and then I went to Nashville

I've spent my days since Nashville trying to figure out how to write about it. I'm still coming up blank. So I'll share some photos, and maybe someday in the near future, I'll be able to write about it, all of it.

Until then, enjoy the scenery.

xoxo

Golden Coast: Los Angeles Beaches and the Irvine Spectrum

A week after my return from my Golden Coast trip I decided I needed a little hint of a vacation again. I got back in my car and drove north to visit a couple beaches I had left out on my way back. I started at El Matador State beach, took some pictures, sat on a staircase to nowhere and watched people try to navigate the waves. After getting my shoes thoroughly wet and then my feet thoroughly sandy I traveled on down to Zuma beach. There was one particular building I wanted to capture, maybe not even the whole building, just the sign. When I had seen it the first time the week before I hadn't stopped to take a picture, but this time I did, and even though there were people milling around, I still got exactly what I wanted, maybe even more. I mean, an umbrella, the food sign AND birds perched in a row? So good.
After a few snaps at Zuma I headed a little farther south to Santa Monica Pier. I love this place, well, I like it a lot. Mostly because there is a ferris wheel. Here's the deal though, you can't ride it alone, and the seating arrangement with the staff wasn't conducive to many pictures that I wanted. But I guess I just have a reason to go back in the future, with a friend... or maybe more than a friend? (Wiggling eyebrows implied) Despite my semi awkward joy ride on the ferris wheel, I did get in a dinner session at Pier Burger, definitely one of my most favorite hamburger places ever.

After I left the beaches I drove south and found myself at the Irvine Spectrum, a place I can't help but stop at just about every time I find myself headed to the Los Angeles area. There's just this pull. It also has a ferris wheel, so maybe that's it. I spent a good hour or two browsing books at Barnes and Noble, eventually settling on Escape from Cubicle Nation, Vagabonding and Beyond Snapshots. I also picked up a new journal, ready and glorious for when I get through my current one.

It was a great one day mini vacation. I came back home inspired with my bag full of knowledge and my camera full of pictures. Not a bad way to spend a day off.

xoxo

The Golden Coast: My Favorites

I can't believe it's already been two weeks since I came back from my trip. Time flies, but I say that a lot. I took so long to post these because of different issues, like wanting to start doing a watermark, and not knowing what format I wanted to put them in, if I wanted to make them smaller in a collage or if I wanted them to be bigger.

Bigger won. Imperfect watermarks also won. So here they are. The absolute beauties from my trip. I think there are more, these are just my absolute favorites. Especially the gas station one. I got off the freeway to take a picture of that, it was so perfect, abandoned, broken down and beautiful. A couple of these are from a point and shoot, some of them are from my phone and the rest are from the lady Rebel.

Honestly, as I look through them they are all favorites. I love the gas station one because I actually took the time to get off the freeway at a place I wanted to see. The stacked rocks I like because that one took time to figure out what I was trying to convey with my camera, I love my feet in the pebble sand because it feels like paradise, my kind of paradise. The blue door with a white wall is a picture I expect to envy when I see it on other people's blogs or instagrams, but it's mine. I took it, I did it right. Well, me and the phone.

And the picture of the polaroids on a hotel bedspread... I am shaking my head and raising my hand to the ceiling thinking of trying to write what that one feels like to me. It's perfect, it's the film I love, shots that came out great, finally, after years of sadness with the Impossible Project, it's the adventure that comes with being in a hotel room, it's my heart. Basically. Too much? Nah, just enough.

I'm once again being intentional about getting out and taking more pictures. But this time I've got a couple books I'm reading, I'm thinking about the shots more, maybe even taking less. But I'm growing, and I'm learning and I'm stoked with the outcome.

That trip was necessary. There are many more to come.

xoxo

A Piece of My Trip

Delete, rewrite, delete, rewrite. Create collage, delete. Create another collage, delete. I think I'm just going to leave it at this for now. 

Shell Beach, (or possibly Pirate's Cove in Avila Beach) with an Olypus Stylus, Kodak Ultramax 400 film.

xoxo

Film Found: Belmont Park

I took these with my Diana during one of my Polaroid and Toy Camera Group's meet ups when we went to Belmont Park. It was a cloudy day and we got rained on at one point but I like how some of the pictures came out. Specifically the last one. I like how clear the one set of seats is on the roller coaster coming up on the right hand side. I also like the fake ice cream cone.

There's something about carnival/theme parks that I just can't get enough of. I just want to fill my cameras with pictures of them.

xoxo

Photo Adventure #2: The Barrett House

Monday I went on a little adventure to an abandoned house in Jamul. I have been wanting to see this house for a while now, my friend Brian told me about it months and months ago and finally, FINALLY I got it all together and scheduled a meet up.
The day started with a little scare, Lisa and I drove to the meeting spot and then, because we were early, went ahead and checked out the actual location. We went back to the meeting spot and up comes a police car. He sits a bit away from us, I can't tell if he's looking in our direction or not. The other part of our group drives up and we head to the house... wouldn't you know, right when we pull out of the gas station the police man does too! We panic a little, go past the road for the house and then turn around and double back when we realized he turned the other way.
Yay being paranoid! My fault.
After that little scare we get up to the house and it's a bit chilly. The house is obviously destroyed on the inside. I wanted to go in but I Lisa made the good point of maybe there were squatters in there... I didn't have a shank handy (though there was plenty of glass on the ground) so I hesitated. Luckily, one of the others ventured forward.
We cruised around the bottom level of what I think was the main house for a second, but the light was dim and we didn't have much to work with. Looking back I wish I had gone upstairs, I wish I had explored a little more. I get scared easily, of getting in trouble and getting hurt. I guess that means I need to go again soon, maybe with a big dude, just in case.
We spent a good amount of time outside looking at the grounds, the boarded up barn and the other house/garage/I don't really know.
I found myself sad and in awe at the same time. Sad that people felt the need to destroy this beautiful and old place, sad that people couldn't appreciate it as a memory. But kids/teens (it looked like a lot of kids had been through there at night) sometimes feel the need to destroy things, I guess an old house is better than each other? I don't really know.
I wonder why the owners haven't tried to do something with it, or if they have and it just hasn't gone anywhere. The porch/balcony on the back of the main house was gorgeous despite all the wear.
This house was gorgeous at one time, it was beautiful and loved. I hope someone find a way to love it, or the land sometime soon.
A post about lessons learned from my first two photo adventures coming soon!

xoxo

last photo via @lisakimberly11

Developed: An Adventure In Processing

For a while I stopped developing my film. Mostly because I thought the only way to do so was expensive. I had problems in the past with 1-hour offerings and so I shied away from them and when the itch struck would just give in and pay a large amount at a professional lab.

This week I remembered my love for film again, outside of the frustration of cost. I went back to the professional place and by chance/coincidence/fate I only managed to bring one of the three rolls I had wanted developed. I had grabbed two unused rolls in unmarked canisters, something I didn't notice until I was gathering my things outside of the lab.
It worked out well though. I decided I would try some different options. I would get the roll on hand developed at the professional place and then I would experiment with the other two.

The first roll developed was the one most recently completed, so I had a better idea of what I want going to see, the other two were a mystery. I figured if the other places screwed up the processing it wouldn't be that big of a loss.

I did my research, looked for places to send film into and then ran across a blog post by a person who gets hers done at walmart. She drops of her 120 film to them, writes on the package and it comes back developed well, and only for a few bucks! I'm not a fan of Walmart, but Costco has a similar system, and I had heard good things about them through a photographer I recently started following, so I decided to test my fate with the regular 35mm film.

Today I walked into Costco with my mystery rolls and asked that they be developed and keep the film uncut. I had thought about it on my journey and realized that getting them printed would be harder, because the machine might not recognize the black space, but if I just had them put onto a cd it wouldn't matter. The developing would be the same either way and if something messed up in the transfer to the computer I could always go back and get more specific about the area that I wanted as my picture.

It worked. I came home with my two cds and my pictures look just as good as the ones done by the professional photo lab. Because I don't get mine printed at the moment I didn't need the colors to be as vibrant, something I'm not sure Costco would be able to handle as I think their machines automatically color correct.

Now, here's the real doozy... cost:

Professional Photo Lab: $16 and change for one roll of film to CD
Costco: $9 and change for two rolls to CD

A couple closing thoughts.
- Going to costco will not work for when I want to develop through the sprocket holes, luckily I found a place that will do that, but it has to be sent out. They are the cheapest I've seen for send out thus far, but the charge for developing into the sprocket holes adds a good $10 to your order. Ouch. Good thing I don't do that often, nor do I really want to. That will be a special project.

- I didn't ask if Costco sends out for 120 film. They do all of their 35mm processing in the store still unlike the Walmart that the blog post talks about. Places like CVS, Target and Walgreens have been closing down their film processing and are relying on their digital kiosks now so that might be an issue. I may have to find myself in a Walmart...

For now I'm just excited that I can take and develop my 35mm film on the inexpensive side. I missed the excitement of seeing what came out.

xoxo

wildly inspired by...

M. Wriston

"There is no right place or right time. Great, crazy, amazing things are happening all the time, everywhere. You just have to be there to see them happen."

Kevin Russ

Kingston 

Three photographers I have happened upon semi recently that I am completely inspired by. Check them out!

xoxo

a few photo adventure ideas

As I've mentioned a couple of times this year, one of my goals is to grow in my photography. And what better way to do that then to try new things and have a little fun. With that in mind I looked through tumblr and pinterest for examples of things I might like to do.

Not all of them will fit in the year, but many of them could.

Here's to a little visual inspiration for the days when I feel like I've run out of ideas.




Get on a train and take pictures of the world going by

take a picture of something beautiful, break it apart and put it back together

go to a ghost town

hike and take pictures of the hollywood sign... from far away and right behind it

play with bokeh

use an underwater camera

get really creative, and use the timer

'nuf said

Develop to the sprocket holes

 one place, different seasons

take a road trip and use film the whole way

xoxo

sources: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, 9- 11 unknown