APhotoContributor

quite amazing...

that one day of burning folders from an aging fw400 drive so that it can be "sanitized" ... and donated or whatever ...

and i didn''t see that digital railroad is ... gone the way so many other services have gone...

investors are scared and pull their money.

the big syndicators don't like services like drr or photoshelter.  i'm not going to name-names.  nope.  they really don't like people who self-syndicate.  who are the they?  well ... you can figure it out.  in fact, i'm not really talking to the hobbyists but perhaps the people who make photos for a living.

i actually know quite a few people who use (used) drr.  i feel bad for them.

not only but these c*nts gave their customers only 24 hours to archive their stuff?  um ... i wonder how the ceo and other officers at drr did?  wonder if they got their paychecks?  probably so.  wonder if they could have forgone the paychecks and kept the service up for at least another week?  i mean ... i wasn't a customer but i really liked their model.

seems like anything on the web can appear overnight ... and disappear just as fast.

i mean ... how fucking hard can it be to figure out a good site?  honestly, i don't think flickr does "viewing" your work correctly.  nor do i think dA does it right.  even more honestly, i don't even think uber did it right.

i think it's time to say fuck you to corporations which really don't give a fuck about the individual and start some other photo site.  i think it could only work if it were started by a collective group of like-minded people ... and funded by subscriptions. 

kind of like dA but not quite.

perhaps with admins (photographically-speaking, of course) who actually are respected photographers among their peers ... not just ... well ... whatever they currently are.

i think certain people owe it to certain other people to really look at something like this.

-a place to post photos.
-a place to comment.
-a place where photos are rated.
-a place not fucking owned by yahoo or google or whatever.

as much as i like certain people at dA ... i can't ever go back to the level of participation i had back in the day.

i kinda think invitation-only would be cool ... so that wanks don't overpopulate with their stellar landscape work. ;)

dunno.

seems that even the web has gone the way of main street:  it's mom-and-pop business have gone the way of best buy and big box businesses.

who .. don't give fuck-one about customer service.

ever try to return something at fry's or best buy? 

and much like the photo industry ... especially that of the behemoth syndicators ... customer service has gone out the fucking window.  i know.  i hear the stories from the very loyal clients. 

the bigger the business ... customer service just ...

sucks.

anyway ... just thought i'd say that.

hopefully, at least one person this was aimed at ... got what i was talking about.

forgot i had to work tonight. :(

so ... it changes the way i was going to spend my day.

hope you're all well and not in jeopardy of losing your job or your house or your archive to corporate-c*nts.

cheers from the stil-warm-l.a.!

-chris

welcome to l-fucking-a.

seriously ... we were having a nice dinner.  brought a very nice bottle of oregon pinot.  we walked to get gelato down a couple blocks.  when we were first getting accustomed to this neighborhood i carried a very big knife.  i mean ... walking through hollywood on the way from an assignment you learn shit.

take my shit you're gonna get fucking stuck.

then complacency set in ... and i didn't really worry about shit as much.

i didn't think there was any reason to be armed.

on the way back from gelato jamie's uncle and i were about 20 feet in front of j and her aunt.  i heard her aunt say something about some plant.  her uncle and i rounded a corner.  i then heard some noise.  looked behind and saw someone in a shitty sub-compact say something.  i heard a scream.  i walked toward the corner and then saw some black kid jumping into the subcompact, which of course sped away, and i saw jamie on the ground.

my heart was in my throat.

she held on to the chloé bag but the asshole pulled quite hard for a five-foot-five-little-bitch.

and, yes, i said black kid.  if he were brown, i'd have said brown.  white.  i would have said white.

if you have a problem with my description, i don't really give a fuck.

trust me on that.

jamie's a bit sore ... really sore.  poor thing.  i feel bad for her.  i feel bad for her uncle and aunt who had to witness this ... sucks.

all good, though, i've reverted to my prior "level of trained readiness."

did an edit of some b/w stuff i shot ... edited it on the speedy new mac book pro which runs aperture like a mofo.  daaaaaaaamn.  i know there's at least one of you out there who's very happy that i won't be bitching about how slow it ran on my prior machine.

edited 1700+ photos and scans from a wedding i shot a coule weeks ago and it KICKED ASS.

the new trackpad is beyond.  i've given up on clicking and now just "tap." 

everyone said "i was going to hate the glossy screen."  um ... really?  i went from location to location -- darkness and light --- to see how it was.  um ... it's amazing.

why are people so reticent to accept change?

amazes me.

stupid bitches.

i'm stoked that i've always embraced FW800.  now ... that's the only fw port available!  just ordered a fw800 card reader! :)

sucked showing off the new machine because everyone wanted to try it out for longer than i wanted them to.

apple scored.

again.

thank you, apple, even though i really do think you're biased toward wedding-fucking-shooters. ;)

now the prior machine goes back to apple for a nice apple care refurb. :)

funny that i read the wank talk about the fact there's no FW400 port.  what's funny to me is that anyone would listen to someone who's not even a "real photographer."  in fact, he's a picture taker and has no right even expounding upon the most photographically rudimentary subjects.

yes, wank, you can edit on your old g4 laptop ... you're not a working photographer.

working photographers need the best tools we can get.

apple just gave us another.

the new mac book pro is fucking beyond.

this keyboard is the best yet.

and unless you subscribe to the ideas of someone like wank -- someone who's not even close to being good enough to be a "real photographer" -- this machine will do well for you.

as much as i bitch about shooting weddings i have to say ... i really liked the work i did a couple weeks ago.  i'll ask her if i can post some stuff here.

i think i may link the following photo to wank's name whenever i mention wank ...

it either looks like a brat or a thumb or something really fucking phallic.

depends upon where your mind is.

we spent a few days with our friends john and kelly in a place we'd usually just "fly over."  we honestly had a blast and wished they lived in our city.

i'm sure john wished he was walking with us the close-to-fateful night the other night.

that would have been interesting.

saw my first roller derby demonstration.  it all seemed like a blur.

hence the shutter dragging.

was pretty cool, though.

john's gf, kelly, was the hottest of all of the girls, though.

and .. perhaps the straightest. ;)

not that it matters.

i'll say that st. louis does a pretty good octoberfest.

double-fucking-fisted, baby.

only good if taken in the context of the above example of fisting, of course.

i think i like this photo the best.

the 28/2.0 voigtlander is very nice at night, too. :)

and in tents! :)

i'm so happy i carry a camera with me 24/7.

the other day i drove to an assignment -- knowing i had a bunch of digi-gear -- but lamenting i forgot the leica at home.

sucks.

i almost try and not be as observant so i don't hate on myself for forgetting "the real camera."

a camera i'd love to see wank try and use.

we should all add ken rockwell as a friend on facebook.

shouldn't he be inundated with friend requests?

john and kelly took us to a dive bar which boasts the largest number of disco balls in any one location...

wish you could see this on a giant cinema screen.

it's amazing.

sorry i can't make it bigger on the internet, though.

i'll try a vertical...

if this place were in l.a., we'd make it the new "in spot" for sure.  there'd be promoters lining up to host here.

jeeeeeeeesuuuuuhs was everywhere.

though.

hear god.

there's a certain juxtaposition here, though.

hear god.

um ... why don't you just listen to yourself?

religion is such a crock of fucking shit.

we're all god.

wish we all acted more "god-like."

imagine if we did.

not very god-like of me, though, to point out obesity, right?

work in progress.

i still don't understand how people spend thousands of dollars on religion or religions-of-sorts.

when all of the answers are inside you.

odd.

just so the legions of wanks and wank-fans who email me and call me an asshole ... aren't left-the-fuck-out ...

there's a wall photograph for you.

now fuck off, stop emailing me calling me paparazzi:  you have some subject matter you can shoot and try and emulate.

there ya' go. ;)

diamond in the rough?

i'm sure a wank would have pulled out the 14 and the 5d and gotten the cityscape as well. ya' know. at magic hour and shit. whatever. i didn't. not the way i saw it. i saw it as a small detail to an otherwise pretty cool city. arch or not.

i wouldn't suggest going down to the arch past 01:00. then again, we had to come back to a pretty gentrified 'hood to get mugged. ya' know what's interesting about art? i think that sometimes art is called art when, in fact, it's a result of someone's obsessive compulsive disorder...

lampshades as the roof for the skeleton of a church.  are they trying to make a statement about shading of the light?

is god really "the light?"

hmm...

did you know that glucosamine comes from bovine larynxs?

neither did i.

very interesting this "project."

as opposed to my own fucking project (read:  ocd-thingy)...

jamie -- when she saw this on my mac book pro -- said "you were fucking stoked."

:)

she knows me so well.

if you're ever in st. louis you have to go see the kemper museum.  it's really amazing.

we'll definitely go back!

then again, very good friends live there as well and ... we look forward to hanging out with them again.

and to me ... dunno why ... this represents the midwest to me.  dunno why.

way way way esoteric but ... i'd love to have this six feet wide on my wall.

perhaps it's because of elinor. ;)

my little lover of the esoteric.

and, no, this wasn't in missouri.  this was right down the street from my parents.

yeah, save the babies but kill the quasi-convicted and support your lying president and send 4000 off to their death.  yep ... you fucking religious dogmatically stupid fucks .. save all the babies ...

so you can send 'em off to war.

and kill them when convicted of something dubious.

when what you really believe says "thou shalt not kill."

what part of that don't you understand?

the yes on 8 people are the same people who think palin is amazing.

but what i think amazing ... is ... the fact palin's gone rogue.  of-fucking-course she has.  anyone surprised?

okay ... time to sharpen the zero tolerance. ;)

very liberal of me.  i know.

i'm hungry.

hope you all had a less eventful weekend that we did.

cheers from the cooler-yet-a-bit-more-wary l.a.!

-chris

p.s., the napolitano bitch ... made an amazing photograph!!!!!

©2008 REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

well done, brother.  well-fucking-done documentation of america's opinion. there are more in this yahoo slideshow.

The golden ratio

We're all familiar with rule of thirds as a compositional aid in our photography...

rhapsouldize

selfishtears

But how familiar are you with the golden ratio and it's permutations? Discovered by the ancient Greeks, the golden ratio is a geometric formula which leads to an aesthetically pleasing composition. Any image following this rule is thought to be visually harmonious.

(skip to the next photo if you don't like maths :D )

The formula starts with a square (shown here in blue)

Now we divide the base of the square into two equal parts (point x) and use this as the centre of a circle (the radius of which is shown by the arrow between x and y).

Using this radius, we extend the base of the square to give us a rectangle which ends at point z.

So we now have a rectangle [c], made up from the square [a] and the extension [b].

With me so far ;)

It's this relationship between a and b that we're interested in. The ratio of these parts is 5:8 (or 1.618 to1), which is very close to the ratio of 35mm film, which is 24mmx36mm(1.5 to 1)

Henri Cartier-Bresson was aware of this, and as a result never cropped any of his images. Every photograph he displayed was a full 35mm frame, just as it came from his camera.

Donald McCullin, best known for his war photography, once said of Bresson 'Henri really introduced the concept of perfect composition into our thinking. He was the first to teach us to compose within the specific shape of the 35mm frame and to utilize the very nature of that camera and format'.

Here we see the rule of thirds grid overlayed with the golden ratio grid in yellow. Both are similar, but the rule of thirds is a simplified version. Notice how the lines relate to the formula diagram above.

Examples of the golden ratio ...

josh

zuzana

arthur mola

Another example of the golden ratio can be found in the Fibonacci spiral.

In the Fibonacci sequence, each successive number after 1 is equal to the sum of the two preceding numbers (i.e- 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55, etc.)

This is a visualisation of that sequence using the tiling of squares, with the rectangles repeating and increasing size.

Notice again how the rectangles within rectangles correspond to the ratios above.

If you then join the corners you get a fluid logarithmic spiral....

...which is the reason spiral staircases can be so beautiful.

bryan marshall

electrified clown

sanctamonius

It's possible that we are genetically programmed to recognise the ratio to be pleasing to the eye.

sandro di carlo darsa

But the main point of this piece is not the golden ratio in grid or spiral form, but the lesser known golden triangle.

We draw a line from the top left to the bottom right of our golden rectangle, and another line from the top right towards point 'y' until it hits the first line. We now have three different triangles, and placing components roughly within these portions gives a harmonious composition, as does the use of the geometric lines as a guide. Also, placing a point of interest just within the smallest of the triangles (the saddle) gives a pleasing composition.

laith

cmphotography

I was amazed to discover the maths involved in some of my favourite shots...

chris weeks

treamus

darren abate

jason lee perry

thorsten overgaard

severin koller

I also noticed elements within photographs that corresponded to these angles...

table lines....

chris weeks

shafts of light...

riccardo

and body shapes...

nhat nguyen

obsidian fox

flipo

I always knew these images looked 'right', but never quite knew why.

Now I do. It's the golden ratio.

***************************************************************************************

There's a fantastic web page available here which allows you to load your own images and view them with a variation of the golden ratio over them as a compositional aid.
The golden ratio is also prevalent in nature. Take a look here.

-Christian

mavricky-mavricky-ness.

so, yeah, i haven't been all that consistent.  i mean ... since uber.com took a dump ... the very jesus-like resurrected from the dead and then ...

dunno ... finally made an ascent to heaven? dunno.

all that happened at a time of extreme busy-ness ... mavricky-ness ...

sorry.  no mavrick-ing going on.

looks like even someone from the GOP (american for republicans) is denouncing the robo-calls and endorsing mr. obama.  good for her.

so, no, i have no idea what's going on with uber.  sucks but ... dunno what else to say.  wasn't my fault.

now is not a good time for businesses who "burn cash" and have "high cash 'burn rates'".

see the euro/dollar index?

great time to go to iceland for friggin' sure.

i hear fall's nice there.

honestly, with the uber-crash ... trying to get used to typepad ... a sure-to-be-temporary affinity with facebook, one of the only communities i've ever seen done RIGHT ... and as much shooting as i've done ...

crazy lately.

not only but friggin' palin's appearance on saturday night live shows how irrelevant they are.  i'll never watch that for the five minutes i used to watch it.  dumb asses letting that fucking intellectual monkey appear.

she doesn't even have a film opening.

i mean what the fuck.

so ... last week ... lets see ... i shot for my friend dj a.m. ...

having seen him for the first time since reading the news of his airplane crash ... i mean ... it was odd.  i was very happy to see him but he's really the first person i've known who's really beaten the odds in one of those discovery "moments before disaster" kinda ways. 

trying to put myself in his shoes and feeling what he must have felt and is now feeling made me think about a lot of things.

when i saw him come backstage i said, "dude, so good to see you."

after we hugged he said "no, really, you have no idea how good it is to see you."

i've thought about those words a lot.

i think we all get so busy and crazed and caught up ... and forget ...

so many simple things that are so wonderful.

the night before i shot for a.m. i shot some wrestling for a client from nyc.  her father got a new heart yesterday.

very happy for her.

and, yes, i have some photos and no they're not a second-edit of the masonic-cat-follies i witnessed this past weekend in an area clearly supporting the old man and the monkey.

(no, i won't approve your comments if you support them.)

;)

mixmaster mike and dj a.m.  if you've never heard a set by mike, you really have to.  a.m.'s amazing for sure but i wasn't all that familiar with mike. 

amazing.

my friend nico did the poster.  yes, sheppard knows about it.

i thought it was cool.

nico's on the left and mark-the-cobrasnake is the guy on the right.

four or five thousand people showed up.  all ticket sales were donated to a foundation for the people who died in the crash.

and ... to say hello and welcome a.m. home.

the other dude on the stage is danny masterson.

macy gray showed up.

as did hilary duff, which i didn't understand, but .. whatever .. all good ..

the girl in the middle is someone i should have recognized but she was "unidentified guest."

"unidentified guest" is a terrible thing when you should have your name captioned.

whatever.

will.i.am from the black eyed peas was there, too.

cut chemist is also someone you should really check out.

he's amazing.

cisco adler, center, performed with a guy named shwayze ...

i don't get it but whatever.  the people who paid us$11 for a vodka liked it.

kaycee, left, and my friend nate.  she likes to dance.  and ... bringing up a young-ish girl ...

when i went on the daily-donkey-check i saw that wank was wanking about with a g10 and autumn leaves whilst the other one the ontopphotographer or onlinephotographer or whatever ... scroll halfway down and look for joyful nudes.  click that shit (if you're 18, of course)...

a photography site that has such a verbose way of thinking it's so photographically amazing has a "soft porn" ad.  that's amazing.

the link points to domai.  from google i find that domai is an acronym for "dirty old man's association international."

that's fucking hilarious.

i think he's called me paparazzi.  dunno for sure.  was either that donut at pdn, the wank or this guy.

and what those three have in common is that none of them have "made it" in photography and since i make a lot of photos of celebs ... i'm paparazzi.

only neophytes would say that, though.  i'm the one with the "fuck you pass" ... flying all over the world shooting for some of the biggest clients and publications in the world.

i'm published more than any one or all of them will be in their lives ... in one day.

okay ... a couple. 

just strikes me funny that ya' know ... some pap-as-they-call me ... doesn't need soft porn adverts on my blog "to make it."

now we know that the genre of people looking at reviews with photos clearly indicating the reviewer has no fucking clue ... also attracts really old fuckers ... who love ... well ... what the fuck does domai mean?

(b, if you're reading this you're supposed to skip certain words, 'kay)

think that was my favourite photo from the night.

dunno.  perhaps.

a.m. was so itching to get back on a deck.  i think that's what cool dj's call a turntable.

they loved mike for sure.

i know a.m. loved the set...

can't believe how good he looks for what i know he went through.

that very long exposure is of actor simon rex aka dirt nasty.  youtube search him.  there are titles you won't believe.

steve aoki, from left, dj vice and mark ronson.

i think mark killed it.

atmosphere.

the amount of talent on that stage that night was really sick.

j and i had a good time even though we weren't able to spend a whole helluvalotta time together that night.

i like shutter-draggin'.

not to be like palin droppin' the "g's" from the "ing's."

what else ...

picked on the republican ticket.

posted some of what i've recently shot.

um ... called out domai. ;)

oh, yeah, i shot our dog trainer.

yes, i've done a lot of dogs lately.  i like them.  they're fun to work with.  i hate prepositions at ends of sentences but don't care right now.

i made photos of our dog trainer.  he's amazing.

he demonstrates the stay command with mr. m.

m meets ... um ... don't remember.

demonstrating the wave.

he was young and he hit his mark every time.  i was impressed.

the sit up and wave as opposed to the wave. ;)

mid-retrieve.

what i really like about our trainer is that he really does love dogs and uses positive reinforcement training.  he's the best.

and this little guy was pretty good, too...

and throw in some nice wrestling ... and it was a full week. ;)

i've also been doing a lot of electronic and physical archiving lately. 

i mean still.

it's an ongoing-yet-never-ending project.

again, no idea what's going on with uber. 

heard back from all but 2 judges on the street contest.  so ... soon.

i think it's time to sleep.

hope you're all well!

cheers from the soon-to-be-hot-as-shit-la!

p.s., thanks christian and art!

the first time, but not the last.....

last weekend saw me photograph my first wedding, and i don't think i've ever enjoyed a days shooting more

i was an usher at the ceremony while also looking after my 7 month old son,

so i was shooting the before and after stuff

last minute nerves

and the same next door

and while some waited patiently...

others weren't even ready

now onto the afters

the 'pro' had a thing for lines of people, where do they learn this shit?

i caught him showing the ladies how to stand like a teapot ;)

even the fellas were at it

by this time, my girlfriend was getting sick of me taking her photo

the look of exasperation :D

this is the happiest wedding i've ever been to, everyone smiling or laughing

leave a boy alone in a garden for five minutes and he'll find a stick to prod things with

leave a girl alone in a room with a violinist for five minutes and she'll find a chandelier to stand under

'so what did you get me for a wedding present?'

'a what?'

'a lawnmower!'

'a lawnmower?'

'gulp, a fucking lawnmower?'

'a fucking what?'

'oh bollocks'

the speeches went down a treat

as did the disco classics

you know it's time to go home when,

the kids look tired....

pissed up blokes start wearing shoes on their ears....

the bride starts dancing like an egyptian....

and the photographer starts taking pissed up reflection shots and somehow misses the hyperfocal.....

all images shot on ilford delta @iso100 and ilford hp5 @iso800 on my trusty yashica rangefinder

masons heart pussy.

whilst this may be true of arcadia-centric masons i'm not so sure the level-and-plumb-set of pasadena are the same.  how do i know this? 

the "halloween cats" show was supposed to be in pasadena on euclid.  at a masonic temple.  but upon arrival we found plenty of old people and ... a crafts show and craftsman tour.  they thought we were on drugs when we asked "where are the cats?"

whatever.

some clever blackberrying under "halloween cats" and "show" and "los angeles" county as search terms lead me to the conclusion that, in fact, masons like to host cat shows.  they were all over the fucking place.  masonic temple here.  cat show there.  i found this to be especially true of los angeles and phoenix.

who knew.

perhaps this woman does ...

it would also appear that exporting a 600x600 maximum with aperture has solved the bullshit with the sizing of my photos. 

on the subject of apple ... well ... found out that none of the apple stores would be receiving the pimped-out new mac book pros (e.g., with the fastest processor and fastest biggest drives) and would have to be ordered online.  i think if you know nothing about macs apple stores are fine.  see ... i'm used to "the reseller days."  they were much better.  then the apple stores took over, the resellers lost traction and now we have lots of cough-cough-genius-bars and resellers who think they're amazing.

rather than deal with mac-snobs and yell at someone i'll take the "less-than-stellar-geniuses" because at least they have to defer to a manager. ;)

anyway ... can't wait for the new machine so that certain programs-which-will-remain-nameless run faster!

no fw400 port.  odd.  i get it but odd.  all of my archive drives are fw800 so ... all good.  even my portable drive holding the aperture library, which is way too fucking big to keep on the local drive, is fw800.

bitches make me have to buy another monitor adapter, though.

whatever.

they're still the best platform out there.

and ... i honestly think .. they're a bargain for what you get.

fucking cats.

forgot.

at least i didn't start talking about palin, right?

beautiful arcadian-masonic-day for a cat show.

seriously, though, after paying the us$5 admittance fee the first person i saw was dressed in a cat suit.

it wasn't halle berry.

yes, i exposed it that way because i wanted a bit of the creepiness factor to weigh on the photo.

'twas.

unlike dog shows the cats are pretty much all in cages.  poor fuckers.

i wanted to see what it'd be like to see them all free.

probably not a great idea, though.

i mean, really.

i think they'd be happier chasing shit. 

there was a lot of "that" going on.  i guess cats like shoulder rides.

shaved ________

fill in the blank.

okay ... not shaved.  bald.

i'll stop.

cat show birthdays!

i guess ya' gotta celebrate where you can.

j was testing out her canon g10.

the cat was screaming at her.

homey was pretty cool.  whatever this breed is ... it's thousands of years old.  very vocal.

plenty of people would sell you a cat here.

some would even give you one.

seems sometimes "unintended crosses" of breeds happen unbeknownst to their owners.

very odd and secret and ancient things go on in this hall ... when they're not hosting cat shows, of course.

wonder if they have "key parties," too?

donuts.

halloween cats and a pack of reds.

that's what it's all about.

for sure.

and stretched out cats. this fucker ... damn ... i'd love to see him chase mice. i mean ... hell ... i'd love to see him chase a fucking deer. the paws on this guy were almost as big as my hand. okay ... not quite.

there's cat woman again.  while the other "judges" would engage the people sitting in front of them this woman was a bit aloof.

odd-aloof.

an ancient breed.

the competition was exhausting.

cat show fare.  but it was good.  and the masons run a nice and tidy kitchen...

always nice to know its cool to eat there. ;)

you get free cat litter, though.

that's a plus, of course.

there was some mutual-aid going on as well.

and that looming symbol.

we could have taken that little guy home.

but we have a spaniel.

a spaniel who was bugging us to make him a facebook page.  crazy.

as much as it's fun to make fun of cats ... they're pretty fucking cool looking.

i promise the woman on the left's shirt says "crazy cat lady in training."

homeboy was bored.

homegirl was enjoying the primping.

mysterious-woman was matching.

homeboy was getting ready for a "sack check."

like his compatriot a few frames before ... he was tired.

competition was swift and tiring.

he was getting spoon-fed.

he's a fancy show cat.  that's what fancy show cats do so they can keep their game.

mr. stoic cat.  well-played.

there was a case full of tiaras.

and photos of old women.

and cups.

and gavels.

and squares.

and plumbs.

and kinda-creepy sayings.  "worshipful master"?

hmm.

if you were wondering what a mason is/was, it's all right there.

i'm sure wank is a mason.  he has a facebook account, though.  gear-wanks unite ... wonder if that's a group on facebook?

upside down pentagrams ... i mean ... have they never seen a sabbath or ozzy album?

special agent pixie bobs.

who knew.

we didn't.

why did we go to a halloween cats show?

dunno.

so ... hope you're all having a fabulous weekend!

we're gonna see "burn after reading."

cheers from the warmer-than-usual-la.

p.s., i think the ubrian prosecutor has read too many fucking novels.  no way that chick did it.

p.p.s., um ... who advertises photography on facebook????  oh, my.  this guy.  someone should teach him how to do colour-to-bw conversions. ;)

construction down my street

i used to love construction as a kid because i remember seeing a bunch of guys building my neighbor's house in our old neighborhood when i was around nine. i used to go out every morning when the workers would show up and watch them do their jobs, occasionally helping move a brick or hammer a nail ... i loved it! i remember them being very nice and friendly to me ...

so as i was walking down my current street a few weeks ago, fast forward 9 years from my first encounter with construction workers, i noticed they were re-building a property on my street. i've been meaning to shoot them for a while, but never got around to it until this weekend ... it was thanksgiving and i just walked up to them with my girlfriend and asked if i could make a few photos. i just had one body loaded with black and white film ... and they said "for sure brother, just careful where you step."

it started out as just shooting this for myself, but i think i will use these photos in a documentary series for my production class at school showing a construction worker in "a day in the life of" fashion ...

this was the first thing i saw ... i kinda like the silhouette of the worker and the frame of the house surrounded by all the trees ... i like including the surroundings in my photos.

it's legit ...

once i got permission to go in to the site, i got close and it was actually really fun making artistic photos of construction workers. i can't wait to show them these. i'm gunna go to the dark room at school tomorrow and make some 11x14's ...

i love the sun ... and the guy below the ladder ... it gives it scale and perspective.

love the pipe ... little details. really reflects the "lifestyle" i think - stereotypical, for sure ... but, still. after i walked around the site a bit, i found all that remained of the old house ...

back to the workers ...

this is the boss ... i think his name is sam, but i can't remember.

he was really nice though. i think people who aren't photographed often enjoy it. it's attention with a product afterward.

a lot of teamwork.

this guy was old - i think he's sam's dad.

some atmosphere ... these are some of my favorite photos to make and they speak so much about whoever or whatever you're photographing.

all

the lines of the structure of the house with the small worker between them. the sun shining bright. lines look good in photos for me.

i think a very common thing amongst construction workers is their smoke break. i think it's a significant part of the work day for these people. and it's one of the things i remember observing during my first encounter with construction workers as a kid too.

and a moment between father and son at work.

must be kind of cool and weird working with your dad. there's good and bad there i think. but they seemed to work well and be happy with each other.

if you could cut one photo from this series which one would it be? i need to make a series of 15 and i posted 16. there's more, but i'm stuck on these 16 ... wondering if you can help me out?

i have more scans ... lots of scans.

just finally had some time to post. and i think this is an interesting series.

i love how i finished shooting for my 30% mid term critique project in 30 minutes on one roll of film!

crazy!

very sad day...

i remember shooting for some los angeles lifestyle magazine a few ... probably more ... years ago.  it was at the bel air hotel ... one of the most beautiful hotels we have here.  doesn't feel like a hotel. it rather feels like a big sprawling private home.

be that as it may i remember making a photo with the mp.  a tallish man says "that's a beautiful camera; i'm glad to see people still use them."  i told him i prefer using this camera more than anything that was hanging from my shoulders.  he started a sentence "... when they gave me my leicas..."

i looked puzzled and said, "who are you??"  i knew leica doesn't just "give" cameras to just anyone.

"i'm william claxton."

of course, i knew his work.  we spent the next 30-or-so minutes talking about photography and black and white photos.

skip forward to last week when our friend john gave us a private tour of the kemper art museum in st. louis.  along with some of the "donkey work" which you'll always find in museums j and i fell in love with this photo...

we looked at the photographer's name ... and it was william claxton although when i first met him and subsequent meetings ... he said to call him bill.

in the l.a. times i saw something that was the kind of sad ironic one really hopes to never see...

first it was a photo of bill ...

and then it was a story about his death.

when i saw the photo of the hot dog stand ... more than really wanting that for our walls ... i wanted to talk to bill again.  i very much enjoyed our conversations.

i respect photographers who use or used one camera and available light for the biggest percentage of their body of work.

i wish peggy, his wife, as much peace as possible.  i feel for her.

timing is an odd thing.

sad that the world is less ... one amazing leica photographer.

i'll keep bill in mind when i make my next thwaap.

hope you all had an amazing weekend; i don't even remember mine.

cheers from the chilly and breezy l.a.

p.s., on a happier note ... i think we're gonna get new mac book pros tomorrow!  lets hope!

fear as much as you can...

j and i are really amazed that it seems as though the media, no matter which media is your preferred outlet, are just throwing kerosene on the flames...

like really?  you gotta get some irrelevant ex-homeland official to make everyone even that much more
friggin' paranoid?

reminds me of a quote that rockefeller made in germany back in like 1991 ...

"We are grateful to the Washington Post, the New     York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors     have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for     almost forty years."

He went on to explain:

    "It would have been impossible for us to develop     our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity     during those years. But, the world is more sophisticated and prepared to     march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual     elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national autodetermination     practiced in past centuries."    

 

-- David Rockefeller, Speaking at the June, 1991 Bilderberger     meeting in Baden, Germany (a meeting also attended by then-Governor Bill     Clinton and by Dan Quayle

if you don't know who those people are do some googling.

last week my friend and fellow-photographer cyril helnwein sent me a quote:

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." -- Thomas Jefferson, 1802

something to think about.

whilst some are watching 401k's errode whilst others are watching their expenses and choosing less quality foods or getting rid of cable ... there are groups watching this ...

and i believe it's all going to their plan.

i've never agreed with god-fearing people.  i don't believe in any kind of fear.  fear is terrible.

try and control happy people: it's like herding cats.

try and control fearful people and they act like sheep.

thank you news networks, newspapers and the like.  you're just like the sheep you're trying to herd.

my friend olivier sent me a link last night about fox news getting pissy about newsweek not retouching palin's face enough.  bitches.

fox is just pissed "their party's gonna loose." ;)

because i let the photo district news subscription lapse ... it was around the same time they let the wank be a guest editor.  the same wank who can't show the photos he makes to justify what he reviews.  the last review being the best as he cited "national security."  betcha i know which political sign is in his front yard.  ;)

there's a mccain/palin sign ... that i've seen ... and i really think it needs to be ... comandeered. ;)

yes, pdn ... because i also think havlik is pretty much untalented (check out his photo galleries) and has no qualifications writing what he does ... i almost skipped his article about the new canon 200/2.0L.  i was thinking i may get the three-hunski ... but ... hmm ...

dunno now.

i think i have time to go to the lab today!!!!

i've also got the responses from four judges for the uber street contest!!!!  only a few more to go.

hope you're all well.

unless you got into an adjustable mortgage last year, bought 7 52" lcd's or are a mortgage broker, you had nothing to do with what's going on right now.  although it's hard not to feel tripidation, just hug a spaniel.

it works.

cheers from the now-temperate l.a.!

i'm honestly amazed...

that someone could write something like "shoot out" in the context of a lens comparison and NOT include photos.  again, the king-of-all-wanks ... wanked about 16mm lenses.  this is wank's response to not having images available to support what he has to say "The images were made at a secure test range and have not been cleared for publication. Even if I was at liberty to publish them, you'd be looking at about 25MB of data."

that's fucking amazing.  secret images of lawn furniture?  secret images of secret walls?  secret images of boring suburban architecture?  please.

i'm so amazed that anyone can take that dude's advice based only on his words.

so ... we've gotten two judge's choices for the uber street contest.  when i was going through it myself and applying aperture star ratings i noticed a couple things:

1)  photographs of streets ... not quite street photography in the correct context of street photography.
2)  some have no clue what constitutes street phtoography.
3)  EVERYONE should learn about naming their files.

it's hilarious.  i look at small details about photographer's work.  when i look at links to individual images i usually see dsc...something.  like wank.  he has no numbering scheme or renaming scheme on his work.  look at the file name of the photo.

10 years ago another photographer introduced me to one of the easiest and best methods.  take your name and i'll use the name herman t. wanksalot as the photographer name.

htw are the initials.

next use the date with the year first, then the two digit equivalent of the month and the two digit equivalent of the day ...

if htw shot something today the first file would be named htw20081008-001. 

in programs like aperture and photo mechanic it's very easy to start with the first number and set a sequence.  unless you're somewhat unfortunate and have to rely on programs like G.I.F.T. -- reference to this will be only understood by those who use it and hate it. ;)

creating a numbering scheme for your photos now will alleviate headaches in the future.

unless you're wank.

of course.

and since it's almost a sport pointing out how people like wank are people who would "never give up their monopod" nor just admit to themselves there's nothing they'd like more than to be a pro but ... they're "just not that good," i was surfing blurb last night and saw a link for a book by emily shur.  although i'm not a huge fan of what i saw in the book.  i really like her celebrity and portrait work.

although mr.wishes-he-was-a-pro-but-couldn't-get-representation says pros don't websites or blog, emily also has a pretty-well updated blog.  good for her.  i put her on rss.

as busy as a pro like she is ... it's cool to see that she does a lot of personal work.  in fact, it's very evident that her pro work has a deep root in her personal work.  not only ... but the fact she actually takes the time to do her blog and help just that one person out there who reads something which resonates so well ... it changes their lives.

that's fucking cool.

as irrelevant as wank is ... i think myspace should is as or more irrelevant and should just go away.  when you compare EVERYTHING about facebook with myspace ... it's just ... something to make you delete your myspace profile.  never really wanted to create a facebook profile but, honestly, i'm glad that i did.  they really do it right.

so ... yeah ... had a few minutes so i thought i'd just ... get it out. ;)

hope the markets are fucking you too much.

hope you don't have too much money locked away iceland.  feel sorry for some of the brits and the icelandics.  must suck ... what's going on.

yo, m, that email this morning about wanks and tripods made me laugh.  it's so fucking true and ... it's so sad ... it's funny.

time to shower and get outta here for a while.  but first i think you should watch this.  i love arguing with someone who has no basis for their arguments and clearly have no knowledge of things they really should.  like mccain supporters, of course. ;)

j recommended the ministry video. ;)

and think good thoughs for m ... not the one about the tripod ... but m-the-spaniel ... his stomach is all sorts of fucked up. poor spaniel.

cheers from just the slightly less warm l.a.