Christmas

For Christmas I received: a sweater, gold chain for my great grandmothers watch, book of poems by Pablo Neruda, 35mm film, some shirts, chocolate, and some mixed CDs.

My family as a whole got a Wii. After punching my sister in the face during a fast pace game of Tennis I decided to sit out and watch.

Family Portrait

So my mom wanted a nice family portrait and here's one of the test shots.

Ballet Shoes and Smoke Machines

Saturday night I split my time between the Pittsford Ballet School's performance of The Nutcracker and a Rochester club/bar Vertex.

I have a lethal weapon outside of my bedroom window

Bad bad blogger

My devotion to my blog is shameful. Truth be told, I hate blogging. I don't like it, maybe it's because I'm to stubborn to adapt to the new technologies that are available to me, unlike the olden days when you had to walk uphill both ways in the snow to show your work to the public.

So in the spirit of trying to keep a New Year's resolution (even before the New Year) I will try to be better about writing daily, ok that's pushing it. I will attempt to write weekly to my blog and by starting early I should, theoretically, be able to keep up with it longer. I did read a study that says it takes around 4 weeks to build/create a habit but 3 months to try and break that habit.

Maybe in 4 weeks I'll be better about this....here's hoping.

I haven't shot much but I've been looking a lot and here are to photos that I enjoyed. Thank you lens blog.

I play chicken with Mercedes and Audi's

While I play chicken with more expensive cars I also had some time to photograph at a meeting for people interested in the organic food movement. My time in LA is coming to a close and I will miss my roommates, the people I work with, and the old Victorian home I live in. I'll be leaving LA to be welcomed by the wintery air of the Northeast. Here are some things I've learned:

1.) Know your photo history. I was invited to a meeting a my boss's home and in every room of the house, the walls are covered with photographs ranging from Friedlander to Cartier-Breson. I was corrected by her son when I didn't correctly ID a Weegee photo. In case your wondering Weegee not only shot crime scenes at night but also used infra-red film in movie theaters.

2.) Simple skills like typing shouldn't be overlooked. I've had to transcribe interviews and I'm a two finger maybe three finger typer which doesn't bod well when you have to listen to 1-2 hour long interviews.

3.) There are many people who have photography degrees that don't shoot. I meet producers of commercials and movies who started out being production assistants but have a BA in photography.

4.) Don't assume anything and always check with someone above you (which is everyone). Minds change all the time so even if something was supposed to be one way an hour ago doesn't mean that it is still the same.

5.) In editorial/commercial work, the photographer is told what to do and the people making all the shots are the art directors and creative directors. While this may suck to many it's what helps to fund the work you'll want to produce.

Chinatown

This past week and half has been pretty chaotic between finding my around LA and the studio. This past weekend was the first one in a long time where I didn't get out of bed before 7am and didn't have any driving to do. Later in the evening I went to Chinatown. I know I shouldn't have been surprised that LA has a Chinatown but I was. I had real steamed dumplings, that's the great thing about being near a city that is on the ocean, all of the cultural diversity. All sorts of little communities form around the city. I live in an Hispanic neighborhood but two blocks south is a small Korean community. This does mean however, that the little Hispanic woman who lives two doors down enjoys waking me up, with her dulcet voice that proclaims "Tamales!". Over and over and over at from about 6:30am to 7:00am. Who needs an alarm clock?

Something I have noticed about LA is the bombardment of advertising. Billboards, road, newspaper, park benches, and t-shirts. Either has a label out here. I notice most of things on my way to work which being 45 minutes allows me lots of chances to see what's around especially with all of the stopping and starting. It's not the advertisements that offend me but rather what they are about. 1-800-GET-THIN, Best Buys for Purses, Clutches, and Bags, Ovation Cell Therapy Yes, you too can have thick gorgeous hair. For such a health conscience area, organic food is everywhere along with herbal remedies for any aliment, lap bands and chemicals to give you stronger hair don't seem too health to me. Maybe my feminist side is coming out, maybe my sarcastic East Coast mentality is playing a role, or maybe I have a photo story?

Chinatown