Here is a link to the event
http://whittierphotography.com/getty

On Saturday the 19th of July I visited the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, California. The drive is around forty-five minutes from Whittier, Ca without traffic. I know, when is Southern California without traffic. Actually, it was very nice on the trek up. Around forty-five minutes, so there. Unfortunately around one hour ten minutes on the way back! This was Saturday, it could have been much worse!

Anyways, I traveled to the rough & tumble of Pacific Palisades to meet up with a group organized at http://photo.meetup.com/662 (The Redondo Beach Photography Group). I haven't actually attended one of the monthly meetings and I finally met around seven to eight people from the group. Buncha nice people!

I brought my son Justin along with me with his D70 SLR. He is quite the attention getter with that camera around his neck and I do not believe he has a clue to that fact! Of course, Justin hooked up with Karine from the group. While he is only six, he likes the pretty girls! Justin and I ended up having lunch with Ken the organizer of the event and Karine at a cool sea food restaurant by the name of The Reel Inn in Malibu.

I do have something sad to report. The D70 decided to zap Justin's pictures and seems to have corrupted the FAT32 table. I attempted recovery with several utilities and no dice. He had around 260 images. All gone. He was like, "oh, ok". He finds joy in the taking of the pictures, not really the review of them.

Here is the link to some of the images taken.
http://www.whittierphotography.com/viewer.php?gal=1012

On Wednesday the 16th I decided that normal was just too, well normal. I packed up my camera gear and drove thirty miles to Hollywood.

First, I'd like to thank Garmin for his excellent talents with giving directions. I swear that you would still see a silver GTO roaming the streets of Hollywood to this minute if it was purely up to me. Confusing!

Anyways, back to my escape from the normal world. While I have lived in California my entire life, I do believe I have been to Hollywood Blvd a whopping two to three times in my life. Lets just say in the words of Paul Simon, "Still crazy after all these years". Fun, but crazy. I parked across from the El Capitan Theater under the Kodak building.

As I arrived top side, I immediately saw the following: Batman, Robin, Wolverine, that Lion from Oz, "Captain" Jack Sparrow, Gene Simons and that other guy from Kiss and finally Darth Vader. All camera shy unless I threw them some money. Walked quite a ways and did manage to take some decent images. Even one of a lady with a see through dress on a little scooter. That was interesting.

My definite favorite was the guy with at least thirty pounds of musical instruments strapped to his body. He was amazing! Oh, and I did throw him some money.

Little while ago I was in downtown Los Angeles. To be specific, the famous Olvera street. This is an area where the Hispanic culture is quite strong. Many great photo opportunities. The following image shows a lady practicing an Aztec dance. The name of this group is Iztac Cuauhtli (translates Aguila Blanca or White Eagle). This image isn't particularly clear and sharp. However, I like the motion this image brings.


Nikon D200 70-200m at 105mm f/5.6 for 1/125 sec

Couple nights back I was at the beach with my son Justin shooting pictures. Justin was armed with my Nikon D70 and I with my D200. Most of our images were taken while walking along the pier at Seal Beach in Southern California. These were images I made while leaning on different rails. Converted to B&W via Photoshop.



Left: Nikon D200 70-200mm at 80mm f/4.5 for 1/80sec
Right: Nikon D200 70-200mm at 70mm f/3.5 for 1/80sec

Several days ago, my family was picking oranges from a neighbors tree which has yielded hundreds of oranges. Unfortunately our neighbor is quite elderly and cannot pick them himself. Therefore my wife offered to pick several and take them off his hands. You may think that was cold to just take them, but he actually doesn't seem to like oranges, so it was fine. Here is an image of my son Justin removing one of the oranges. These are juice oranges, so perfect for making OJ.


Nikon D200 70-200mm at 200mm f/2.8 for 1/1000 sec