycling: Lightly jogging to the cycling portion, I saw and excitedly waved at my wife along the sidelines and got to it. I couldn't take off the wetsuit that easily and had to eventually sit down hence my really slow transition time. I got on what I needed and started to jog out with the bike. I got on thinking I was going to hammer, but then started to feel a light muscle twitch on my left calf. Along with that, my Garmin cadence monitor decided that it wasn't going to work either (off by 1mm???)! Oh well, but I did see my mom on the way out and that gave me yet another boost of confidence! Thanks for the support guys!

I could feel my rhythm but it definitely wasn't fast enough. I was getting passed up by some of the ladies in the 25-29 group that was in the wave behind me but the last thing that I wanted to do was cramp up. The course was longer than I thought but I got through it and then made my way to the running portion. There were quite a few bands along the way to keep me entertained at the rather slow pace. I also made a decision that day that I should at least get some clip-on aero bars. I could have really used the more aggressive position or at least the "rest" position.

Transition 2 into "Jogging and Finish:" As I made my way to the cubby, I saw my fans (Ryan and Adelle + mom) grouped together and was able to start running. Handing them my bicycling gloves on the way out, I started to see the light! My legs surprisingly felt good and off I went. I neglected to put the watch strap adapter for my Garmin Edge 500 so I just ran with it in hand. (I've lost it since) Around 1.5 miles is usually when I start to tire a bit, but I was on pace with a couple of individuals that made it a pleasant run. One young lady told me that I was setting a good pace for her but I insisted that it was her that I was following. She eventually finished before me, but I was proud. Apparently, I would end up with a pretty good 5K time. When we reached the turn around point at the USS Midway, I could feel my mind take ease and my body start to relax but I kept on chugging. As I continued on, I kept on the lookout for the tatoos of people in my age group and felt relieved knowing that there were at least a couple of people behind me. Coming to the finish, I pushed it a bit more and saw my supporters cheering me on. I thought that I was done, but I still had yet to go around the bend for what felt like an eternity! I finally crossed the finish line and eagerly grabbed my first Rock 'N Roll medal, some coconut water, hugged it out and took some pictures. It was a great experience and I cannot wait for the next one wherever it may be. You can count on it to make this my yearly event!

Here are some links and pictures to the festivities!

To see my official times, check it out in the gallery! [gallery columns="2"]

Check out Ryan's Blog and another awesome individual, Mary Harris as she goes through training for half marathons! Also, two other sources of inspiration are Ray Maker as of course Joe Friel.

Two Months Later...the Facelift is Complete!

Since the New Year's, I was finally able to pick up my car, meet a new friend named Jacob and take more pretty cool pictures using my Canon S90.  We'll go in chronological order. If you don't remember what I did to my car last November, you can refresh yourself with some "before" video recorded by Qik on my iPhone.  Of course, I posted an "after" video of the finished product because it was just about 2 months since I've driven the beast and I was excited to take delivery!  Summing it up, I got what I wanted on my BMW 5.28iT Sport Wagon; an upgraded BMW E39 M5 Front bumper paired with Xenon Fog lamps as well as updated Angel Eye Headlights w/ clear corners!  It all couldn't have been possible without the awesome help of Todd at Performance Auto Collision (company website / kudzu review) in Alpharetta, Atlanta who kept me up to date with the entire process and prevented Geico from using shady/cheaper third party parts, Umnitza - who provided the parts but I can't say it was without hardship in communication and transaction and of course Manoj who dropped me off to see my finished product.

Check it out the video and the pics!

[nggallery id=6]

Web 2.0 and the Posterous New Blog

Intro:

I recently signed up for a posterous site, http://adellelijah.posterous.com, to host both Adelle and I together in one cloud space and in doing so, I actually ended up creating two more different posterous sites, http://adellelisa.posterous.com and http://elijahnicolas.posterous.com so that we can post on an individual basis.  Adelle actually didn't like me posting my stuff to "our" site so I decided that we each needed a separate one for self preservation.  I'll just admit it already: I am a posting whore.

Over the last few months, I've been using the Thesis Wordpress Theme in order to help with Search Engine Optimization on elijahnicolas.com.  I love the simplistic layout of the Thesis Theme so much that I even ended up buying the commercial license to use on Peak Interest (www.whatspyi.com) as well as my fiance's blog (www.adellelisa.com) which she is very hesitant to update but at least it's there.  Over the years, I have graduated from the Blogger platform hosting a multitude of different sites, to trying out joomla for a hot second to finally settling down on wordpress as my choice for a content management system.  Of course, twitter came around along with friendfeed and now posterous all within the last year or so and I indulged.  All the while, I was only looking for that singular reasonable mean to have all my personalities talk to each other and reflect each other's status'.  With posterous, I think I may have found the perfect solution!

Body 1:

The basic idea of Web 2.0 was to forge a design template that allowed for an easy GUI interface for those that weren't code savvy.  It was to provide a simpler means to update ones' online mediums / personality sites and in doing so, collaborate with others in the virtual arena.  That's my personal spin in layman's terms.  If you want the "real deal," here's Wikipedia's here.

Posterous has done just that.  They simplified the entire process.  They have taken out the horrific means of uploading to an FTP site or Content Management System and instead substituted it with the easy medium we use everyday: e-mailing.  You can "attach photos, videos, MP3s and files" to your e-mails, send it off to space and boom...it's that simple!  You could always do that on Blogger.com with text and photos and use a not so great plug-in with WordPress, but with one touch, I can upload a picture with a small post to my posterous account directly from my email address, it detects where I want it to go and publishes instantly without a hitch not only to posterous, but to anywhere else that I'm connected to be it my facebook, blogger, wordpress or even twitter account.

I was thinking of having it update my actual wordpress blog, but that's when things started to come together in my head.  I finally drew somewhat distinct lines.  I have come to the definite conclusion that my posterous and mobile blog are one in the same.  That's almost a no brainer, with a slight difference that the blogger site has a black background and posterous has a white one.  Posterous and my trelijah mobile blog are just quick snippets of my life.  Twitpic and twitter are just even quicker moments that I deem "3rd class" per say.  Of course the hierarchy of it all would be a long post, such as this one, on elijahnicolas.com, a picture accompanied by a posterous moment then a tweet.

Conclusion:

It is however convenient to have one place to update every personality, but duplication starts to become rampant and I don't want that to happen.  For now, I guess I'll keep trelijah going along with elijahnicolas.posterous.com and maybe with time, just end trelijah.  But as I always keep on saying, you can always count on me for some type of update.  That's enough.

p.s.  I had to edit the template of trelijah to fit the new format of pictures.  I like them in the full form.  Nice stuff!

Starcross'd Creative and the Johnson Wedding

With the technology that's been trickling down over the last decade, same-day edits have become more and more popular among various wedding reception activities. Finding the right videographer who can produce a video in such a short turn around time is not too difficult, but finding the right one that can amaze, and shock and awe the entire reception is a whole different story. Over the past weekend, a couple that I've known since their inception back during our  second year in high school finally tied the knot at the Immaculata Catholic Church in San Diego.  I had the honor of being a groomsman for Mr. Gregory Johnson and enjoyed the entire day hanging out with the couple, the bridal party and everyone else later that night.  Following their ceremony, we ended up taking pictures for a couple of hours around various San Diego sites, then headed to the reception where we danced the night away.  My job was simple and now complete but back in a corner of the reception hall was a video editor hacking, cutting, cropping, splicing and post producing various little snippets of film at a rabid pace transforming them into another masterpiece.  His name, Christoffer Dumlao from Starcross'd Creative.

Running around throughout the entire day capturing various shots of the event with his creative eye and Canon EOS 5D Mark II, he created yet another Starcross'd Creative Same-Day Edit exhibiting the entire day of the Johnson Wedding.  You can always visit their website, peep their other amazing films from full on scripted wedding videos to other multiple same-day edits as well as their new animated film // a true love's story or better yet, sign up to have their exclusive touch grace your important day.

Here is their final product which was shown at the wedding that night from Starcross'd Creative: you fill my heart \\ melanie + gregory’s same-day edit

Melanie & Gregory \\ Same-Day Edit from Starcross'd Creative on Vimeo.