Hi! As you may have noticed, this blog is no longer called "Through My Eyes". This past Labor day weekend, I had a change of heart about how I'm going about this whole site. See, I'm currently operating 2 blogs. What was once "Through My Eyes", which was dedicated to random thoughts on events and happenings I've experienced via (digital) photography, and also "American Analog" which dealt mostly and primarily with the technical side of things pertaining to film photography. I felt too much was going on and both blogs pretty much were speaking about the same thing just different forms of it so having that second blog seemed pretty redundant. So I decided to work on just one blog but not just a photography blog. I'm taking a different approach with this blog. It'll still have alot of photography posts but I want to eventually incorporate some (personally) fresh aspects to it by way of other interests of mine like music, fashion and other varying art forms. With the decision finally made, I figure I might as well change the name of the place also and I went with a line from one of my favorite songs by Tracey Thorn called Grand Canyon. Basically she sings a verse or two about a man, but I suppose it could be applied to any person; male or female, that has dropped his past of...disappointment so to speak and comes to his own by being around people who understand and share the same views. The verse:
On Labor day Monday, there wasn't much to do. None of my friends were hosting any BBQs and I wanted to do something so I remembered that Target sponsors free admission to LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) during holiday weekends so I decided to make a day of it and brought along my trusty Canon 7D for some art, culture and people observing and boy do I love me some people observing!
One of the things I love about LA is that there's SO many things to do and alot of said things are very art and culture filled. I think LA has some of the best art options around. You've got 2 MOCA locations in Downtown LA. You've got 2 Getty locations, one in LA and one in Malibu. Then you've got LACMA which is arguably the biggest museum in the Los Angeles area to hold a nice collection of contemporary art, both permanent and borrowed, along with other varying art forms. Sometimes I visit the various museums we have on regular days and I do see a good amount of people visiting but it isn't until holidays where these museums are filled with people (weekends are also fairly crowded but not as much as holidays...)
A favorite moment of the day was when I came upon Rene Magritte's "The Treachery Of Images" and saw two women standing in front of the painting talking about it. Treachery Of Images is well known to being the painting of a pipe but really, it isn't a pipe which is a contradiction but when you think about it, Magritte's assertion is in deed true. One of my favorite pieces around (and as well one of my favorite Magritte works) because I learned about this work during my philosophy studies during high school and I remember quite vividly the day I studied the piece and had this "AHA! I see what you did there" moment. Anyway, having any person in front of that piece demands a photo and luckily I had two women. Any photo in these conditions is a play with/on Magritte's assertion behind the painting itself and thus you have a photograph of something that isn't a pipe and aren't women...
One of the things I don't like about art museums are their rules on photography when it comes to collections that are on loan which utterly sucks because well, loaned collections don't last long so who knows when the next time one will see it again! So no photos from the loaned collection from LACMA and they had some pretty cool ones going on right now such as Thomas Eakins' "Manly Pursuits" and Catherine Opie's photographic work "Figure And Landscape" which I absolutely LOVED! So for those of you reading who are in LA or will be visiting LA really soon, I recommend that you go to LACMA to see these collections before they're gone. As there are no photos from said loaned exhibits, I'll leave you with how I felt at the end of the day...
"Lock the past into a box and throw away the key
And leave behind those days of endless night
Everyone is waiting, everyone is here
Step out of the woods into the light"
The beat stops for a second, much like a buildup, and then she belts out the line:
And leave behind those days of endless night
Everyone is waiting, everyone is here
Step out of the woods into the light"
The beat stops for a second, much like a buildup, and then she belts out the line:
"Everybody loves you here"
So there you have it. Without further adieu, the first post of Everybody Loves You Here!
This past weekend was Labor Day weekend marking the final day of the Summer. It felt like the Summer went by pretty fast but that's partly because there wasn't much of Summer weather here in LA. The high temps really didn't hit the area until the latter part of the season and then suddenly we're hitting temperatures in the 80s. Anyway, me and a couple of good friends decided to hit up the annual LA County Fair on opening day Saturday the 4th to start off the weekend on a good note.
County fairs and carnivals are one of my favorite things to do. Other than the food, games and rides that are abound for one to enjoy, county fairs and carnivals are fantastic for photography. The last time I was at the fair was during the morning/early afternoon hours when the temperature was high in the 90s and Summer actually felt like Summer! This time around, I thought it might've been better to head out closer to sunset so it wouldn't be as hot (as the Pomona Fairplex is known to get insanely hot when the sun is out) and, more importantly, golden hour!
I've never shot the LA County Fair during this time of day and I really didn't take many photos during said hour. One reason being that upon entering the gates, we immediately went on the ferris wheel and right after that we went and sought food because we were hungry. The other reason being that the sun set pretty damn fast! Oh, there was also that whole line thing one goes through at such events. From the workable photos I was able to manage, I'd very much like to go back during golden hour and dedicate more time in shooting and plans are in the works to go back. Hall & Oates are supposed to perform sometime in September but sadly they perform on a Friday and I work Friday evenings. I'm a big Hall & Oates fan too...
With the golden hour gone, the option to shoot some nice carnival night photos was still available. I didn't bring my tripod with me on this day. Didn't feel like lugging around something that heavy and cumbersome but I wish I had. It was my loss and I blame my laziness for that snafu. I could've gotten some nice long exposure photos of the rides in movement and some crazy light blurring and shooting handheld is just not possible to attain crisp images. Possibly the next time around for sure.
The night ended in a bust for me. Before heading out and calling it a night, we decided to play one of the carnival games to win a prize and I really don't want to talk about this because it really makes me mad but it is a bit funny. We played what looked like to be a really simple game of tossing a ring. Here's the set up: There's a pool of water with a current running through it and a bunch of rubber ducks are sitting on the water and all of them are moving counter clockwise along with the current. All you have to do is toss one ring, ONE ring, onto the duck's neck and hooray! you win a prize. Simple enough right? So I have a go at it. $5 into the pot and I get 4 rings. 1, 2, 3, 4 and all the rings either bounce off of various ducks or just fall into the water. OK. I'll have another go at it, Another $5 into the pot. I give one of the rings to my friend so he can have a go also. I decide to take the more patient approach and pick my tosses carefully. I toss my first one with no luck. My friend tosses his and he misses as well. I wait for a couple of seconds and see my moment. Toss the second and it bounces off a duck and falls into the water. Last one! I wait and wait for my moment to appear again. AHA! Toss the ring. *Ploop* into the water. FUCK! This is like Vegas all over again and I'm consumed with conquering this game! I wise up and decide to not waste any more money than I already spent on it. My friend however, decides to spend his $5 and have his go at it before we go and wouldn't you know it?! On his second throw, on his first $5! He gets it. I start to laugh at the absurdity of it all. Not that he didn't deserve it...he did. Just laughing at how easily it is for me to become so worked up with winning. All in all it was good fun!
Oh hai winnar!
This past weekend was Labor Day weekend marking the final day of the Summer. It felt like the Summer went by pretty fast but that's partly because there wasn't much of Summer weather here in LA. The high temps really didn't hit the area until the latter part of the season and then suddenly we're hitting temperatures in the 80s. Anyway, me and a couple of good friends decided to hit up the annual LA County Fair on opening day Saturday the 4th to start off the weekend on a good note.
County fairs and carnivals are one of my favorite things to do. Other than the food, games and rides that are abound for one to enjoy, county fairs and carnivals are fantastic for photography. The last time I was at the fair was during the morning/early afternoon hours when the temperature was high in the 90s and Summer actually felt like Summer! This time around, I thought it might've been better to head out closer to sunset so it wouldn't be as hot (as the Pomona Fairplex is known to get insanely hot when the sun is out) and, more importantly, golden hour!
I've never shot the LA County Fair during this time of day and I really didn't take many photos during said hour. One reason being that upon entering the gates, we immediately went on the ferris wheel and right after that we went and sought food because we were hungry. The other reason being that the sun set pretty damn fast! Oh, there was also that whole line thing one goes through at such events. From the workable photos I was able to manage, I'd very much like to go back during golden hour and dedicate more time in shooting and plans are in the works to go back. Hall & Oates are supposed to perform sometime in September but sadly they perform on a Friday and I work Friday evenings. I'm a big Hall & Oates fan too...
With the golden hour gone, the option to shoot some nice carnival night photos was still available. I didn't bring my tripod with me on this day. Didn't feel like lugging around something that heavy and cumbersome but I wish I had. It was my loss and I blame my laziness for that snafu. I could've gotten some nice long exposure photos of the rides in movement and some crazy light blurring and shooting handheld is just not possible to attain crisp images. Possibly the next time around for sure.The night ended in a bust for me. Before heading out and calling it a night, we decided to play one of the carnival games to win a prize and I really don't want to talk about this because it really makes me mad but it is a bit funny. We played what looked like to be a really simple game of tossing a ring. Here's the set up: There's a pool of water with a current running through it and a bunch of rubber ducks are sitting on the water and all of them are moving counter clockwise along with the current. All you have to do is toss one ring, ONE ring, onto the duck's neck and hooray! you win a prize. Simple enough right? So I have a go at it. $5 into the pot and I get 4 rings. 1, 2, 3, 4 and all the rings either bounce off of various ducks or just fall into the water. OK. I'll have another go at it, Another $5 into the pot. I give one of the rings to my friend so he can have a go also. I decide to take the more patient approach and pick my tosses carefully. I toss my first one with no luck. My friend tosses his and he misses as well. I wait for a couple of seconds and see my moment. Toss the second and it bounces off a duck and falls into the water. Last one! I wait and wait for my moment to appear again. AHA! Toss the ring. *Ploop* into the water. FUCK! This is like Vegas all over again and I'm consumed with conquering this game! I wise up and decide to not waste any more money than I already spent on it. My friend however, decides to spend his $5 and have his go at it before we go and wouldn't you know it?! On his second throw, on his first $5! He gets it. I start to laugh at the absurdity of it all. Not that he didn't deserve it...he did. Just laughing at how easily it is for me to become so worked up with winning. All in all it was good fun!
Oh hai winnar!
On Labor day Monday, there wasn't much to do. None of my friends were hosting any BBQs and I wanted to do something so I remembered that Target sponsors free admission to LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) during holiday weekends so I decided to make a day of it and brought along my trusty Canon 7D for some art, culture and people observing and boy do I love me some people observing!
One of the things I love about LA is that there's SO many things to do and alot of said things are very art and culture filled. I think LA has some of the best art options around. You've got 2 MOCA locations in Downtown LA. You've got 2 Getty locations, one in LA and one in Malibu. Then you've got LACMA which is arguably the biggest museum in the Los Angeles area to hold a nice collection of contemporary art, both permanent and borrowed, along with other varying art forms. Sometimes I visit the various museums we have on regular days and I do see a good amount of people visiting but it isn't until holidays where these museums are filled with people (weekends are also fairly crowded but not as much as holidays...)A favorite moment of the day was when I came upon Rene Magritte's "The Treachery Of Images" and saw two women standing in front of the painting talking about it. Treachery Of Images is well known to being the painting of a pipe but really, it isn't a pipe which is a contradiction but when you think about it, Magritte's assertion is in deed true. One of my favorite pieces around (and as well one of my favorite Magritte works) because I learned about this work during my philosophy studies during high school and I remember quite vividly the day I studied the piece and had this "AHA! I see what you did there" moment. Anyway, having any person in front of that piece demands a photo and luckily I had two women. Any photo in these conditions is a play with/on Magritte's assertion behind the painting itself and thus you have a photograph of something that isn't a pipe and aren't women...
One of the things I don't like about art museums are their rules on photography when it comes to collections that are on loan which utterly sucks because well, loaned collections don't last long so who knows when the next time one will see it again! So no photos from the loaned collection from LACMA and they had some pretty cool ones going on right now such as Thomas Eakins' "Manly Pursuits" and Catherine Opie's photographic work "Figure And Landscape" which I absolutely LOVED! So for those of you reading who are in LA or will be visiting LA really soon, I recommend that you go to LACMA to see these collections before they're gone. As there are no photos from said loaned exhibits, I'll leave you with how I felt at the end of the day...
Apologies as I failed to take note what this piece is and who the artist was