Tony's Treehouse Blog

Suz in town

In the pre-dawn morning I take all of the family staying out my place over to the hotel where the airport shuttle is picking them all up. We wrestle the ridiculous amount of luggage they have onto the curb and the shuttle guys shows up. Part of me is in business mode because that front desk guy was out of line. I walk through lobby to head to my aunt & uncle's room and he yells at me to stop and ask who I was. #1 You're in hospitality, you don't yell at anyone. #2 His tone was incredibly rude. So I look him up and down ask him, excuse me. He checks his tone and asks much softer who I was. And I told him, in a quite unfriendly voice I am here to help my family get their luggage to the shuttle. He goes, well only guests are allowed back there. And I look at him and tell well I am going back there to help and I walk away. As I start moving luggage back to the curb I noticed that he's joined by the security guard who never leaves the front desk attendant's side. Lil bitch.

Oddly enough being in that mindset made it easier to say good-bye to my family. Because I think it would have hit me that much harder. After about 5-6 hours of sleep me, I meet up with Suz who helps me return the rental. Then it's off to D&B for lunch and some much needed action games. We played House of the Dead till our trigger fingers were damned near cramping up! lol

Later than night we met up with some of her friends at Visions. This was the first time I've EVER hung out with any of her friends in the almost 8 years we've known each other. I mess with her and tell her, "are you ashamed of me??" haha! Unfortunately I am not really good company this night because I am mentally and physically exhausted from the days prior running around with my family and having 7 people staying in my house. So I sit at the bar and nurse a few drinks. One of the bartenders keeps me company, despite my body language that is radiating "leave me the fuck alone".

Suz on the otherhand must have inherited my usual party prowess and is in rare form! She's loud, she's dancing it up, she's drinking it up and I'm like whoa whoa...where's my gurl Suz?? haha!

St. Thomians Attack Seaworld

My family shops like it's going out of style when they travel. Granted there is a method to the madness. Back home sundries and what-nots can be very expensive. It can be cheaper to buy stuff like clothes and stuff, and ship it to yourself back home. The cousins did a fair share of that. They got a lot of their school clothes shopping taken care of. Gawd, how I do remember those days. What a friggin' pain in the ass. Granted uniforms made shopping for day to day stuff to wear to school that much easier. Still it was a pain in the ass.

This being the tail end of their whirlwind tour of San Diego, everyone is pretty damned tired. I must admit that I am pretty damned tired having this many people in my pad at one time. But then I look at my g-ma & g-pa, and it's all good in da hood again. By now though people getting done with each other. That many people travelling, staying in confined spaces and being away from home. Oh yea, people are snipping at each other.

We FINALLY make it to SeaWorld in the early evening. We were all pretty exhausted and in no hurry to leave. It's a good thing too because there ain't much to see at SeaWorld in the evening time. Matter of fact, I think you could spend more time waiting in one of the lines, than actually walking around the circumference of the entire park.

The family apperantly has a tradition I didn't know about where they all go to the Olive Garden on the last night of their trip. Guess what, I sure as hell am not going to mess with tradition. haha! We went and it was good times yo. In my head I noted the lack of table manners for some of the cousins, and I was thinking to myself...dammit if that were me at their age, I woulda be smacked! My grandparents are slacking off!! haha!

So after dinner, I take my grandparents to Wal-Mart (shivers) because they have run out of suitcase room due to all of the aforementioned shopping they did. There is a line around the corner and I'm wondering wtf is going on? And it clicks - Harry Potter book release. So sad, so very very sad. We get the suitcases, granted at a really good price, but the quality is to be determined. Yes dammit, I am NOT a Wal-Mart fan!! So while we're standing in line, this ASS shouts out the ending. I'm shocked he didn't get his ass kicked!

First Wedding Gig

Today I get to shoot Hillary & Albert's wedding at the Hotel Del Coronado. No pressure at all. I had had my new camera for all of a week. I had NEVER shot with a D-SLR before, much less shot with this particular camera. In addition, the wedding scheduled to start around noon - high noon. Nothing like the sun being high in the sky to flatter the bride and grooms features with harsh shadows. Lovely. But yet, folks are entrusting their lifetime memories with an amatuer with his new camera.

No pressure.

Akilah and I parked in the valet section of the hotel because scanning the crowd I could see the bridal party had already shown up. Fucking shit, this day is starting out awesome. So I pull my 1995 Pontiac Grand Prix SE among a sea of BMW, Benz's and Audis with alphabet soup names. We hop out the car and head to one tall ass jolly green giant mofo named Geoff that one can't miss from a mile away. Luckily the bride and groom hadn't shown up yet giving me enough time to get my shit together.

After everyone showed up and we walked through the hotel onto the sand to this spot of leveled sand that was clearly used for this purpose. Red rose petals were being spread about the sand. The sister of the groom was already welling up. The father-in-law stood there shifting his feet from side-to-side hands in his pockets nervously looking very fatherly. lol Hillary's best friend Kanella was her maid of honor wearing an a beautiful green dress. Hillary stole the show. She rocked this white/off-white dress hidden under a black shawl.

The ceremony was short with Albert and Hillary exchanging vows they had written themselves. I think Hillary made it all of 4 words into the vows before she started tearing up. When Albert was reading his, she almost completely lost it. If it wasn't for the baby, I would say she was in dire need of a drink. The ceremony to me was succint and meaningful without all the melodrama I had come accomstomed to. I love my uncle, but wedding to my aunt-in-law was a 3 hour ordeal!!!

The reception at Gordon Birsch in Mission Valley. My *payment* for services rendered (LOL) was my lunch. There was a miscommunication about me having a guest, so there wasn't a place ready for Akilah. We were assured it could be worked out, but in the end she felt like she was imposing and went off to go shop. I felt really bad about that.

The reception went pretty well with members of both parties making heart felt toasts. The sister of the groom was almost racked with sobs as she publicly welcomed HIllary into their family.

At the end of the day, I got a slew of good shots. The cloud cover around the beach during the wedding allowed for high sunlight to be diffused. I got over my shyness soon enough and roamed the ceremony and reception for some good shots. One thing is certain: I very much prefer to roam an event that put people into posed/unnatural positions. But I guess the point really is to pose them in such a way to make it all look *natural*?