Before the Rose Parade, Part 2

Second part of Before the Rose Parade, on the streets of Pasadena in the hours leading up to the annual Rose Parade. Although all of these where shot on 12/31/2014, I wouldn't be surprised if some of these people are back again this year! Although there's many visitors from outside Los Angeles that comes to watch the parade, it's also a long standing tradition for local families and they have elaborate methods of getting the best spots and keeping comfortable in the wait up to the parade, including various types of beds, pet friends, bbqs and wood fires! Looking forward to shooting some photos for this series again tomorrow!

 

Early Christmas Gift - Instax Mini Neo Classic!

Although I bought an instax mini 8 a while ago and I've shot many photos with it and liked many aspects of the experience, I have to admit that pretty early on I was annoyed with the camera. My biggest annoyance was the flash and the fact that there was no way to turn it off. I tried taping over it with gaffer's tape, but the camera was designed with the idea of the flash ALWAYS being on, so this often lead to bad results with the camera not being able to properly compensate. I continued to read reviews, sometimes baffled at how people were raving so much about this camera. I appreciated that it was one of the few film cameras I could find in a physical store at places like Michael's and had countless people tell me about getting it for young teenagers, people half my age. I finally figured out that it was ok at selfie/small group type shots, which I suppose is probably also why certain groups of people like it so much. That's not my primary usage of cameras though.....In the end, I hate flashes 95% of the time and I was often annoyed with a camera that always fired a flash.

So this all ends in me doing research, finding out both the Lomography instant and the Fuji Neo Classic 90 instant cameras as reasonable (although much more expensive) alternatives to the instax mini 8 that allowed for things such as turning off the flash(!!!!!), multiple exposures/bulb modes and other features. I added it to my Christmas list anddddddd then last night I got an awesome early Christmas gift of the Neo Classic!!

I tried to resist going to bed without playing with it, but it was hopeless and we attached it to a tripod and ran around my kitchen with lights and my EL wire lined vest I decorated for Burning Man this year for 10 second exposures on 1 instant sheet of film. Wee!!! I also took it with me to work today and took advantage of a short work day to spend some time in old Town Pasadena shooting more photos. I've been trying to make myself talk to random people more and ask to take photos and this camera made the experience easier in some ways since I could just shoot a photo and share it.

(the guy in the car is the Pasadena Flautist)

 

(in the top photo you can barely see the spires of the New Harry Potter ride poking up over the trees @ Universal Studios in the lower left corner....)

Preview: Before the Rose Parade

I've worked in the city of Pasadena,CA for over 11 years, never more than a few blocks away from a portion of the Rose Parade Route. Although I've never gone to the Rose Parade itself, the craziness in the time leading up to it and afterwards is it's own experience. Since I see the streets of Pasadena every day going to work, the gradual signs (literally, no parking and "ROSE PARADE PARKING"), the bleacher parts being stacked up on the sidewalks and built up weeks before in the open concrete areas and open lawn areas along Colorado Blvd, the little details of the city that are there year around to accommodate the parade, the fences that pop up all over the buildings on the route, windows boarded up and finally the people crowding the sidewalks in the last 24 hours before the Parade with all their urban camping necessities for the often cool and sometimes raniy night before. The debris, the trash, the tape and glitter that stay on the sidewalks for somtimes months afterward. It's an experience and has impacts way beyond the New Years Parade.

Last year I decided to take the opportunity to shoot some photos with the Holga showing parts of this pre-Parade craziness. Here's a small peek at the result.....

Jobs

Cruising on Colorado

American

Thanksgiving 2015

Every year Thanksgiving is a little different and unique in it's own ways. I never really worry about it because I know something will happen... I just don't always know what. Some years I've been with family, another year my sister and I spent all day cooking everything from scratch including cream of mushroom soup and vegan green bean cassorle and passing out by the time other people came over to eat... so many work Thanksgivings and friend Thanksgivings and Thanksgivings with boyfriend's family. My favorites are where I get a chance to cook and share something. This year did not disappoint as we spent the afternoon at a potluck Thanksgiving with a friend and extended peoples.....

Burning Man 2015 - Holga35 02 Arty bits

Whaaaaaaa.... The past week I've been trying to put some effort into making progress with film... cutting & putting into sleeves, scanning.. that kind of stuff. So with that comes many more photos to post, many from my 35mm Holga in the last year!


This set is another group shot at Burning Man 2015, in the Tuesday/Wednesday time frame...

lanterns... I really love how these double exposures turned out... they compliment the sights of Burning Man well... this one has an almost abstract, painterly quality all from snapping the shutter twice!

"Becoming Human" by Christian Ristow in front of Center Camp

"Love" by Alexandr Milov

the MAN

"rEvolution"  by Marco Cochrane & film being film

"Totem of Confessions" by Michael Garlington

Downtown LA afternoon, actionsampler

Last month I took the subway to downtown LA with a friend visting LA for a little while. We spent the afternoon wandernig around, visiting the Grand Central Market and the Last Bookstore and enjoying downtown LA for what it is right now in 2015....

going up the subway escalator....

downtown LA

LA Zoo Lights, In

LA Zoo Lights with my boyfriend and friend this evening...... I wasn't exactly sure what to expect and as I have never visited the LA Zoo (just the old one!) in the 15 years I've been in LA, but in some ways I think it was better that way... I have no idea what I didn't see! What I did see was all sorts of animal lights, different environments supported with a variety of musical choices and a few animals. Anyway, just a few photos for now...

of course I had to take a photo of the monkeys with cameras in front of the light version of LA!

Just a Moment

just a trim, just a spin

rustle, rustle

kitty, nope.

actionsampler, November 2015

Animal Interactions, Holga

Some more photos from the Butterfly roll shot with the Holga in March 2015

I was just thinking about this photo a few days ago... I bike past this house quite a few times each week and so it's funny to see how parts of it change and stay the same over time... A few days ago the dog was barking at visitors at the front door and people were trying to get him back in the house....

Butterfly Holga Dance

I shot these photos with my 35mm Holga back in March of this year.... I think I was just walking to the grocery store when I spotted this large Western Tiger Swallowtail flitting around some Lantana bushes. I pulled out my Holga, grabbed a close up lens and approached quietly while the butterfly paused to eat. Luckily it seemed mostly undisturbed by the Holgas quiet clicks (or else the flowers were just so delicious) long enough that I was able to sneak in a few photos. I remember being incredibly giddy afterwards at the moment that just happened while just doing a mundane task. Those are the moments about photography that I really love.