Its 8:00am on a Saturday morning. I get on my gmail and see an old message from the Pacific Photo society. Today’s the day to shoot at the Escondido Renaissance Faire. Now not only have I never been to a renaissance faire. But I hadn’t even heard of one till about two weeks ago. I was watching a movie called “Role Models”. Of course I know the performers at the faire probably wouldn’t appreciate the reference.

When we first arrived I thought, “How in the hell did all these people from England get here?!” I was quickly informed they weren’t really from England. These people were good enough to fool me. That is until my friend informed me I was an idiot.

After immediately walking in through the front gate I was extremely impressed. See, i’ve always been a huge fan of the Dragon Lance series by Margaret weis and Tracy Hickman. Walking through the faire was like living one of their novels.

Now as great as these people were I didn’t have a clue what they were saying. It wasn’t until I looked at the program we received that I got a translation:

• Hello: Good morrow or well met!
• How are you: How farest thee?
• Thank you: Gramercy
• Where are you from: Where hail ye from?

Now I see some of the sexiest elves, witches and hand  maidens on the west coast. However To my surprise I turned a corner and saw hot ladies on horses!

You know another thing that i’m fond of? Spending money on cool shit. If you’re like me this is a place you should definitely visit!

First up, Octaviana Corsetry! I had heard of them through Stormie Psy. Suzanne (pictured above) makes some of the best corsets I’ve ever laid eyes on. Looking for a locally made high quality corset? Well their is none finer than Octaviana Corsetry!

Here are some other great items for sale. See those Scotch eggs? Talk about amazing!

Remember those ladies in sexy outfits I was talkin about?

That’s all for this week! Become a fan on the Oni Studio boudoir facebook page. Follow Oni Studio on Pinterest, 500PX, and Model Mayhem!

So I wake up one morning, bored again. A friend suggest going up to the brewery. I’m not much of a beer guy, in fact I never have been. To me they all tasted the same, like goat vomit. Before I came to California, I had never heard of Arrogant Bastard. Or any other beer produced by Stone Brewing Company. (yes I know Stone Brewing Company probably wouldn’t call it beer, but i’m not very educated on the subject)

However, I am a huge fan of the dark lord. So when I saw his image on a beer I couldn’t resist buying it. The evil looking beer stayed in my refrigerator for weeks. It was a joy to open the door and see Satan next my avocados.

One night after work I didn’t feel like cooking and ordered from Papa Johns. When the pizza arrived I happily put it on the living room floor, and made sure Big Trouble in Little China was playing on TV. I went to the refrigerator to get a Cherry Coke Zero. That’s when a terrible tragedy happened. I was out of Cherry Coke Zero! Fuck! Now what am I supposed to drink with this delicious pizza?

In utter sadness I lowered my head and mentally readied myself to drink water. That’s when it happened. Right before the door shut I happened to glance at the Avocados. That’s when I saw the beer, and the Dark Lord winked at me from the bottle. A voice from beyond whispered in my ear…”drink me”. Um…ok strange disembodied voice, I’ll drink it, just simmer down! I’m gonna try and end this short. I sat down with the pizza, opened the beer, and it was pretty bad ass. No, it will never replace wine, but it sure as shit beats Budweiser!

Flashback over. Back to the story. Turns out the Stone Brewing Company is right up the road from where I live in San Diego. We get in the car and about 20 minutes later we arrive at the destination.

Now we arrived pretty early, and all the morning tours had sold out. Luckily we got one that was after lunch. We had about an hour and a half to kill before the tour. So to pass the time we got a table at the onsite restaurant. I’m glad we did because the service was amazing, and the food was even better! Finally we were called in to take the tour.

The tour guide had some amazing patience, and was somehow able to answer a 1,000 questions all the while passing out samples of the hops, barley and other things they use to make their delicious brew.

The latter part of the tour included a viewing of the large vats used in production. These guys at Stone Brewing Company run a tight ship, and the place was super clean for a warehouse. How do they do it? Hell if I know, most likely they use those house elves from Harry Potter.

After the tour we were introduced to Greg Koch, (pictures above). Don’t know who he is? Well he is the CEO of Stone Brewing Company, and probably richer than a damn Egyptian Pharaoh. When I met him I asked a very important question. “Greg, who’s better, Slayer or Metallica?” Greg stroked his beard and contemplated for quite awhile before answering. Finally, he answered, “well i’m more of a Metallica guy, but I love the guys from Slayer”, and went on to tell me a story about how he had met Kerry King. I thanked him for his time and he wondered off, probably thinking of another wonderful beer recipe to grace us with. Kinda a cool guy if you ask me.

That’s all for this week! Become a fan on the Oni Studio boudoir facebook page. Follow Oni Studio on Pinterest, 500PX, and Model Mayhem!

So you wake up on a Sunday. You get out of bed and make your way into the living room. Netflix sucks, you’ve seen all the crap and can’t stomach anymore Star Trek.

Enter Hillcrest farmers market. Turns out that Hillcrest offers more than bars and terrible parking.

If you decide to go, first off your gonna need a big laser space gun. Make sure to mount it on your vehicle. Install a good targeting system. When you arrive you’ll see why you need it. Parking is gonna be a bitch. Fortunately I got lucky.  I hit a wormhole and exited the space time continuum in a perfect spot.

Once you walk into the market you’re gonna see fruits, vegetables and tons of organic green stuff.

After awhile of walking I ran into a lady running an awesome apothecary.

Her name is Shelley, and is guilty of being incredibly hot. She also conducts retreats and has a great personal interest in empowering women. Lastly she operates a shop on Etsy, so go take a look!

The Hillcrest Farmers Market even had an outdoor band. I didn’t get their name, but they played some pretty good bluegrass.

Say what?! You mean you forgot to have breakfast before you left? Well the Farmers Market has got you covered.

No matter how your eclectic your taste; your gonna find something you like. Are you a serial killer vegan, or a meat eater with leprosy?  Then they have something for you!

When all is said and done, this place has an amazing healthy of healthy additions to your diet. Its well worth the trip to visit!

That’s all for this week! Become a fan on the Oni Studio boudoir facebook page. Follow Oni Studio on Pinterest, 500PX, and Model Mayhem!

Southern California, San Diego to be exact has a lot of really fun things to do. Why am I not doing a blog entry on sexy boudoir ladies? Well turns out I left the garage door open and they organized a successful escape, bitches.

I hadn’t had a chance to really get out. I had spent most of my time and limited budget trying to get my apartment in order.

True I had been getting some good shoots in, but those were usually close to home.

One day, I said to my friend Ren, (She’s not really my friend, she’s a secret Egyptian werewolf who produces cat milk) “Why don’t we go out to the park?” I had heard about it, but really it just a park. How fun could it be?

So off we went to Balboa Park. After arriving I thought we just might have made a mistake. It was so freakin hot!

However we quickly found some shady walks and people selling art.

See that guy in the upper left in the above picture? He’s the artist, and that painting on the bottom was partly inspired by the Butthole Surfers. If you didn’t know, the butthole surfers are one of the greatest bands in history.

So after Renee was subjected to over half an hour of delicious conversation about butthole surfing we continued our Balboa Park adventure.

I had no idea Balboa Park had so much crap to do. Almost everything you could think of in a park. I saw crazy homeless witches, a house from Finland, Ripleys believe it or not, war protesters and a bunch of other really weird shit.

At one point we found a magical plant house. Unfortunately their were no evil elves handing out psychedelic muffins as stated on the flyer.

Thats about all I have for the park. It was a very enjoyable day, and if you’re a photographer, it well worth getting there early, and staying the day. We hung out most of the day, and still didn’t get to do everything.

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Remember last week when I published the Zombie walk post? Well comic con was going on at the same time. I got downtown about 2 hours early, and just hung out around the convention center. I’m seriously glad I did, because I saw some very hot ladies, of course it helps that I love ladies in costume!

I’ve loved comics for a very long time. I think my first exposure was a show called “Spiderman and his amazing friends”. I hope I didn’t just date myself there! If you’ve heard of it I’d love to know though, just give a comment in the facebook box at the end of this entry.

I started collecting comics in the 1990’s, and could never get enough of them. I was mostly a Marvel fan, I never really liked any of the DC characters. Superman, Batman and Green Lantern just seemed kinda silly, although I did like Lobo, for those of you that have heard of him.

My go to Marvel series was pretty standard, Darkhawk, the punisher, X-men, the Hulk, Spiderman, but I think my favorite may have been a tie between a series from Marvel called “The New Warriors” and “The Silver Surfer”

However, I knew better than to try and talk about comics with most of the comic con goers. These people are on a dedication level I can’t begin to touch!

Come on!! The 5^th Element! How cool is this? Which one do you think is the better?

One of my favorite things on this whole planet is a raven haired beauty in leather or latex. I don’t know how you could improve on a lovely lady like this!

Poison Ivy in the flesh, and working at a bar in the Gaslamp, everyone got in on the fun at the Comic con!

Just another odd assortment of colorful characters. Everything from sexy robot ladies to Stormtroopers!

Get a load of these ladies! I didn’t even pay to go to Comic con, I had a great time just hanging outside the doors!

While I was out shooting I saw a guy crossing the street. He caught my attention because he looked very familiar. Then my mind clicked. This guy looked exactly like Kerry King!

For those of you who don’t know who Kerry King is…well you suck. Seriously though, Kerry King is guitarist in a band called Slayer. I’ve listened to Slayer for as long as I can remember. I’ve got all their CD’s, tapes, posters, shirts, watched their videos hundreds of times, learned their songs on the guitar, I think you get the drift.

I make a decision, I’m gonna go approach this guy who looks like Kerry King. I run across the street, almost get hit by a car, and yell, “Kerry!!”

The guy stops, turns to his right, and looks at me.

Me: Dude, you look exactly like Kerry King!

KK: I am Kerry King. (Very calm)

Me: No FUCKIN way!!!!

KK: Well take it or leave it

Me: Well dude if you are Kerry King, your my fuckin hero, I’ve played your music all over the middle east!

KK: Thanks dude (shakes my hand)

Me: Can I get a picture?

KK: (poses)

Me: (click!)

That was it, Kerry King crosses the street carrying his Comic Con bag and is gone. It was one of the oddest experiences I’ve ever had.

This is the picture Kerry King let me take.

Kerry in the odd event you read this, thank you for being so cool!!

That’s all for this week! Become a fan on the Oni Studio boudoir facebook page. Follow Oni Studio on Pinterest and Model Mayhem!

I don’t know what fuels my obsession with horror movies. For as long as I can remember my heroes were Freddy Krueger, Jason Vorhees, Michael Myers, and Pinhead.

Another thing near and dear to my heart is zombies. I don’t remember the first one I ever saw, but I think it was “Day of the Dead” directed by George Romero. For those of you that don’t know, George Romero is one of the most popular zombie movie directors, and produced the unholy trilogy. Night of the living dead, Dawn of the Dead, and Day of the dead.

I remember the zombie movies scared the dogshit out of me. They also started a lifelong obsession with collecting survival gear, which is awesome at collecting dust and emptying my wallet.

It was interesting how I found out that this zombiewalk in San Diego was even happening. Before I came to San Diego I started doing research on how to keep myself busy.

During one of these searches I found a website called Meetup. Basically this site just gets people together who have a common interest. I think this site is one of the coolest things I have ran across in quite a while, mainly due to its diversity. Do you like collecting thumbtacks, participating in orgies, or enjoy learning to knit? Well Meetup is the place to go; it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll find a group that shares your common interest!

In my case I found a group called the Pacific Photographic Society (PPS), and if you are in the San Diego area and like photography I suggest you look them up.

In fact the PPS was how I found out about the zombie shoot in the first place. When you join the group they have organized shoots to all kinds of events.

When I met them everyone was very welcoming and nice. One of the members even took the time to fix my camera flash. I had a great time shooting with them and can’t wait to go back to another shoot.

The evening went on and I continued to shoot. I saw some of the strangest sites, activities and people I’ve ever seen since coming to this planet 34 years ago.

It was my plan to wonder downtown and maybe have a few drinks, and try and find a metal bar, fetish or industrial club. However most of the drinking establishments just turned out to be sports bars that exuded douchebaggery at about 25 feet.

After walking a bit I saw a line comprised of people dressed in black, tattoos poking out everywhere, sullen faces. I think I may have found my hangout for the next three years. I asked the guy what the line was for, and he replied that it was the Evil Dead Bluray release party. Boom!! I’m in!

After standing in line for over an hour, basically starving, we finally get let in. However there is one catch, we had to hashtag the evil dead on facebook or twitter. They verified the hashtag at the door by looking at our cell phones, and then let us inside. The club where this Evil Dead release party was happening was called “The Commons”. Once inside their was a guy singing, who turned out to be Corey Taylor, who was the lead singer of Slipknot. I never liked Slipknot though so I kept moving. In the other end of the club though, I see the girl from the new Evil Dead film. Which girl? Um hello!! The one who split her tongue in half and then laid a sexy lesbian tongue kiss on the other girl, that’s who!! I don’t stand in line to meet her, but I do snap a few pics. Beyond that, the club was extremely over packed and boring, had like 3 girls and 100 guys. I don’t do sausage fest so I exited stage left.

I went to a few bars after, always after that elusive metal or industrial club. Finally someone told me to go to Club Onyx, and that they played decent music. I made my way there, and it was ok, not exactly what I was looking for, and besides I was pretty drunk at the time. At the time it was either 1am, or close to it. The next thing I remember is arriving at my apartment with some girl I don’t know. Seven hours had gone by, and I had no memory of it. Scary. That’s not the end of it, the money was gone out of my wallet, my camera had been taken along with the lens and flash, my iphone, hell even my glasses were gone. When I asked the girl what had happened to my things she said I approached her as I was. So what happened? I’ll probably never know. I had to replace all my equipment though, which sucked a big one. Anyway, if you read this far I appreciate it! This was a long entry but I hope you enjoyed it!

That’s all for this week! Become a fan on the Oni Studio boudoir facebook page. Follow Oni Studio on Pinterest and Model Mayhem!

Well i’d like to say yes, but alas, nothing even remotely sexy happened to me here. Well that is unless you count the few cruddy scenes from “The Hunger Games” audio book I was listening to. I think I had all three on the new Iphone I had. The story started out ok, but then just got whiny and wimpier as time went on.

Whats the most important point here? Well…I have no idea whether these photos were taken in Montana, South Dakota, or Wyoming. I think for a time…I just…wondered. Sometimes I would forget what state I was in, and sometimes I would wonder back into a state that I had already left. I spent a lot of money on hotels, but that was the least of my concerns.

On another day I ended up in a place called wall drug. Before I went in an old man approached my car and asked for change. I looked down at my pocket to check, and when I looked back up he was gone.

The proprietors of Walldrug gave me free coffee and a free donut. I think they were just trying to get rid of me.

I was taking a road trip from Seattle in the January time frame. I do believe their were record snow storms at the time, but I was having fun. Where was I going? It really didn’t matter where I was going. I was driving and looked over and saw Conan the barbarian in my passenger seat. I asked him what was good in life. His reply was something i’ll never forget, ” Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women”.  At other times Conan refused to speak and would just whimsically look out the window. I could tell he was not happy being in the car. I pulled over and let him out. He walked off and did not look back. I pray that Crom sees him well in his journeys.

That’s all for this week! Become a fan on the Oni Studio facebook page. Follow Oni Studio on Pinterest and Model Mayhem!

 Did you people know I have a brother? We don’t talk that much. I’m most likely the worst brother on the planet.  Recently we were able to meet in Kentucky and took a trip out to Cumberland Falls. This was the setting for last weeks  hike. I’ve taken a few trips out here and its a great place to visit.

My brother does some weird shit in the Air Force. I have no clue what exactly he does. Whenever I ask, he tries to tell me, but my eyes glaze over about two seconds in. Most likely its a front or cover and he’s an assassin for hire.

Probably the worst thing about all this is that I have never met the kids. Turns out my brother and his wife have a kid with Type one diabetes. Also, one child possessed by Satan.

What exactly is Type 1 Diabetes? Well according to diabetes.org  ”Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed in children and young adults, and was previously known as juvenile diabetes. In type 1 diabetes, the body does not produce insulin. Insulin is a hormone that is needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy needed for daily life. Only 5% of people with diabetes have this form of the disease.”

I have to confess, the above definition didn’t make much sense to me. I’ts not like of some kind of fancy gynecologist. Anyway, what did it mean to me?

What it meant to me is that I had to ask before giving him anything to eat. Sugars I mean. Basically this kid has one of the best eating habits and diets I have ever seen. Also, he’s got monk like discipline. Its pretty freakin cool.

Whats the bad side? Well it turns out their are a lot. Both short term and long term. For one thing the kid has to be a walking pin cushion. Take a hard look at the above photo.

Imagine if you had a kid and had to stick a needle in him about every three hours. Personally I think I wouldn’t like it. Imagine that if you slip up, just once, he could go into a coma.

Those are some pretty terrible things for parents to imagine. However before we cue the sad music and whip out the tissues, go ahead and take a look at all the pictures again. See how happy and normal they look? Thats because they are, hey just have another hurdle to jump that many other families don’t have to contend with. They don’t let it ruin things.

If your interested in learning more or donating to Diabetes, visit the American Diabetes Association.

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Cumberland Falls, I’ve been here more times than I can count. Its been around for millions of years with almost as many visitors.

I took a trip out here with the specific purpose of trying out my new Manfrotto carbon fiber tripod. I had a Manfrotto before, but this one was a definite upgrade.  It probably weighed two pounds less than the old one and most importantly, it was way more sexy!

If you get the tripod, remember and get a head for it as well. If you’re new to photography you’ll quickly learn better tripods come in two pieces.  You have the base with the legs, and a head, where you connect your camera.

I have used and owned this Manfrotto tripod before and think its freakin amazing.

If your new to photography you’ve probably seen these types of water shots. Everyone usually likes them and thinks you must be an expert. its an extremely easy shot to pull off. First set your Nikon DSLR camera on “P” or program mode. Memorize the settings for aperature and shutter speed. Now turn your camera on manual mode and dial in the aperture and shutter speed the camera gave you. So lets say the camera said F11 and 125 shutter speed. Dial it in, and simple start decreasing the shutter speed. So F11, but now turn your shutter speed to 100. Did it make a difference? If it didn’t……fuck it, turn the shutter speed to a 60th and see what happens.

Thats all for now folks.  Just to be clear, Victoria Meadows is no longer associated with Oni Studio. We are divorced.  I have since relocated to San Diego, and continuing the studio from down here.

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