A visit to the Los Angeles County Fair. I decided to do a little something different there. Often I eschew black and white photography because I really value good color; monotone seems needlessly crippled. There are better ways to simplify a scene and emphasize essential shapes and tones. Cutting out the color information can seem stilted and contrived to me. But, sometimes I ignore myself.
Here are a few shots.
I was fortunate yesterday to attend Best Friends Animal Society's fundraiser, "Strut Your Mutt Los Angeles." I was asked to shoot the event for California State Parks, who was hosting it at one of their parks. Helping animals is a great cause, very close to home. We have three dogs and two cats, all rescues, and would have more if we could. I've only gone through a few of the raw photos so far, but here are a few.
This labor day weekend I decided to take some pictures of true laborers... the ants. Nothing seems to work harder or more consistently than Harvester Ants, Pogonomyrmex barbarous. I found these ants in a wild desert place, and I hope you enjoy the very tiny details on these extreme macro photographs.
These little guys are the size of a lentil. I can't help shooting them every time I see them hiking in the desert. I mean, when I'm hiking. The flowers are not hiking.
I was delighted to provide image licenses to several new clients in June. It's a delight not just because it helps pay the bills, but also because it's gratifying to know that these little things I do to communicate can also help other people communicate as well. In its most basic essence, I think photography is simply a variety of communication; it's very dense, pliable, sometimes visceral and almost always extremely efficient. If strangers or even companies can use a photo to help communicate something of their own, then the photo must be a little broader in scope than merely personal. It means on the level of communication, the photo is a success.
Here's a selection of some of the licenses to new clients for June. I won't blog about who licensed what every single month, but I did want to highlight some licenses from time to time:
"Trio," a picture of Stephanie, Obie, and Cassie was licensed by Hughes Leahy Karlikovic, a Saint Louis ad agency.
"Desert Signpost," a picture of Stephanie being curious on a remote road in Desert Center, California, was licensed by a Dutch energy company called NUON.
Stanford Business Magazine licensed this fisheye image of wildflowers from Point Lobos, California.
"Immanent," taken in the Mojave north of Joshua Tree National Park, was grabbed by Styria Multimedia gmbh, a magazine publisher in Austria; as they say so beautifully, Die Styria Multi Media GmbH & Co KG ist eines der größten Österreichischen Magazinverlage mit Sitz in Wien und Heimat rund einer Million österreichischer Leserinnen und Leser. So a million readers. Cool.
Some time last week I crossed two million views on my Flickr pages. That's a 2 followed by six zeroes. 2 x 10 to the sixth power. 2,000,000. It's far less than a bazillion, but greatly more than a couple score. If views were simoleons, it would be a lot of simoleons. As a count of eyeballs, it approaches 4,000,000, assuming eyeballs mostly come in pairs.
It's gratifying that there has been this much interest over the last few years, and humbling to realize that it's not even a shadow of the interest that some photographers muster.
Still, I take it as a sign that I'm heading in the right direction as I continue to develop my craft and strive to visually eff the ineffable as well as I possibly can.
If you are one of the people who has visited my Flickr pages in the past, maybe even faved and commented a photo or two, thank you! I appreciate you!
Aerie. Salton Sea, California.
The stuff of science fiction. Did you imagine, even 10 years ago, that we'd be casually doing Jeston's-type stuff like this? The kids jumped out of the swimming pool to spend a little face time with their parents (who are 5,000 miles away) while granddad holds the iPad. Next up: flying cars from Tesla?
South of Newport Beach on Orange County's opulent Pacific coast, right on the beach, lies a gorgeous little ghost town of summer cottages. In some of the most expensive real estate in the country you can find about 18 or so beautiful little rotting houses, boarded up and condemned.
The cottages were built in the 1930s for move industry people and have since fallen into abandonment and disrepair.
The State of California bought a three mile stretch of beach -- called Crystal Cove -- and made it into a State Park, so everyone can visit. They also began fully restoring these cottages to their prewar glory. Half of them in the south side of the park are restored and can be rented by the public for a vacation stay.
When the funding comes, the rest will be restored. In the meantime, we have the best of both worlds: a quaint beach community restored to nostalgic perfection on the south side, and a creepy, moving reminder of the unstoppable passage of time on the north side.
The Greater Roadrunner has forever been difficult to photograph for me; they are always on the move. Tried shooting birds in flight? Birds running around in the bush at 20 mph is even harder I think, because by the time you spot them, they have already run behind something. But yesterday I finally found one who was interested in standing his ground. I think switching away from Acme brand cameras helped as well.
They have excellent desert camouflage as they go about picking bugs out of cacti. They almost never fly and when they do, it's weak, like a chicken. They run everywhere they go. Not surprisingly, they are related to the cuckoo.
I bought my first camera backpack 8 years ago, when I bought my first dSLR. The camera was somewhat wanting (an Olympus E-500 -- in retrospect, the lamest camera in an already lame camera system) but the backpack was fantastic! 8 years later, it still carries its weight. It has been hiking everywhere with me and my gear, has taken a ton of abuse, and is only now starting to feel a little tuckered out.
Recently I switched platforms from Olympus Four Thirds (not Micro Four Thirds, mind you, just.... Four Thirds) to Canon full frame. I ditched a boatload of lenses and accessories and Olympus' top end SLR body, because Olympus as a company was no longer meeting my needs. With the larger Canon gear, I needed a bigger boat. Naturally, since the Tamrac Expedition 5x (below, right) had been so tough and helpful for so long, I sprang for the 5x's big brother, the Tamrac Expedition 7x (below, left). (Also thanks to Stephanie and Frances for the Amazon gift cards.)
With the the new Canon gear, I also needed a bigger tripod. I discovered my new Manfrotto was a little unstable on the back of the 5x--the pack is just too short. The taller 7x holds it nicely without any wiggling.
I'm not the sort of photographer who's more interested in the gear than the process of photography. To me, gear is great, but it's a really just a bunch of tools to allow me to make photographs. I look at camera stuff the same way a mechanic might look at a set of wrenches. If it works well, I'm not champing at the bit to replace it. (This is why I stuck with Olympus Four Thirds well past its obsolescence; I was still getting satisfying images). So I wasn't completely convinced I needed to replace the 5x because it didn't seem entirely necessary; but like a good tool, the 7x just makes things a little easier.
Like the 5x, the 7x has configurable and highly protective foam dividers inside. The 7x just adds another row. Both of them have a laptop pocket, a centered tripod holder, and two accessory pockets. My 5x weighed 30 pounds fully loaded. The 7x holds more but I haven't weighed it yet.
The Tamrac Expedition 7x adds a better, more robust and more padded waist cinch that is adjustable, more amply padded shoulder straps that are adjustable in more ways, and more room. Though it will be heavier than the 5x, it also has the better load-bearing waist cinch.
After trading in my ample collection of Olympus gear, I'm starting from scratch. I don't have everything I need yet, but the 7x has room for it when it comes. So far in the bag:
• Canon 6D with Canon battery grip
• EF 17-40mm f/4 L USM
• EF 50mm f/1.4 USM
• EF 300mm f/4L IS USM
• EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM Macro
• Peleng 8mm f/3.5 circular fisheye
• Full size speedlight
• Macro ring flash (not an LED ring light... those are a waste of money)
• Extension tube set
• Off camera TTL cable
• Cable release/Intervalometer
• Spare camera and flash batteries
• Lens cleaning stuff
• Headlamp
• Hiking towel
• Probably more I'm forgetting, like tripod tools, etc.
When I get the 70-200 f/2.8L, the ring flash will have to lose its case and live in the laptop pocket. A second 580EX type speedlight will stack over the current flash, and there is still a ton of room for wireless triggers, filters, etc.
The backpack is also an excellent place for all my gear even when it's just chilling at home. I don't baby my gear, but I do what I can to keep from breaking it, and so far the Tamrac has done the job beautifully.
