And another...

Eggleston at the Whitney. Color, subjects, stunning!

Inspired.

Check out these Ray Mortenson photos from the Bronx. Eerie.

A Sign.

Ha. Check this blog. I stumbled upon it a few days ago and love it. Turns out that one of her projects is taking stranger danger photos. I take it as a sign. Time to take some photos of strangers....

thumbling

From plant to fruit. Left to right.

Damn it's hard to take a photo with your left hand!

Cloudy Day

Today was a great day for some cloud photos.

DumbThumbz

I focused more on shooting lighting then my dumb thumbs.














Righty


Lefty a Day before the servere storm.

Last night it stormed so hard here, It was like war of the worlds, lighting jumping from cloud to cloud without making a sound, illuminating the sky. I shot some pictures but nothing came out decent, I might post some later. We got hit with 90+ mph winds. This morning I went into work and the power was out for 3 or more blocks, traffic lights were out, big trees down, signs bent. The storm was off the dopplar chart.

Challenge - Thumbs Up

Take one photo of your right thumb,
and another photo of your left thumb in a different setting.
Post both photos by August 16th.

me myself and I

a little about me....
this is what I lug with me to work every day, on days off I only have sunglasses, wallet, phone and ipod.

This is all the contents I carry in my bag. From upper left to right, dry razor (in case I miss a spot), chap stick, Tylenol, hand sanitizer (I grease up before eating), meds (dam kidneys), dental gear (to keep my grill fresh and clean), multi-tool/knife (the juice, an odd name for a tool that doesn't juice), a flash light (for when I am digging around in spaghetti wires), highlighter (for the important stuff), head phone (h8 white ones), 80 gigs off music on my ipod, cell phone (s710a), wallet/money clip (warn in the front pocket), point and shoot camera (used more on vacation then in at home), compass, space pen, double edge sharpie, mechanical pencil, phone card, reeeeeccoooollla (I have this weird itch in my throat when I eat chocolate, it seems to control it), keys, sunglasses (a must in AZ), business cards that I never hand out, studio demo, sodium guide to restraunts (dam kidneys), and forever stamps, and jump drive (not seen, in use). Yeah, I have a lot of crap I carry around, but I try and prepare for most things.

Enjoy looking at my stuff all you lurkers. knowing is half the battle.

With me everyday.

This is her, isn't she a beauty? My new work bag. My radical vintage leather bag was threatening to fall apart, so here's my latest find from the used clothing store across the street.Here's what I carry with me everyday: my notebook, calendar, and camera. A juicy pen: why is there always either more than one or none at all. My wrist brace. Too cool I know. My boyfriends i-pod headphones for listening to music at work. Something to read: this week it's Good Magazine. Something I've picked up along my travels: this week it's a brochure from the Frida Kahlo exhibit. Something to eat. And, I'm ashamed to say, trash, usually receipts. My mother's purse that is a bottomless pit still haunts me, but try as I might, I always have a little bit of something that I really should have left behind.

Getting to know you.

This challenge isn't necessarily about photography. It's about you. I've been inspired by both Miranda July's Learning to Love you More book/website & Good magazine's projects... brilliant. My ideas won't be as brilliant, perhaps yours will mr. phatty albert, but for me they will just be ideas. Ideas that will help us get to know ourselves, and in turn, each other. And anyone else who wants to join in too....

So GETNOU #1: in the next week or so, take a photo of something you carry with you everyday more or less.

My Aroo Favs

Check out Aroo's other Blogs for more photos, etc.

Stranger Danger - Challange

Try shooting photos of people who you don't know, don't be afraid to ask or bribe them for steeling their soul with your camera. Take your time and ask them questions while you are shooting, this might help animate them, and clam your nerves (I always get nervous when shooting strangers). Or you can be really sneaky and try shooting them without the stranger knowing it. This challenge has no deadline.
Here are some samples that I shot around Huntington Beach.

More inspiration...

"A volunteer contributed to the massive effort to clean algae from the coastline of Qingdao, China. A recent algal bloom has encroached on areas which are to be used for Olympic sailing events. Photo: Nir Elias/Reuters" More photos here.

Challenge #3 - cityscape in smoke

06/23/08

06/25/08
06/26/08

06/28/08

Wow, I didn't realize this would be my greatest challenge yet--it was a week in which I wasn't very inspired by my day-to-day and I wanted to do something different than I've documented on my other blog...
The view from my office over a week that ended up documenting the clouds of smoke from the 1800 fires burning in CA. Most shots were taken as I was leaving the office around 5:30-6pm. I wish I had been a little bit more exacting about taking the shots--it would be interesting to revisit this in a few weeks, see how many windows go in in the buildings, see what it looks like on clear days. Also inspiring me to get a better camera...my old school digi isn't quite cutting it anymore.

Worm's eye view

taken literally by this gardener...
Kale forest!

Crab's eye view at China Beach

Pidgeon's eye view from bench on the Embarcadero!

Sunset Beach, Cali - Challenge #3

Day 1 - 5.25.08

Day 2- 5.26.08

Day 3- 5.27.08

Day 4- 5.28.08

Day 5- 5.29.08

Day 6- 5.30.08

Day 7- 5.31.08

When I shot these stills I thought that I would at least have a couple of shots with no one in the frame, but there is a person in every shot. I also was not expecting to the shot of all the kites in the distance and the seagulls. I though all the shots would look similar. I also noticed that on days 5 and 7 there are people crossing in the same spot about the same time. The lighting, time of day, clouds, sand tracks, position, distance are the different in each photo. See if you can spot the oil rig.

species - loa loa - complete

worm gets drunk

checks its mail

falls asleep on the train tracks

Challenge #03: change

First in a series of change challengry: take a photo in the same spot everyday for a week. What changes? What stays the same? Post em up by June 6th. Go!

Challenge #2 - Worm Eye

Imagine you are a worm in the city you live in. What would you see?
Post 3 photos of your best worm eye photos by June 1st. Use the timer on your camera if you need too, don't get squashed.

Challenge #1 - Completed

This photo was taken by Hiroshi Watanabe. The challenge was harder then I thought. I couldn't mimic some ones style in one photo, so I opted to mimic a photo. I also had Walker Evens in mind, but I wasn't able to climb high enough to get the vantage point I needed.
This photo was taken by me.