Burning Man 2015 - Distortion, Towering Art and Blue Skies

Laffing Sal in the maze around the man... it seemed to be triggered to laugh manically either on random or when people got close to it (i.e. when I shot this photo)

Medusa Madness

El Pulpo Mechanico

Seahorse on the front of the El Pulpo Mechanico car (unfortunately this is also where I can see the pattern that I need to point this fisheye lens camera up more. The eyepiece is a separate piece on the top of the camera, not the lens itself, so to get the photo I want, the camera needs more correction than I was providing)

Pre-Blood Sunset

After seeing how huge the moon was on Saturday night, I was looking forward to getting a glimpse of the Blood Moon on Sunday. Unfortunately, nature was not in a participatory mood for people in my region of Studio City and instead, despite repeated long walks to different areas and multiple checks outside, I only was able to see clouds. Luckily, at least the sunset was rather pretty.....

Burning Man 2015 - Holga35 01 Arty bits

Some photos of art at Burning Man 2015 from the 35mm Holga.

Brickhead Earth

Blunderwood Portable typewriter. Although I think this was supposed to change every day, I don't think I saw it after the middle of the week...

Burning Man 2015 - REvolution Sunset

Burning Man 2015 - Holga 35, Moving

Another set from my first Holga roll at Burning Man this year with a focus on people getting around there.....

driving on gate road to get into Burning Man

sunrise while in gate road

Refugio, 9/15, 2

More photos from our camping trip to Refugio earlier this month:

some of the masses of kelp on the beach

Burning Man 2015 - Holga 35, Artists at Work

It's no secret that part of what I love about Burning Man is the art. The first time I went, I was overwhelmed pretty early on by what sorts of things people created as a result of this environment and freedom. The surreal results contrasted with the surroundings just enhances the experience. I sometimes describe my time spent biking in the deep playa at Burning Man as journeys through an outdoor art museum, along with things constantly evolving, and disappearing and reappearing and changing as the surroundings and elements affect them. So much awesomeness.

On this first roll from my 35mm Holga shot during the first day or so, I found quite a few instances of the artist at work in various ways.... some were literally painting or performing, some were putting the final pieces of their giant project together and others were just waiting to go through the steps necessary to share. Anyway, they are artists at work doing their part of making the playa and Burning Man experience what it is.

Love by Alexandr Milov being assembled

artists painting on the boards outside of center camp. Dali is right at home here....

artist painting on the boards outside of center camp

Medusa Madness being assembled 

getting a license at the DMV (Department of Mutant Vehicles

the DMV line at Burning Man is interesting in it's own way......

more dmv waiting......

and even more dmv... (the line was massive!)

women dancing with scarfs at sunset near the REvolution sculpture

Burning Man 2015 - Distortion 2

the "man"

totem of confessions

 after getting my feet washed with a campmate I ended up here randomly since I was in the neighborhood (4:30ish?)... they served snow cones and gave away clothing and held fashion shows and had a person narrating.. can't remember what was said, but there were some funny moments & funny outfits

Water Muddle

Today we had what seems to currently be estimated 1.5 inches of rain... which is unusual.  The average for my city for September is .4 inches. I believe it was excessive since I ended up walking in ankle deep water to get to the bus this morning! Joy!


So, here is some ocean water instead at Refugio this past weekend.

I've been watching it while listening to something sort of atmospheric and floatly like GusGus "Superhuman" or Tim Hecker Ravedeath 1972.

Burning Man 2015 - Animalistic Tendencies

Although usually only home to a minimal set of animals like birds, animalistic influences from around the world are found on the playa during the week of Burning Man.....

So let me immediately contradict myself! We were waiting in the line, very close to Will Call when I noticed this guy hopping back and forth across the line of cars! There isn't naturally anyplace for guys like this to hide or food to munch this deep into the playa (although in some of the areas nearby there are plenty of bushes that seem more rabbit friendly), so I'm not sure if it hitched a ride on someone's vehicle or what, but it seemed somewhat confused.... I suspect there are other random animals that hitch rides into Burning Man at times. I also saw a yellow and black bird around my camp that kept moving from one shaded spot to another that seemed a bit out of place.

Take note rats, opossums, cats, snakes and other long tailed animals - a lion demonstrating proper tail tucking technique while biking

It's the playa - drink water.

One morning I noticed these tracks all around a few tents and other items in our camp! A camp pet! I pointed them out to some others and we guessed it was maybe a rodent or lizard (although in retrospect, no tails tracks!) Whatever it was, we knew it had to be alive in the camp because it was so windy the day before that the tracks would have been covered/blown away.

giraffe tall bike being ridden by his jungle man owner!

!!!! cat man!!!! I was biking back to my camp one evening and came across Mr. Meow lounging in front of his camp

this art car amuses me endlessly due to the disproportionaly small elephants

yes, there were still bugs on the playa: specimen 1

and specimen 2: As it turns out, our camp pet was a decent sized beetle that I spotted the next day!

sunset on the dusty billion bunny march