Succulants

Succulants like this grow in California and bloom in Spring.

Los Angeles Times Festival of Books Photos

Here's what I saw.


There were instruction books.


Being selfish was a hot topic.


There were crowds.


There was entertainment. This guy had just gotten finished hunting squirrels.


Author of "Surviving Suburbia" flashes a smile. I bought his book cause I'm a suburbia survivor.


Women mystery writers. I asked them if they got along with each other. They said, "yes, we do."


And, of course, there was literature.

Riots in Estonia

There were riots in Estonia, one of the old Soviet states that's gone free. The Soviet symbolism of the old statues that used to adorn the old Union still remain.

I caught one of these statues in a huge park in the Baltics. The park was filled with these giant symbols of "the worker."

I can remember people saying that the park was controversial. Hope it stays as these stone giants are some of the best representation of 20th century history that there is in the world today.

Hawks and Other Birds

All day long I've been dealing with birds, not real ones, mind you, but pictures of ones.

Critiquing photos of a guy who's writing a bird book...
Writing an article about the birds of Joshua Tree National Park...
And this portrait of a hawk.

Look What "Cover Girl" is Missing

Ta Da… the world's oldest showgirl, and she ain't no bag-a-bones limping around the stage in a body that only remembers yesterday. She’s Dorothy Kloss. Her yesterday-is-today body moves in the moment, as graceful and energetic as a woman a quarter her age (she's 83).

Dorothy’s a member of the Palm Springs Follies, a not-to-miss show if you ever come down the desert way. Yes, the show's a little over the top, a bit corny, but you'll have your eyes glued on the dancers wishing you could move like that at any age.

I'm a new fan, not so much because of their world famous leg-kicking and outfits of camp, but more because of the way they age--in an alert, conscious fashion that keeps them literally moving and shaking most of the time.

Dorothy has to be one of the most remarkable older woman in the U.S.A. After having the opportunity to chat with her, II found that this encounter was a most unbelievable event, one that left me with a spirit for life that, in all my future days, will never leave me.

I can't wait to be 83!

Palm Springs Follies

The Digital Traveler absolutely recommends seeing the Palm Springs Follies. If your age has got you down, this will put that feeling in its place. Take care of yourself and you can do anything as this post from my Palm Springs Daily Photo illustrates.

Yep, that's right, daily photo fans.

I'm the first daily photo site to present the world's oldest showgirl, and she ain't no bag-a-bones limping around the stage in a body that only remembers yesterday. Her body moves in the moment, as graceful and energetic as a woman a quarter her age (she's 83).

She's a member of the Palm Springs Follies, a not-to-miss show if you ever come down the desert way. Yes, the show's a little over the top, a bit corny, but you'll have your eyes glued on the dancers wishing you could move like that at any age.

She has to be one of the most remarkable older woman in the U.S.A. She's Dorothy Kloss and to talk to her (I did on Friday) is an unbelievable event that left me with a spirit for life that in all my future days will never leave me.

I can't wait to be 83!

World's Oldest Working Showgirl

You could find me right smack in the middle of a theater filled with senior citizens today watching the worlds oldest showgirl (83 years old) tap dance. That's right I was at the Palm Springs Follies (www.palmspringsfollies.com). The show was nearly four hours long and oh so much fun.

I'll tell you I live in a town where the 80-somethings defy gravity and move faster and are more lively than most of the forty and fifty something people I know.

Have Gun; Will Fire

Here's an old gun I shot at a flea market in Paris. Conjures up a myriad of emotions.

I'm of the mindset that guns should be taken out of the picture of American life.

Been awhile since I've gotten political here; but the news, sad and lonely, warrants it.

There's a kid with a nothing mind who's being flashed all over our television sets.

And there are millions like him who can get guns.

I say open the mental institution gates back up and train the misfits in how one behaves in polite society.

Steeples

Downtown Ft. Lauderdale at sunset.

With Sympathy

To Virigina Tech--

Everglades Duck

Don't know what kind of duck this is. I took the picture in the Everglades. Just learned that you shouldn't feed ducks cause if you do they reproduce more quickly, causing the water's to fill with organic material which chokes off other wildlife in the wetlands.

BTW: I asked the Birdchaser over at http://birdchaser.blogspot.com/ if he'd be able to tell what kind of duck it is.

Money's to be made with dSLRs, New York Times Says

DSLR (digital single lens reflex cameras) made their way today, along with the women who are using them to start photography businesses photographing kids, into the New York Times.

The article, however, misses the hundreds of thousands of people who are selling other types of photography. But, none the less, the trend of people buying high-end digital cameras to ultimately make a profit with the subjects/objects they shoot is growing.

Playing Around With Paths

Paths are kind of an elaborate selection tool where you can create selections of all shapes and sizes. Raindrops, for example.

Here's something I did with light beams using paths and lots of playing around with the blur tools.

Teacups

Where else in the world can you ride in a teacup?

Disney did it, right? But it wasn't Disney who came up with the idea; it was Lewis Carroll. His book, Alice in Wonderland, is filled with teacups.

Ten Things said during the tea party...

It wasn't very civil of you to sit down without being invited.

It's always tea-time.

Your hair wants cutting.

It's very easy to take MORE than nothing.

How dreadfully savage!

It's always six o'clock now.

Who's making personal remarks now?

I want a clean cup.

AND...It's the stupidest tea-party I ever was at in all my life!

Don't have a clue...

where I took this. I do know, however, that it is a picture of a picture.

What year do you think this is. Go on, go ahead and guess.

The comment section doesn't bite.

Palm Leaf

I find pictures like this incredibly boring, but the tribe adminstrators of the Spa casino here seem to like them as they are blown up and hung everywhere.

Maybe a little peace among the casino's clatter.

Business Week Blog

The Business Week blog, Blogspotting, asked for some help in how a blog was different from a print publication.

Here's my take on the matter. As a good blogger, I posed this in the comment section of their blog.

Hi Heather, I'm Matthew Bamberg, a Southern California freelance writer. I have a blog called the Digital Traveler. I write for the Press-Enterprise in the Inland Empire. Since I switch from one type of writing (for the on-ground press) to another (for my blog); I've got a few notes that you might want to take into account.

1. Use numbered and/or bulleted lists on your blog. People really like them because they are easy to skim at the same time as picking up the needed info in a short period of time (gives more time for looking at ads : )

2. Keep your writing in narrative form; tell stories of business successes as well as the interesting flukes of the trade.

3. Make your posts focus on something that can help your readers, say, a tip on investing in the publishing business.

4. Every once in a while focus on a successful business and/or an investment everyone seems to be jumping on. Invite readers to share what they see as the next up and coming business trend.

5. Every once in a while, skip the "we" perspective and get more personal and tell viewers about you, using an "I" perspective.

Last an image never hurts, maybe you guys can take a photo or two for the blog. Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Right now, I'm teaching Photography for Writers and Bloggers at Betterphoto.com, a class which I detail all kinds of these things.

I'm author of the book "Digital Art Photography for Dummies."

Ten Photography Tips for Scrapbookers

Memories tell tales of nostalgia. To capture the essence of the moment you not only take pictures today, but you also pick the pictures of yesterday. Here are some tips for finding and/or taking photographs that Martha Stewart is sure to adore.



1. Take photographs where a set of items match in color.

2. Take photographs of something you've carefully purchased.



3. If a photography does not give necessary details about time and/or place, write a caption and/or title that states the missing info. (The above photo was taken in Miami's South Beach, quite a change from what the people look like there today.)




4. Take photographs where one color predominates over others.

5. Put frames around your photographs using an image processing program.



6. Pick old photographs so viewers can identify the time period in which they were taken.

7. Pick photographs that reveal ideas of the person who's pictured.



8. Find shots where there are unique areas of subtle light.

9. Find peaceful shots.

10. Find shots that will make a nice background for typing in text.

Digital Photography and Film Difference

I really like this photo, it's so Florida, ohh soo Key Westy.

But, there's a problem. See the line that makes up this stoggie-smokin' guy's arm.

There's no depth to it. Film doesn't do that.

Please, photographers, you got any gripes about digital?

Put 'em here...

Ft. Lauderdale Spring Break 2007

Off to the Ft. Lauderdale Borders

No Girls Gone Wild this morning at the beach. It's off to another book signing very near the beach. So come on girls learn how to photograph each other come on down to the Borders only a couple a blocks from the beach.

What's the chance that any of those girls will read this? Thirty percent off the book at this signing.

Boy on Dock

Okay, so there's a little something coming out of his nose. It happens to all of us.

Digital Traveler's Googie Around the World

Hey, AOL, it's not only the United States that has Googie, France does a pretty good job and building the wild architecture known as mimetic or programmatic.

Here's my post about French Googie

The mountains around Aix are filled with images, the same landscapes that Cezanne painted in the nineteenth century. But the South of France is also filled with architecture from the 60s and 70s. On my walk from the Old Town in Aix ( town of about 100,000 with architecture from the 5th to the 18th centuries); I entered the outskirts of the city, most of which was built in the mid-century--long lines of concrete steel, glass, zig-zagging roof lines, outlined in bright colors.





I passed the public library where I saw books as buildings, a form of programmatic architecture.









Upon close inspection, one of the book buildings was built to replicate the cover of the book, "The Human Comedy".


I surveyed all sides and found that, facing away from the road, the building was all glass encased in a gridded steel frame.


After I had been sidetracked by this great architectural find, I resumed my walk to my planned destination, the Foundation Vasarely. This particular monument is about a 90 minute walk from Old Town and was desined by Victor Vasarely, who's considered the Father of Op Art. The first thing I found in this unique building of steel and glass under a facade of black and white dots, is that it's badly in need of a face lift.

Other than that I snapped up photos as the building offers photo ops where I could create my own op art (like pop art).

They're Native Now

"Squawk, squawk," you hear all over downtown Ft. Lauderdale. What is that sound. Well I've read that in San Francisco lost parrot pets hang out in the date palms there. So it goes that the same thing is happening in Ft. Lauderdale

The Big 500

Digital Traveler is 500
posts old today.
Come on and
give a comment about the big 500.

Borders Coupon

Hi Visitors, got a question for ya...

If I gave you a link for a 20 percent off of a book purchased at Borders; would you consider using it to get a copy of "Digital Art Photography for Dummies?"

Well...here's the link...happy photoing!

http://www.visitborders.com/

Minnie in Marrakech