10 on 10, May 2015 video alternative

Similar to last month's 10 on 10, I created a series of short videos vs. photos. I kept not making the videos 10 seconds long though, so it's a little imperfect in that respect & also always being a little more approximate in terms of once an hour... that's an idea I might never achieve, but I'm ok with that.

Studio City Farmers Market : flying rat : hummingbird : bike maintenance :  Rotary club of Sherman Oaks Arts & Crafts fair : dinosaur house : jacaranda in bloom : biking : wreck this journal "float this page": scanning negatives

Animal friends

Some of the animal friends around my home recently.....

 Awwwwww... my sweet little rat friend who turns 2 this week! Look at his tiny hand and my giant hand! And his giant ears! And crazy whiskers! He's such a sweet little friend who's been showing his age a bit. Sometimes he'll actually sit still for a couple of minutes now to get scratched a bit on his neck, head and back.

 This little guy appeared right outside of my living room window a few weeks ago. That weekend he kept coming back over and over again, sometimes just hanging out in this tree. I'm not sure if it's the same one or not, but this evening a little humming bird was back, hanging out in the same spot. I'm always keeping my ears open for their little "chirp chirp" sound now!

If I had a yard, I would so enjoy watching the wildlife come by! Maybe one day.....

Pico Doodles

Awww... something different! Quick doodles with copics on marker paper of my little rattie while he was sleeping. I like parts of each one better than others (except the head only... that was looking a little too guinea pig-like), but in general I would recognize it as my little guy. Of course, I'm not biased at all in such matters...


...on another note, since Monday night, my new set of copic markers has been hanging out in Compton & not in my hand making beautiful drawings, according to DHL.... boo

10 on 10, November 2013

A 10 on 10! I actually skipped some months and shot some others and just forgot to post them for a while. As life goes... And as is often said, the best camera is the one you have with you. In this instance, the camera closest at hand with batteries and space was  my kodak Easyshare sport C123. Not the best camera, but I originally purchased it for Burning Man. It had 2 attractive features: it ran on some easy to purchase AA batteries and it was waterproof. I still find it useful from time to time since it is one of my smallest cameras as well. It fails at close up photos, and this set fully displays such shortcomings! Oh well!

Hour intervals are approximate.....and I threw in an extra bonus photo to make up for posting this on the 11th.

...not the only "Thor" billboard that's been modified in the area....

Los Angeles has seasons!

a rat and a bat! Sadly only one rat :(

managing to capture most of my afternoon's activities in one photo: summer in a jar, tortilla soup and oatmeal

steelcut oats, carrot cake style with: carrots, apples, raisins, pineapple, spices, a touch of blackstrap mollasses and eventually, coconut and coconut oil = delicious

tortilla soup! Using my favorite soup technique of starting out with a base of veggies and seasonings, blending it in the Vitamix until it's nice and smooth and then adding in other stuff.

Saturday Acqusitions

Saturday April 27, 2013

March wasn't a good month for pets for me. Both my frog that I had for the past 16 years and my rat passed away in the same week. I had been looking around online for a while for new rats (I prefer to not get pet rats from the petstores) and decided on a couple of rescue boys from Misty Blue Rattery. I picked 2 brothers - a curious dumbo velveeten agouti hooded and a shy agouti velveteen . They were born a couple days before my last rat died and so they're just about 2 months old now. I sometimes feel like I'm a glutton for punishment by going back to pet rats because of their short lives, but rats are such great pets, especially in an apartment and each one has their own personality and preferences that's fun to experience. It's amazing to me what they've already learned in only being with me for 2 weeks. I look forward to spending time with my new little pets.

I love his little mohawk!

Saturday May 4, 2013

Last weekend I had to pick up some Shanghai film from the Post office. Afterward, we headed over to Hollywood to wander around the Wattles Mansion Property. Although it was pretty and nice to wander outside for a while, unfortunately all of the garden areas were locked up so there wasn't too much to explore.

Since we were nearby on the correct side of the hills, we headed over to Freestyle Photo so I could pick up some supplies. I'm super lucky to have a photo store like Freestyle locally - I did the math, and I saved about $25 by picking up the items in store opposed to ordering online! I had been thinking about getting a Holga camera for a little while and with the Gretchen Bleiler model on sale in store for $20, I decided  to go ahead and pick it up. The trees aren't too offensive and are on stickers, but I already pulled off a "GB" sticker from the lens cap (it made the camera look like you stole it from someone with those initials.) I loaded it with film today and I'm looking forward to seeing how the pictures turn out. My first impression is that it seems a little more durable in some ways (the Diana shutter and aperture controls feel more delicate), but also a little more simple than the Diana. If nothing else, I'm glad to have it on hand for others to use. I also picked up 20 more rolls of medium format film (30 total for the day!) as well as some developer.

While we were in the store, a woman was picking up a Holga camera with some accessories and a single roll of film. I keep thinking back to it and laughing - I wondered why so many people selling their cameras online claimed to have used it for only a single roll. I suppose this sort of situation explains it.


Saturday May 11, 2013

 A couple months ago, when I was biking around & doing some errands, I ended up at a garage sale where I picked up a vintage camera tripod. I chatted with the women selling the items for a bit and as is common, they made comments about me being on a bike, which made them think of the past. They mentioned that at one point Lankershim had a ton of thrift stores. It sounded idyllic compared to the car dealership lined street there today. When I noticed one of the old dealerships was converted to a thrift store recently, I was super excited. This morning I decided to stop by and see what sorts of things they had.

Because it's approximately 92 degrees outside, that means it's time to think of the cold and jackets. (Actually it was 66 this past Monday and is supposed to be 100 by this next Monday!!) I ended up finding this awesome orange flower brooch for $5.50 that I thought would compliment a blue cordoroy peacoat style jacket that I wear in the winter. It doesn't have any info on it and is in super nice shape, but based on some googling, it looks like it might actually be vintage. I might need to find a reason/outfit to wear this with before winter!

10 on 10, March 2013

Although I intended on using a different camera for each 10 on 10 , I decided to go with my Olympus E-520 again this month.

my sweet, always moving, impossible to take perfect pictures of, rat : watering some of my air plants (hopefully more to come on these guys at some point) : visiting the farmers market : clear spring morning in Los Angeles : walking around doing errands :  crow captures while walking around  : doing stuff at home : trying to get my sewing machine to work again : preparing for black and white film developing :  film development complete!

3 Salved years

Yesterday made 3 full years of this little rattie nose in my home, bringing much love and amusement.

10 on 10 - February 2013

This 10 on 10 was excitingly on a weekend day! Joy! Since it's easier to drag my DSLR along with me on the weekend, my Olympus E-520 was my camera of choice for this month. I managed to take about 100 pictures throughout the day (many duplicates as well as having fun with the lights at night while riding in the car), so I included a few extras. I skipped a couple hours (but made up for them) due to being busy with things where the camera felt too inappropriate.

10 on 10 - January 2012

I managed to get a 10 on 10 in! I had been somewhat frustrated the last few months with the boringness of my pictures. One month, I think I actually spent almost the entire day at work in a meeting, which didn't leave me with much inspiration since I can't take pictures of much of anything at work. Anyway, one thing I've been thinking is that it might be worthwhile for me to try to specifically use different cameras for 10 on 10s vs. always going with my cell phone camera. While convenient, it is limited in some respects and I think using it is contributing partially to the boring feeling as well (although all day meetings aren't conducive to 10 on 10's no matter which camera I use.) I'm not sure if I have a camera for each month or that I'd want to carry some of them with me some days. Maybe I could also do something like use a certain lens or macro filters only. I also am very excited/amused/feeling kinda awesome about the idea of shooting a roll of film for a projects like 10 on 10. Alrighty, so, 10 on 10 this month, shot with my the Samsung Mythic camera, once again.

 

my sweet rat turns 3 years old this week!! : overcast & rainy days can be fun to walk in since more people stay inside/in cars : the light also quickly changes on these days and I wish I could go outside and shoot photos all day instead : I purchased this color to force myself out of my nail color comfort zone. After 3 days of pink nails, I had to add some more color*. I like that they look bird eggs : sigh, the kind of day I really wish I was out taking pictures : lunch time! : lunch time!! : time warp to evening..... : it was super windy on my walk home. tomorrow there shall be more layers :  stop on the cold walk home

*I really like Zoya nail polish and only use it now. It's was one of the few nail polishes studied that claimed to be free of various chemicals that was actually free of mentioned chemicals! They have lots of awesome colors and it lasts amazingly long on my nails. If you create your account through one of those links above, you'll also get a coupon for another free bottle.