Venice Beach

What a great Memorial Day weekend.  Here are some highlights from Venice Beach.  That place is so cool.  I could easily spend all day there wandering around and people watching.


This Asian kid was tearing up the skate park.  He was one of the better skaters there while we were watching.




This kid in the black was probably the best overall while we were there.  He caught some huge air.




What in the world are these things?  This guy was flying around the pool thing on these.  He was damn good on these things.




Mini skater guy...


There was a power lifting competition going on over at Muscle Beach.  This guy squatted a little over 980 lbs!  Holy cow!


This kid was dancing for some girls.  Every time his parents tried to move him along he’d freak out and eventually run back and dance for them some more.


And of course..  Chihuahua in a bag with a hat!

holga.8

Are you guys enjoying my film? Aside from my 365 project it’s the majority of what I’ve been shooting lately. I still have a backlog of digital to share, but I just haven’t gotten around to those yet.

This is another Holga picture, as the name would indicate. I feel like my blog posts, aside from the photos, has been boring lately. Not much funny. I’ll work on that. It stems from me not preparing posts in advance. I need to step it up. But for now, there’s just this Holga.

The Ocean

Geez I love the ocean. This is one of my favorite Holga pictures I’ve taken. Something about it works well for me. I don’t think the ocean will ever get old to me. I’d live on a yacht in the ocean if I had the means. I’d spend my days puttering up and down the coast; docking at other cities and spending some time sightseeing. West coast, east coast, Mediterranean Sea. Any would be right for me.

Chicken!

Mmmm, I love chicken.  I can’t eat enough of it. It’s a great source of protein, low in fat, no unnecessary carbs; just a quality food item.  Let me take a minute to confess something to you.  I pretty much eat chicken at least once a day.  Can you imagine how many chickens I’ve eaten?  By the time I’m done eating chicken, I’ll have singlehandedly made a dent in the ever growing chicken population.  And grilled chicken is clearly the best kind of chicken.  And grilled chicken on a pesto pizza?  Come on.

But you know what I don’t like?  The way most chicken is raised.  All cooped up in these barns?  Wallowing in their own filth and other dead chickens?  Disgusting.  Free range chicken is the way to go.  Chickens with names.  Do they name chickens?  I don’t know, but its beside the point.  The point is, chickens shouldn’t be raised all crammed in a barn like sardines in a can.  If I wanted to eat some meat all packed together, I’d eat some sardines from a can.  Or maybe a hamburger; that’s a bunch of cows pressed together.  But only if they’re grass fed cows.  And that’s assuming I can get a hold of some grass fed beef.  But if I could do that, I’d just eat a steak.

Symmetry

I love symmetry.  When the left side of something looks like the right side of something, I’m happy.  I don’t go to the extent of being obsessive about it and seek things that are symmetrical, but when I happen upon something that fits this, I enjoy it.  Like this scene.  This was so cool I had to get it on film.  Fuji Pro 160S film to be exact.

Asymmetry has its benefits too, don’t get me wrong.  But this is a post all about symmetry.  The most attractive people have symmetrical faces.  Classic architecture produced symmetrical buildings.  Symmetry is beauty.

Free Parking

I didn’t eat here, but this sign has two things I enjoy.  Indian cuisine and free parking.  Free parking isn’t all that easy to find in Pasadena sometimes.  For the sake of ease though, I’ll pay a few bucks to park in a garage.  It isn’t all that expensive.  Not compared to other places in the LA area.  They’re talking about installing new street meters that are electronic and take credit cards.  This is the good news.  The bad news is that these newfangled electronic dealies will also inflate their prices based on peak parking times throughout the day.  Jherks.

Birthday Day!

Happy Birthday to my dad!  If you know him, wish him one too.  If you don’t know him, wish him one anyway.  Just don’t be creepy about it.  Weirdos..

This is more film.  Fuji Pro 160S.  Loving this stuff.

Halves on a Pie?

There’s something I really love about this picture.  I can’t put my finger on it, but it’s there.  It’s also my first 35mm film photo!  My dad gave me his classic Olympus OM-2n, which is supposed to be a pretty great camera.  So far, I agree.  My first roll was Fuji Pro 160S.  I really enjoy most of the shots I got on this roll.  I think I’m going to be shooting quite a bit more film in the near future.

Ivy Wall

Yet another Holga picture I enjoyed.  I took this one as insurance because I knew I had double exposed the other wall of ivy.  I’m glad I did because I think this turned out pretty nicely.  It also looks good in black and white; too bad I shot it in color.  Maybe someday I’ll share the converted version.  For now, here it is in color, as nature intended.



Also, don't forget to check out my 365 project on Flickr. I think YESTERDAY'S picture is pretty sweet!

365!

As I was sitting on my balcony eating dinner tonight, I looked up and saw a beautiful evening sky and decided now was the time to go ahead and start my 365 project.  I’m posting the first one here, but the subsequent pictures will only be on my flickr page (unless I feel the picture is of quality to share here).  This page will continue as normal, with general interest pictures I’ve taken at various times.  There are a few reasons for doing this project.  First of all, it will make me shoot digital.  I’ve begun shooting more film and I’m having such a good time, I need some incentive to use my digital camera.  Second it will help me grow as a photographer.  I have to take a picture every day, and share it that same day.  Sure, some days I’ll probably phone it in, but it will be something new and at least mildly interesting (but maybe just to me).  It will definitely be a good challenge for me.  Third, I think it will be fun!

So enjoy this one, and follow me daily on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremyjewell/) (I’ll throw a link up on this site’s main page, over there on the right, under the ‘navigation’) but don’t stop following this site too!  I imagine the types of pictures will be pretty different.  Check out the ‘tags’ section on each picture on Flickr for the thoughts of the day.  If you’ve got a Flickr/Yahoo account, drop me a line in the comments over there, if a picture so inclines you.



Oh, and check out that clear blue sky.  No dust there!  That's because I got my sensor cleaned a few weeks ago at the Canon repair center in Irvine.  Their wonderful customer service will keep me buying Canon gear for a long time.

Catching Some Sunset

This is from about a month ago when I went to the beach after work one night with a friend.  It’s just a nice Wednesday night sunset at the beach.  And people doing some minor rock climbing to get a good view.  I did a little climbing earlier too, but went back just in time for this silhouette sunset.

Exif information
Model	Canon EOS 20D
Original date	2010:04:07 6:18 PM
Exposure time	1/50 sec
Focal length	50mm
F-Stop	f/8
ISO speed	ISO-100
Exposure Bias	+1

Accidental Art

One interesting feature of film cameras is their ability to make cool double exposures with absolutely no effort on the part of the photographer.  Just take a picture, and then take another picture.  In fact, it takes more effort to not make a double exposure than to take one.  With that being said, let’s just pretend that I did this on purpose, and didn’t forget to advance the film in my camera.  I created art!

Sure, you could do this in photoshop, but who wants to do that?  Lame.  I don't edit film pictures; it's policy.

I took this/these (and the first Holga picture I shared) at the Gamble House in Pasadena.  It’s a kind of house that is famous for its architecture, kind of like a house built by Frank Lloyd Wright.  I later learned that it was Doc Brown’s house in Back to the Future.  Pretty cool.