Fun with Siri

No graphic here as it would be a spoiler.  Ask Siri if he/she can beatbox.

The result is hysterical.

Cars meet art, well Legos

Lego and Ford joined forces and the result was Legos used to sculpt a Mustang in the iconic Ford blue. 

Also available this spring as part of the Lego Speed Champions will be a Raptor with a Ford hotrod on a trailer behind it. Look for the models that replicate key design features of these Ford cars in Lego Stores and select retailers this spring.  

Ruminating at LAX

Free wifi is nice even if they limit it AND it's hard to connect to. This Boingo hotspot is ok for light surfing and general Words with Friends bs. After that...forget about it.

Normally one swelters at the airport. Not here today. Doors are open and there's a cold damp breeze by good old gate 53b. Jacket I packed is for below freezing Detroit so even if I could get to it, why bother ad I would be overheated in no time with that thing here. 

I'm impatiently waiting for a flight that's been delayed by half an hour. No reason given which makes it frustrating. 

Commute gawds smiled on me today. Add in TSA precheck and I made it from home to gate in 55 minutes. Certainly nothing to complain about. I remember another trip last summer that took 2.5 HOURS.   

I may update here from along the way in Detroit for their auto show. Providing my hosts at Ford give us a little free time  to write during the day. 

Life as a "Digital Influencer" is fun...except for killing time at airports. C

Pondering what the new year holds in store...

In the SGV area of Los Angeles that I live in it ain't the New Year until the B2 bomber buzzes the Rose Parade in nearby Pasadena then cruises over my 'hood making a turn back to its home base.  Its been that way for years.  Precisely at 8:02AM me and my neighbors out squealing with glee at the sight of it passing over us.

2015 was a kick ass year for me.  Long over due, greatly appreciated and humbled by some of the experiences.

2016 is shaping up to be more of the same.  In 6 short days I'm off to NAIAS in Detroit as one of Ford's guest "digital influencers".  Who said social media doesn't have benefits for even a hack like me?

Other trips include one possibly to MO in the spring, definitely TX in the spring.  We'll do a trip in April to Paso Robles with friends to see another dear friend up there who works at one of the wineries.  A couple of trips to Palm Springs, one with and another without kids.  Then a big trip in the fall...East Coast.  Either DC/Norfolk area where my youngest is stationed if he doesn't deploy.  If he deploys well then we're taking a fall color tour in NE.  Meander much?

Chicago wears its Public Art like fine jewels

Bob Newhart at Navy Pier

Chicago is world renowned for its public art.  For good reasons, its masterfully done my major artists and free to everyone.  Its like fine jewelry that sets the city apart from the rest with the right amount of bling to be a significant attraction for tourists and locals alike.

In the city or surrounding water front parks there is plenty to see and appreciate.  It draws people to them like a magnet.  Its sometimes subtle, other times in your face making you interpret what you just saw and experienced like "The Bean"

Picasso cubist sculpture in Daley Plaza

Our tour guide for our city walk about was my old roommate in College...A Steve Warnelis.  He's a wealth of information on the city, its art and history.  This Picasso was rumored at one time to have been a cubist abstraction of Picasso's girlfriend but current thinking is that its his dog.  Regardless hit Daley Plaza in the heart of the city and make your own interpretation of this modern beauty that started Chicago as an "art city"

Among the cities newest and most wildly popular Cloud Gate aka "the bean" because of its unusual shape not unlike a giant kidney bean.  Its an amazing piece of highly polished and reflective stainless steel that invites you two walk around and see how it distorts reality.

 The lovely Mrs at "The Bean"

Inside and under "The Bean"

Bronze Bison

The Bronze Bison in front of the Chicago Stock Exchange isn't an homage to a bull market, or even to urban legand Mrs O'Leary who's cow reportedly caused the great Chicago Fire.  It is an homage to their past and origins as a rail head city and slaughter house in its early years where bison were herded onto trains and butchered and distributed to points east via the rail road.  From this cast bronze statue hundreds of fiberglass replicas were made and shared around the city.

Not to be outdone and adding to the visual cacophony is all the stores on Michigan Avenue each vying to out do the other with its visual display. Hands down Macy's in what was one the Marshall Fields and Company flagship downtown was the show stopper with its windows for Christmas.  It was devoted to a space theme with astrological and planetary displays.  This one for Saturn and Jupiter was the one we could see best as the rest were totally mobbed.   MOBBED I tell you.

Just a few highlights from our trip to Chicago for our youngest graduation from Navy Boot Camp at the Great Lakes Training Center a few miles up from Chicago.

I look forward to visiting that great city again and taking in more of its museums and public art.

Electronic Billboards...wish I could share the link with you

This has been a ton of fun.  As one of Ford's "digital influencers" I got invited to create billboards, Electronic Billboards using their cars and templates and adding my own touches.  Hit enter and voila they go live shortly thereafter in the city you chose.  The cities to chose from are L.A, NYC,Chicago, DC, and Miami.

Here in Los Angeles the billboards are along a variety of freeways.  This pic is from the one near my home at the 210/605 junction.  I've also had my designs show up at NYC Times Square and at the SF Golden Gate Bridge.  Pretty cool huh!?

Orbs floating in air...

Its all about having fun with framing...when you don't have a client with a storyboard close by giving direction.

This image is from the grounds at the Clautiere Vineyard in Paso Robles.  We, the lovely Mrs and I, used this winery as our starting spot on our whirlwind tour of East Valley wineries at the suggestion of an old friend and his partner.  What a great place...fun wine, fun tasting manager and more importantly a tasting room done up like the mad hatters place on acid replete with adult playroom.  Too.  Much.  Fun.

In their courtyard next to the parking area and the tasting room there's this giant orb nestled under an old coast live oak.  From its branches are more orbs, some with dangly bits.  Its whimsy in the vineyards.  I could have shot this perfectly level or perpendicular but it would have lost its dynamic tension.  A careful step around and twist of the camera puts the orbs in alignment and everything else askew.  Better composition and just a little hint at the twist of things to come in the tasting room.

Traveling in the Ozarks

It's been a busy week. I'm quite literally battered and bruised. No, I didn't get blown up with LEGAL fireworks which really are a thing here in Missouri. It was a colossal slip and fall on wet grass. Who knew that was a problem here were it's rained at least once everyday we've been here. 

More to create shortly on the trip here and on the SoCalAutoBlog. Short version is in 6 days I put over 1k miles on a rental car and covered a lot of SEMO and SIL. In due time rest assured I blew stuff up, drank a lot and just had fun. 

Western 2/3 of USA. I. Own. It.

Create Your Own Visited States Map

Yeay baby...I get around.  check the geo tags on flickr as most will tell you where I've been over the most recent years since I joined in 2007.  Some prior I manually geotagged,  Dude, I do more than meander, I get around.

Sierra Madre Playhouse you're getting a lot of my time and talents

Its a reward and satisfaction thingy.  I enjoy putting my creative energies to use when I get reward and satisfaction out of it.  Or are the two the same thing?  Satisfaction is my Reward. could be but that requires an analyst to sort it all out.

Since joining the Board of Directors at the Sierra Madre Playhouse I like to think I have had a little impact.  Results are more immediate in some places than others.  The end result is I hope to reach the citizens of Sierra Madre and the San Gabriel Valley and let them witness the fun we are having, the most excellent productions and want to join in the fun.

We, the marketing committee had a brain storming session.  It started out with some grumbling that we aren't getting impact with our social media campaigns.   I pointed out we aren't using them at cross purposes and the MTV generation in particular loves visual/aural stimulation not just 140 characters in a twitter post.  I said we need to do more with the YouTube channel we have in place and do something often to keep it fresh and provide fodder for our Instagram, twitter and facebook accounts.

They listened, I with a DSLR that shoots HD video started shooting stuff.  Its too much fun putting it all together after we shoot.  I'm a noob and luckily Windows MovieMaker is a powerful tool thats stupid easy to use so I get quality results out the door.  Better yet, the Playhouse gets media to promote themselves and their productions at no cost other than some time.  Time well invested.

Do check in to the Sierra Madre Playhouse YouTube channel (And Mine).  Follow the Playhouse also on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Follow me on Instagram....

Yes, I don't do as much here as I like. I'm actually considering ways I can reinvent this blog and focus it more on my creative endeavors in the arts in general rather than just my personal art.  Can it be done, yuppers, just need time to sit and do it.  Being the @frazgo brand means I'm always busy...cars, food, the arts and time with the fam not much time left in a day.

Do follow me on Instagram. From the inane to profound to future posts on my various blogs I shoot a lot daily with my phone and instagram immediately.  Its a good clue to what you will see here next or on one of the many other blogs that encompass @frazgo.

Big shoots, big events, big anything that requires high res, high quality stuff is always on Flickr.  Its a great source for promoting my serious work.  It won't go away anytime soon.  And as I have a pro-account there, there will never, ever be ads to annoy you.

Lastly...I've ventured into exploring the options out there with video.  High quality stuff, not just from a flipcam.  My DSLR does HD video and I've been experimenting with it for stuff for the Sierra Madre Playhouse.  Follow my YouTube channel.

Who are you Oscar or Felix?

A little something I've been doing of late.   Video.  More precisely promo video stuff for the Sierra Madre Playhouse of which I'm on the board now.  Busy guy?  Mais oui.



So...subscribe to my YouTube channel...see all my cars ala "Blair Witch Project" and now higher quality stuff for the Playhouse.

Dusting off the password...a bit of celebrating today

I suppose tis quite the accomplishment to do that in 8 years with just ART and "blogging on the fly..." stuff as opposed to porn.  I don't kid myself, a friends ex specializes in raunch porn his trying to pass off as vintage and he does a million in 3 months.  But I took the higher road and did it my way, the way I always do.  True to myself.  True to those that follow me, never raunch for sake of views.

I'm still blogging everywhere, but here.  I do shoot often, love my newish EOS 60D from Canon, it does some pretty amazing stuff, but its still just a tool that enables me to create images.  I know when I resort for techniques sake things suffer.  In the end its about stunning images, not how you got there.

Recently we took the fam down behind the Orange Curtain for a day of whale watching.   Something you just can't do here in the SGV.  By far my favorite tour company for that is Dana Wharf Sport Fishing and Whale Watching in Dana Point.  Their crew works well with other boats to  ensure you see a whale, or two, or dolphins to make your trip memorable.  Often they have a Marine Biologist on board and they give you a ton if information and trivia on what you are seeing to make the trip even more fun.  Worth the trip.  Been with them twice now and both times were pretty amazing.

To follow my daily adventures, or my adventures with commercial stuff and CARS follow me on flickr. 

Henry Fords Office and other cool stuff

By now if you haven't figured it out, I'll soell it out. Blogging leads to notice which leads to adventures. My current adventure is courtesy the good folks atFord  Motor Company who gave me this trip to Detroit. No strings, all opinions are my own.  

Last night we got a real treat. Dinner out at the 1903 Piquette Plant where Henry Firs built his first cars. There's even s recreation of his office. 

Only 97K and change to 1Million visits

It wasn't that long ago I hit 500K views and thought that was something.  I'm plugging along. Taking pics, mostly light commercial stuff for a local marketing guy for his clients web sites.  Tons of cars for SoCalAutoBlog.  That's whats really driving my stats these days.  That and the B2 Bomber fly over on the 1st of the new Year.

How long to I hit 1Million views...about 3 months at the rate I'm going. Of course that is subject to how many hits I gather next week as I post stuff from the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.  That could quickly accelerate the popping of champagne and tossing of confetti for the 1M mark.

Don't get me wrong, I really do like the numbers stats.  I suppose I need to figure out to carve out more fine art time is all.  And quit neglecting this blog.  We'll see what 2015 has in store.

Maybe I'll start tearing up the pixels with shorts of Los Angeles and document its history.  DK, you tell me what you want to see.

Stuff People Say To Photographers

And folks wonder why I stopped, with rare exception, doing weddings and the ilk and settled on tamer commercial work and my landscapes/florals/cars



Love you all...

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.