This was my first year at the event and I wish someone could have done a video time lapse of my arrival up to me passing out at the crack of direct sunlight to note the amount of time my jaw wasn’t dropped.

Try this on for size: Seeing giant snails, 4 story steel sculpted female and all the lights you could try to imagine (basically vegas has nothing on BM for a week) while wandering around a dried out lake bed covered in playa dust looking for the next craziest camp to indulge in random acts of air-brush tattoo, dong bongs and ever so refreshing swamp cooled hookadome. If that isn’t your taste then you can get lost by hopping on a Yacht being driven by a slightly intoxicated captain who is being escorted by segway drivers with fuzzy hats direct the blind people to move out of the the giant boats way so it can roam around the 1 square mile of pure entertainment.

I was pretty spoiled as I was there with the Emergency Response crew and they are way set up… Electricity, Internet, vehicles and RV’s. Oh… a Shower!!! I’m sure if I could barter off a shower to people during the epic week of BM I could get some pretty awesome gifts. I’ve never really been one to get all crazy and party like a rockstar, yes i’ve had my moments, so hopping on my bare bicycle rigged with a black light LED flash light, a portable iPod boom-box and my water bottle (more essential than clothes IMO) I got to look at the wondrous art installations all around the playa.

The most awesome memory for me was the engagement of my close friends Raquel and Greg… To be there for that moment, that one moment that begins the journey of a new unity between two souls that long overdue to be married will remain at the top of my awesome memory lists!

The other epic and amazing thing that I saw wasn’t a single art installation it was the grand scale of the entire event. I took a panoramic during the day from Mal-Mart ( 8 story scaffolding near 7 o’clock and esplanade) and as incredible as that may look, the look of it at night blows me away. I would walk out to the middle near the Man and and just take a moment to pan around and take in how incredible 50,000 people all enjoying the moment, the individuals who took time out of their day to day to create these amazing art cars and of course; the blinky lights. =)

In the end, or the beginning actually I was welcomed Home and I didn’t really feel that until I got to go up those steps and look at everything from the man. I really was home. In the end it was hard to leave and face work the very next day but I will forever be a burner and I hope to one day be an integral part of the event… working or playing with some sort of crazy art car… I’m never going to be able to explain the event in a way that will actually give you the same wow factor that I got but I hope you got just a taste of how amazing this event really is.

You can find more of my photos on my flickr page: Click Me!!

Originally Infected Mushroom cam from Israel as a duo, Duvdev and Ires, the produced and played DJ sets. As their production gained strength and they pushed the edge of their style and the genera itself and really flourished into the now 4 piece traveling band with their Amazing and Humble drummer Rogerio and true to the Axe Guitar Player Tommy. I’ve pretty much fast forwarded to the current from the beginning but you can find everything you need to know on their website.

So normally I get a chance to hang out with them (we’ve become friends) but I didn’t get to the show until about 15 min before they went live so I had to stay in the crowd. Not a complaint at all because if you have ever witnessed their show being in the crowd is crazy amazing. The vibe from the people and the interaction of the band makes them so prodigious it feeds the energy and the whole venue goes crazy. I wanted to make my way backstage but I stayed at the front of the stage and snapped over 800 photos. Lets just say it’s not easy to get into the middle of a hungry crowd to take some photos but amidst the sweaty cheering people I made my slow camera in the air side step to the front and took some shots that I hope they use one day. New MySpacers is what I told Tommy actually. Here are a few samples of the shots I took and if you would like to see more, check ‘em out on my flickr account!

You should click on the images to see them full! My favorite is the black and white. And the one of me, Tommy actually took my camera in the middle of their performance and took photos from the stage! Now if you guys want to find out more about the band check them out on their website, www.infected-mushroom.com. Here is the newest release from them in full music video form, “Smash the Opponent”.

Infected Mushroom Smashing the Opponent official video feat Jonathan Davis from KORN from Infected Mushroom on Vimeo.

Solar Eclipse

You can find out more about solar eclipses on NASA’s site, as well as a list of upcoming eclipses.

A few side notes I found at wiki: This solar eclipse was the longest total solar eclipse to occur in the 21st century, and will not be surpassed in duration until 13 June 2132. Totality lasted for up to 6 minutes and 39 seconds, with the maximum eclipse occurring in the ocean at 02:35:21 UTCabout 100 km south of the Bonin Islands, southeast of Japan. The uninhabited North Iwo Jima island was the landmass with totality time closest to maximum, while the closest inhabited point was Akusekijima, where the eclipse lasted 6 minutes and 26 seconds.^[13]

I use Aperture, (amazing piece of software!) to import and color correct all my photos. As of this weekend that is. The color tools are really powerful. Especially if you are shooting RAW. The ability to to adjust everything, I mean everything. Within the RAW Fine Tuning tools you adjust the “Boost” (exposure) “Hue Boost” (Color Saturation), Sharpening, Edges, Moire and Radius. Thats only if you are shooting RAW. Going past that you have you White Balance, Exposure, “Enhance”, Levels, Highlights & Shadows, and Color. Those are the categories and then all the adjustments within those really give you some incredible fine tuning. And to add to all of that you have various effects that you can add, such as Vignetting. Ill say this now, if you are someone who wants to really step up your level of photos in post, get this piece of software. Photoshop is great too, but much more processor intensive when you are trying to edit hundreds of photos at a time. Yeah, Hundreds!

So back to the photos… On a normal day, I take a ton of photos, import them and then just upload them to my Flickr account. Since these photos were for a first birthday, super special event, I wanted to give them a great gift of some really great looking photos so I decided to edit them. I must have spent well over 6 hours going through the roll of film, rating the photos, SO easy with Aperture, just press 0-5 over a photo that you are viewing. Once they were sorted it was time to edit!! I was actually really excited to get through them and really spend sometime making each chosen photo shine. I think that I used every single option that was available to me so that I could create vibrant photos for Riley’s first birthday.

After 5-8 hours, I didnt keep track, I finally posted all the photos online, on my flickr account, and I could not be more proud. I’m really happy that eye has progressed to be as detailed as it is and would actually love to show people what I do, if you are interested, in post to make the various photos shine. Let me first post a few that are edited and on my flickr account, and then I will upload the enhanced photos.

Hayden