Jeannie and Lia! We love you!

Jeannie and Lia are visiting from Ohio. They are so much fun. Activities so far (and only on day 2): The Getty, Venice, Eagle Rock/Topanga, Westwood & UCLA, swimming, eating and lots of laughs. Here's a snap!

Fireworks!

Tonight Joe and I went with our awesome friends Gina, Bella & Ian to the fireworks in Pacific Palisades (while Gilbert was safely recovering from leg surgery, though he was sorely missed). It was fantastic. Here's my first try at photographing fireworks. I can't wait to try again!

The F16 Rule in Photography

Well, I've been busy...as you can tell, I didn't post the whole month of June. For my photography program, I'm shooting lots of film, which I LOVE. It's a lot of fun to wait and then bring the roll in and when you pick up, WOW! That's magic. Another magical thing I've been doing lately is working in the darkroom. Watching the images emerge in the liquid is something poets have written about and now I finally understand. Anyway, back to the title of today's post, I've been learning a rule in photography called the F16 rule. Using this, I was able to look at the light around me and then determine from there what the exposure should be. These are my first pictures NOT taken in automatic, but full on manual mode.

Phanfare - even more photos

Don't forget to visit my Phanfare page. I'm always looking for models, let me know when you and yours are up to something cool - I'll fly right over! ; )

http://albums.phanfare.com/1177712/2009/

Imaddonnari - "The Street Painters"

Over ten years ago when I first moved to California, I happened upon this amazing annual event in Santa Barbara on Memorial Day. I barely knew Santa Barbara, barely knew how crazy SoCal traffic is (as it was today) and had barely started out as a teacher. Now it's 2009 and I revisited this beautiful gathering with camera in hand and a mission - get some fun pictures for my blog. Santa Barbara's grown, the traffic hasn't changed and I'm about to enjoy a wonderful summer off from teaching - to pursue photography!!! Anyway, the artists are absolutely amazing, here are a few of my favorites!

On the set of MASH

Today was fun, we went hiking in Malibu Creek Canyon Park, which is where every episode of the TV show mash was filmed. It was weird, being out there (it's 5 miles from any road, really) and thinking how they'd filmed the entire series out there. Does is look like the MASH set to you?

Breakfast for Dinner

A happy accident. One of my photo assignments was to mess around with the White Balance settings in my camera. I was planning a great candlelight shoot with flowers and stuff, but I forgot my wallet at home when I went to the store - 10 minutes before closing time. Sooooo....what'd we have at home? Niman Bacon and local ranch eggs. Anyway, this is my gourmet Friday night dinner.