Open invitation to my Artists Reception 10/14/2010

Mark your calenders, October 14, 2010, 7PM to 9:30PM for my artists reception at Bolt Barbers in Los Angeles. The addy...460 S Spring Street (corner of 5th and Spring) Los Angeles CA. The reception will include a hosted "Candy bar"...perfect to kick off Halloween. There is no need to RSVP as this is open to the public.

It will be held in conjunction with the Downtown LA Art Walk that runs 5-10PM on that day. Be prepared for tight parking. The Hotel Alexandria at 501 S Spring Street has underground valet parking and you can buy discounted parking from the Bolt good at the hotel. Worth every penny to avoid the other more known public lots in the area.

As soon as Bolt has their artists page updated.

The curator of the exhibit, Betsy Matz designed the post cards and chose one of my favorite images to use on the card. "Abandoned Church, Paris" is one of my favorites for many reasons. Chief of which is that its proof that the greatest rewards are when we stray from the beaten path.

We were on a walking tour of the old Jewish quarter when the guide had us change directions and pointed out there was "nothing to see" down this one small street as the church there was being gutted to turn into retail shops etc.,. Fine I kept walking. We rounded a couple more corners and he pointed out again "nothing to see...." and gave the same reason pointing down the general direction we had been. I broke ranks and jogged down the half block and look what I found, this terrific old church, built in the 1500's being gutted. What a wonderful patina to the walls, the rough hewn beams and on the other side of the wall, the church's old courtyard in full spring bloom with Victorian era apartments on the other side.

I had the camera set in seconds for bracketed exposures and shot it with HDR post processing in mind. I used Photomatix for the post processing in to the HDR file and kept it adjusted for photo-realism with maximum detail in the shadows to highlights. Had I not used HDR file generation I would have had either a beautifully exposed courtyard with a blacked out church, or church detail with blown out highlights for the courtyard. Classic win/win that you can get with HDR and keeping it real instead of surreal.

See you at the reception!

Gallery Card Proof

Its' official, am going into the Bolt Barbers Gallery in downtown Los Angels for a nice 2 month run. I"ll be announcing the opening reception as soon as the date has been nailed down. Likely it will be a late opening reception set in conjunction with the Downtown LA Art Walk. Exact date will be announced as soon as I know it.

I'm just a little jazzed....I got front window

I'm jazzed, it wasn't by some grand design I got front window...but I did and I'm not complaining. The location is totally accidental and placement was alphabetical order. Pays to be a "Z" sometimes doesn't it? (Thats me on the far right, 2nd from the top - an abandoned rail car).

The show I'm in is the take all comers, worldwide pool of contributors for the "Snap to Grid" show at the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art in the DTLA Arts District. Tonight was the opening reception for the show that will run through the end of the month. I put up a short post this morning on LA Metblogs. Cool show if you want to see the many directions people are exploring with digital art I highly recommend stopping in. Its free and there is cheap parking right around the corner so you don't have to tip-toe through bums to get to the show.

Snap to Grid runs now through November 1, 2008

Just a little reminder the Monrovia Association of Fine Arts is holding its 45th Annual Celebrate the Arts event in the Monrovia Community Center. It is located just off Myrtle at 118 W Palm Avenue in Monrovia's historic Old Town section.

Also, Saturday night is a new facet to the Celebrate the Arts. We are having a Reception and handing out out some awards to some great people in town who contribute to the arts here. First is the "Renaissance Award" going to Kathie Reece who owns the Aztec Hotel and has supported MAFA over the years including donating her lobby and two street front stores in the hotel for Gallery space featuring MAFA artists. Also James Farmer a MHS is getting an award for his 38 years of teach art and inspiring artists.

The reception has a donation of $25 per person, which is tax deductible as MAFA is a 501(c) non-profit. With that you get to see the art while nibbling away at goodies and sipping wine (do tip the wine-tenders as they are donating their services and wares). You'll get some music, meet some artists and a chance to bid on some reserved pieces of art in a silent auction donated by artists for this event.

Oh yeah, come see me too - I'm the feature artist at this years event. Not sure what it gets me other than some publicity, but free is still better than a kick in the pants. Hope to see you!

Bullitt and San Gabriel Mountains - perfect mix

If you follow my antics and rounds you show know that a I blog about all sorts of stuff.  I love adventures, add in cars and it gets to be even better.

This weeks addition to the old experience bucket is a day long drive in a Mustang Bullitt.  Long story short.  In July I got to spend sometime in a 2010 Camaro.  I was impressed and said when it launches the base Mustang will be a gelding in comparison.  Ford didn't appreciate it.  They dropped me a note and let me know I was probably a little harsh and offered up a GT500 to prove the Mustang still has it.  No GT500's exist right now but they had a Bullitt.  They asked if I would settle for that.  HELL YESSSSS!!!!  Full story on what I think about the Bullitt will be up on metblogs later today.

The image was shot up on the Angeles Crest.  I can tell you that the Bullitt was made for that highway.  No stress, no fuss, no constant shifting, just pick a gear and carve up the curves on the twisties.  Lawdy be...if I could get rid of the Dad car I'd opt for the Bullitt.

Anyway what better way to illustrate a surreal day than HDR?  I shot this frame overlooking downtown LA from up on the crest bracketed +/- 2 stops from average.  Photomatix was used for the HDR file generation and tonemapping.  The final image was run through virtual photographer to heighten the saturation a bit more.  

Enjoy the image.  Do click it for a slightly bigger version...and note you can even see downtown in the fog.  More images in my flickr Bullitt set.

Happy Holidays and holy cow...almost Happy New Year!

Sorry about the silence. December started out absolutely awesome. As if I needed a reminder why I love LA it came earlier this month. Low 80's at the beaches and getting some of the biggest waves 10-12 feet regular sets with some as tall as 16-18 feet! December 4th I grabbed the camera, loaded up the 8 gig card and started shooting. Some HDR of the waves, some non-HDR of the surfers, walked the board walk and in general just enjoyed that day.

I got home with a bit of the sneezies and blamed it on the Santa Ana's that brought us that gorgeous weather for stirring up something I was allergic too. Damn...woke up the next day and felt awful, horrible cold that proceeded to simply kick my butt for the next two weeks. Little shooting, little post processing and spent every bit of energy I had to get Christmas done.

Today is the first day I have been able to have the time to sort through and work through those images. I am entranced with the power of the waves as well as the poetic beauty of their rising and crashing on the rocks. Not all that surprising was that I wasn't the only one with idea of getting pictures of the waves or surfers...probably another dozen people with cameras were shooting in the same spot I was that day!


Yesterday, the 27th was the complete opposite. Very little wind, cold (I think It may have made it to 60) with crystal clear skies and only the thinnest up upper layer clouds. Spend the day out with family and their relative from Philly up at Griffith Park Observatory. I got one of my favorite views of what I in my not so humble opinion believe is one of the most iconic landmarks of LA...the Hollywood sign.

For you fellow technogeeks here's how I shot and processed the Wave pic and the Hollywood sign. Shot them bracketed +/- 2 stops, used the Photomatix HDR generation and tonemapping programs then post processed with Optik Verve's Virtual Photographer.

Race you for a pink slip?

Our boatThe other teams boat

Jillian, Will and his wife Susan brought up the rear

Not the best score but we still kicked our opponents arse

NOT doing the Hula to Don Ho's "Tiny Bubbles"

Lifes adventures can't be passed up. As I run through he mid-life years I'm bound and determined add a few extra adventures to my belt before I decide to slow down. (Sounds good but I'm way too hyper to slow down).

This weeks adventure was to attend the LA Lotus Festival in Echo Park. More specifically I was a rower in the Dragon Boat races and part of the Metroblogging LA Team. This is one of those events that celebrates one culture and the the diversity of Los Angeles a city I am quite proud to call home.

Anyway the race...we kicked ass. We raced a team from another division and it felt good to beat them but a good 40 feet...maybe 3 boat lengths. The first leg across the lake we were mismatched by rowing ability and coupled with a good head wind wound up making a big curve off course and lost a lot of our huge lead of 100 feet trying to correct it. We got it all back together to make a solid run to the finish line in time (well sorta) to Shannon's beating of the drum and the chanting "blog, blog, blog...". It was fun, a nice diversion to the weekend and a great way to meet new people that can only enrich our lives in the deal. Can't wait till next year to do this again!

final tidbit...these pics were all taken with the trusty old che-ez snap in all its glorious .3 megapixels!