God is in the potmetal

Pardon the play on words, but Mies Van der Rohe would have said that if he worked in the auto industry up until the 1970's.

Up until then cars used a cheap cast alloy called pot metal that was chromed and affixed to the cars. It was more than just the name of the car or its submodel.  It was about casting the illusion of grandeur, power or who know what.  Manufacturers used real typography and created fonts to tell a story.  None of that ariel or helvetica plactic clued on crap they use today.  It was real metal, dipped in chrome and affixed to the car with nuts and bolts.

The need to reduce weight put an end to the creative use of potmetal back in the 70's.  Blandness ensued wih the malaise era cars and continue to day with simple nomentclature made of plastic.  Shift from names that told a story to alpha-numeric soup makes me batty.  I really hate it.

Here's just a couple of examples of potmetal art from the 29th Fabulous Fords Forever show that took place this last weekend.  Good stuff maynard.

Stuff...random and unfocused

Its Monday for crying out loud...expect a miracle

Crazy busy weekend and a few ruminations after its all said and done.

First up I served as a photographic judge for the regaional NAACP ACT-SO competition on Saturday.  Amazing talent and body of work presented by the students.  Great variety and vibrancy to it all. It was a richly rewarding experience, one I wouldn't trade for anything.  Read all about it here.

What struck me funny about the day was the amount of black and white work being done still.  Sadly, its done digitally and desaturated.  Something gets lost in the translation when you do that.  There's still something to be said for crisp black and white on old school Tri-X.   There's a crispness and depth of black you can only get with film.

My question to the mentors of the young folks I judged is why not teach old school black and white.  Cost isn't much but the final result is spectacular.  In the same vein the rush to automate and  left most of these kids with a narrow understanding of the fundamentals of exposure and composition.  Rule of Thirds...that understanding was lost on at least one of the young adults we talked with, yes it can be violated, but you need to communicate why you did it.

Sunday was the 29th Annual Fabulous Fords Forever car show in Buena Park.  IT was fun.  Great collection of cars.  Certainly more than a few were real attention getters.  The lack of manners by photographers to one another is pretty amazing.  One dolt had no problems with cutting in front of others to get a vantage point ruining that of the one he rudely butt in front of.  What's up with that. We all get our turn, certainly a parked car isn't going anywhere fast where you have to worry about catching a fleeting moment.

A ton of photos from the event in my flckr album

Totally unrelated to photo, is my video work on youtube.  I've been working in the vein of the "blair witch project" on purpose.  I enjoy the feeling of the vid appearing to be from a players eyes rather than rock solid recording of action.  I've used for years "Windows Movie Maker" which Microsoft in its infinite wisdeom dropped from the lastest OS.  What to do.

Actually, I learned about an inexpensive program called TrackAx that is supposed to be a nearly foolproof as WMM and offer up more powerful editing tools.  I'm going to check it out soon(ish).

I miss my che-ez snap toy camera

I miss my che-ez snap.  It was really a horrid little device that made .2, yes POINT 2 megapixel images.  Grainy as hell, edges blurred, under exposed and contrasty.  It was a toy camera.  I adored it and the images it produced.  When others around me were busy with cell phone pics and using their big boy cameras I had that with me to take images as well.  Hundreds.

You see, that simple fixed focus, pinhole view finder 1 inch by 1 and a half inch camera made wonderfully artsy images.  You can spend hours trying to duplicate in Photoshop, but why do that when the camera does it all. All you have to do is concentrate on composition.

Sadly my last one died a horrible death...battery overheated in recharge and its been out of production so long can't even find a left over on Amazon.  If I could find one, I'd be all over it.

The self portrait here, actually my first selfie was made in 2003 when I got the first one.  What a fun toy that was.  More images in my flickr set.

I'm so glad that I used the zone system

And good old Kodachrome 64

This image was made summer of 1981 while I was living in Death Valley.  I drove up to Dante's View a few thousand feet directly above Bad Water, the lowest point in the USA.

I rememver the evening vividly. Yes, it was hot out, well over 100 but oh so gorgeous view.  But I digress.

To make this shot I spot metered the dude on the rock. The closest ridge and the distance.  I knew I wanted detail in both areas so I shot mid point. I love this image looking north into Death Valley, the dude ads scale to how big that place is.

This is what a drought looks like folks

This morning I was all set to walk along the San Gabriel River.  A lovely stroll along the river is what I envisioned.  Didn't happen.  The Azusa River Wildnerness Park in Azusa was closed because of mudslides 2 weeks ago, and to add insult to injury it was a high fire danger day so they didn't want us anywhere near the brush.

But I did take a drive into the canyons along the river today.  I was absolutely gobsmacked by how low the waters was at the dams.  One day in particular, the San Gabriel Dam, an earthen dam, was so empty all that was left was muck, flotsam and jetsam and general debris in the bottom.

For those of you not in the Los Angeles Area, or California, you probably aren't aware that we are in a severe drought.  Its been several years since we've had "normal" rainfall and our dams are really showing it.  This year we are down something along the order of 2/3 of "normal" rainfall which explains the pathetic condition of these dams.Doesn't bode well for us down the hill that rely on this water to recharge our aquifers.

I'll try next week to take a walk along the river in the Azusa River Wildnerness Park.  Again

These images were shot with my EOS60D.  They are photomergrned into panoramas with the help of CS5.  They click to embiggen.  If you want the full megapixel view check out my SGV & SGR set on flickr.

The day we fight back approaches...

Hell nearly froze over

Its been a gut wrenching few weeks.  Ever since I was told by a major auto manufacturers rep that they weren't interested in car review as much as cars in lifestyle posts I've been reeling.  It really came down to "I can't do it".  Lifestyle bloggers take perks and write what they are told, not what they honestly believe.

Add in the perfect storm of google ads not paying the way they were supposed to and a huge increase in hosting fees I had to step back and do the "WHOA baby, this is insanity".  I killed SoCalAutoBlog as I couldn't morph in good conscious into a "daddy blogger" or similar life style.

So...though I'll still do cars, it will be for the art and documenting a piece of history.  I can't change the fact I love cars and all they've symbolized, good, bad and indifferent to our culture.

On to the art...

500,000+ flickr views

And I did it all without porn!

Well no girly porn at least.  Lots of car porn as that is mostly what I have shot of late.  Los Angeles Auto Show press days (2 days worth), 2015 Mustang Reveal and a Ford Open House all made for lots of photo ops with cars and it drove the traffic to me.

2013 L.A. Auto Show
2015 Mustang Reveal
Ford Open House

Of course in all of that there was a lot of  blogging in all of that, mostly on SoCalAutoBlog and on blogging.la.  Speaking of blogging.la, I broke 1000 posts a short while back.  Not sure where I am right now but it was an important goal for me and I did it.

In the end I do a lot of fun and more creative stuff, but not always with my art in mind.  Life gets in the way of passions and there are only so many hours in a day.  Maybe 2014 I should resolve to spend more time on art than commercial and photojournalism?

Road Trip fantasy

Interesting challenge was given to us in the post a day challenge.  Road Trip Fantasy with a cast, linked too of course.  Many of my choices are dead and so long so they don't have SM or URLs to link too.  But I have quite a few interests and a cast I've always wanted to have on a road trip so here goes.

Envision a nice RV like my folks had so we all can take turns driving and sitting around the table kibitizing.

First up.  Mario Batali.  I like him for a variety of reasons, being a great chef is part of it but he's also an excellent teacher, loved his old show "Malto Mario".  He's also one of the hosts on ABC's "The Chew" which my wife and I tivo and catch up on so I know he's both entertaining and engaging.  A must to moderate the group I have put together.

Cars. What a passion that is.  I'd love to have Alan Mulally the head of Ford on board along with drifter Ken Block.  Between the two I'd learn a lot about the future of cars and performance cars.  To round it out my absolute favorite writer editor, Jean Jennings.

Laughter, I love lots of it.  I'd toss in Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, and author PJ O'Rourke.  They would be the icing on my cake.

Of course I'd shoot it all.  With DSLR and flipcam...for one of my "blair witch project" YouTube videos.

That my friends would be my ultimate fantasy road trip.

falling off the grid

And it can't happen fast enough

Yes. Those are solar panels.  Yes,  Those are installed on my roof.  34 total generating some 11KW peak during the course of a bright summer day.

I didn't do it or environmental reasons. I did it to keep as much green as possible in my wallet.

Seriously, this year has been a wild one for us SCE customers.  We got hit with a huge rate increase and rate restructure that if you run much more than a 'fridge you are going to go into tier 4 at 34-freakin'-cents per kilowatt hour.  July, August and September fully 2/3 of my power bill was in tier 4, and I did it without trying.  Actually short of turning off the air we tested our mettle with much higher than usual temps in an effort to trim the bill but it didn't make much of a dent.  Solar was the answer as we can get our juice for a bit over half of what those turds at SCE charge.

If you want details or a referral to the company I went with drop me a note.

How to shoot food in the wild*

*and not be an obnoxious pest to those around you

In the early 'oughts there was a photo sharing program, social media in its infancy if you will, that had a lower case "t" as its logo. I was an early adapter and for the life of me I just don't remember its name.  When they went out of business I got everything copied that I had shared on a DVD. 2 of them...most of it came from a low res cell phone and/or my Che-ez snap .2 megapixel toy camera.  It was fun and the lessons learned with those tools and food I took with me as I advanced through an iPhone.

Food photography, especially in a restaurant I was doing long before the foodies started and actually ruined it in a lot of places.  What?  Haven't you seen those pretentious snots with portable mini-lights and tripods for their cameras yet, wait you will.  Worse is the obnoxious bright flashes.  Seriously, its a pain and ruins it for the rest of us.  Like me that started doing it before the turn of the century before those dreadful hipsters and instagram showed up.

Why do I do it? Lots of reasons, primary is like to get cheffy and try and recreate the memorable meals just as I had them in some 5 star joint in 'Vegas or L.A.  Its a rolling recipe book of ideas and that picture brings back everything so I can recreate.  Also I do my own plates and later blog it over at frazgo feasting making it possible for my followers to recreate my recipes to a "T".  The cell phone, especially in its infancy was such a primitive tool that it lent a wonderful impressionistic capture that adds to the romance of the dish.  Lastly, this vast library is used for blogging all over the place and those of my food will be used in a "bloggers cook book" something that I've been toiling on for a while.

Enough of why I do it, how about some tips to do it up right.

• Turn the Flash OFF Seriously its an annoyance to other diners and it doesn't add anything to your final image.  It actually degrades the results but washing out too much, no modeling and certainly no depth of saturation.  Rest your arms on the edge of the table to steady yourself for the long exposure. 
• Rotate the Plate  Its all got a good angle, rotate a bit so you get the best angle of you meal. That wink of tomato or cheese says a lot about the time the chef put into composing the plate.
• Photo at the Pass Through  Yes, ask if you can photo your plate in the kitchen before it goes out, you'd be surprised how many places will actually accommodate you.
• Get Up Close and Personal  Really fill the frame with the plate or the entree.  Make it big and important.  A nice table setting, well do that before food arrives if you must.  
• Clean up the Plate  Give it a quick once over and move any stray items. Mop up any unusual drips, or turn the plate to hide them.  A messy plate will turn off the viewers.

These are pretty self explanatory.  Shooting food isn't some bit magical bag of tricks, yes commercial photographers are guilty of it.  Back in my early years I was guilty of it until I realized that the restaurant I was shooting spent a lot of time already choosing props, adjusting lighting etc., so why bother reinventing the wheel. Fresh out of college at SIU-C I had the pleasure of freelancing the restaurants for Las Vegan Magazine and learned to do just that after a couple of exhausting location shoots. Take advantage of what they provided and work with it.  Your results will show it. Your results will be better for it.

So, what do you want out of me?

Seriously, I've been running this blog since spring of 2007.  I was even in the running for most valuable blogger in 2011 for KCBS here in Los Angeles.  I'm full of ideas and things to share. What to share and when is my question  to myself.  Do I just meander and post what interests me, do a series on a topic too big for a single post. You tell me.  Really, tell me what you want and I'll work at providing it.

This image is of Bishop Creek in the Eastern Sierras from a few years back.  Its a simple shot of late fall that was tone mapped and then run through a plug in, virtual photographer to be precise, to give it the old timey post card look.  The unmolested image was nice, the final product was nicer and evokes a moment of nostalgia.

DSLR and night photography, or can we cut the noise?

Back in the High School and College I did a not of night photography.  Love it. Loved star trails and moonlit landscapes.  Armed with a tripod I was all over the Ozarks and Southern Illinois at night taking pictures.

Not so much since I got the DSLR. Dabbled in it, but got turned off by the noise that long exposures bring to the table. Add in a high ISO and the noise takes over and it begins to look like a pointillists painting, not a photograph.  Not that I find it objectionable, but sometimes I want a crisp clean black and no noise.

Now the current dilemma.  In a scant 6 weeks Comet Ison which I've been geeking out over since early this year is going to be at peak viewing.  Yes, I can capture an awesome sunrise, sunset and even a moon rise.  Capturing a comet, even one as "bright as the moon" will have challenges at dawn as I don't want a lot of noise.

Google will help. Any other ideas on where to go for help on this one?  I figure I have a month to get the info, practice and nail it for a pre-dawn road trip and excursion out to Joshua Tree or similar for best comet viewing and photo-ing.

This image is one I captured of a moon rise from the San Gabriel River near Azusa several summers ago.  It was just at dusk and didn't need a tripod or having to worry about excessive noise.

Celebrate the Arts...the MUSD students in action

As promised earlier, the video went live on YouTube after it was uploaded and processed.  I don't understand all the steps and widgets involved once they have the video, but it went into a queue with others that took a while to get it processed.  Hint, if you watch it in YouTube you will get a high definition option where you can really see the details.

The event was fun.  MUSD and Monrovia is blessed with some really talented youths.  They will only get better.

Complete and updated Celebrate the Arts set is up on flickr now.

Celebrate the Arts...film at 11

or maybe a bit later...

It all depends on how fast YouTube gets the upload done and processed.  I'm already at the max bandwidth that Champion/Altrionet offers in my area but I need fast upload.  Video was done by 8AM...upload is 2/3 done 2 hours later.

This weekend is the Monrovia Association of Fine Arts Celebrate the Arts.  Its a juried Fine Art Festival that I have been involved with for 10 years now.  9 of it I organized the whole shebang, this year due to stuff I couldn't do it, let alone have a display space for my images there.  Maybe next year.

New to this years show was live demonstrations of art by MUSD students from Monrovia High School and Canyon Oaks High School.  I don't have the video to share, yet, but I will post it when its ready.  In the mean time this teaser from flickr should get your appetite whetted.

Its all about the quality of light

I've said it before, I love the quality of light here in sunny So Cal in late summer into early fall, then again in the Spring. The sun sits low on the horizon longer in the morning casting a warm glow over everything.  Even mid-day the longer warmer shadows are a blessing.

This shot was captured in the spring right after the trees leafed out in the early morning hours in Monrovia Canyon right above my house.  I love the sun glowing through the trees, the warm glow to the hills in the back ground and the crisp blue sky.  (Yes, we gt those in sunny So Cal too).

This image was shot bracketed +/- two stops and normal and combined with photmatix for a final HDR image to preserve the shadow detail as well as highlight detail  It was blended for a realistic view not surreal.  Some images just beg to be real.

Well, sugar, flickr is changing again

I like flickr for a lot of reasons. Its a daily photo blog at times for me, at others I share works in progress and dumbed down final versions of my art.  I'm not freebie there, costs me a bit a year to have the unlimited view and upload "pro account". In the end its worth it for the exposure.

I liked the changes of late to the home page.  Nice clean spot to put in a banner.  Nice clean layout grid for your images.  Easy to get to sets and collections.

I'm not thrilled with the new uploader.  Its fine for a couple of images, but a royal pain in the arse when you have a few dozen to over a hundred images to upload as the interface is way too cumbersome for adding titles and such. Every edit stops the uploading process which adds in some cases hours to the process. The classic uploader worked much better in this situation.  Uploads were as fast as your modem allowed, the edit to title etc was done on their main frame and done in minutes.  Not so much fun now.

Today the announced a change to the photo view page.  Not sure I like it, or dislike it.  Having the image grid on the right is a nice touch.  Makes it easy to snag a specific image to view instead of scrolling through.  Having stats on the right is nice as well.  Getting to larger images for linking into posts doesn't look to be as easy as before.  sugar.

Sorry for the rant, with them down so much the last few days and changes always underfoot, not always for the benefit of the pro user I kinda get discouraged and angry.

Kids: down to their level and up close and personal

Works for puppy dogs too...

Seriously nothing makes me more bat shit crazy than pictures, even family snaps, of kids taken from above looking down at them and across the room.  What's that all about?  A close second is spending hours trying to get them to smile...seriously what is wrong with odd picture of them sleeping or in a pensive moment, they have plenty of that so let those expressions shine too.

Shooting kids and pets are quite similar.  Drop down to their level, play with them even a little to get their attention to something other than the camera.  Rattle keys or scrunch wrinkled paper to give them something to stare at for a second will also help distract them from the camera.  Its all about getting them to act naturally and capture it at their level.

Capturing kids 101.  Enjoy the pics of my grandchild "Tyler"

iPhone Photo Safari with Snapcious

I play this fun game called Snapcious.  Its an iPhone app only for now. The
game is really fun.  You submit mission ideas and other players rank them and the top rated ones become missions for you to fulfill. What is a mission, well they are photo ideas for you to fulfill with images you capture with your iPhone.  Those images are voted on by other players and you gain points with wins...points that eventually get you additional rank and perks within the game.

It launched the first of the year and I was one of the early adapters. Its actually a good tool to keep you thinking about the images you create.

Saturday, 9/28/13 was the first ever Snapcious iPhone Safari and we players met in downtown Los Angeles in the Grand Central Market and proceeded to walk the city and shoot what we saw, posting as we went sharing with other players what we were seeing, documenting and hopefully gave them an idea of the fun we were having as a group.

Piggy backing off of last weeks post, it applies for photo shoots of cities too.  Get up close for  the details and you will wind up with a diverse documentation of your subject.  I shot a variety in my little tour of DTLA with the Snapcious group.  They are all on flickr in my iPhone Safari set.

A few of my favorite detail shots from my meander in downtown LA...

Mack Reed one of he creators of Snapcious gave us all a quick tour of the iPhone camera.  I thought I knew it all, I was wrong.  I learned how to spot meter with the thing and get perfect exposures now in adverse lighting conditions.  To do it is stupid easy.  Put your phone in grid view. Tap the area of the grid you want perfectly exposed...the backlit face, the sun setting in the sky and the phone does the rest.

My only gripe with the iPhone really has to do with the iOS7 update from this week.  It makes a battery pig worse.  I started the safari with 100% battery and ended it barely 3 hours later with 20% and dire need of a charge. If I'm going to survive the LA Auto Show next month I am going to need a heavy duty external battery to keep me going while I blog on the fly and tweet out the goodies I find.

Get up close and personal

 It applies to a lot of things, with cars you pick up the details that the overview only alludes to.  With landscapes you get details of the flora and fauna that is lost in the grandiose soak it all image. With flowers you pick up the erotic from the mundane blossom.

Yup, the pic above is me.  One of only a few known to exist, especially me doing what I do best, photographing cars.  Its also me practicing what I preach, move in close for details and fill the frame with them.  In this case I was shooting the hood ornament on this classic Packard.  What a car, but look a the attention to detail in it.  Lots of art deco details that are lost in the wide shot of the entire car.  The following image is what I got from that shot.  Thanks to my friend Stephen Coleman who captured me doing what I love.