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.

3-15-2011 Abstract Roses

Where the hell did these come from? I don't take photos like these. Pretty flowers? Indecipherable madness? I HAD SOMETHING TO PROVE TO MYSELF. Maybe. Don't know. But these are certainly outliers.

In other news. My reception was superb. Saw tons of people I hadn't seen in ages. Successfully added a ton of other elements (multiple bands, wine, food, bald teenage girls etc.) to make it feel like the whole thing was more than "HEY EVERYBODY SEE HOW I AM AN ARTIST IT IS AWESOME."

Nobody can truly claim to be an island you know. Very basic sociological thought about creating culture etc ad nasum. Something makes all of us, thus I feel deeply indebted to everybody that has supported me. Basically I am the most humble person ever. Don't even think about challenging me to a humble competition, my complete lack of ego will ABSOLUTELY DESTROY YOU before the contest of ultimate humility truly begins.

3-4-2011 Under the Freeway, Over the Tracks

Went exploring a little bit after meeting my cousin Vicki at Placer Arts to show her Beauty in the Breakage. She and her husband Brett had apparently beaten me there by a few minutes, they had seen my show already. Which is good! Perhaps they shared some candid remarks amongst themselves before le artiste could show up and censor their true feelings. Anyway, I took em back inside and turned on my carefully pointed spotlights so they could TRULY experience the show. Hah!

As I was saying, while I was waiting for my other cousin Elia to get off work, I eventually found myself down on the railroad tracks in this cavernous overpass built to accompany seven lanes of traffic above and large trains below. It was an imposing place. There is a possibility that I am becoming obsessed with it.
A good possibility.

3-4-2011 Fashion Shoot em Up with Ramona Lou

Went and did a photoshoot with crazy fancy vintage boutique Ramona Lou in Auburn yesterday. It was a good time. The model Olivia and I were insta buddies and everything was a joke. We even had a makeup artist, Tanya Hibbard, who did some damn fine work.

Anyway. My favorite two of the day are the bottom images. Particularly the bottom right. I really took it more for my own enjoyment than to give to Ramona Lou's. Just look at all that madness. That's the lot at the tire store in Auburn. Gah. I love that image.

So I realized the way I approach this fashion-type photography is an odd combination of the way I work while doing commercial studio stuff and my Beauty in the Breakage project. I don't direct the model at all, I just point my camera at em and make jokes. Really similar to the way I make little kids with soccer balls giggle by making fun of them or myself. There were some images I took yesterday, that if they hadn't had Olivia in them would've made perfectly appropriate images for Beauty in the Breakage. The faded colors and dirt and texture, it's all there.

If you wanna see the whole shoot, head over to the dump http://www.keepandshare.com/photo/367919/ramona-lou&vo=lt. You can even download em!

Have a nice day.

2-25-11 Deer and Basketball

Uhhhhhh. Spent a few days hanging my show at the arts gallery. It was amazin. Way beyond words.

So these photos. I went with Anthony to a game that he was covering and took some photos. The top right is a few one second images combined into a single one. Top left is another image from the archives that I messed with. Yes.

That is all.

2-17-2010 The Most Depressing Ballons, also Madness

Look at those balloons. A whole group of them just hung up and sad on a very high power line. Poor stupid balloons. Didn't anyone teach you guys not to float into depressing situations?

Earlier today I got in a conversation about tilt/shift photography (http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/11/16/beautiful-examples-of-tilt-shift-photography/) which led to checking out how to obtain such effects without a tilt/shift lens, photoshoppin time. I read some tutorials and got interested in some of the tools they mentioned. But I didn't do any faux tilt/shift stuff. Instead I dug through my archives and made odd things with the images I found.

I think the top left image is making fun of all those terrible inspiring/lovey captioned photographs that come out of tumblr. It'll be something like a photograph of a ferris wheel with words smacked across it reading "sometimes it's ok to break down." Silliness LIKE THIS (http://ilovequotes2.tumblr.com/). I really dig the rocks and dust, although what I was originally aiming for was my buddy Brendan jumping over me.

Bottom right is an attempt at stroboscopic imaging from a few years ago. My strobe light wasn't powerful enough. Should have had two I guess. Now it's some type of abstract nightmare. Machetes tend to have that effect when they multiply.

Top right took the longest. There's something like 50 layers going on with Cricket the demon dog. She just looked like she had something on her mind. Demons, specifically.

2-15-2011 SURROUNDED BY MARRIAGE

Although I was dogsitting for Larry and Ann for about a week, I was able to go to their marriage ceremony in the hills above Oakland. They are damn cool, and the hike-wedding was damn fun. They really don't care what the normal, accepted ways of life are.
They sent out their invitations about two weeks before their marriage.
They hiked more than they ritualized on their wedding day.
They simply like living.
And it was a privilege to be able to take photographs of such an interesting and refreshing event.

MEANWHILE. I've been petting their dogs in Davis for a week. Did some volunteer work at the local eco-living co-op place. Should've taken photographs there as well. Time tends to shoot past while dogsitting. It's a bit odd.