A drive through the hood

There's a lot going on, more than meets the eye, and you don't see what you think you see. There's all this bullshit to pass the time. Maybe knowing what the real story is would make a difference, though for how long varies. Ultimately, there is blue in the sky and beautiful things to see. In some places, the colors are faded and it seems that the sun is and has been harsh. But you keep an open mind as you drive through.

What I've Shot Lately

In the past few months, I've evolved back to digital. This is mainly due to the fact that I've switched lenses; I went from using a 24-135mm f/3.5/5.6 zoom lens to a fixed 50mm f/1.4 on my Canon. What a difference!! The shots below were all shot using the latter lens. Oh yeah, and I'm shooting RAW all the time now with the Canon ( I wasn't before). I still carry around my little Samsung, which, unfortunately, only shoots JPG. Oh, well...

For those who are as unfamiliar as I was with RAW vs. JPG, here's an easy analogy.

Your DSLR ( and maybe your point & shoot ) can be set to shoot images in RAW or JPG. Shooting RAW take up a lot more space on an SD card. For example, a new 4GB card can record over a thousand JPGs, but only a little over a hundred RAW images. However, RAW images can be manipulated in many more ways than JPGs because there's much more memory being stored all at once. Some people describe shooting all JPG is the equivalent to keeping a bunch of prints while throwing away the negatives.

That's pretty much it.

--DR


Chicken Little!


Brett


Private Flapper Jokes


Elemental, My Dear


DJ Masscomm


Getting Serious


My Favorite Shades

Photography and (in)Security

It's a weird time to get into photography. The digital age has made everyone a photographer, but that's only part of it. The art of street photography has become a challenge in particular. People are all paranoid that they're gonna end up all over the internet or something like that.

I am ranting a little bit here. Of course, it's perfectly OK to not want your picture taken, but it used to be that that was due to camera shyness. Now it's completely different. Instead of going on and on, I am going to use other examples I've found on the web to make my point


This is a story from October, 2011, about a man who was banned from a mall in Scotland for snapping two cell phone photos of his daughter eating ice cream.



This is from SnapBlog, which sent six photographers out on the street so they could document how photographers get interrogated and harassed for taking photos in a public place.


The photographers and the Scottish dad were told that they couldn't take their photos because of security reasons and terrorism. I find this to be an appalling excuse when there are cameras watching our every move on the street and we would be told that they are there for the same reasons.

Stand your ground, people.

--DR

Your Very Best Work

Maybe it's me, but I always only want to upload photos that I think are awesome. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right? If it's not beautiful to me, how can I know what will be beautiful to you? It's ridiculous to rely on others to tell you what's good, especially if you show the same thing in two different places to two different groups of people.

For Christmas, I got a Holga TLR 120. The first roll produced a few images I liked while the second was awful, not helped by the fact that my film was ISO 800. The images overlapped or were blurry or dark. Still, I considered scanning a few and posting them for the heck of it. I mean, people do that.

Maybe for the next blog I'll post some of the experiments gone awry. This time, I am showing my most recent roll shot with Fujifilm ISO 400 with the Pentax and a couple of filters. I am very happy with many of the images from this time around.

As an artist, do you only show your very best work, or do you show things you're not sure of?

--DR

Let's be Honest

I didn't think I'd live past 30. I never even thought of what I'd do with my life if I found out I was wrong. Maybe that was my excuse to detach from everything. I guess it is a mute point.

I had a revelation one night when I was out with a friend, this amazing woman who is so good at everything and visually stunning as well. I wondered what her life would be like if she had decided to just exist and not take advantage of her every talent. What a tragedy...I really mean that. So why should I squash down all of my capabilities?

Have you ever thought of that? What if Prince, Stevie Nicks, Beyonce, Madonna, Janis Joplin, Heart, The Who, Justin Timberlake, Jeff Bridges....or fill in the blank next to where it reads "Who is amazing?"...had never done their thing?

What if we are all amazing?

--DR

Are you happy?

When you manipulate others out of spite, for your own means, does it make you happy?

When you stalk, send emails via alias, and call just to hang up, does it make you happy?

When you say mean things about others which have no basis in reality and then do an about-face when they appear, does it make you happy?

When you try to poison others only to end up swallowing it yourself, does it make you happy?

Are you the change you wish to see in the world and in others?

I really want to know.

--DR

Merry Christmas

My boyfriend wanted a bonsai tree for his birthday, which was in October. I picked one up at a local shop which sold an array of handcrafted bonsais.

My guy became obsessed (in a good way) with the thought of making one of his own. After finding a website with helpful how-to videos, we picked a day when we were both off to do the deed. We found the pots at All Seasons on 8th Avenue and shopped for shrubs at Home Depot. Mine, pictured, is a heavenly bamboo.

In other news, I finished shooting my first tungsten roll last week and have to send it off to be processed. Please check back!

Happy Holidays,

DR