All Narfed Up photography and words by Bryan Villarin

I missed one day: December 31^st. I was with so many people that night, I had no excuse!

Anyway, it was a great month and I feel like I improved as the month went on. I couldn’t have done it without the encouraging words, awesome friends and willing co-workers helping me get through.

If you wanna go through those photos, you can page through the “December Challenge” category of my blog or see the “December Challenge” photoset at Flickr.

Update 2008-01-07: Trevor just posted his December Challenge recap. It’s much more comprehensive.

Update 2: Brian Auer just posted his December Challenge review. Very awesome and thorough.

Jackie Cowell goes to PCC and is a barista at Starbucks.

She liked the photos I uploaded from our SMCC Clusters Christmas Party, so I thought I’d ask her if I could take her portrait for today’s December Challenge (Flickr photoset).

Fortunately, she obliged.

Kevinz Carpio is a Senior at Rio Hondo Prep High School. I coached him at Kare Youth League when he was in 5^th grade.

Time flies, right?

Yesterday, we watched UFC 79 at Jay’s house. He was there, too, so I was able to hang out with him…in addition to the 19 other friends there.

Alex Orsburn works at Methodist Hospital in Arcadia, posts at Twitter, is an Apple fanboy, and sometimes posts on Flickr.

I know him because we both went to Rio Hondo Prep, even though I was a Senior when he was a Freshman.

Alexandria “Alex” Alonzo is a student at CSULA. I don’t know much else about her because this was the first time I met her.

I primarily took almost 200 photos of her for my friends at Respond Clothing to showcase their girl tees. It was a cinch. All of them turned out very well, so it was tough for Jordan and Andrew to pick the ones that’d be best for their website. I didn’t choose the same ones that they picked, because the main goal is to showcase the design of their tees.

I also got her permission to let me use some of her photos for today’s portrait in the December Challenge. Very cool.

Here’s a few more:

We borrowed a Canon EOS 6.3MP Digital Rebel from a friend. I chose her Canon 75-300mm lens, rather than the 18-55mm lens.

Kyle Corral works at Pearl Prep and is a coach at Kare Youth League.

I think he always poses whenever I’m about to take a photo. Or, he hides from me.

See?

James Umemura is a student at UC Santa Barbara. We don’t see him too often now that he’s moved to Santa Barbara.

As you can see, he’s eccentric.

I didn’t see anyone Christmas Eve, either. I was working on my DIY gifts.

At least this’ll also be my entry for the Epic Edits Weblog “PHOTO PROJECT: Shoot Yourself.”

I flipped the image horizontally and cleaned up image because the mirror isn’t spotless.

In bed, having barely squeezed this in at 11:59pm. It was tough. I didn’t do anything all Sunday, aside from band practice.

Wait. I just realized that I went to Bill’s to watch “Hot Fuzz.” His mom and step-dad were there - d’oh!

Arthur Tashkesen, 1^st grade teacher at Pearl Prep and coach at Kare Youth League

This is a friend that I’ve known since at least 7^th grade. His vocabulary is ridiculously hilarious.

I wish I actively kept track of his Arthur-isms. We could probably have a short book by now.

***

One time, we were working in the concession stand at Kare, cooking burgers and stuff. He was yelling for someone’s order. The bag said, “Jenny,” but he was yelling “Jenna!” Remember the movie “Forrest Gump“? He was trying to imitate Forrest, but we interrupted him. “Art, it’s Jenny.”

There was a blank stare, followed by an eruption of laughter from everyone else except him.