Photographer, Jeremy Cowart, was in New York for a gig. He is a great photographer. But Street Photography is not his normal type of photography. …
This evening he was trying Street Photography, and using Periscope. You can watch him as he learns how to approach people on the street. All the while he is teaching us about some other aspects of photography.
Where do most of my Facebook profile images come from?
Self portraits, 🙂 Yes. We all do them. …
Often, I have to be somewhere other than at my computer working, and other than shooting elsewhere. … Just waiting, waiting for anything, Godot, an appointment. … Whatever.
So I grab my little iPhone, and shoot a few images at arms distance, and then I play. I have almost 120 iPhone applications that are dedicated to image manipulation, after the shoot editing. It is a kind of digital playground. …
After I play with all the tools on the iPhone, quite often I find a way to use a semblance of the effects on my real images.
This past Thursday evening, Alexander Salazar Fine Art brought Walter Redondo, and his art to the Zanzibar Cafe. The art remains on the walls. … Pop on down for a cup-o’-Joe and a bite to eat, while you check out Walter’s art. You will have a good evening in the San Diego Gaslamp district.
The evening was filled with snacks, a little wine, and many interesting people. Walter brought his family. They were wonderfully happy, taking it all in.
We all know that we are pretty good at whatever we do as a chosen craft, work, something we enjoy doing. And, we have come to expect the occasional rose from friends. The old Atta-boy, pat-on-the-back, kinds of roses that make us feel good. Then there are the special roses that come from nowhere you thought of.
Several times a day, almost every day, I go out front with my nextdoor neighbor. We are out there in the morning, drinking coffee, shooting the shit, letting Gypsy run around. Other neighbors walk by, two mothers pushing the quad-kid stroller on their power walks; people out getting their exercise; the Asian couple that keeps the old custom of her walking behind him. … I don’t get that one, but they are happy. … And, many people from the greater neighborhood walking their dogs.
I always ask whether Gypsy and their dogs can say, “Hi.” … Dogs like to say hello to their friends too.
One of the walkers of dogs, a man who stops and lets the dogs play, and spends time chatting with us, was driving by yesterday.
Yesterday, as he was driving by, he stopped, and made a point out of telling me, out of the blue, that he had accidentally found my blog, this blog, online. And he was totally surprised at the works contained here. And, that he was now a fan! …
One day, in 2005, we went for a ride. It was a very windy day.
The friend, Jeffrey Eiche, and another friend, Barry Bunker, made this image possible. Jeffrey wanted an image something like this, and Barry, helped the wind blow.
Me? I drove. We started in San Diego, and wandered east on Interstate 8, to the Sunrise Highway. We followed that north through Julien, Santa Ysabel, and onward, up the east side of Mount Palomar.
That is where this image was shot, the east side of Mount Palomar overlooking Lake Henshaw.
The wind was blowing way to many miles per hour to wear a hat. … 😉
This is the third, Graphite Social,” hosted by the Museum of The Living Artist, 1434 El Prado, San Diego, CA 92101, 619-236-0011. This is a 21+ fund-raiser to benefit SDAI, Museum of the Living Artist.
Their FaceBook link is, The Graphite Social
When taking photos, some people judge what they see as unattractive. … I say,
“Quit judging your ephemeral beauty in todays images on your imaginary vision of your yesterdays image. Instead, look at the image of todays moment, and use todays image as a pointer to tomorrow. … To any image taken today, your five years into tomorrows self will always say, “See. Why can you not capture me like that guy did five years ago? I was beautiful then.”
The desert is an amazing place when it is still. When it is still, you can peer through the mists of time.
This is a very specific example of time travel. Here, at these very rocks, for millennia congregated Native Americans. In ancient times, it was the place to be. People sat here, and talked, smoked, exchanged goods, maybe they even made political alinements, weddings. … We can never be really sure what happened here generally.
But, we can be one hundred percent positive that man gathered here, and they wrote on the rocks.
Our archeologists, and scientists, have analyzed the symbols, and decided that they stand for many things. … But, what those symbols really stood for in the minds of the people who spent their time at the rocks, etching the symbols that have stood in this desert for a very long time, That we have no way of knowing.
One other thing we can know. … We can know the majesty of a sunset at these rocks, especially when you share that time with friends.
What a pleasant surprise when I was asked by Mrs. Martinez to shoot her family in Balboa Park. And then there were problems with the scheduling. … I thought it may never come to pass. But times change, schedules open, and the day was beautiful.
Three Mustache Club Friends, and a new friend whose name I do not recall in front of the gallery. Terence, Harley, our new friend, and Charlene. 😉
Last June, when Charlene was working as an apprentice at the Alexander Salazar Fineart Gallery, she started a closed Facebook group for a small set of friends. For the most part, the group consists of friends that like to don a mustachioed persona upon occasions for fun. … She invited me to join, even though I have a built in mustache.
Charlene still works once-in-awhile at the gallery, but she loves art, and comes to most openings. This opening, I cornered this small group of friends outside before they left. This is the result of that moment. 😉
I shot this yesterday evening. I am posting it right now because, this evening, February 04, 2012, at the Alexander Salazar Fineart Contemporary Exhibit space in La Jolla, Fred Briscoe will be in attendence.
You can meet him, and ask about his creative process concerning general information, or the particular pieces on display. He works in stone and various metals.
And, he is a very nice man.
(Addendum 20120206) By the way. I had met Fred a couple years ago when I was shooting for the San Diego Fine Arts Society’s creator, April Game. The San Diego Fine Arts Society has metamorphosed into artpulse, and April Game is the Executive Director.
This image takes place in an art gallery. The gallery is the Alexander Salazar Fine Art gallery, located on the corner of 7th Avenue and Broadway in San Diego.
Although the name is specific, the name is redundant. While looking at this image it is obviously the image of a beautiful woman in her element as she swims in the sea of averted gazes. The people of polite society look deep into her eyes as they speak with her, but everyone sees her. She is beautiful, the lady in red.
Good luck to the couple on their journey. May your lives entwine and be an amazing trip that is secure for all. And, I wish you both all the hapiness that could be possible between a woman and a man, for the rest of your lives.
Last weekend, I was invited to an event that was wonderful. The Black Label Table – Underground Supper Club had their second evening of fine foods, fine people, fine wines, and all in a place that is not a restaurant.
That was part of the ambience. It took place in a loft where the food was freshly prepared by two wonderful chefs with a penchant for the unique. The evenings meal was based on Momofüko in New York City. Living in San Diego makes Momofüko a little bit far to travel for a leisurly evenings meal. This was out of the park!
This image is only a representation of my favorite possession. As you can see, this image is of an unsharpened pencil. And, you may wonder, how can a pencil, nothing more than graphite bound in clay wrapped with wood, be a prized possession?
Where people are often told that the eyes are the windows to the soul, I can say that a pencil physically connects me to the time line of humanity. It connects me to the history of the ancients. Any stylus for imprinting information on a clay tablet could be used to transfer thoughts through the ages.
Even more important for me than the past that the pencil represents, is that the pencil represents my ability to speak to humanity far into the future.
With, or without, conscious thought, a pencil applied to a carrying medium can transport our thoughts forward through time. Today, I write these words. Tomorrow, I post these words. These words can be read through countless tomorrows for the entirety of mankind’s existence.
You, reading this now, may be a member of the iReport bootcamp, you may be reading this while I am still alive. Or you may be my curious great, great, great grand niece a hundred years from the time of this writing. Far enough into the future, you may live on another planet. If all who read this story look deep enough into your minds you may catch glimpses into that future, or that past, that this story is a part of.
I used a pencil, but I am a photographer, a videographer, why not use a camera, or video with sound to express this thought? I choose the pencil as a symbol. A pencil is common to most of humanity today, and its function can easily be recognized ten thousand years ago, or ten thousand years into tomorrow. Only the concept that the symbolic pencil represents is important.
I chose the unsharpened pencil because, even unsharpened, it is full of promise. And, like a mind full of promise, until the pencil is sharpened it is just a stick.
Our minds, when sharpened and conscientiously put to use with conscious thought, can transcend the mundanity of the mud we came from and move mankind to the stars of humanities tomorrow.
This image is one of my favorites of Ocean Beach. People are going about their business. There are five separate conversations going on, and when I look at the large image, I swear I can hear the voices. 😉
I am not really hearing the voices, but I can read the body language. A few are drinking a beer and watching the sun as it sets behind the ocean. The cops are talking to a whole group of skate boarders. A woman is walking alone, glancing at the setting sun. Some of these people will sleep here tonight.
Graffito is all over the world. The earliest forms are found on rocks, and in caves. All graffiti are put in their places by the hands of humans. What do they, the creators, see? What do they see when they spit colors across their hands placed on the wall of a cave when they move their hands away and see the void in the color where their hands were just moments ago? Do they look into the future and see the shadows of their descendants looking backwards through time, with the imagination to see into the eyes of the human creator? Do they exchange quantum moments of entanglement?
I hope so. It is what I see. It is what I strive for in my photos.
This was a wonderful evening. These boys had spent the evening dancing across the surface of the sea with the wind and the surf. They had sat on their boards, watching the horizon, looking for any wave that caught their eyes. It did not have to be the perfect wave, the moment was perfect sitting on the gently rolling swells, only occasionally speaking with each other.
Even now, as they leave the sea, walking beside each other, they spoke not a word. The rhythm of the surf breaking against the pilings of the pier, and the call of the gulls, was all that could be heard. The boys of the sun were on their way forward, leaving their love behind, to rejoin common man.
I love performers, performance art, musicians, artists. Jean is all the above as well as, an author, a teacher, and a composer.
I was so incredibly lucky to be able to work with Jean, through The Snapshots Foundation, for several days. In those days, I had the pleasure to watch Jean teach several Master Classes in a couple locations with beautiful Organs, and wonderful students. Watching him teach with as much passion as he performed was very warming, as you could see the admiration in the eyes of the students for the man, and in the eyes of the man, you could see his historical perspective as he worked with the future. It was amazing.
People collect interesting things. … I just love this man, sitting in his domain, among all the things he has chosen as having value.
The circumstances of each acquisition captures my imagination as I look at each item in this image. Where did he see this item first? When he picked it up, was there a little glint in his eye, or was it just a business question?
And I love the little “Antiques ->” sign with the arrow pointing at the man. And, I get a kick out of the little, “etc.” sign that sits above his head like a thought bubble in a comic book.
Ironwork has always fascinated me. Look at the concentration on this man. Although you cannot see his eyes, you can see that nothing else exists for him. … He is living in that point of electric arc that point of hot fusing metal. His entire body is focused on creation.
I love these shiny balls. Everyone of them is a locus of intellectuality. … In this image, the reflective ball captures, not only the world in a sphere, but the entire universe. In that miniature captured Universe, everything can be held in your hand. If you can hold it in your hand, you can perceive the reality of it.
Twenty-four hours from any now, every one of us could be homeless. The cause could be any of a thousand reasons, earthquake, bomb, oil pollution, whatever the reason, it is possible for every one of us to be faultless in our homelessness. In these unsettled times, the times of stress and financial hardship, people look for a way to make sense of their future. Will there be a roof over my head when I wake? Where will I live if there is not? Where will my next job be? Will there be a next job? In these times, some people turn to magic and faith because magic and faith explain the troubles by saying that it is the will of something greater than themselves.
In effect, those movements towards belief in a greater power, no matter what the power, absolve them of personal responsibility. It gives them a free pass in the world of reality. It does give comfort of a community, but no matter how many people believe, even if everyone believed simultaneously, the oil would still be gushing into the floor of the Gulf of Mexico.
We must use our brains, turn them on, instead of turning them off.
I wanted to invite all of my friends that could make it, down to fiesta island with their dogs so we could do a giant dog shoot. (I will set a date for that soon)
But, June 26, I will be shooting pets for Citibank customers at …
