I haven't really talked about it much in detail, but I got myself a full-time job (enough of this freelance crap!), and fortunately a pretty good one I might add. Where do I work? I work at this small magazine in Santa Monica called Moving Pictures magazine. I was hired as an intern to work in the Internet division a little over a month ago – before they hired me they hired a new editor for the Web site and a new editor-in-chief, so it was new staff all around. When I came in, they had a quarter-annual distribution period, but now they're at six issues per year.

What do I do? Day-to-day tasks include small things like creating photo galleries, adding videos, and general site maintenance. But every so often a project comes up (like the most recent one being a round up '80s-era remakes in one '80s movie remake gallery) where I'm given tasks that ask me to go "above and beyond intern work," according to one of my editors. Those are rewarding, but the main perks come from what the magazine focuses on: film festivals. My latest and current project is photographing the LA Film Festival.

Now that I'm associated with an actual publication, the festival's granted me credentials to attend almost every screening at the Los Angeles Film Festival and has allowed me access to nearly all the red carpet premiere and Q&As. It really is incredible, and I'm very grateful.

LAFF has been going on since Thursday, but I have unfortunately only been to one red carpet (It Might Get Loud, Davis Guggenheim's newest documentary about Jimmy Page, Jack White, The Edge, and their history with the electric guitar). Tonight is the premiere of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, but we didn't get access to that. Tomorrow night however, I will be fortunate enough to attend and photograph the red carpet premiere of Public Enemies, where'll I'll be but inches away from Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Michael Mann, and a whole lot of other famous people. No decisions on what other events I'll be going to, but I want to go to as many as possible as I get $50 for every photo assignment. It's not much, but hey, I'm getting paid to take photos of famous people!

This post though is about my first red carpet experience: shooting the after party of It Might Get Loud. It was Friday night at the Palomar Hotel in Westwood (LAFF is entirely in Westwood). Legendary guitarist from Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page, was there, and so too was his co-"star," Jack White, from The White Stripes and The Raconteurs (and now of The Dead Weather, who also attended the after party). Director Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) was there with his wife Elizabeth Shue, and J.J. Abrams was there as well! A ton of others were listed to show, but hardly any of them did.

If there's one thing I learned from the whole experience, it's that the red carpet is chaotic. It really is like how the movies and TV shows make them seem: people yelling, hundreds of photos being taken, and famous people continuously smiling (I also learned though that the talent tend to hate the photographers with a passion... Johnny Depp is supposed to be nicer though, so we'll see how that goes tomorrow night – I can't believe I just said that. Someone pinch me, haha).

Additionally, because I'm associated with a publication, I was able to see an early screening of the movie (I always get plus-ones so I brought Margarita, who is a noted Zeppelin fan, with me to Sony Studios in Culver City Thursday night), and I got to attend a press conference the morning of the premiere in Beverly Hills where Jimmy Page and Jack White answered questions... so I talked to them! haha. Though, after Public Enemies, the movies will be much less mainstream and will not have as elaborate of events, but that doesn't necessarily mean they will be less rewarding. I will make the most out of them because, after all, I'm working almost for free.

Unfortunately, these photos came out pretty bad according to my standards. I was unaware that photographers normally show up much earlier than the listed time in order to get "first rows." I was stuck in the second behind a line of other photographers. I was also unaware that "second row" photographers usually bring stepping stools and what not to get higher up than the "first rows," so I struggled the entire night trying to squeeze shots in between a couple photographers in front of me. It was still fun though, the photographers were nice and funny – and all knew each other – and it was a great first time red carpet. I promise though that tomorrow night's photos will be much better (it'll be during the day – the fact that it was night during this after party no doubt hurt the photo quality). But check the photos out at my Flickr, here (they're also on the homepage of my magazine's Web site!). I'll update Public Enemies tomorrow night as well, Insha Allah, and will hopefully have a post up at night about the premiere. Watch out for me on the news! So until tomorrow, take care everyone. see u.