Sain Patrick's Day/Art Walk/Beatnik Books

Here are some photos from the third saturday art walk in Roseville at Beatnik Books. Beatnik Books is like way damn the place to be, they gots art and music and food and cheap great books. Also it was Saint Patrick's Day, but the rain chased most of the funny drunks inside.

A few amiable drunks came in and attempted to dance while discussing Kony 2012 with us. So that was pretty cool. Later I did follow some drunks into their den of inequity, but those incriminating photos were absolutely MADE for the facebooks.

Photo Students and Dead Cows

So this is what I've been up too; climbing around the hills just outside of Fairfield, dancing in the cow graveyard and teaching a photo class at Newcastle Elementary. It really pleases me when the content of my recent photo excursions differs so drastically. Black and white close ups of death and playful children. That's awesome.

I idly snapped a photo during class today that is absolutely perfect for The Photo Book for Lonesome Children. I'm up to 28 photos for the book now. Bit stumped on what else to shoot for it. Probably more people. There's a lot of personification going on right now. Which is interesting and challenging, but there are way too many structures. More faces I think.

Time to scrounge craigslist for photography related jobs.

I'll Be Returning When I Can

Was down in Palo Alto for the period of time that most people spend stressing about their family and gifts and traveling and their diet and whatever else. I mostly slept and played with a remote control helicopter.

Most photo time (photo thought really) is getting dedicated to my book. I did make a bunch of progress today! Lonesome crosses and mailboxes and suchlike. Climbing all over my town. Wonder if I'll ever get hassled by johnny law for my photographic proclivities..

Until next time friends!

SUPER HAPPY SACCHARIN FUN ZONE ULTRA MUSTACHE HOUR

Portraits of severe looking old men do not mix well with action shots of kids playing. But that is what I took photos of today so DEAL.

I'm teaching a photography class at a charter school in Tahoe. We don't have cameras (I brought my own today) so the class invariably devolves into art/PE. And that's fine. Each day has a specific country that we focus on, so after viewing and discussing shots of New Zealand we went outside and I told the kids to find things for me to take photos of, the catch being that they have to direct me. Lots of loaded questions on my part.
These kids are rad. Hard to get kindergarteners to sit still for more than five photos, but whatever.
I think we'll turn a classroom into a camera obscura next week.

The old dude was at a rest area I stopped at. Chugged a carbonated caffeine drink, turned around and saw his majestic hair sculpture.
Had to ask.

5-26-2011 Roast Pig and Running Children

From two separate events. Open House at Franklin Elementary, and the Mesa Memorial.

I remember Open Houses as being messy and chaotic. An excuse to go play on the undersized kindergarten playground. Mess about on the big field at night calling each other dirty names. This open house was not much different than that. The teacher I went with had a type of scavenger hunt worksheet for her kids to do, simultaneously showing their parents the things they made and learned. Every year in her class they focus on a specific country, the bottom left image is a painting of some scene in India. Pretty cool idea really.
Top left is kids playing some variant of wall ball. I remember this game faintly, you have to throw a tennis ball at a the wall. Then when it bounces off the wall everybody tries to catch it. Only if you flub the catch, you have to touch the wall before they can hit the wall with the ball. If you fail in that they get to throw the ball at your butt, execution style against the wall. Very fun to watch, particularly when there are way too many kids playing.

Images on the right are from the Mesa Memorial, an event my Aunt and Uncle on my mom's side of the family do every Memorial Day weekend. That's Fernando up there, hacking away at a roast pig with an axe. It's a tradition. Behind Fernando is Sommer (of Ramona Lou fame) with her boyfriend Graham. Had a damn fine time with those two.
Bottom right image is what I feel to be the best street photography style photograph I've ever taken. Look at what is going on there! So many looks and types of body language. Everybody figuring out who to talk to, where to go. It fascinates me.
I don't even care that it wasn't taken on a street. I feel that street photography is simply about people in semi-public places. Interacting, or simply being. But there is always an expectation of allure in the "street" photo, being curious to find out what is really going on.
That is all.

3-20-2011 Todays Episode is brought to you by the letter X for Xenophobia

My mothers volleyball team made the playoffs, then got crushed. I came along to practice poorly lit sports photography as I have a potential freelancing opportunity developing. So the volleyball images are pretty damn noisy, but I might be ok with that in a journalistic setting. It's a more functional environment you know?

It was funny being back to the park where my mom's league plays. I spent many days there as a boy. Playing zelda on my gameboy in the corner, climbing trees. The complex with the courts is strangely austere, I always wondered what it's flawless stucco was hiding. I took the bird photos on a walk around the pond at the park next to the complex. Couldn't get the geese to fly regardless of how much I chased them. The bastards.

3-19-2011 You Are A Big Squishy Brain

Chris Walstad had a party event last night at a house that isn't his own. These are photos of that. There were some knowledgeable photography people there. One of them chastised me for capturing in black and white and I defended myself with some bullshit about not wanting a big workflow for simple party photographs.

Wouldn't you just know that I wanted more control when I was editing these. Curse words. OH WELL.

Before teh partaaay my buddy Anton and I babysat/wrestled a child for a few hours. He has the most amazing collection of one liners ever "Lets kick each other and beat people up, "I'll destroy your neck so you choke," "You can't shoot missiles at him because he will go invisible because he is a double crackhead." Moral of the story is, you can never be as rad as you were when you were five.

AND a nonotthought first, VIDEO. Taken on my terrible phone. I get a visceral thrill out of how terrible its optics/processor/senors are.