Author Archives: Steve

Adventure to Primm and Seven Magic Mountains

Posted by on February 13, 2023 No comments

Sarah and I took a small adventure this weekend because the weather was nice and I wanted to get some more time in flying the new drone (DJI Mini 3). We had driven past the Seven Magic Mountains art installation a few times on our way down to Goodsprings and thought it would be a good location to do a flyover.

If you haven’t seen it, it’s a huge stack of colored rocks that looks cool from the side of the road but even more impressive up close. We wandered around for a bit and then I sat down nearby to get a few shots from the air.

Afterwards we drove over to the Jean Dry Lakebed where a number of people were out doing motor biking and dune buggying (buggy driving? what’s the verb there?)

Since it was still nice out and we were already south of Las Vegas we thought it would be cool to check out Buffalo Bill’s casino in Primm. Primm is one of the locations that shows up in Fallout New Vegas and, in the game, there is a hotel that has a huge roller coaster running through it. Well, to no ones surprise, it actually exists! I grabbed a quick flyover of the hotel and coaster, and then left quickly before someone yelled at me for doing so.

I assembled the whole trip into a short video on Youtube. Be sure to check it out!

Photo shoot: Miss All Sunday

Posted by on February 11, 2023 No comments

Another quick photo shoot in the Las Vegas area. I guess this is what happens when you start running in the band circles.

This one was at an interesting location, the Griffin Studios, interestingly enough, right next to The Orleans Hotel and Casino! If you didn’t know, that’s where we held Scoopfest! This little studio is a local band rehearsal and recording area. They have a few good rooms to allow bands to set up their own equipment or use house stuff and really get in there and jam. It’s a great little known (at least to me) place.

I met up with the band Miss All Sunday who is still in the process of building a site and a name for themselves in the area. After hearing a few of their songs while I was shooting, I can tell that they are going to be great. Unique sound and some quality original music!

We did a few action shots of the band playing and then posed around the studio for some portrait stuff. The guys were all great about direction given to get some cool looking shots. Enjoy the photos!

Miss All Sunday
Click for full Flickr Album

Another Band Photo Phoot: The 48*

Posted by on February 2, 2023 No comments
Candid from the shoot

One of the members of Throckmore asked if I could do another quick photoshoot at Area 15 in Las Vegas for a new up and coming band: The 48 (name still in progress). Before heading out to the location I did a little more research and got a good shot list together of poses and props that I thought would make some great shots.

Bringing a spare Guitar is always good

Area 15 is an amazing location with lots of interesting background and environments. The biggest boon to the site was the colors so I really wanted to focus on them and make the photos pop. We shot primarily in the Emporium Arcade which was a dream with all the games, tables, and murals. Knowing this going in helped a ton.

Skee-Ball as a stage? Sure, why not.

The 48 is a fairly new band in the Las Vegas area focusing on original rock songs. The three members were great to work with and came in with their own ideas for things they were looking for. We went over my shot list and compared notes to incorporate everyone’s ideas. The end result came out fantastic!

The Hover Guitar (don’t worry, the guitar is fine)

Click the below image to view the Gallery on Flickr for all the photos from the shoot:

The 48 Flickr Gallery

* The band is still working on an official name, so this may change.

Totally random photo shoot: Throckmore

Posted by on January 31, 2023 No comments

Since moving to Vegas we have managed to stay pretty busy. The usual house stuff and random projects in what is my normal life. One of the things I have been looking forward to in this area was getting out and doing more photography gigs for local artists. We have a few friends that perform around town and in between fixing house stuff and normal work I did manage to get out and take some shots. One of those friends, SJ, posted about some of my photos on a Las Vegas Musicians group a few months ago and it was cool!

Not Throckmore… This is Sarah Jessica Rhodes

Flash forward a few months and I got a totally random message about a local band that had scheduled a photoshoot but their photographer canceled on them at the last minute. They wondered if I would be available (the next day). I thought, “Sure, why not?”

I spent the next few hours looking up the location we were meeting at on Google Maps, and checking out where there might be a few good places to shoot nearby. Since I didn’t know the band, or that side of town, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Things that would be good to know going into this would be… Are we shooting indoors? Is there a good backdrop? Should I set up lights? Not knowing any of this, I packed up all my gear, including my pop up backdrop and lighting.

In talking with the lead guitarist, who set up the session, I learned that they are a Rock/Metal cover band named Throckmore (https://throckmore.com/) (working on their own stuff too) and they are still fairly new to the scene. We agreed on a general look to the photos and the rest was completely improvised. We met at a dive bar in East Las Vegas and I had the quick chance to walk around and find some good locations nearby. The manager of the bar said we could use the alleyway behind the place and we set up shop.

The chain-link fence and stone wall worked great for some grungy backdrop as well as some used kegs that the bar let us borrow.

From there I talked them in to a quick drive to a desert area. The sun was just settling into the golden hour and we had some great clouds.

It was great to get to know the band and they were all super cool with the last minute change and making stuff up as we went along. They all were fantastic to work with and I highly suggest that if you are in Las Vegas, you should look them up and attend a show!

After all the photos were done we even managed to do a quick flyover with the new drone and got some video that they may use for future stuff.

Shot with DJI Mini 3

Overall, it was a great, last minute, experience! Enjoy the rest of the photos!

Welcome to 2023!

Posted by on January 19, 2023 No comments

It’s been a while since I have worked on my website so I guess I should catch up a few things:

I have moved to Las Vegas NV!  Sarah and I made the move in July of 2022 (I know, moving in the summer to the desert!)  Since then we have been getting settled in and enjoying the new scene.

New house!

Around Las Vegas I have managed to do some event photography and am still getting used to the venues. It’s been fun meeting talented artists. If you are interested in seeing any of my Band photography you can click on the Flickr Album below.

Band Photography Portfolio
Various Band Shots

I still work on the JoCo Cruise and we are set to sail again on March of 2023.  I have albums from the past few up on Flickr if you are interested.

JoCo Cruise 2020
Click the Image above for JoCo Cruise 2020 photos

JoCo Cruise 2022
Click the Image above for JoCo Cruise 2022 photos

I am currently working on Season 3 of the Binary Saga, an audio drama about Alien Pen-Pals.  You should check it out.

Over the pandemic I have become a huge Lego nerd and build and photograph Lego in my spare time.

Lego Photos
Click the image for Lego Photos!

I recently picked up a DJI Mini 3 drone and plan on learning to fly and shoot great video and photos around the Las Vegas area.

With any luck I will try and grow this site a little more to keep it updated with projects and photos.

JoCo Cruise 2019

Posted by on April 8, 2019 No comments

The latest JoCo Cruise was the 9th! I was brought on as Official photographer and led a team of photographers (ShutterMonkeys). As per usual it was a great time and terribly exhausting.

I did get to test out the new D850 camera and was completely amazed at all of the features and the quality of the photos.

Anyways, since photos speak more than words. here is the Flickr Album. Enjoy! (Click the below photo for full album)

JoCo Cruise 2019

Events, events, and more events.

Posted by on April 8, 2019 No comments

So I guess I haven’t updated this site in , like, forever. I have been busy doing a number of events and general adulting.

Here are a few things I worked on since the latest post:

The Joco Cruise for 2018: (Click for Album) (2019 shots coming soon)

JoCo Cruise 2018

The Ice Cream Social events, ScoopFest and Churn Outs: (Click image for Albums)

ScoopFest 2018
Churn Out Pittsburg

I also managed to upgrade my camera to a D850, and I love it! I think it makes a huge difference. Probably more on that if I manage to make a new post in the next few days (weeks? Months?)

Anyways, enjoy the photos!

Real World Pokemon Go

Posted by on August 11, 2016 2 comments

UPDATE 08/14/2016: Old Towne Manassas has about 30 3D Pokemon hidden.  Some of which include some Glow in the Dark JigglyPuff and Clefairy!!

Update 08/12/2016: New batch ready to be hidden:

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NOTE:
THIS IS THE PAGE I WILL BE UPDATING AS I PLACE MORE OUT IN THE WORLD.
CHECK BACK SOON

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Like most people I have been playing Pokemon Go.  It’s been a blast and Sarah, Andrew, and I have all had some great adventures in our quest to “Catch Em’ All”.  We certainly met some great people and possibly some new friends in areas that we didn’t normally visit.  Ventured out and increased our step count by leaps and bounds.

But I was missing out on something.

Catching pokemon on the phone is great, but one of the cool things about being out in these cool areas is seeing the sights, which you can’t do while staring at your phone waiting for the next Squirtle to pop up. After you catch him he is now confined to living inside your virtual Pokeball inside your phone.  When your phone turns off, he becomes Schrodinger’s Squirtle!!

But what if you could catch that Pokemon and have something to show for it afterwards?

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As an avid fan of 3D printing, I frequent Reddit’s sub for the hobby.  About a month ago one of the guys posted that he was hiding these small, easy to print, pokemon at different locations in his home town.  He said the kids loved it and he liked seeing people find real world creatures.  Many other folks also mentioned wanting to do the same.  Since I didn’t see anyone covering the VA/Manassas area (my home town) I decided to take up the charge and fired up the print machine!

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I have been printing these for about 2 weeks now and hidden close to 100 models around Manassas VA.  Mostly around Old Towne and occasionally at some of the parks.  (Hint, a great place to look is at the Ben Lomand Historic Site)

Since posting about it on Facebook, it’s been shared in a number of places, so I thought I would create a post here, on my site, so that I can continue to provide updates on when I stash some and where you can potentially find some.

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Updates will be provided on the top of the page so they will be easier to find.

Some of the other runs of prints:

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I made some things!

Posted by on May 22, 2016 No comments

I know I don’t post here often enough, and every time I think about it, I just kind of brush it away, but hey, I am doing it now!  Mostly because A lot of the stuff I would post regularly, I do over on the Comic page.  It’s no good excuse, but aside from the comic and work, most of what I have been doing has been pretty mundane.

Till now.

If you follow along on the comic, you know that I picked up a 3D Printer and have been having quite a bit of fun with it.  It’s been a blast.  We have made all sorts of useful things for the house and some costume pieces as well.  The most exciting thing to come from it has been a dive into 3D design using 123D Design (it’s a simple CAD program) that I have used to design some game boxes for card based games like Fluxx and the Looney Pyramid games.  Not to slight the boxes they come in, but the StarFluxx box used to travel with us in Sarah’s purse for play while we were out and it got pretty beat up.  So I designed a cool box that holds the cards and travels well.  Likewise, the Pyramid bags are cool, but they get cumbersome.

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Also, on kind of a dare/challenge from my Son, who is really into period re-enactment, I made a wooden looking version of one of the Pyramid games, that can be taken to events and not look like a 20th century plastic game.

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The printer I picked up is a Makerbot Replicator 2, it was on sale from Amazon for a fraction of the normal cost.  It’s build area is roughly 11x6x6 (inches).  Since it’s not one of the new fancy versions of their printer, turns out it’s incredibly easy to work on.  If you have ever been around any sort of 3D printer, you would learn quick that all sorts of things can happen to them from jamming to parts failing.  So having something that is easy to fix and repair is vital.  

2016-05-12

This is what happens when your extruder is leaking and it’s not caught in time.

Downside to buying an older version is that you don’t get all the bells and whistles, so I have had to improvise.  One of the great things on newer versions is a build in camera to show the print as it’s happening.  This way, if something goes wrong, you can address it quickly.  Also, it’s great fun to watch something getting built.  You may think it’s boring, but it really is fascinating.  To make up for this shortcoming, I have setup two cameras that stream to the website and show the current build as it happens.  

Sometimes I am building plain stuff, other times it’s cool stuff. So if you are interested, just click this link, or check out the tab on the top of the page for 3D printing.

In the meantime, get out there and make stuff!

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Upcoming Stuff

Posted by on February 4, 2016 No comments

Hey guys.  I noticed I hadn’t had a post here in, well a very long time.  So I thought I would do a quick update with some of what’s going on here in the next few months.

imagesFirst, the big one coming up is the JoCo cruise!  Well, the 2016 one.  I will be working as a photographer for the cruise and will be out for a week.  I will be working to make sure there are comics for while I am gone, so no worries there.  If you haven’t been on a JoCo cruise, I highly advise it!  The great news is, you can!  JoCo has announced the 2017 cruise is booking now and you can be a part of the fun!

podcast

Second thing is that I am no longer a part of the Nerd Church Podcast.  It would appear that all of the members have gone their separate ways and the NCP is now disbanded.  That is not to say that you have heard the last of my voice.  There are some plans in the works to continue, but we will see when/what that will be.

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Third! I am doing a lot more on Twitch lately.  Not just gaming, but if you noticed the comic from 2/4/2016, I did a cast of me doing the processing and assembly of the comic.  I plan to continue doing more broadcasts of comic stuff and gaming and general geekery.  So Stay tuned!