Just Beachy

I went down to the other weekend when the weather finally brightened up. This time I went into the water--for about two minutes. The damn thing is colder than a frog's ass in December. What a shame, all that water for nothing. I keep telling myself that if it was warm, we'd be like Florida. Nobody wants that.

I managed to get nothing in focus in this little tableaux, but I don't care. I'm not gonna tell you what's going on here either.

Ooga Booga Boo

  A selection of Halloween masks from my last trip to the flea market.

 

This one reminds me of a Picasso painting.

Poor werewolf chipped a fang.

What's this supposed to be gorilla skeleton?

 

Zombie?

Happy Halloween!

Tunnel

Ack!

 I'm so behind on blogging, it's not even funny. At least I've been saving photos all this time. Let's see...where shall we start? Oh yeah, Chinese New Year. Only four months late.

Yes, I photographed these watches in China Town. No, they have nothing to do with CNY. Neither did the ham and cheese waffle I had for snack.

Reflections

I could spin a spiel about reflection and their relevance at the end of the calendar year, but I just can't be arsed. The truth is, I have a handful of nifty photos I want to post.


I took this one while getting a pedicure. There are mirrors on both walls, facing each other, resulting in an interesting layering of visual information. At least I thought so.


This is the shiny floor of Arclight Hollywood's lobby in the daytime.


This is the same lobby at night, and shot from the opposite direction. Those gold squigglies atop are the movie showing times.


I took this photo last night. Stopping by the neighborhood grocery store, I notice the reflections on a black SUV and couldn't resist.


This image is from a while ago. It's the entrance of the Flamingo hotel in Vegas, and its reflection on the trunk of a cop car.

Have a good new year, peeps.

iGallery Augury

I’ve realized that these days almost all my posts are about the flea market – meaning that I post once a month. So just to break the pattern, I will post something else, even though I went to the flea market yesterday. Instead, here it is a random selection of iPhotos with a nonsensical commentary. Enjoy. Or not. It’s all the same to me.


The world will end in 2411. Don’t you believe me? You fool.


I have irrefutable evidence – I divined it myself from this double egg yolk. It’s so obvious.


The Heavens will split open,


and the Earth shall rupture.


From the depths of the Sea,



the beasts will rise.


Humankind will be split into two, to be sent to Heaven


and Hell.

Or did I mix the two up?

iGallery

I took a trip to the army surplus store.

iShoot Square

I keep playing with my apps. For a long time Hipstamatic was a favorite. Give me John S lens and Ina's 69 film and I was set.


Occasionally I wandered into B&W territory with one of the Blackeys films.


It's funny how all this digital technology that slowly but surely making film, paper and darkrooms obsolete is the sexiest when imitating what it replaces.

Not that I'm bemoaning the lack of chemical fumes and aching feet of ours spent in darkrooms. Along with me across the world a billion bathrooms also sigh in relief.


My chosen Hipstamatic combo has a pronounced greenish tint. Sometimes it works brilliantly. Other times it doesn't.


These days I more often just take a regular photo, then if I like it run it through lo-Mob.


This app applies frames and visual effects after the fact, giving more control to the user.


Lo-Mob has a lot of options, but I'm unfailingly drawn to the "vintage instant - reframed" setting.


I have thing for square images.

More iGoodies

Today's theme is food and the great outdoors, because after all that dim sum, you need a little workout. Or the other way around.


Doesn't this picture just scream 50's?


I got two new iPhone apps. One is called Hipstamatic - a cross between hipster and Instamatic.


"The Hipstamatic brings back the look, feel, unpredictable beauty, and fun of plastic toy cameras of the past!" It so does!


There are several "lenses" and "film" you can mix and match. The results are messy, flawed, thrilling.








The other app is called SwankoLab. It's a fake darkroom with timer and a tray of developer, in which your photo slowly comes to life. It even floats realistically, when you move the phone. Funny, I can't resist moving the phone; the ingrained photo lab instincts are too strong.


There are various "chemicals" you can combine for unpredictable results. Fortunately, there's not authentic darkroom smell.


You can take any old picture on you phone, or your Hipstamatic photos and go hog wild with them.


Yeah, I like my toys.

iPan

Have I mentioned how much I love my iPhone? It does nearly everything I need, and a whole lot I don't even. If only it washed the dishes I would marry it. Someone came out with an app called Pano. It stitches your photos together for a panoramic picture. The above photo was made of four vertical shots. Nifty, eh?