Already Gone

The Avalanche has moved to a bigger and better place; Tumblr :)

www.avalanched.tumblr.com

Woooooo

For Tomorrow,
Sade

Oh Man. Bacon.

more animals

Excitement Builds! A Shoot Is Coming...

So, things have been pretty crazy since I wrote last.

I made a personal goal to get published this year for Fashion Photography, which means cutting down on Wedding Photography this season. It's meant less money, but more time for detailed planning to make sure each shoot turns out as amazing as possible. My next shoot is February 2nd, and i have some amazing talent on board.

Vanessa with Nuclear Anatomy for makeup and hair, my good friend Sean Nana to assist, Viridianna Garcia (designer) making me bathing suits, and a secret element I'm not going to divulge here. No creativity jackers please. :)

Last but not least, my lovely model, Elizabeth. We met in person today and now I'm more excited than ever. She's gorgeous!





Keep an eye here for more shoot details and images. It's only days away!

For Tomorrow,
Sade

Helloooo 2009

Hello resolutions :)

1.) Learn an instrument and become fluent (guitar, hopefully piano as well)
2.) Shoot at least one editorial style shoot a month
3.) Get published!
4.) Enjoy the beach this year :)
5.) Resume drawing and complete at least on work ( it sounds small, but trust me. I get distracted...)
6.) Get Fit (of course)
7.) Get a little more action. Yes, action.

I hope to accomplish all this and more in 2009, and I'll keep you posted on my progress :)

For Tomorrow,
Sade

Night Visions

What a strange concept dreams are. Wait.... what a strange reality dreams are.

I don't think anyone will ever be able to explain why when people close their eyes they see things and people they may have never seen or met, and do things they never thought possible. Whether you fly when you jump off the ground, witness death, lose a tooth, breathe underwater, or drown, its an experience, real or not. And fascinating and scary and completely unexplainable....

I don't understand how someone can manifest scenarios and people and situations and not be a visionary or a creator. I don't think dreams are something to be taken lightly or dismissed. They're amazing.

Random thoughts on a Thursday night before some extensive photo editing...


For Tomorrow,
Sade

Lack of Originality is Fun

So while browsing through Apple's website I came across Maroon 5's new album cover ****DISCLAIMER*** I am not a fan of Maroon 5. Now that that's out of the way, here's the cover:

Which oddly looks an AWFUL LOT like The Rapture's "Echoes" Album cover from 2003......

......... Creativity, anyone?

For Tomorrow,

Sade

The Untitled Shoot w/ Kurt

Untitled
Originally uploaded by blackboxxphoto

So, one major benefit in working at Apple is the plentiful selection of people to photograph. My friend Kurt is tall, skinny as they come, and clothes fit him like a dream. So he consented to shoot with me... and it went horribly wrong.

I have chosen to shoot film for my personal projects; I took the Yashica 635 and the F100. The Yashica images came out beautifully; HOWEVER, I had previously pushed a roll of film to 3200 at a wedding sometime before and forgot to change the settings back on the F100. Needless to say, all the F100 shots turned out to be completely useless, as they were all either 100 ISO or 400 ISO shots. Not nearly enough light was allowed it.

Both heartbroken and broken-spirited, we attempted to reshoot- and did so successfully. :)

Click the image below to view the full set; enjoy!

For Tomorrow, Sade

The Confession.

I've been told that admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery... So here goes.....

My name is Sade, and I am addicted to Thai food. I can't get enough of it. Whether it's ritzy Thai downtown, or dirty hole-in-the-wall Thai. I have to have it. And it's not hot enough unless it puts sweat on my brow. Thai Chili House in Northridge only makes things harder.

That being said, this place was a treasure. I was in town for a wedding when I saw the word Thai and screeched into the parking lot. I snuck a peek at yelp and saw that more than a few good things had been said. Lucky me :)

I had the red curry with shrimp and a bowl of chicken tom yum, 2 staple dishes I always use to test the waters of a new Thai joint, and this place passed with flying colors. The food had the perfect amount of heat (which for me is about a level 8) without me even having to request it. Well done.

If for whatever reason I am ever forced to drive that far north again, I will reward myself with another meal here. :)

P.S. The homeade coconut ice cream is a dream.

Thai Chili House 

18110 Nordhoff Street

Northridge, CA 91325

For Tomorrow,

Sade

New Tunez...Ai Has Them.

So, I recently succeeded in getting Peter (and myself) hooked on a pretty kewl band, Tokyo Police Club. Think of them as Strokes meets Bloc Party's first CD. I REPEAT, BP's first CD. The second one was so terrible it combusted in my CD player. I kid you not.

Save yourself and listen!

For Tomorrow,

Sade

Something Really Shitty.

I hate to break the month-long silence, but I've got some crapppy news if there ever was any.

So I woke for work late, only to find that I COULDN'T find my car. Lucky for me, it was safely impounded by the City of San Diego for unpaid parking tickets. I'm not going to tell you how much I owe, so that I can keep your sympathy. Lets just say I owe A LOT. 

That, combined with the cost of towing and day to day storage at the facility, I'll be under by $1300 or so by the time I get it out. Ah, life. How I love thee. Ah, The City of San Diego, how I long to bludgeon thee.

For Tomorrow,

Sade

The Awakening....

Looking at Yelp has reawakened the BEAST that is my belly. The ASC and I have a dinner date this Thursday at Urban Solace. A secondary review is coming soon. :)

Aaaaand i will take the liberty of posting long lost food reviews from past months.

Stay tuned!

For Tomorrow,

Sade

I'm Not The Only One...

I knew it wouldn't last long, Julian being so cute and all. There HAD to be a cat just a tad bit cuter. And thy name is Arthur. And thy owner is Laura.

And thou art far more well behaved than my own cats.

Oh DS. We Were MADE For Each Other.

And oh how justified this statement is.

So after Pete and I moved into our little place, I made a solid resolution for myself: Get a Nintendo DS. Heck, if we dont have a washer/dryer unit in our place anymore and I have to do laundry, I'll be DAMNED if I don't have a gadget to help me pass the time.

So a couple months passed, and no DS had been bought. Then one day I checked my email. Nothing new. Until I looked in my junk mail...

In it was an email from a company called Brand About Town, asking for Brand Enthusiasts to spread the word about the Nintendo DS. In return i would get a free Nintendo DS, as well as Nintendo products for a year.

.....

You have GOT to be kidding me. This was either the worst attempt at a scam I had EVER seen, or it's an email sent from heaven above. Seriously.

Curiosity killed the cat; but it made Sade email a response.

The next day i received a response back; Brand About town REALLY WAS a company in LA, hired by Nintendo to spread the word about the DS to women, a demographic that, obviously, unless they've got a gamer boyfriend (cough cough), isnt very likely to have an interest in these sort of fabulous things. And I wasn't the first; I was able so peek at a blog from another girl who was asked to be a brand enthusiast. It couldn't be fake. I jumped at the chance.

The catch? Host a party. Invite up to 30 guests (ALL females), and play the Nintendo DS for a couple hours. In return, everyone who attends gets a free DS to take home. WHAAAAAT?? If you can call that a catch??? I felt like the luckiest girl on the planet.

But now the real task was at hand. 30 girls? Do i know 30 girls? 

But ah ha..... I forgot the best source of all. APPLE.

Apple is crawling with cool, computer and electronic savvy females, all of which I knew well enough to invite. I thought the list would fill up in no time. ut suprisingly, I had to convince a lot of girls, which I found odd. 2 girls I invited blatantly said they hated video games and werent interested. ARE YOU KIDDING? This is Nintendo, the original! And you dont want a free DS? Are you on crack?!? I hope so.

And on top of this I had to beat the hundreds of boys at Apple off with a stick. Each and every one either opted to do one (or all) of the following:

1.) Dress in drag and take on a more feminine version of their name. How unoriginal.

2.) Send their girlfriend/ wife/ friend/ relative

3.) Crash the party hahaha

A week later I had it. A guest list of 30...and growing?? Once word got out everyone wanted to come. It was insane! But my biggest concern was secret: what if the big night came and we were greeted with a huge "SIKE!", or were given directions to an abandoned warehouse? Who knew. The entire time it sounded too good to be true.

Until one morning, a few days before the party, a package arrived. For me? How nice. What is it.

A brand spanking new Nintendo DS, with Brain Age 2 and CrossworDS, two new games for DS! I was speechless. How lucky could I be?

2 days (and 3 Gamestops) later, I had 5 games. I couldn't (and still can't) put this thing down, but not in a gross, obsessed World of Warcraft obsessed way. Puzzles, riddles, crosswords, word searches, Soduku, strategy games... all in the palm of my hand. It was more awesome than even I thought it would be.

But forget about me and my bad ass DS. I had a party to host. And the big night came! No one could believe the evening that lay ahead. It was AWESOME.

Yeah, I know. I felt like a flipping celebrity. Host mode kicked in right away.

Upon entering, each girl was greeted at the door by a hostess and given a gorgeous (and heavy!) Gold Charm Baracelet. Our mission for the evening: Enjoy the fabulous drinks and appetizers, and play each DS game: MarioKart, Guitar Hero, Crosswords, and BrainAge 2. After completing each game, you would receive a charm representative of that game. Once all games had been played, each girl would be rewarded with a fabulous gift: a free DS.

Needless to say, everyone was up for the challenge, no questions asked. :)

I kicked butt on MarioKart (as usual...ahem), and rocked out on Guitar Hero for DS with the ladies (probably the coolest game there).

And I got free compliments! woot

 After about 2 hours of fun, the night was over. EVERY girl left with a free DS and a copy of Brain Age 2. It was so awesome it didnt even feel real.

Ever since then, all of us at work carry our DS's in our purses, hahahah! I dont go anywhere without mine. ;) And I already have a list of the games I intend to own in the future.

Thank you Nintendo, thank you Brand About Town, for making a night none of us will ever forget. It was absolutely unbelievable! 

For Tomorrow,

Sade

The Other Woman.

The sheer cuteness is almost infuriating. The fact that it has taken me so long to introduce Julian just makes me mad.

About a month and a half ago I got this urge to get a Kitten. It was uncontrollable. And how fun would it be to get one that looked like Sammy? And have another girl in the house? There weren't many cons. Our place is too small for a dog, no matter how much we want one. 

So i did it. $20 bucks and an hour and a half later i had her, thanks to an ad on Craigslist. And BY GOD they don't get much cuter than this. I am still trying to get her to realize her name is Julian; if I could JUST STOP CALLING HER SNUGGLEBUN.

Now, I'm no newbie to kitties. I've owned cats my whole life. But the main man of the house (besides Pete) is Sammy. My handsome, orange boy. And so photogenic, no?

Could they handle another girl in the house? My two peas in a pod.

The answer was yes. She's Pete's little girl and Sammy's little cohort. But even after just a month she's not so little anymore. But she's so lovely. :)

And she and Sammy are such freaking BFF's it's not even funny. They might as well live here by themselves.

She'll get bigger. And badder. And go into heat GOD I'm not excited for that. But until then she's the other woman. Which is just fine. 

Little badass.

For Tomorrow,

Sade

All Grown Up.

Awwww. Black Boxx Photo officially has it's own photo bog. Isn't that something. :)

http://blackboxxphoto.blogspot.com/

THAT'S where you'll want to go to see the latest photography, Wedding, Fashion or otherwise, by yours truly. :) Enjoy!

For Tomorrow,

Sade

Baby Got Back

I mean.. Baby IS back. That's what I meant. 

Yeaaaah.

So, it's been a while...too long. And so much has happened. New kitten, new nephew, new music, new pictures, new restaurants, new Nintendo DS (!!!!!), new new new. So new it will blow your shirt off.

Time to play catch up!

For Tomorrow,

Sade

Where Have I Been?

I have been absent. Mentally. Since the robbery, it's been a week and a half of.... wait, I can't remember. Was I a zombie? I didn't realize an incident like being robbed could put such a halt on everything: creativity, social life, running my business, etc.

Well, the good news is, for whatever reason, last night the creative spark was relit and I'm back in action. Woot

And tonight I get to see Wall-E! Yeeeeeeehaw

It Doesn't Happen Often.....

But occasionally life can suck. Take last Saturday for instance.

Between 12:30 and 12:45 pm me and Pete's apartment was robbed in Golden Hill. Whats worse is that I was home, and there was such a small amount of time for someone to take things, I am sure it was someone local who was watching us.

I was getting ready to leave for work; I left a backpack and my purse on a chair in the living room preparing to leave. As I went to handle laundry and gpo to the bathroom, someone slipped in and took the items along with my boyfriends camera. Literally, they had to have been waiting for me to become distracted. Our place is very small and it would have been hard to come in unnoticed.

The following items were stolen:

Nikon D300 digital camera
- Serial #3014174
-LARGE black camera
-4GB card inside; MAY still be images on the camera
-50 mm 1.8 lens

BURTON Black backpack
-LARGE backpack
-2 external hardrives were inside. One drive specifically is black & orange and glows when in use.

Volcom Black Purse
-Contains wallet w/ credit cards, ID, etc
-Contains an inhaler (i have asthma)
-Contains a small silver cell phone; nothing fancy. If there is a text in the inbox saying "this phone is stolen" call the number the text came from. I sent it.

If anyone you know/ seen has come in posession of any of these items within the last 24 hours, please contact me at 858-208-7088, or email photowise885@gmail.com.

We've done our part; police report, our OWN investigating, cruising around town to get any kind of lead or witness. Hitting up the pawn shops and letting them know what was jacked. Everything you could think of; definitely as much if not more than the investigator assigned to the case....

The ultimate shitiness of the whole deal is : Pete's camera. I already have a new purse, bank cards, ID, etc. But that camera was Pete's heart and - dare i say it - SOUL. It's hard to see the person you love say that they are going to give up their passion because of a stranger's selfishness and disregard for his fellow man. At this point, I don't care if the thief drops the thing on the doorstep in the middle of the night. I want to find out who did this and beat them to a pulp. Asshole, wherever you are.

In the meantime, ANYONE who sympathizes and/ or admires Pete's work, I encourage you to check out his site, and donate if at all possible. I have no expectations; only hope. Poor guy. There's honestly no other thing in this world that means more to him then his photography. It's a pretty tough deal.

Donations of $20 or greater will receive a 13" x 19" print of any image in Pete's portfolio.

Thanks for reading this post. There's plenty of entertaining good news to blog as well, but we have to air the grievances first. 

Check out Peter W Photo.

For Tomorrow,

Sade

Super What?!?

Cocina.

SUPER Cocina. Only the tastiest Mexican Food I think I've had EVER. This place isn't your typical 'round the corner Mexican food. Nor is it your normal sit down. It's more like a few vastly talented Hispanic mothers gathered and brought their best homemade dishes to the WORLD. And by GOD I'm glad they did.

You're welcomed by a smell and warmth that comforts you immediately...and makes you a hungry beast. At least I felt like a hungry beast......

It's set up like a buffet from which the cook serves you. She was sooooo kind and took the time to explain what every dish contained. She even offered us a sample of each one. From Mole to Pesole to Carnitas, it was a lovely feast or the eyes and for my belly. :)

I chose the Spicy Pork......

with a bowl of Pesole. 

No regrets. NONE.

Pete had the Spicy Pork in Roasted Chili Sauce and Carnitas. God this was good....

Go. It's delicious, and I want to go back, even as I'm typing. It's delicious, authentic, Mexican comfort food at it's finest. They even had a Yelp sticker in the window! Yaay

Super Cocina

3627 University Ave
(between 36th St & Cherokee Ave)
San Diego, CA 92104

For Tomorrow,

Sade

If I KNEW How to Shit a Brick I would.