...zoom in, zoom out, zoom back in...

I continue to be amazed how much difference a good camera makes in the enjoyment of the act of taking pictures. Since getting a new one, my eye has become an extension for the lens is a key new way: zoom-lens vision. Now mental cropping and positioning of elements reveal photo opportunities beyond the snapshot. This amazing detail from Shepard Fairey’s piece for Viva la Revolución: A Dialogue with the Urban Landscape is curated by Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego (MCASD) is a fine example. I shot all the vantages close and far. The detail and texture in this photograph make it one of the best I’ve snapped since I dropped my old The Olympus OM-1 into the sea.

Being alone can be ok if it is a choice...

The old lady’s old man left and the new one will too when he loses the house because he doesn’t care anymore and is going on a walkabout next so she is basically all alone and has to sneak into the spa’s healing waters like the local mexicans do when they crap by her back shed on the way over.

I'm five moves up at this part after going right off that pinch

Standing problem: Move up and left from sit start using only blue granite holds.

Turns out there was a lot of pix to choose from

I really wanted to like the movie Somewhere. I’ve always loved the work of writer and director Sofia Coppola, not so much for what happens but for what doesn’t. I imagined the random scenes (Las Vegas heliport, floating pool bed, swimming laps) as being carefully staged and full of visual irony. I kind of had to imagine it because there wasn’t a whole lot going on other than the crafty camera angles. Seriously, the whole movie went by wondering what happened. The car took six laps on the oval track. He took laps on all the chicks. Its aimlessness was it’s charm though, and I was engrossed in the same question that everyone else must of had. “What was Johnny Marco‘s problem?” It was a thinker’s movie, so what I thought was that he happened into everything and felt none of it until the moment he had somewhere to go.

I am loving the zoom lens on our new camera

One thing I never realized is that our new camera shoots at a gazillion megapixels so all the files are all too big for raw use in social media. At least, that’s my suspicion because most of my posts (screenshots and camera pix) thumbnail onto my facebook status updates. The last few from my media blog have failed, so this rezised med-res image is a test.

We found a Canon EOS Rebel XTi at Pirate’s Cove and my blogger daughter likes it very much.

Getting the photos off the camera we found was hella easy. All I had to do was plug it in and they sucked into iPhoto lickety split. Once there, it was easy enough to post one on my Tumblr. Then, the link didn’t do anything for me socially, so I upped it to my server, then posted that image by url. Then, I got to thinking it should link to my daughter’s site, but the redirect was messed up and needed to be adjusted. Plus, just for fun, I tweaked it a bit in Graphic Converter.

There are hidden meanings everywhere, if you want to see them.

We took a mini-vacation up to Orange County (San Clemente Skatepark, Climbing at Pirate’s Cove in Corona Del Mar (we have your lost Canon camera), touristing at Balboa Island and Laguna Beach, PCH back home…) for a couple days. Had some classic CA beach weather. Weird fact: the sun rises over the ocean in Dana Point. The Dana Marina Motel took the dive motel award long before the heater filled the room with smoke. The rattley lock, broken windows, creaky stairs, and crackhouse neighbors all were factors. The clincher was my daughter’s quip that the other places didn’t have as much complementary weed after seeing the desk drawer detritus. Touche.

I have a thing for sci-fi chicks

I took the kids prisoner again today and made them see Tron Legacy 3D . Their ewws turned to aahs however when the effects kicked in. All I can say is “wow” cuz that was a fun movie! We spent a lot of time wondering where we have seen Quorra. It must have been Princess Inanna. The best part was all the crazy  Isomorphic Algorithm tech and friggin’ light cycle wands. That, and having dad’s dumb ol’ stuff turn out to be cool after all.

I drive past this almost everywhere I go

I can’t quit thinking about the girl who was murdered around the corner on 55th a couple days ago. I tried to joke it off to the kids with a made up story, but the reality was harsh. Turns out that some guy got dumped, shot her on the sidewalk outside her condo, then killed himself. Shocking, but sadly common. The minimart clerk today brought it home. The girl was 21 and just graduated. He shot her 4 times while she was down. Now that’s messed up.

I couldn't find a picture of him cutting off his peyot.

Last night we finally got to see Holy Rollers and it was spectacularly relevant. Like most movies that look into Hassidic culture, they missed many technical details (tefillin straps) and muffed the hebrew. Fine. That’s to be expected. What they did do, at least for me, is tap into the emotional response to very heavy situations and philosophies. Mark Eisenberg’s character walked the fine line between modern and ancient worlds and showed us in sharp contrast how different they truly are. Perhaps it got a bit moralistic at the end, but what story about sin and repentance wouldn’t?