All Narfed Up photography and words by Bryan Villarin

Bryan Villarin | March 18, 2008 | Santa Monica, CA
50mm * f/1.8 * 1/1250 sec * ISO 800

I spotted this while walking along the 3^rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica. (What is leet?)

Processing notes — Cropped to remove the window frame, converted to grayscale, contrast increase, and slight vignetting applied. All done within Lightroom.

[View on Flickr]

Want me to sell this print? Let me know!

Our band, Phantom Scream, will be be playing at The Airliner in Los Angeles this Saturday, March 22nd at 5pm. Please come, listen and hang out with us! (Shows)

Come join us Sunday afternoon on March 30th for a photowalk! You could take shots like this. See all the details at Upcoming.

After band practice, I drove up Santa Anita Canyon Road (on the way to Chantry Flat) to get a better view of the cities, clouds and sky. This is PJ, who’s unaware of me taking this shot.

If I had a wide-angle lens, I’m pretty sure this would’ve been a sweet shot. Until then, I’m resorting to autostitching multiple shots for a panoramic. Like…

Bryan Villarin | March 8, 2008 | Temple City, CA
50mm * f/13 * 15 sec * ISO 100

This is the product of my camera, a newspaper stand (because this was unplanned) and a 15-second exposure. I developed in Lightroom, using the Punch and Strong Contrast presets. I didn’t feel that I needed to do anything further with this one.

[View on Flickr]

Want me to sell this print? Let me know!

Nine days after it broke and got shipped away, it has finally returned. I should have had it two days ago, but whatever. Happy happy joy joy…

I’m expecting a package that was supposed to be delivered by FedEx yesterday, March 12th. They “tried”, but nobody was here. “Customer not available or business closed.” Lies! My mom was home at 4:47pm and she didn’t hear anything.

Today, March 13th at 3:52pm, I’m home. I check the FedEx tracking number a little after 4pm, and I get the same message.

Erroneous!

I called customer support and told them what happened. The address was verified correctly, so that wasn’t the problem. She notated the complaint, which doesn’t help the situation at all. I want justice.

Since they can’t deliver in a timely manner, I offered to drive to Hacienda Heights to pick it up. Nope, they closed at 4pm. Plus, if I wanted to pick it up, they’d have to notate it to the terminal, which would take 24-48 hours. Wait a minute - are they using pigeons to send messages back and forth?

Ridiculous. FedEx, stop giving me problems and do your job.

If you don’t have contact information handy for your business, photowalks, meetups and other social gatherings, this has to be the best deal I’ve seen for quality, full-color business cards.

From now until next Tuesday (March 18th), all Business Cards are 50% off. Order now and experience the quality and precision you get with press-printed Business Cards from Mpix! They are fun to design, easy to order, and we’ll ship to you in 24 hours!

With this promotion you can order as few as 100 cards for $10. Order 1,000 cards and pay only $50!

I think I’ll be ordering a bunch this weekend, which means I’ll need to design them. (Wait, I’m not a designer! Oh well, I’ll give it a shot.)

For more information, see the Mpix blog.

Note: I’m not affiliated with Mpix. I’ve printed two photos and love their quality.

This is the light on the ceiling when you first walk into Public Counsel (Los Angeles, CA).

(cc) photo by artypop [by-nc-sa]

Tomorrow, I’m going to the Venice Beach Flickr meet slash photowalk. They call it a Flickr meet because the members are from Flickr, but if you’re a photographer, you should crash anyway!

Zooomr members not allowed. I just kidding!

Photos by camgray, night86mare, occhichiusi, astroboy, and p0ps, respectively. There’s a lot more on Flickr, though.