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Lovely people, Day of Decision, and Olvera Street
July 3rd, 2009
Excuse the terrible scan, I was too lazy to rescan this frame. Went to A&I to get the roll of Porta 160 NC featured in the last post developed. They instituted a $20 minimum. :|
Graduation time at my college. I didn't attend any of the actual ceremonies, but was on campus when everything was being set up.
Random self portrait using my boa's cage. Came out interesting, was simply curious what it'd look like.
My mural on my wall.
My cousin was in her school's dance team, which had a performance at my college. They had a mini red carpet thing outside the doors to the theater, with members of the dance team parodying crazed fan girls. I think I was the only one that made a photo of them. Love the expressions (and the eye contact).
At Union Station. We were going to try and see this exhibit thing for a film my Mom's friend worked on. The wait was way too long...
...so we had lunch at Olvera St. instead (after spending close to an hour trying to find parking).
In a backyard.
Her backyard:
Frontyard
Found myself at a lovely house with lovely people.
Made my summicron flair.
Spilt candle.
Doorway.
And, now, Day of Decision coverage. (Day CA supreme court ruled to uphold prop 8, stating marriage is only between a man and a woman... for anyone that doesn't/didn't know). People met up in west hollywood earlier in the day. They then marched from weho to hollywood and highland. I made the decision to go too late and I didn't want to try and find parking over in weho so I just took the subway to hollywood and highland, which is where I was assuming a lot of "action" would be.
I took a stroll down highland because I was early, still.
Every corner had at least 3 cop cars at it. This is the first I encountered. Were at least 10 cops in a lil meeting.
Smiling protesters.
Zombie protesters?
I guess I'll just post everything. To show that I'm not perfect and I make mistakes and yea..
Damn tv cameras and their little headlights messin' up my exposure.
This is Sister Unity. Makeup looks infinitely better in color and in person.
Some more sisters.
Her name is Sister Mary Fucking Poppins.
Horsies! (and a dinosaur, and mcdonalds..)
Hey, it reads correctly this time around.
I'm not sure I understand the pose. Is it supposed to be more intimidating when you hold your belt?
Sister's passed out "weapons of free speech" (chalk).
I want this frame mural sized.
I quite enjoy this frame.
The marchers arrive! (again, stupid tv cameras overexposing the person's face. :|)
Attached to a shopping cart were speakers. She was leading a chant: "I said what do we want? Equal rights! When do we want it? Now!"
Never heard her stop. I applaud her stamina.
Lt. Dan Choi. I was too busy trying to frame the lady holding up her hands in the shape of a heart to pay attention to what part of Dan Choi I captured. Would have preferred to see more of his face, but oh well. Live and learn..
That's quite a bit of people.
Ran down to the street again once I saw that people were beginning to move.
I marched with them for a little, just so I can say I was part of the actual march. But I turned around after a little bit so I could catch the subway home.
Buying my ticket I discovered that the terminals are powered by Windows 2000.
Here you can see my ridiculous hair (grows way too fast).
At the grove. Inspired by a HCB shot. I'll just flat out say my rendition sucks and I'll have to try again.
With a lovely lady.
Talking animatedly about... (I'll give you a quarter if you guess correctly).
Empty street.
Farmer's market. I keep surprising myself when people don't notice I've taken their photo.
This lady did look at me, but she looked away a moment later. (the fiber print of this frame looks infinitely better, i underexposed the shot by like 3 stops, but was able to print it well, scan just sucks).
Hip shot that's terrible. She transfixed me but I was a coward and didn't do her justice.
In step.
My cousin was here from Sacramento for like <1 hour.
Replacing the switch in the bathroom. It sparked a couple times because my mom didn't turn off the power.
Photos of black cats don't work! At least, somewhat candid, non-posed or lit shots don't. I still take them. =/
When there's a ladder out, he loves to sit atop it.
He somehow managed to get up inside the closet.
Candlelight.
Oh, hey, it's Brian Aubert (of the Silversun Pickups).
Ran into him at a listening party for the release of Sonic Youth's new album (which is amazing, btw). Coincidentally, I was listening to them when I drove there. There being Origami Vinyl in Echo Park.
I took this at f/1.4. It's horribly overexposed, but I was able to recover it in PS as well as make a very nice print of it.
I took one at a smaller aperture once I realized my mistake, but I like the first one I took much more.
Then I had a picture taken with him.
Found my first dead bird on the street. I've seen them in many other people's photo blogs but never encountered one myself, until now.
Overgrown squash plants.
Teddy and Scamper.
We (well, my mom per my suggestion) made tofu lasagna. The tofu was pressed (to get rid of water) then marinated in spaghetti sauce. It was delicious.
The tofu's under all that, I swear. :p
This wasn't when I showed her Dustin Lance Black's naughty pictures, but let's just say it is.
I honestly have no clue why I took this frame.
I thought this was hilarious. The text on the back of the van says, "Esteban! Thanks God 4 Ur Graduation!"
Thought the light was cool.
Sunset. Really underexposed it (with regards to what I wanted it to look like) but I like the look of this.
Her eye was red, so she was inspecting it. I'll leave it at that.
Scamper!
And I got a haircut. This time really short.
Attempted to split my reflection up. Didn't quite work.
I should stop taking self portraits.
Sheku (art store guy in love with my leica) took this.
And, Sheku himself:
This cafe had a nice feel to it.
(and the caramel macchiato I bought was perfect)
Oh. MJ died.
Cops are assholes.
On the way to the lovely house to spend time with lovely people again I encountered a Delorean.
Even had its own flux capacitor.
Party was for her 18th birthday. She's, uh, actually not in this shot.
Sister took this one. I think she said she wanted to focus on the two in the back.
Chillaxin
Parasol
Wine and nice conversation.
Asparagus doused in olive oil and sprinkled with lemon.
It was amazing.
Birdy.
Table.
Preparing a platter full of treats (including chocolate éclairs to die for).
The award for best dressed goes to...
Outside.
I may or may not have an obsession with taking pictures of people while they're eating.
Beer pong without the beer and with raspberries and blackberries instead.
Inspecting our present.
It's a bunny.
(the bunny was not harmed)
Mother and daughter.
Last self I promise!
We ended up in the kitchen and began digging into this grapefruit ice thing. It was so good.
Ok, I lied.
Shit on my car's windshield.
Probably would have looked infinitely better in color. I did take almost 2 rolls of color film at the place where I was heading (college of the canyons).
Olvera street again.
An old fire station.
My shoes.
Really wish I hadn't underexposed this one :(
Food was delicious.
Her eyes were striking.
Unused space.
I really don't like how HP5 scans. I know I can print all of the above (olvera st. shots) just fine, but the scans look horrible. =/
Had to do it...
Unintended, but I like it.
And, I'll end this (think this is my longest post to date [149 photos]) with the first portrait I've taken of someone in a subway that I'm ok with.
Good night.
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An art show and a roll of color.
June 18th, 2009
Annual art show at school. There was a whole room of little sculpture things made like this. I liked this one the most so I made a photo of it. Possibly inspired by the upcoming movie, but everything was based on children's stories.
My mural print hanging in the reject show.
Bed.
I've been wanting to take a picture of this sign for a while now. I finally got it. When I was driving past it the other way it was too close and I couldn't get it. But on the other side of the street it worked perfectly!
Cat, sleeping. They do that a lot.
Back at the art show. I went back through the gallery 3 times I think, showing it off to different people. This time I ran into Libby Gerber, a CSUN graduate student. She was watering her piece, which I thought was the most amazing thing.
I bought two rolls of Portra 160 NC because I loved the way it looks.
Home.
Home, also. I liked how the light reflected from the house to the street. Didn't make for that interested of an image, but I had to make it anyway, just to see what it would look like!
One of the last class meets for my photography class. Friend looking at one of my pieces. This larger one I do quite like.
These smaller two, not so much..
Really close crop. (yes, i cropped something :|) Thought this was cool and didn't find out until later that I know the person that did it! Her name is Niku. It's called invisibox. I'd love to see more things done like this on our campus or anywhere really. Electricity boxes or whatever looks so bland being painted a solid color.
160 speed film holds up really well to being cropped!
We spent like 4 hours at this boba place, discussing screenplays, photography and other things that I can't recall. I underexposed this, I think. The colors are cool, though.
This lady was there for like an hour. I really don't know why the person she was talking to didn't just come out around and talk to her, it's not like it was busy..
We finally left.
Back home. I really want to print this one.
Scamper, grass, garden hose, tree shadow, leaves.
Tree, sun, sky, power line.
Really want to print this one as well.
This one didn't turn out as well as I had wanted.
These are boring.
Chair with cat.
This is my final project for my 2D design class. Wanted to document it being worked on at some stage. Over on the right the large spill was still drying (you can see the pool of paint below).
Backyard. These squash plants appeared out of nowhere, no one planted them! There's also tomatoes over on the other side that came up. We think the squash are pumpkins. But there's also another plant mixed in there as well.
My room.
Me.
CSUN Parking Lot.
Fatburger.
More squash.
Scamper.
So many more images to post in queue, but this'll be all for now. Hope you enjoyed reading and viewing them. :)
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Short, maybe
May 19th, 2009
I made a mural print this past semester for my photography class. Making the test strip
With the light on:
My professor made these half tubes for processing the print. A lot more economical than having a rectangular box with a ton of chemical in it.
And the print!
Took about 2 hours from start to finish to make it. Had two friends helping me in there. We went for sushi after.
That's frame #2000. 2000 shots since I got my M6 about a year ago. Definitely doesn't feel like it's been a whole year already.
She took this one:
Tried recovering it the best I could in PS, tried to keep the pretty bokeh from the christmas lights still visible. :p
Mom shredding old documents.
Locks.
Self. These types of mirrors always intrigue me.
Wall, paint, cat, burrito, laptop, bag, blanket, bear, glasses, bracelets.
Mom with Scamper, our new cocker spaniel. Adorable, isn't he?
In class the day we presented our murals. Professor on the left.
Friend's that I helped make a few days earlier.
My bed. I think this was a 1s exposure, was bored and wanted to see if I could get it sharp.
Art opening for a friend. These lovely ladies played music and sang.
And she took a metric ton of photos.
She was cross stitching.
The marble sculpture in the foreground here was/is amazing. The one in the background was pretty cool, as well. There was a thing you could look through in his crotch to see the queen.
Family and mom's friend went to Solvang for the day for her birthday. I suppose it was still a little early?
Trying Æbleskiver. It was quite good.
The burger with no real meat in it wasn't particularly good. It was also green.
Another one of those mirrors.
Cuckoo clocks. So many different kinds. And all fairly expensive. :p
In front of The Little Mermaid replica statue. It was much smaller than I was expecting. I want to see the one in Copenhagen now.
And, for whatever reason, there's an ostrich farm right outside of Solvang. We stopped by and my Mom got to feed them.
They're quite ugly.
Smug ostrich is smug.
But I suppose they can make for pretty landscape-ish shots as well. Fiber print I made of this looks very good if I dare say.
Using my enlarger's baseboard for painting.
Stinky.
Teddy. He's grown so much since I took this.
Easter. My grandmother always wraps up huge cardboard easter eggs with candy inside. Its always done so nicely.
There goes Teddy! (and, of course, we're watching the food network)
Outside searching for eggs.
Mom taking pictures with my 30D.
:)
That makes 43 images. Hope you enjoyed seeing them.
