This is another fun little project.  This is almost stupid.  But, it's all about keeping the spirit alive as an artist.  I would like to share a little part of my life that was not been told before. From this, I hope you will get to know me better.

Wedding Site at Oxnard, Heritage Square

Whenever I arrive at the wedding site, I take pictures of my coffee cup. 

How it all started

1. I don't drink coffee every day.  But I religiously drink coffee whenever I do anything that's related to photography. 
   • For example: If a customer schedule a meeting, I will come to the meeting with a cup of coffee in my hand.
2. I always brew fresh coffee right before I leave home for a wedding.  I drink coffee as I drive to the wedding site.
3. When I arrive at the wedding site:
   • I get out of the car with the last sip of the coffee in my hand.
   • I place my coffee cup on top of my car to stretch.
   • Then I get my cameras out.  Take the lens caps off. etc..
   • I snap a few test pictures to make sure my camera is in working order
   • When I take test pictures, the closest object I see is my coffee cup.  So I take pictures of the coffee cup.
4. I always use Minolta cup.  I am a Canon user.  I don't know why I bought this cup at the first place.  The only Minolta equipment I have is a light meter.
5. The cup is about 18 years old (maybe older). I bought this cup through mail-order.  There was no Internet back then.  I bought it along with a Canon & a Nikon cup.  The other cups were broken a long time ago.

Before I knew it, this practice became one of my wedding photography rituals.

Each photograph of my coffee cup marks the moment I was getting ready for a full day of work.  These are my personal moments when I was by myself.  I usually have a little butterfly in my stomach.  This is the moment when I talk to myself "Be nice to people.  Keep your eyes open..."

Photography as Fitness Activity (workout)

• Heart rate, calorie, & distant monitoring of a wedding photographer at work
• Wedding photography can be an intense workout.

VenturaPhoto.com is the first (& only) photographer to monitor physical activities of a
wedding photographer on the job - Just for fun

I used to be obsessed about physical fitness.  I used to bench-press 225lb 10 years ago.  I still workout but I'm not that obsessed anymore.  (I am 158lb, 5'7")

For last several years, my ongoing question was "How much exercise do I get from a wedding photography gig?"  So I decided to make this my new project.

In order to do this, I had to upgrade my heart rate monitor.  The heart rate monitor I had was too old (and not fun).  I purchased a very sophisticated heart rate monitor that will transfer data to my computer.  With this, I will have a comprehensive understanding.

Heart rate monitors: Old and New

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Heart Rate Monitoring - 8 Hours At Work

First, I wanted to know what my 9 to 5 workday was like.  So I wore my new heart rate monitor to work one day.  Below is my normal workday - I burnt 637 Calories.

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Heart Rate Monitoring - 6 Hours at Wedding

I had my first opportunity to test my heart rate monitor at a real wedding.  I turned on my heart rate monitor when I arrived at the wedding site .  Then I turned it off when my job was done.  I worked 6 hours and 19 minutes total.  I burned 2754 Calories

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Measuring physical activities at the wedding only takes a few seconds.  I find it entertaining to monitor my physical activity at the wedding.  I believe I am the only person in the world providing this kind of data. It's just fun.