Moon over the Rockies

I headed off to Colorado with my girlfriend, Allison, so that she could meet my parents and I could spend some quality time with friends and family.  It was a wonderful 6 days of eating, walking around sculpture parks, drives into the mountains, and drinks with friends.  My mother has also added many wonderful flowers in her front garden.  Here are the photos from my trip, I hope you enjoy!

MMMmmm Pollen (Gaillardia flower)

Gaillardia Flower

Baby Grasshopper on a Straw Flower

Fireworks over the Lake

Allison in snow...in July

Elk

Droplets of water

So I’m not the only one who thinks this, but I just saw a photo of Katy Perry, the new upincoming singer who sings “I Kissed a Girl”, and swear she looks like Zooey Deschanel, the actress in “The Happening” and “Almost Famous”.  At first I thought it was the same person, til I looked them up on IMDB.  Crazy.

And I’m not the only one, check out this blog with a little game, Zooey or Katy.

Cheers! (Top: Katy Perry, Bottom: Zooey Deschanel)

Well, I’m off to Colorado for a week.  I’ll be back soon with newer, fun photos.  Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend!  I leave you with this question!

What’s your favorite Jelly Bean?

As my girlfriend and I headed up to Northern California to her best friends wedding, I tried to imagine what a wedding would look like in the countryside in a barn.  This was the setting for this weekend’s wedding near Davis, California in a little town called Capay.  The location, Taber Ranch, with their large landscaped garden walkway, amazing hillside views, and comfortable refurbished barn, perfect for any occasion.

As the day started, I took photos of the morning hair appointment, makeup application, and then pre-limo rides to the ranch.  Julia was excited to get married and everyone was in a great mood and ready for a good time.  Here are the photos from the days events including the cake, the makeup, the hair, and the great scenic location.  Everyone had a great time and the day couldn’t have been better.  We line danced, ate delicious BBQ, and drank our way into the night, as my first ranch wedding came to an close.  The last shot of the slideshow is my favorite, summing up a beautiful day.

Congratulations to Eric and Julia!!

Slideshow Link

All photos copyright ©  2008 Nathan Nowack Photography

I went down to San Diego this weekend to visit some friends visiting from Colorado. We arrived at Balboa park and walked around this Central Park like enormity with museums, a zoo, and plenty of places to walk. Here are just a few of the sites and buildings I felt were blog worthy. It was a fun day, and I’d definitely like to go back and walk around a little more, possibly at a better time during the day for better lighting.

San Diego has so much to offer, it’s definitely a place I wouldn’t mind living.

Currently I’m enrolled in a photojournalism class and am enjoying it greatly. The assignments keep me shooting and I’m learning a lot. Recently, I’ve been working on a photo story about Roller Derby in LA and the editor of the Santa Monica College paper, The Corsair, decided to publish it! It went out today with 3000 copies around campus. Enjoy!

If you want to see it larger, click on it.

Corsair Online Website:

Online version

As I continue to move forward in the career of photography, I expand my portfolio but seem to fall back to my best photos from the past 2 years. Lately I’ve won a Wired.com contest, 3 entries into the SMC Annual Student show, and continue to sell prints online.

NOW, with a possible gallery showing in New York City, I appreciate any help and any email advertising I can get for my portfolio online for an upcoming contest called “Exposure.” It not only gives out prizes for best portfolio voted by people online, but they will also be judged by some distinguished professional giving prizes to the best portfolio and best student portfolio. Prints may be chosen to hang in a gallery opening in New York City. This is just round 1, so everyone cross their fingers.

This would be a dream come true, so again I appreciate any votes I can get from everyone online, it should only take 5 seconds to click on the link below!!

Thank you to everyone for your support!!
http://www.artistswanted.org/nnowack

Also, found out an interesting bit of fact, you can vote as many times as possible, but only Once per 24 hours.  SO please visit often and vote as many times as you can remember.  Not really how I would have set it up, but so be it.

Cheers,
Nathan

When I get a chance to go to Vegas for free, I normally don’t pass it up. As my cousin Karsten tells me he’s heading to Vegas in May, I conveniently get an offer to stay at the new Palazzo Casino and Resort for 3 free nights in a suite. So 110 dollars later and a 45 minute flight on Southwest, and I’m out in Las Vegas, or Viva Las Vegas, Lost Wages, Sin City, and The City of Lights for 3 day trip of fun.

Every year, Vegas gets bigger, adds new resorts, new casinos, new restaurants, and new shows, I feel that it almost never gets old. I saw “almost”, because if you ask more people, they wouldn’t be able to spend more then 5 straight days there due to the heat, smoke, lack of sleep, hangovers, or gambling losses. This trip was no exception. I arrived on Thursday, I checked into my free suite at Palazzo, took some photos, and played some poker. Karsten, Paliga, and Brown arrived later that afternoon and we ate, gambled, and drank our usual tunes. On Friday, we enjoyed the wave pool and large crowds at the Mandalay pool, as this is where they were staying. That night we dined at Lawry’s Prime Rib, something not to be missed in Vegas.

As many of you know, I’ve been doing reviews for a company called Vezeo.com and this trip I was to review this newly opened Casino resort as well as a few restaurants. Once I get around to writing my article, it will get posted on the website and everyone will be able to read it. But until then, please enjoy these photos.

Palazzo is owned by the Venetian company and is directly next door. It is smaller then the Venetian, but still has some very nice amenities throughout this resort. Some of the shops are still being completed, but others are open like the famous East Coast store, Barney’s New York. Restaurants are scattered throughout the hotel from Asian or Italian, to what is reportedly an amazing upscale steak place by Wolfgang Puck called Cut.

The resort is A+ in my book, from the beds, to the restaurants, to the friendly staff. I didn’t get to go shopping, or drink at any of their bars, but I’m sure I’ll be making future stops at this soon to be popular Northern Strip Casino.

If you haven’t heard of JPG Magazine, then you need to go visit them. They are a magazine that has bi-monthly printed magazines but also photography contests where you can enter photos every month and if they win, they are printed in the magazine. The magazine also hosts articles and other photo themes that can also appear in this nationally recognized publication. Please vote for my photo below, as well as my other 2 photos for “Creatures” and “Street Fashion”

Thanks!

Favorite Hangouts

Street Fashion

Creatures

SMC Photo Show

Alas! I have recently submitted 5 photos into the Santa Monica College 29th Annual Student Photo show and the student maximum of 3 pieces were selected to appear in the show. This photo show will be seen at 2 different locations from May 3rd to May 31st. Approximately 1000 photos were entered and only around 220 were accepted.  At the end of the month, a jurors grand prize will be awarded to one photo that catches the eye of the College Board of Trustees and will be purchased and hung on campus.

The artist reception will be this Saturday, May 3rd from 6PM to 8PM starting at Santa Monica College on Pico as well as at the La Foto Gallery further down on the corner of Pico and Lincoln. Please let me know if anyone would like to attend or you can download the flyer above for gallery hours and the address.  There is a free shuttle that goes between each gallery for your convenience.   There will also be food and beverages at the reception this Saturday.

Thanks again to everyone for their support and I hope you get chance to see some of the amazing work by the students of the Santa Monica College Photo department.

Cheers!

Nathan