CAH Azusa Opening

Ahhh, is it that time a year again when the weather gets colder, stout beer takes the place of session beers and I finally get my act together long enough to do a blog posting.

One of the projects I've been working on is a video for Congregation Ale House's Azusa Chapter. Being able to photograph it, and wanting a reason to tackle my new version of Final Cut X, I hired Aaron Kahn and his talented eye to help fill my video bank with the finest ingredients to cook up a fun and quick documentary of the Grand Opening.

The learning curve was much slower than I thought with this new version of Final Cut since it's drastically different than the previous versions, but once you get the hang of it, it is much faster and easier to use. Here's what came out of the effort (takes you to Vimeo)...

CAH Azusa Grand Opening Video

Beachwood BBQ food shoot

There are a lot of people out there who are almost excited as some of the Long Beach CityBeat staff about the new Beachwood BBQ location opening up on the promenade. Most of the time, we are very considerate of our co-workers and requests but when the opportunity to do the resturant review at Beachwood, we all clamored across the table to grab it, shoulder shoving and face pushing anyone who was in the way.

Amazing taste with southern BBQ flare, it offers amazing and hard to find dishes that none in Long Beach seem to rival. The newest aspect about their Long Beach location that is different from their Seal Beach location is the brewery in the back. In progress, they will have 12 of their own beers on tap from a award winning brew master Julian.

More to come!

Congregation Ale House Grand Opening

I came back to shoot the grand opening for Congregation, and my love of shooting the place just grew stronger. Here are some favorites. You can see the rest on my Facebook page www.facebook.com/cismithphotography.

Congregation Ale House

The lighting and energy from this place is like a gift from God (pun intended). I was there to capture their test opening, first patrons and first dollar made, and stayed to enjoy some of the best brews in the world. Throughout the whole day/evening/night, the light was constantly happy and enjoyed working with me.

keep an eye out for the next batch of images, coming after I shoot their grand opening this Sunday.

...and I'm BACK!

So I've moved into downtown Long Beach and have fallen in love with the place. My new residence is filled to the brim with people, energy and music, which helps inspire more and more of my photography. Here's a day with my new place and neighborhood once the rain cleared.