Travel

The past week I've been offline and visiting with my friend Cat from Spokane.  During my travels, I spent quite a bit of time with her in Washington during the summer and last week she came down to Los Angeles for some business and stayed longer to hang out with me.  We toured Venice beach,  saw some movies, had some nice meals and did a photo shoot on the beach.  Since I spend most of my time alone, it was nice to have a house guest for a few days. The best part about our photo shoot was that she was game to do about anything.  When I was in Cape Cod a few years ago, I took a bunch of timed jumpie pics as the sun was setting.  If you need an activity to look crazy in front of people and laugh at yourself, this is a good one to try.  It is stupid and is great for a good laugh and some fun photographs. Also, Cat is not as fond as birds as I am.  She was even willing to walk around a flock of birds and run towards them to try and get a shot of them...

The other day I decided to venture out to meet John and Ellyn in Mexico.  I "met" John a few years ago on my space and we became pen pals.  I was instantly taken by his writing and after seeing a few videos he posted, I figured he was the real life "dude" from the Big Lebowsky , even though I know he gets that a lot. I meet a lot of nice folks on the internet and it's always fun to meet them in person after talking for a while to see how they are in real life.  John and Ellyn are exactly how I imagined...about as real as you can get. They live on a house right on the water about 35 minutes from the border.  They don't have electricity, but do have propane and water.  They refer to their housing community as the "camp" and everyone knows each other very well.  John and Ellyn are entertainers with a traveling show so you might have seen them at your local fair or at the San Diego zoo where Ellen is "Dr. Zoolittle." I didn't bring Max al...

In my constant quest to live life with less "stuff" and as simple as possible, one of my goals is to clean out my garage and that means actually opening boxes and boxes of photographs to sort through them to either throw away or put in flood safe containers.  There are boxes of photos that I've moved from one place to another without opening the box.  When it's moving time, it's easier that way.  Also, I've inherited several boxes of photographs that belonged to my grandparents that I have yet to open. My garage flooded a few months ago and ruined everything that was on the ground.  I know that cardboard boxes are the worst way to store things so I made a point to start opening the ones that were on a shelf to go through each box and sort through everything to either discard, keep or save to send to a family member.  This is not an easy task!  I spent the entire day going through photographs, cards, letters and old papers.  I think I made it through 3 ...

Nothing quite moves me the way that photography does.  This past Saturday I went to the LA Photo show for the day and it was and experience I won't soon forget.  As soon as I walked in, I felt like a kid in a candy store. So many beautiful photographs from today and throughout history.  Life shown on every inch of space on the walls of the Santa Monica civic center. As if it were the last piece of cake, I wanted to savor every moment I was there.  I carefully visited every booth up and down the isles, not to miss anything.  At times, I went outside to take a break and let what I just saw absorb into my brain.  What I am drawn to is not necessarily what others would love. This is what I love about art.  There is something for everyone.  I especially love documentary photography and photographs that are personal to the photographer.  I think all photographs displayed are beautiful but there is something about capturing a moment in time that was...

You might have gathered that I like to take pictures.  I have a few cameras but the one I use most often is the one in my pocket, my iphone. I usually have it with me wherever I go and it's easy to snap, edit and upload online or email to a friend with just a few clicks.  I've used several apps on my iphone so I thought I would list my favorites along with some before (snapped with just my iphone camera) and after (edited on the phone with the application) shots to give you an idea of what you can do. This list are applications that I've used, but there are many more out there to play with.  If you are interested with one, click on the name and you can see more examples of what it can do, or to buy the application.  I am not affiliated with any of these programs, I just wanted to share some favorites so you can play with them to see what works for you and to have some fun! Did I miss a good one?  Let me know what your favorite is! 1.) Hipstamatic  - $1.99 T...