Weblog » Archives » January 2008

  • MY I.P. ATTORNEYSI have twelve attorneys. Some for real estate, some for family law, and the five at right are my intellectual properties attorneys. I would say that I spend more of my time talking to my attorneys than…

  • TODAY IN PICTURESIf you are in Facebook, I just uploaded some photos from today. This morning, as I was driving to do some errands, I looked out my window and saw Air Force One. There were military helicopters flying a…

  • I DON'T GET IT BUT OK Facebook sure is interesting! I like it because you can tag people in photos, and then it shows up in their set of photos. I just got an email that I got tagged by a facebook member with this imag…

  • I JUST BOUGHT A FUJI S5 I was visiting Samy, who owns a chain of camera stores here in Los Angeles today, and they had Fuji S5 kits for $1,299. Samy's is a ginormous camera store here in Southern California, and it was …

  • THE MEGAPIXEL MAZE the image on the right is over 1,000 times bigger than the file on the left. Isn't the difference amazing? Does this image on the right load really slow for a thumbnail? It's 1.7 MB on my FTP server.…

  • This is hilarious! Thanks Jesse -http://www.garyrip.com/screenclean.swf

  • MARK STRICKLAND IS HERE IN L.A.!Yay! Mark is here. He is Jess Strickland's husband and he is so much fun. He's one of my favorite people whenever he comes around we run off completely out of control.He's a private jet…

  • HAPPY BIRTHDAY LINDSAY!!!! Lindsay is such a gentle, kind person and a wonderful teacher. She is so patient with me when I ask her zillions of really mindless questions about horses (do they eat hay?). I guess I am jus…

  • AN ESSAY ABOUT RECESSION-PROOFING YOUR BUSINESS (more added today) I've been in business through two recessions. Business proceeded in a healthy way and my numbers continued to grow. I had to do some adaptation and …

  • HAVE YOU HEARD OF THE BUZZILLIONS WEBSITE?This is a brand new site that collects reviews from the different retail stores - and then rates them. If you like rottentomatoes.com for movie reviews (it's the best) then you …

  • WHAT A GREAT MOVIE I remember when Julia Roberts did "Pretty Woman" I was like - wow she is an incredible actress. Having seen the movie, "27 Dresses", I completely found Katherine Heigl totally delightful. She is a gr…

  • HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAUREN!Today is Lauren's birthday. She is the most awesome person. Though she is super girly and likes to wear pink and blingy sparkly things, she never shies away from hard work. She maintains all of t…

  • WHY I SAID HOUSE VALUES ARE GOING TO GO TO 1/3 OF 2006 PRICESEvery day there is worse news on the housing and credit markets, and we're only about 15% touched by it. I said in an earlier post that housing would fall to …

  • CALIFORNIA FORECLOSURES SKYROCKET 392% FROM A YEAR AGO Nine years ago, foreclosures hit a record in California. Last year, that figure skyrocketed to double the previous record, and 392% over last year.Many, many people…

  • LISA MARIE PRESLEYBoy the 80's were rough. I remember that when I did this shot, my assistant didn't know who she was, and she kept calling her "Lisa". She kept saying, no it's Lisa Marie! She has the king's trademark…

  • DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN I SOLD APPLE STOCK AT $200.10?After I got word of the December retail sales, I knew that consumer spending was going to come to a screech. One of the most MOST sensitive stocks would be consumer ele…

  • THIS IS GOING TO BE A GOOD ORANGE - HERE'S WHYI love the internet. Now that I'm doing more cooking, I wanted to know if there were any tips on how to find the sweetest orange in the produce area. The tip was - get the…

  • LATER IN MY CAREERSomebody asked what my later stuff looked like. I haven't shot weddings in over five years, so this is about as recent as I could find:

  • MORE WEDDING IMAGES FROM THE LEGENDARY WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER, GARY FONGDude, can you believe that I became a famous photographer? I did the images below. This HAS to be hugely inspiring to somebody because seriously. …

  • THESE ARE CALLED DOUBLE EXPOSURES

    In the days before photoshop, we used to take two images on a single negative. What is a negative? It's - a piece of gelatin that has a coating.... aaaagh nevermind

  • I MADE A FORTUNE AT WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHYI made millions as a wedding photographer. Is this as weird to you as it is to me, looking at these images?Today me and Tif were at the warehouse and I was looking for some images …

  • FED DOES AN EMERGENCY SESSION AND CUTS RATES DRAMATICALLYThe old things that used to make the market rebound don't work anymore. Little gooses like Angelo Mozillo (CEO of Countrywide) saying that last quarter was the "k…

  • OVERNIGHT UPDATE - FUTURES TRADING HALTED! DOWN 649 POINTS WHEN I LAST LOOKED!!"U.S. markets were closed Monday for a holiday commemorating civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. But Wall Street future prices were d…

  • TOMORROW ON WALL STREET...The international markets were open today, as they do not celebrate MLK holiday. There was a very very heavy selloff in securities in response to the U.S. economic data. The world pretty much …

  • GREAT DEPRESSION WATCH - TODAY IS GLOBAL BLACK MONDAYLast night I was having dinner with Tiffany, Jenn and Melissa and I got really sad not only because we had seen a tear-jerker movie (p.s. I love you) - didn't affect m…

  • CONFUSED BY THIS COMMENT BELOW"...we as belivers have known all along what the end of time was going to be like; so none of this should be a surprise. Gary, this is a time for us to stand up and let the world know that e…

  • GREAT DEPRESSION WATCH 2008 Governator (rmlsf) asked in a comment below if I knew of any cure for the coming U.S. economic crash.I have said for years that it was going to get really bad, and I wish I had a solution or s…

  • HOLED UP HERE, IN ISOLATIONMy friend Jeff used to talk to Steve Wozniak (co-founder of Apple) all the time on the phone when we were in college. Woz used to do this thing called, "going into isolation" which meant no ph…

  • WOW THAT IS A BIG AIR CONDITIONING COMPRESSORMy Porsche Cayman is about 2 years old and has just passed 4,000 miles. When you don't run a car much, things start to freeze up - like the air conditioning compressor. It h…

  • LAST NIGHT WE WERE LISTENING TO SOME BANDS IN SANTA BARBARA And it is so weird to know how fast time goes by. 25 years ago, we used to play in Santa Barbara all the way down to Oxnard in my band called, "Teaser". We ha…

  • FINALLY - A NEW WORKSHOP FOR THE EMERGING PORTRAIT BUSINESS Now is a great time to diversify your business into new markets. There are SO many wedding photography workshops but surprisingly few dedicated to the market …

  • THE INTERNET SHOULD HAVE LIMITS I just saw the most disgusting website ever with the most basically repulsive content imaginable. I literally thought about throwing up. While I think free speech is a powerful governing…

  • BOOK EXCERPTIf you enjoyed the best-seller, "Chicken Soup For The Soul" - then you'll like my Ghost writer. He's published that and a cadre of best-selling screenplays and books, and he is now working full time on mine.…

  • BOMBAY COMPANY GOES BANKRUPTCITIBANK POSTS BIGGEST LOSS IN 196 YEARSI've said earlier in posts that BofA, Citibank and Wells Fargo are in a huge mess because of the subprime writeoffs from being too far invested in mortg…

  • MOST PEOPLE WON'T GO IN UNTIL IT IS TOO LATE Back when gold was $400 something, I - anyway now an ounce is over $900, and I think only when it hits some really high price that nobody said would be possible will most peop…

  • SEE MY PERSONAL PHOTO ALBUM ON FACEBOOK CLICK HEREYesterday, we woke up (late) to a beautiful day in Southern California. On the top left is what it looked like when the sun came out - it is in the high 70's today. We …

  • SUNRISE OVER MARINA DEL REYWow it is really a contrast being in Los Angeles. A couple of days ago I was skiing, and we were dealing with snow removal at the ranch. It is a beautiful, clear, sunny day in Marina Del Rey.…

  • I WANT TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT THE CRASH I have been struggling with ways to be inspiring, and encouraging. I constantly wrestle in my mind about why I have to write my financial forecasts when so many people are stuck. I…

  • GARYPEDIA - NEVER HEARD OF IT BUT WOW WHAT READING CLICK HEREThe bank now owns this house at $495k, and there are no offers While it dropped 37% in one year, this house- in my estimation, has another ~60% to fall before …

  • FLYING OUT TODAY!I have some business meetings and a court appearance so we head out to L.A. to meet with my new sales evangelist Tiffany. Then we head to Santa Barbara and then our home in Seattle.Marina Del Rey MONTEC…

  • SHOOT TO BURN AND ITS IMPACT ON WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHYThere are SO many wedding photographers giving couples a DVD at the end of the evening for a few hundred dollars. I heard one person in the industry say that it's more …

  • PHOTO FROM TODAY My friend Debra owns a chain of Spas called "Beyond Wrapture". Today I did a promo shoot for them for their advertising. This is called a "vinotherapy" scrub where they smear something called "pith" al…

  • DEPRESSION WATCH 2008Stock that goes up on "rumors" makes me go nuts. Yesterday Countrywide jumped 64% on "rumors" that B of A was in talks to purchase Countrywide. I was joking with a friend of mine who works for CFC…

  • FIRST DRAFT OF BOOK IS ALMOST DONE - I REQUEST YOUR HELPKnowing that I am going to write a book, what questions would you like me to address? As in, while reading my book, what would you like to know about in more detai…

  • 31% INCREASE IN 2007 AND A VERY SAFE INVESTMENTOnce gold breaks $900, it will zoom past $1,000 easily. I've heard experts forecasting that it could easily see $5,000 per ounce. I can't believe a Krugerrand is about a g…

  • THE BEST ORANGES ARE THE ONES WITH THE LARGEST NAVEL That is something I didn't know before, but so far I have found it to be true. When I pick my oranges, I look for the navel size. I've also heard that in plums and p…

  • NEW OFFICEI have been spending so much time in the kitchen that it's like my new office. I spend more time in the kitchen than I do at my desk now, experimenting with new healthy-cooking recipes. I am far from adept ar…

  • image by Jesse

  • WOW THIS SIMPLE PARAGRAPH COULD SAVE A LIFEJesse sent me this, and with the power of the internet, I can only imagine if you tell other people about this, then it could save somebody's life.A neurologist said that if he …

  • I DO NOT HAVE A CRYSTAL BALL, NOR DO I NEED ONEAs you know from a few days ago, I sold Apple at $200.10. I also told you that housing was going to crash, and that gold is going to hit record highs. Everything that is h…

  • HILARIOUS 1981 I weighed 139 pounds back then. I was 21 years old, and that is my Kramer fretless bass. On the right is Ken Scott holding my prized Gibson Les Paul Custom 20th anniversary (I still have this in my wareh…

  • THE CURE FOR JALAPENO HANDS! If you have ever cut hot chili peppers without gloves, you will soon find that they burn like crazy for days. It happened to me yesterday, I had to keep my fingertips in ice because they bur…

  • MY HEART IS BROKEN TOO click here to read what happenedThose of you who frequent this blog have read the story of this happy, adorable, precocious, engaging, curious, cuddly, trusting, brave, sweet, innocent girl picture…

  • MY HORSE CAN DANCE (courtesy of Jesse)

  • WOW THIS WAS TASTY! TOFU SCHNITZELThis is two thinly sliced layers of tofu, quickly pan fried over a dusting of spices. The center consists of apricots, ginger, shredded cucumber, shredded apple, diced onions, parsley,…

  • DESIRE

  • SUPER HEALTHY EATING IN CANADAMelissa had a little bit of a crisis in December when she went to the mall and didn't like how any of her tops were fitting. So she asked me for diet advice, and even though she didn't foll…

  • HOW A BOOK GETS WRITTEN THESE DAYS TECHNOLOGY-WISESo I've been cranking pages and pages of really interesting stories, and honestly the first draft should be done really soon. It's because I literally have a book factor…

  • RUDE!"She makes him feel whole. ""She will always be a part of him""Wherever he goes, she will be in his heart""Let me chew off your ear for a minute""After a bad fight, he really tore into her""When you are in love, you…

  • THIS IS A PRIVATE EMAIL AND IT IS NOT POLITE TO SNOOP Sandy was my girlfriend in Junior High, and we've stayed in touch. One time my dad came home from work unexpectedly, and me and Sandy were making out in my bedroom. …

  • UNBELIEVABLE TECHNOLOGY FOR BOOK WRITERS Using Richard's suggestion of "Inspiration" software, I whiteboarded out the entire map of my upcoming book. I have stories upon stories, but to keep a flow and a beat, I needed …

  • A BOOK EXCERPT FROM THE CHAPTER, "A NIGHT UNDER THE STAIRS"

  • THE BOOK IS COMING ALONG SO FAST, WITH TECHNOLOGY!Using inspiration software, I can easily roadmap the flowcharts how one event led to the next. So on my 30" monitor, I have it all spread out. The writer's copy hovers…

  • I WROTE SOME UNNECESSARY CHAPTERSWithout a flowchart, it is so easy to ramble. And I think it is ok to ramble because life has its tangents, but a book has to have a flow first, and then randomness within it. So what I…

  • THANK YOU SO MUCH RICHARD!Earlier I had posted about how I was using a super old program called, "More" for writing my book. More is awesome because you can flowchart your ideas, and then write entire documents beneath …

  • SOLD MY APPLE STOCK BEFORE THE CRASH It's not that I don't believe in Apple. It's just I bought in way back in 1984 when the Apple IIc was introduced, when it was $13/share - and it split three ways. Apple has made huge…

  • LATEST FROM BLOOMBERG AND CNNWould you folks rather I not post this stuff? I put it up because I'll ask a question about the economy and nobody really knows what's going on. So is this good or depressing to hear or wha…

  • WOW JESSE IS GETTING REALLY GOOD AT PHOTOGRAPHY!Santa brought Jesse and EOS-Digital Rebel and he has not been without the camera ever since. He takes hundreds of images per day, making detour after detour while riding d…

  • YOU'RE AN ASS, AND I MEAN IT THIS TIME! I don't know much about donkeys, so I have to rely on Lindsay to tell me why they're fun. So she said that: 1) they have a lot of personality2) they are super strong, one donkey c…

  • THE RETURN OF THE "BEVELMATS" ALBUM LOOKAn emerging trend in wedding albums is going back to the "clean" design book. Collage-style albums had a great run for a few years, but now to stand out, the "matted" book provide…

  • CONGRATULATIONS DONNA NEWMAN!!! Donna was one of my students at WB and Digital Intensive, and teamed up with her husband Ian, they have made an incredible success at wedding photography. Donna was a top model in Canada,…

  • QUICK ESSAY ON THE U.S. FINANCIAL CRISISI'm interviewing ghost writers for my new book, but I have had so many search requests on the economy I wanted to address it here.1) GOLD - gold follows oil prices. Oil prices fin…

  • INTERVIEWING GHOST WRITERSWhat's a ghost writer? A ghost writer is somebody who edits, focuses, colorizes, and polishes your book so that it is much more readable. I've been swamped trying to find the ideal ghost write…

  • U.S. STOCKS PLUMMETED, AND GOLD HIT A RECORD HIGH At the end of the year, a lot of financial portfolio managers like to keep their positions high. It's kind of a quiet, understood thing that we try to prop things up as …

  • THERE ARE SO MANY HOW-TO BOOKS OUT THEREMy book is going to be like all of these combined, because I've done all of the below, except for the horse business

  • PROPOSED BABY NAMESThe other night, we were having dinner with Lindsay and Jesse and we were coming up with hypothetical baby names. I have become deeply excited about parenthood. I think that it will be tremendously w…

  • BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS! This is a great breakfast. It consists of nonfat, vanilla yogurt, 2 tsp each of milled flaxseed, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and one tsp of sesame seeds. Then about a handful of freeze dried …

  • JANEY GOT ENGAGED!!!!!!!Last night Melissa got a text message - Janey and Mark got engaged!!! Then I got one, and it said:"Happy New Year! I'm engaged!"To all of us who are lucky enough to call Janey our friend, we lov…

  • THE COMMAND CENTER FOR 2008 NEW YEARSLittle known to the rest of the world, this command center was watching over the worldwide festivities and making sure everything went according to plan. The one thing we have not be…

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