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.

The Lost Weeks

If you have been following my blog you will notice that there are a few weeks missing in this 52 Week Project.  After my Dad's death, the start of work and my new way of living, I've been figuring out how to juggle, order and prioritize all that there is to do.  I basically missed weeks 33 through 36.  Some of those weeks I did post to my flickr account and to the MCP Project 52.  Others I just didn't get to during that week's timeline presented by MCP Project 52.  Also, during that time, my computer died, the internet cut out and my cell phone was only working when it was plugged in.  I've been in a kind of technological Bermuda Triangle.  I think I've made it through Triangle with only a little bit of residue stuck to me.

So, here are the weeks that I missed:

Week 33 - Slow Down and Look Back

This was taken at a El Segundo Certified Farmers Market.  You have to slow down and look back to a time when things are just a littler simpler.  You stroll down the lane and peruse the wares of farmers and vendors of all kinds.  Enjoy as the musician and performers share their talent with all passers by.  Slow Down and look back. 

Week 34 - Connections

This was taken on from the Slauson Cut-off, what the Slauson exit was called back in the day.  This name comes from an old Johnny Carson routine where he played a character named Art Ferm, the Tea Time Movie announcer.   During one of the commercials, Art would give directions to a store as he points to a chart on an easel and says, "Take the 405 south to the Slauson Cut-off... "(wait for it...) "and get out and cut off your Slauson, "ba-dum-DUM"! (That's the sound of a rim shot).  I drive this on my way home from work.  This is a connection I make on my way home.  

Week 35 - Lazy

This is lazy because I didn't even get off of the ship when we pulled into port at the capital of Alaska.  This was a great cruise, I recommend it for everyone.  But I just didn't see the need to move out of bed or even get up.  No, this was not taken during week it was assigned but when I think of lazy and me, this is what I think about, getting up when I fell like it, eating when I feel like it and just hanging out until my friends get back from shore leave. 

Week 36 - Thirst for Knowledge

Who thirsted more for knowledge ("...my head I be scratching while my thoughts were busy hatching, if I only had a brain.") than the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz.  This book, along with two others were loaned to me.  These are the original copies that have been passed down from grandfather to great child.  Each generation enjoying the stories of L. Frank Baum as they were originally written.  These books had the same effect on the then turn of the 20th Century as did J. K. Rowling had on the turn of the 21st Century. 

Week 37 - Momentous Moments and Week 39 - Man vs. Nature, I have not taken yet.  I will post them as soon as I'm able.  Week 38 - The Eyes Have It was posted, as you can see.

Week 38 of 52

It has been a few weeks since I have written a post.  It has been a while since I've taken a photograph.  I've been taking photos, but have had some technical issues.  My camera is working but I've not been carrying it around because it has added a bit o weight to my purse.  So I've been taking photos with my iPhone.  My issues have been no internet access from home, no computer and an iPhone that need to be plugged in constantly to work.  So, I've been cut off from the internet.

This week's MCP Project 52 theme was 'The Eyes Have It'.  Well here are the eyes of the sweet potatoes that have their eyes on me as I shop for veggies.  My theme this year is structure.  This is the structure of shopping for weekly groceries, sweet potatoes are the staples for many meals therefore being a part of a foundations which is a sort of structure.

I took this with my new iPhone.  It's the 3Gs, the second version, not the newest one.  I had the original, 3G, so this is an upgrade for me.  Hope you like it.  I will catch you all up on the other photos I've taken some time this week.  I  now have a new computer and internet access.  I'm almost back up to speed.

Week 32 of 52

I cannot believe that 32 weeks of this project have gone by. As cliche as it sound, it really does seems like I just stated this project. I guess is like they say, "the older you get to quicker time passes." In the TED Talk video by Matt Cutts, at the top of my blog page, he shares his insights regarding his Try Something New for 30 Days project. At the end of his little talk, he says that because of these projects, each months was more memorable. The months did not just pass him by without recognition. He remembers each one of the months and what he tried during that month. It made him feel energized and accomplished.

This year, 2011, I decided to I would try something I have always enjoyed and make it a focus for a year, the Photography 52 Project. I made this decision because it had been almost a full year after my mother passed on. I was feeling an end to my mourning, and that I could do a little more for myself. My dad's health condition did not require as much from me as did my mom's. So, I thought I do enjoy having to shoot a photo a week and I hope that I am getting better. The wind has been knocked out of my sails with the passing of my dad last month. So I will begin to emotionally rebuild again. Focusing on something creative will help. I will continue to move forward. I do posses the love and spirit of my parents that will also support me in this effort as they did when they were physically here.

This weeks MCP 52 Project theme is My Favorite Time of the Day. For me, that would be any time I can drive without traffic. For me that is almost meditative to just drive with nothing but the open road, freeway, highway ahead of you and at a nice steady speed. Because this is Southern California, any where along the 405 Freeway you get off you are only a few miles away from the coastline. Just beautiful! My theme is Structure. Here in So. Cal. driving is like breathing so it is a structure of life. Enjoy your days as they pass. Do something that you like and build it into the structure of your life.

Week 31 of 52

The MCP Project 52 theme this week is the sky. This entire week the sky has been either overcast or clear, not a cloud in it. So I decided to shoot the clear blue sky through a sculpture in Culver City along side Ballona Creek. I've always liked this piece and this weeks theme gave me an excuse to shoot it. My theme this year, Structure again is obvious. Ballona Creek has a bike path that is a very nice ride to Marina del Rey.