Week 46 of 52

I love the colors of fall.  In Southern California we don't get to see the changes of the seasons as clearly as other parts of the country.  Southern California is in a Mediterranean Biome, named so for it's similarity to the climate around the Mediterranean.  Our weather is fairly constant.  If it were not for temperature changes, rain and the calendar, you may not know a season has changed.

This shot was taken on one street, in the span of one block as you drive through a quite West Los Angeles neighborhood.  You turn the corner to see the full colors of fall.  If it weren't for the Pumpkin Patches with pumpkins, bales of hay, pony rides and petting zoos to mark the change, we might not know.  This is Hollywood after all, and we see the faux fall in every window dressing, mall and convence store, to remind California Transplants of home.  Us natives some times forget that these colors are naturally occurring.  Seeing the fall colors appear a few miles from the beach is wonderful and over the top.

Over the Top, is the theme for Week 46 of the MCP 52 Project.  Because this is such a rare sighting I just take it all in.  I surveyed the range of colors and shades provided by the leaves, grass, and trees.  I felt the cold crisp air on my skin and smelled of moisture that hung in the air.  In my mind, I heard the lyrics from the Van Morrison song, Moon Dance, "the leaves on the trees are falling to the sound of the breezes that blow".  It makes this shot and the others I took of this Autumn Apparition a fantasy of colors and a reminder of places far from this little block.  The Structure, which is the theme I chose for this years 52 Project, is the structure of the seasons.  The cycle of "Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall", another lyric, from the song writing by Carole King and made popular by James Taylor, You Got a Friend, is what the seasons are about, even if the changes are subtile.  I hope you like my photos. And I hope you enjoy the Fall season as much as I do.

Week 45 of 52

In the weeks that I've participated in this 52 Project, I have rarely had a complete lose of ideas of what to shoot.  So, this weeks theme, Book Title, from MCP Project 52 would seem to easy as pie.  That reason being, along with this project, I've also set a goal of reading 25 books for the year 2011.  Yes I did that.  I consider myself the functioning illiterate because compared to my friends and colleagues, I read very litte.  So, for some one who is a self proclaimed non reader, 25 this is a large number.  I credit setting this goad and accepting the challenge to the three weeks of rest I get during Winter break.  Like I say, when I'm rested I can move mountains.  So, of course I think I can read 25 book in 365 days.  But I digress.

Book Titles, for the rational mentioned above, should have been easy to come to mind and easy to shoot.  But because I had shot books in earlier photos I didn't want to repeat the same kind of photo.  I thought of other vignettes that would comprise the title of a book, like an eating competition for the Hunger Games, or a wizard, a wand and a stone, for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone or Philosopher's Stone, depending on which side of the pond you read the book.

Trivia Alert! ** Trivia Alert!

When the book was first published in England, the Brits thought that Americans might not be familiar enough with the term, Philosopher's Stone to keep the same title.  They change the title of the book from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  The movie was released in the United Kingdom under it's original title. 

What came to mind is Dan Brown's Angels and Demons.  Wow!  That shot is ready made for me.  There is a bar on Venice Blvd., of which I have passed many times, names Saints and Sinners that has the best sign on the outside.  I wouldn't have to set up a shot or collect items or individuals to make the shot work.  Just get the best lighting I can find, early morning light and shoot away.  Early Thursday morning, I head down Venice Blvd to try and find this saloon.  After two passes and several inquires, I realize, it no longer exists.

With the end of Daylight Savings time, I have only early morning light, because by the time I leave work, there is very little if any daylight worth using.  This past Friday evening I was facing cumulative fatigue, a condition I have termed and self diagnosed, that comes at the end of long week of work.  The symptoms are cloudy thoughts, inability to hold items in you working memory and an overwhelming need to get home, among other things.  Being under the influence of this condition, I forgot about my assignment, until I got home and realized I have been listening to an audiobook.  I was able to see the light bulb through the cloudy thoughts of the CF (cumulative fatigue) and grab a snap shot of the my iPod and the book title I was listening to.

This week you have to photos.  Mine is the large one of my iPod and the book title on it, and the sign that I missed.  The one that got away so to speak.  I hope you enjoy the story, the photos and the time inside my muses.  Please check out my other photos on my flickr site and enjoy your week.

Week 44 of 52

Muted Tones is the theme that MCP Project selected for week 44 of this Project 52.  Well I was perplexed.  Muted Tones... what is that?  I looked a some of the submissions and they didn't inspire me.  The images were either altered or enhanced.  I've nothing wrong with that, it is just that I don't know how to do that and don't have time to learn - at least not for this week.  What to use for a subject?  Where to take it?  What kind of lighting is needed for muted tones?  Again, more questions than I have answers for.

This photo, along with the others I took, were taken while in traffic.  I was on my way to the valley, San Fernando and got stuck in traffic.  I was stuck on the Sepulveda Pass in rush hour... for 2 hours I might add.  For those of you who don't know, Sepulveda runs parallel to the 405 freeway.  If you remember, the 405 is under major construction, remember Carmageddon?  So I whipped out my camera and started shooting.  There was building in varying degrees of completion.  The sun was beginning to set, most of the items were in shadow. and daylight was starting to fade.  I noticed this for the first time that most of the items in the construction site are very monochromatic.  In that light, the tones were mostly muted.  This is the one I submitted to the MCP Project.  If you want to see others from this shoot, check out my flickr site.

Structure is my theme for this year, and even though I have not mentioned it in a while.  Structure is obvious on this construction sites.  These are the pictures of the foundation of a freeway, which is a hugh structure in the life of Los Angeles.

Week 43 of 52

This week's theme is Shadows.  Shadows in the summer are easy to find.  Sun light, my lighting of choice, is everywhere.  The days are longer and there are many opportunities to find and create shadows.  There is a laziness to Summer that seems to allow one to watch shadows ebb and flow.  With autumn in full swing, and intermittent Indian Summer Days, the chances for finding interesting shadows are few and far between. You can pick up shadows from artificial light but I wasn't in the place of the most potential, to quote Dewitt Jones, Professional Photographer and Motivational Speaker.  Again, What's a girl to do?

With this project I was trying to stretch my creative self, get out of my rut and grow as an individual.  I did not want to shoot the mundane or the tired common photos.  Again, on the last day of the assignment, I realized that it is the photographer who has to look at a scene and see the next right answer, another quote from Dewitt Jones.  So, as the sun was setting on the last day of the assignment,  I headed the opposite direction of my home after a very long work week, to catch the shadows of the setting sun.  I didn't want just the sunset, although spectacular as it was, I wanted to look at that glorious color filled sunset and and see wondrous shadows.

As I began to shoot the sunset from Palisades Park in Santa Monica, CA, I decided to shoot in black and white, something I rarely do.  The picture you see is a result of that.  I have not liked my digital black and white photos.  I believe I have been comparing them to my film photos and miss the grays that I would see in the photos taken with film.  But by choosing to look at the sunset differently, devoid of it interpretive dance of colors, I saw a different kind of shadow, a sunset shadow.  I don't believe I could have captured this photo without shooting in black and white.  Enjoy your sunset and the beauty they hold.

Week 42 0f 52

True Beauty.  What is that?  That was the assignment for Week 42 of the MCP Project.  As I viewed some of the other entries to stimulate my creative juices, I saw photos of children from toddlers to teens, couples, puppies, kittens, sunsets...  all very Hallmark greeting card.  There is nothing wrong with that.  I was not the that sort of mood.  I had no idea of what to shoot, I just knew that  staging children, the ones cute enough to shoot, or animals was way too difficult for me to create a good photo.  So those subjects were out.  I felt I was too busy to even see beauty, let alone think of, find, and or shoot True Beauty.   I asked myself what is true beauty to me?  The phrase, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." came to mind when thinking of True Beauty.

TRIVIA ALEART!  

The phrase, or one with the similar sentiment, first appeared in Greece in the 3rd century BC.  It has become popularity from Shakespeare's play Love's Labour Lost, 1588.

Sitting at my desk these are the thoughts that run through my mind.  This is another deadline I have to mee.  I thing that my search for True Beauty and the appreciation of it is hard when I was so busy and distracted by my work-a-day world to see it.  My thoughts, again on the last day of the assignment, was to photograph eyes, beauty is in the eye...  So, whose eyes to shoot?  And I did photograph my own with little success.  So, that left the rest of the world.  Not many strangers would allow you to shoot them in the face even if it is a camera you are using.  That is when I saw some of my co-workers on their break and I asked permission to photograph them.  As I called them into my office I explained what I was doing and why. All of them obliged.  I work with great people!  This is the one eye I chose to submit to the MCP Project group.  The others are on my flickr site it you'd like to check them out.

What this has showed me is that you can find beauty any where if you just slow down and look for it.  It was a beautiful thing for my co-workers to share a potion of themselves and their time with me for this project.  That's what is so beautiful, and I captured it in those photos.

Week 41 of 52

Week 41 was Architecture.  I love architecture.  Looking, photographing and admiring at it.   Some of my favorite styles are Arts and Crafts, buildings and furniture, Art Deco, Gothic, Mission Revival, Tuscan, Tudor to name a few.   I have taken many picture of architecture since January but the rule of this game MCP Project 52, is take a photo within the week of the assignment.  So, I had to find something to shoot.  That week, October 8 to 14, was one of my busiest.  The 11th was Back-to-School Night.  The 12th was a CUE LA (Computer Using Educators, Los Angeles) Board meeting.  The 13th was an AALA (Associated Administrators of Los Angeles) Representatives meeting.  All of these meeting were after work beginning as early as 4:30 p.m. and ending as late as 8:30 p.m.  During work hours I was attending at least three all day meetings.  And night of the 14th, I went to celebratory dinner with a friend who received a promotion.  This is why I'm tired.

I had to take my picture before midnight of the 15th. Finding the time was hard being in meetings or at functions for much of the day.  The other hindrance was the daylight.  The amount of daylight is diminishing these days.  So I am carrying around my camera like a photo journalist, as I drive to my various meeting locations throughout the city, looking for interesting architectural moments.  Well as I was leaving my Thursday night meeting I realized that the Angelus Temple was across the street.  To the best of my recollection, the Angelus Temple has columns and I sure some type of Greco-Roman style building.

I was right there are columns but the style is not Greco-Roman.  It is concerned a Modern Architecture Building.  What is Modern Architecture?  I asked the same question.  The simplest answer I found was this, "Included in Modern Architecture are a cross-section of different kinds of Modern architectural structures and this list includes most prominent buildings in the Modern architecture style." The link to that definition will also show you samples of various structures in that style.

The Angelus Temple is dedicated on January 1, 1923 as megachurch with a seating capacity of 5,300 people which was filled three times day, seven days a week.  The visionary and founder of this church and new Christian Denomination, International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, was Aimee Semple McPherson.  There are many wonderful and sandalis things surround her life and the Angules Temple. Too many to recount here.  Please follow the links.  This is an interesting story about a women around the turn of the last century.  A time when women's rights were limited and few.

So, now that you've had a brief history lesson of the a small portion of Los Angeles.  I hope you enjoy my photo, the story of how I chose to take it and the story behind the object of the photo.  Happy viewing and  looking for the new perspective.

Week 40 of 52

This week brings the theme A Taste of Vintage.  Wine was the first thought, but that was too obvious.  The other reason I didn't choose wine is because I've taken a lot of photos of alcoholic beverages.  I don't want to give the impression that I was a heavy drinker.  I do belong to a wine club that send bottles to me every other month so it would not be hard to do, just trite.  Gainey Winery in the Santa Inez Valley is where I have my membership.  I love the Santa Inez Valley.  I digress...

I thought I would visit a prop lot (a lot where props for stage and film are kept) in West Hollywood and see what vintage I could find.  So, I got up on Sunday morning and headed for the prop lot.  I love the morning light, and this was a good day for it.  I love Sunday mornings because it is quite and fewer people are out and about.  I did run into a few homeless leaving the sleeping place for their morning place.

When I arrive, the lot is still closed but the items behind the bars peeped through at who ever passed by and silently winked to be noticed.  As I looked at them through the fence there were cramped and in each others way.  I snapped a few photos of the items of vintage could reach through the tight space.  But I still felt there was more to be taken in this compact lot.  I looked and looked and was not satisfied.  I looked up and there he was, towering above everything was a god.  Neptune to the Romans and Poseidon to the Greeks, the god of the sea was standing above everything with spear in hand battling one the might sea creatures.  Can you say old?  Or is it vintage?

I took a few other photos as I said and if you'd like to see them you can at my flickr site.  Let me know what you think.