Breathe

Descanso Gardens is seriously the best. On one hand, I don't want to tell anyone because I want it to be nice and calm when I go, but on the other, it is so unique in LA in that it's a place where you can get that rare moment alone in nature. Breathe.

Waiting with the Sun

Shot this one last March with my 35mm Holga....

Once upon a time, long long again, I worked in this weird pink tiled building.....

How Our (work) Garden Grows

I think the cactus were at least 6 weeks old already at this point! 

It all started with a little "grow your own cactus" kit that I picked up at the 99 cent store. I didn't really expect much from it, but decided to take it to work where I had much better light and am sitting all day at work. So I set it up and I was surprised when I got 4 little sprouts popping up within a short period of time. Then I picked up another kit with a brain plant. My next door cubicle neighbor was getting interested and then began picking up little plant kits at the store and finally some real pots and soil. And things were growing!!!  Then another coworker who grows a ton of her own food brought us in some of her food plants to add to our collection! This past week our office had some a/c problems and we had some terrible heat, and oddly enough the sunflowers were the most affected. We lost 1/2 of them, but the 3 that made it seem to be doing well and about to start flowering. We lost one of the baby cactus along the way, but overall, I feel like we've had some pretty good success!

This sunflower looks like it's going to flower soon!!

This has been such a fun little hobby to have in parallel with work. It's nice because it's something to look at and check on each day and they don't need too much care, while being extremely satisfying (although both my coworker and I share the responsibilities, so it's not bad!) We've grown everything from seed (cactus, sunflowers, violets & lavender) besides the things my coworker brought in (basil, cilantro, lettuce & mint) and with persistence, we've made everything grow to some degree. People really like stopping by to look at the plants & I think it's because it's kind of a nice relaxing thing to have around. I love it because I don't have much space to grow my own plants at home with absolutely no outside space and tiny little windowsills w/ very little light, so although I'd enjoy having a bigger garden, it's nice to see these little bits of green grow every day!

counter clockwise from the back left corner: sunflowers, cilantro, basil, lettuce, brain plant, mint, lavender & violets

Brain plant!!! There were 4 seeds in the kit and we got all 4 to sprout and grow, but this quickly became the GIANT one and began growing a little fuzzy flower in the middle this week! This is only about 2-3 months old. Another that sprouted at the same time is barely the size of one of the large leaves on this one.

the cactus today! The first picture in this post was about a month ago. Still very tiny, but tons of growth and new spines! I'm not sure what kind these are but the possibilities include saguaro, organ pipe, golden barrel & fishhook barrel

That little dome in the lavender pot was on one of the original terrariums, but seems to be the magic trick in getting the lavender to sprout! Wherever we move it, things pop up! I'm pretty sure those tiny shoots on the mint appeared during this week. People keep asking when they can eat the lettuce and the mint :)

Maple Haze

The Diana + was my first toy camera about 3.5 yrs ago now and when I began scanning this roll today, I realized I've only shot 2 rolls of color film in it! The first was given to me as part of the purchase (craigslist). I think it was some sort of Fuji film & it was expired. I wasn't really sure exactly what to expect with the camera since I was buying it second hand, so I decided to shoot the expired roll as "pratice", which is kinda funny to me now. I didn't know where to develop it for years so it sat around (somewhat defeating the purpose of shooting it to make sure things were ok) and since then I've only shot black and white in the Diana+. In some ways, I think I've learned to love the black and white, and so I didn't really think much about it. It was just part of the Diana for me...  While I finally got the roll developed, I've still never scanned it... Recently I decided to let myself put a color roll in it again when we visited Descanso Gardens and try this out again.


I shot a roll of Lomo 100 color, which was a little slow for some of the circumstances I was in (shaded naturey areas), but I'm still pretty happy with some of the photos, including this double exposure of some of the Japanese Maples.

Pasadena Chalk Festival 2016 - Instants

Today was a super hot day and somewhat weird and ridiculous. I both went to work and worked from home for the first time because the a/c wasn't working (again) and the anticipated high was 109. So I biked a lot this morning in the heat, partially because I went into Pasadena early to take a look at some of the art from the Chalk Festival this past weekend as well. I saw every single thing I thought I would - Prince & David Bowie being some of the multiple-appearance celebrities, multiple references to Orlando shootings, Finding Dory themed (as well as unfinished Finding Dory themed) & Frida...

I didn't have much time to look at the drawings, but I tried to make the most of it! These are just the instants shot with my Fuji Instax Neo Classic!

double exposure of Frida...

another double exposure!

Pasadena Chalk Festival 2015 - Holga

I was just glancing through my negatives today and realized I had all of these photos from the Pasadena Chalk Festival from LAST year in 2015 that I never posted! Since this year's festival is this weekend, I am almost exactly a year late! Consider it a preview (seriously, the art is awesome and it's a marathon effort (especially in the 90-100 degree temps expected this weekend in Pasadena!) , but there are some things that appear EVERY year like a variation of Frieda, usually some celebrities in the spotlight recently, current movies (I predict a Finding Dory themed one), current events (I expect at least one tribute to the badness that's been going on in Orlando),  some unfinished pieces and pretty colors.)

I have to say I was REALLY happy with how some of these double exposures turned out! Yay Holga!

(as of June 26, it will be 1 yr since gay marriage was legal in all of the U.S.)

Playa Play : Burning Man 2015

People playing on the playa at Burning Man 2015, shot with my 35mm Holga.

People exploring Inflection by Trevor Schrock..

Another appearance from the MORE (ministry of random events) drum circle

In center camp

One of the stages at Center Camp

Street Hockey, Playa Style

Another appearance from these lovely ladies..

10 on 10 - June 2016

Wow! I haven't done a 10 on 10 in a while, but this past Friday I was inspired by a reflection in the morning and decided to go ahead with it since I had a camera with me! For the rest of the day, I kept my eyes open for more reflections and I'm pretty happy with the results! I love how reflections, shadows and other similar light and camera "play" lets you see your world in a different way.

Burning Bits 2015

A few more from Burning Man 2015.


I have a few more rolls of 120 film from BM last year I need to develop, but work has been a little more mentally tiring recently, although I hope things can settle down in a couple weeks. We shall see... I'm still hoping things can pull together and I can get a ticket for Burning Man this year. I've been debating about filling out a form to show art at Center Camp again. On one hand, I have very few days left to fill out the form. On the other.... still no ticket : / I feel like I've hit a happy groove shooting film at Burning Man. I would very much love to go back again this year and continue, hopefully shooting more people (in a good way!!) Mentally, I know not having a ticket is part of what's keeping me from developing all of last year's film...

Note to Universe: help on this front is extremely appreciated !!!!

Akle the Dragon

Ministry of Random Events (MORE) drum circle: earlier in the week I had passed by this circle of trashcans, but didn't really bother to get close... then later in the week I stumbled into this drum circle. I snapped a few photos before jumping in. There's something really nice and meditative about participating in something like this since everyone can kinda create their own thing, yet still contribute to the whole.

 

April Huntington Fisheye 2

A few more from Huntington Gardens back in April....