2009 November - All Narfed Up

Archive for November 2009

Few will care

In Art, Photos on 30 November 2009 tagged B&W, blackandwhite, Koreatown, Los Angeles, street photography with 1 comment

While walking across the street from the Wiltern to the Wilshire/Western subway, this man walked between the cars asking for money. The print is pretty much how I envisioned it.

Unfortunately, I’m still trying to get more detail between the man’s head and the trees in the distance. This is probably my 8th print attempt. I’m scared that no amount of dodging will bring it out.

I would scan the negative, but I don’t have a film scanner. I’m not sure if I should save money towards buying a Canon CanoScan 8800F.

Like before, I tried to get this scanned print as close to the real thing as possible. I cropped out the white borders since they weren’t clean.

Contrast filter: #2
Aperture: f/5.6
Time: 17 seconds

Film: Arista.EDU Ultra B&W 100 35mm
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel XS
Lens: Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II
Paper: Arista.EDU Ultra VC RC Glossy 8×10
Scanner: HP ScanJet 7400C @ 300 DPI

Chin down, eye on the ball

In Art, Photos on 25 November 2009 tagged B&W, blackandwhite, Los Angeles, street photography with 2 comments

An open letter to friends and readers of this humble [photo] blog:

Since the two weddings I photographed this past October, the busyness hasn’t stopped.

couple Halloween parties (denoted with a portrait of James)
band rehearsals
busted Flickr meetup at Salton Sea (photos still in queue)
paid photo project of a friend’s father’s home renovations
the already mentioned Rx Bandits/Glassjaw concert
another failed photo excursion to a specific location at Mt. Baldy
flu¹
The Scarlet Paradigm show
going-away party for my friend, Philip

Interspersed between those bullet points is my regular work week, which includes my Managerial Accounting (102) class² and basic [film] photography class. I can’t forget the bouts of photo processing from Ginger and Joe’s wedding, in addition to recording songs for our EP.

I have one more wedding to process, and there’s two weeks until finals³. I would say normalcy would return at that point, but what does that even look like?

While working on these wedding photos have been a good experience, I miss processing and posting other photos.

I know I should schedule time to post here once or twice a week. It would separate me from inconsistent bloggers. I’ll make a plan.

I can’t wait for free time to hang out, take more photos, and play some shows.

Until then, you can follow my random shenanigans on Twitter and Flickr. If you aren’t subscribed to my RSS feed here and you’re not sure how, watch “RSS in Plain English.”

Have a great Thanksgiving!

I was knocked out of commission from October 16-20. ↩
I’m getting a solid C, and I could finish with a B — provided I do well on these last two quizzes and non-cumulative final. ↩
The week of December 14th. ↩

Depends how you look at it

In Life, Photos on 15 November 2009 tagged adventure, boys, hitchhiker, miracle with 1 comment

Silas and I were supposed to meet up with other photography classmates for long exposure photos from Cow Canyon Saddle by Mt. Baldy Village¹.

That didn’t happen.

Once we got to the turnout on Glendora Ridge Rd, we just saw a sign and a road leading into an RV park. There wasn’t a mention of Cow Canyon Saddle².

We kept driving down the road for about six miles, then three boys walking down the middle of the road flashed their light frantically and stopped us.

I was a bit cautious. I felt like patting them down to check for weapons, but they looked harmless.

The story — their “friends” split up and left them out there. They were supposedly walking for 2.5 hours without any luck of a car. To make matters worse, there was no cell signal.

From where we picked them up, I drove them back to one of their houses in Ontario. By then, it was already 8:45pm. We could’ve driven back up the mountain, but that would’ve been 14 miles and at least 30 minutes. So, I made the decision to call it a night. (Work in the morning, you know.)

Some might call this a failed outing. I call this a miracle.

If Silas didn’t suggest we keep driving down the road in search for another lookout, we wouldn’t have found these boys. They would’ve had to hike seven miles. It was also 45°F at the time and getting colder.

I don’t want a pat on the back. I want their friends to realize that they’re idiots for ditching them.

And their parents? I have no idea. One of them called once we had a signal again, but it was a short conversation. They were probably unaware.

Freddy, Garrett, and George³ from Montclair High School — if you ever read this story, please be careful, don’t hang out with those guys, and take a survival class. (I know you guys were walking on the road, but you should have stay put.)

Below is the route from the RV park, where we picked up the boys, and finally their home. I took the photo when I dropped them off. Besides Silas, it’s the only proof I have that this happened.

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