Subway Art Crime

I love photography, graffiti (if it's artful) and trains so I bought a book about graffiti (see below) and it's great. There's lots of graffiti near train stations (see image above), adding to the train station lure. I wish I had the idea first to write this book.

The only graffiti artist with whom I'm familiar is Keith Herring. The book Graffiti World introduces readers to many of the greats of art crime.

Here's a Publisher's Weekly quote about the book: "The work is beautifully photographed throughout; multiple pieces by each artist are laid out appealingly over verso-recto spreads, along with a paragraph by Granz detailing the artist's origins and the main thrust of the work (and occasionally a photo of the artist him or herself)."

By the way, I took the photograph above in a Rome train station.

La Concha Motel Sign is a Wreck

I've been photographing signs for years. Many of the signs that I have photographed have either been torn down or a total wreck. I took this picture of the La Concha Motel sign about 6 years ago. Today the sign is a sight for sore eyes, still there but barely recognizable.

The motel itself was made up of four swooping shells below which contained floor to ceiling glass.

The motel was designed by Paul Williams, the first African American member of the American Institute of Architects. His work included more than 3000 buildings including million dollar estates for Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball and Zsa Zsa Gabor.

Photo Sets Review

Photo Sets

Photo sets are one of the most important elements in photography. You can match photos in many ways. Here are some that I've posted before:

Sequence sets

Color and Object Placement

Color (Red)

Color (Yellow)

Protest

Old Photos

Night

Fox Television Network Makes Hall of Shame

Usually I post a photo that I personally have taken on this blog. Today I offer, instead an exception and bring you an outstanding piece of art, Noah Kalina's photo-a-day video. A parody of the video was shown in a Simpson's episode, which Fox produces.

I say pay the guy a dollar for each YouTube visitor he's had watch the video. If that were the settlement, he'd have made (as of today) $8,403,548.

Now, if Noah's video isn't a picture of himself each day for the past six years (say, he took 30 pictures the same day and posed those as a photo a day several times throughout the project), then he should have to be put in PopPhoto's Hall of Shame.

Thanks to PopPhoto Hall of Shame for this delicious information.

Napo Lodge in Amazon offers Misty View

Photo looks like a painting because of the 1/100 shutter speed, letting color and haze soak into the picture.

Napo Lodge in the Napo Wildlife Center is sheer heaven from the food in the open dining area to the observation tower where you can see abundant wildlife.

There are ten cabins in the lodge, each secluded from the other and all having a view of a beautiful lake.

The entire facility is eco-friendly and includes every amenity you can think of--nets over the beds to keep bugs out, overhead fans, porches with hammocks, outstanding meals and a great library.

The guides that work here are ultra-accommodating and super-nice.

The picture above was taken from the top of the hill of the lodge at 1/100 second shutter speed, a long enough shutter speed to take in the moist haze and Amazon color to make the image look like a painting.

Check out my other post about traveling to the Wildlife Center. All the info about it is there.

Shanghai Bridge

Shot at f/11, 1/800 sec, ISO 400

This is the Nanpu Bridge, which links Puxi to Pudong. You can see the bridge on this map.

Here's some stats on the bridge:

* kind-cable-stayed bridge
* length-5.185 miles
* height-492 feet (150 m).
* designers-Shanghai Municipal Engineering Design Institute and Buckland & Taylor Ltd. * traffic 1991-15,000 to 17,000 vehicles/day
* traffic 2006-120,000 vehicles/day.

Believe it or not, I took this image from a moving taxi. As you get on the bridge the road goes in a circle. I kept snapping my camera till I got a good shot.

Smiling

Thought this sign from Japan was amusing, maybe something to do some creative mind-tripping with. Hmmm, should I make generalizations, use a little linguistic thinking?

There's a part of linguistics called kinesics, which is nothing more than body language.

In Japan they bow; they also don't smile as much as Americans do. My best guess about why they included the English word "smile" on this sign is that they wanted to do something "American," something brash and daring.

People in Japan don't always smile when they're happy. Sometimes they smile when they are covering up shame to save face. Saving face is very important in Japan. People there just don't like to lose their dignity, especially in public.

Canon 5D--Sharp at ISO 1600

I've had a Canon 5D for awhile now and while some of my pictures are excellent (like the one above taken at ISO 1600 without any noise); others are hazy.

When I was in the Amazon last year the mirrors fell out of place near the sensor. I put some fingerprints on them to slide them back in place and am wondering if that might be the cause of the haze.

At any rate, I love my 5D.

The camera has a full-frame sensor (35.8 x 23.9 mm CMOS), is 12.8 MP, has ISO 50-3200, 30-1/8000 shutter speeds and B mode (Bulb exposure mode, lets you keep the shutter open as long as you hold down the shutter release button)

Don't Miss Singapore

Citigroup sold a 7.8 percent stake in the company worth $14.5 billion to the government of Singapore and some other foreign entities. Singapore today is a first world country with some of the best amenities I've seen anywhere.

Singapore is a city-state in Asia just over 80 miles from the equator. It has many attractions.

In the early 1800s it had been just a fishing village. It went on to become a settlement of Britain then a part of Malaysia, and, finally, became independent in 1965.

In the 80s and 90s the government was very strict with the populace. During that time an American received lashes from a cane for vandalism and people were arrested if they
chewed gum. Any gay behavior was strictly prohibited.

Today, Singapore has loosened up quite a bit. Gays are accepted more. The standard of living has improved to that of the United States (or better.) The modernity of the city-state surpasses that of the United States and the infrastructure is nearly the best in the world.

The place is incredible and definitely worth a visit. When you go don't miss the Indian section of town.

Floating on Silk--Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

A couple of friends and I drove about 2 hours outside of Hanoi, Vietnam to get to Ha Long Bay. Then we got on one of these canoes to get to the bay. The ride was smooth as silk as was the water. Ha Long means descending dragon, which is what the mountains that run along the banks of the bay look like.

Using Your Head

This is a scene that you'll probably never see in the United States--an elderly woman, carrying stuff on her head. That's why it's a great photo.

I've written quite a bit about about Antigua's charm in previous posts.

Of all the colonial cities in the Americas, Antigua is my favorite. The weather's fine, the view of the mountains, terrific.

Antigua is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Mayan part of Central America.

Many people in Guatemala are descendants of the Mayan indigenous culture, a culture that has survived a tumultuous history.

Tree House in the Middle of Nowhere

Nothing like finding a good tree house to photograph while you're traveling. Looks as if this one has seen better days. A tree house can be as complex to build as a normal house or as simple as a bunch of two by fours attached to a tree.

The tree house above looks like a safety hazard in a tree that's dead.

I took the picture in summer, so it has to be dead.

Craving Coffee in Europe the Nescafe Way

The stuff's everywhere--in hotel rooms, in cafes, in restaurants, on the grocery shelf, on trains. It's Nescafe, Europe's answer to coffee-on-the-go.

You'll find little packets of Nescafe just about everywhere coffee is served. In many places there are two kinds of coffee on the menu, expresso drinks and Nescafe.

Now let me tell you about those little packets; one isn't enough. I need three in one cup of hot water if I'm to make a dent in the grogginess I have when I get up in the morning. Two cups with three packets in each usually will get me going in the morning.

With the euro at record highs against the dollar, Nescafe is sure to turn into the coffee for Americans. No more expressos...they're $5 a pop when taking the exchange rate into account. I can drink up to 10 expressos in a day (five doubles a couple of times a day). That can cost me up to $50 a day, just for coffee.

Now when I go to Europe, I drink Nescafe all day. To save money, I just go to the store and buy a jar. That only costs about $7 after the exchange rate. And it'll give me all the coffee I need for a week.

The Galapagos Finch

There are 14 species of finches on the Galapagos Islands. The anatomy of the finches has been dependent on the environmental surroundings. Beaks, for example, develop so that the bird can get food from its surroundings.

Charles Darwin had noticed that the finches on the islands varied from island to island. The picture above is of a warbler finch, which has a thin, sharp beak so that it can spear insects.

I took the photo above on a Galapagos cruise last summer.

A Photographer's Life

You'll meet the Rainbow Motel sign coming into Livingston, Montana on Highway 89 South.

The sign is across the street from the motel in a big ditch, which in the summertime is filled with knee high grass.

I'm not sure when this sign was erected. It looks like maybe the 60s. If so, the sign is in really good shape.

I'm debating on whether to blow this sign up really big and frame it.

Of late I've been printing up many of my photos so there's a record of them and so I can go out and show them to galleries.

I hope to get picked up by a gallery outside of Palm Springs. Selling photography's a tough business.

A few of my photos were at M Modern Gallery in Las Vegas, but didn't do well, so I'm reevaluating what I've got out there and updating.

I just sold a slew of work at Palm Springs Consignment, which I was happy about. Evidently, that work is going to be put in Pottery Barn for a photo shoot.

For more of my sign images go here.

Strasbourg to Paris Orly

Last week I was traveling from Strasbourg, France to the Paris airport.

It was unbelievable how fast the train went. I arrived at Paris Orly about 2 hours after I got on the train. The train only made about two or three stops.

I wish we had trains like that going from city to city in the United States.

The First Hilton

I don't think I've ever read anything about El Paso, Texas. It's a great place to walk around. You're most likely to have good weather (it's almost always sunny there) and you'll find some great early and mid-century architecture. Much of it is being renovated.

Much of the downtown area is being renovated, so there are some good places to shop and eat.

I'm sure you've heard of the Plaza Hotel (there's one in New York and in Shanghai). Did you know there's also a Plaza Hotel in El Paso?

The Plaza Hotel, is located in downtown at 106 Mills Avenue. Built in 1929, the hotel is 239 feet high. It's an Art Deco styled, steel-framed building with a brown brick face. On top is a copper pyramid.

Before 1963, the hotel was a Hilton, Conrad Hilton's first highrise hotel in the world. I wonder if Paris (Hilton's granddaughter) knows this.

According to Wikopedia, Elizabeth Taylor briefly lived in the penthouse of the hotel after she married Conrad Hilton's son Nicky.

Object Size in Photography

This picture says a lot about the size of people and objects. In photography it's a nice effect when you compare the sizes of things.

One never thinks of a small person in terms of an old cranker of car. The car looks really big compared the boy, making it seem much bigger than it really is.

The woman on the left side of the image gives a third object so that your eye is making an evaluation not just on the car, but also on her and she, too, looks really large because the boy is the main object in the picture. He's the object to which you compare all other objects.

Baby Orangutan

There's a castle, a botanical garden and a zoo in the Bois de Vincennes, a park in the eastern part of Paris.

In this park I found a baby orangutan. It was in a cage romping around with its mother.(Mothers stay with their offspring until they are seven years old.)

Orangutans can only be found on the in Borneo and Sumatra.

Sigma DG HSM in the French Countryside

This photo taken with a Sigma 17-35mm DG HSM lens covers 104 degrees of view

Nothing like a good wide angle lens. I'm glad I have a good one--a Sigma 17-35 mm DG HSM wide angle zoom lens.

I have a Canon 5D so what I see is what I get in terms of focal lengths because the 5D has a full-sized sensor.

The camera has a large aperture (f2.8 to f4).

This lens can be mounted on Canon, Nikon, Minolta and Pentax cameras.

This lens is not new; it came out in 2003.

No Smoking France

If you take a close look at the picture above you'll see the following written on the mirror in French: "Recontres no tabac sans tabac retrouve lavue."

Sitting in the cafe where this was written in Strasbourgh, France, I looked at the word tabac and knew that the French I read has something to do with the new law that was passed all over France that prohibits smoking in public places indoors.

Please help me and all who read this blog by translating the text in the above picture.

Musée d'Art moderne et contemporain

The Museum of Modern Art in Strasbourg, France rivals other modern art museums in bigger cities such as Paris or New York.

The museum is located at 1, place Hans Jean Arp, 67076 Strasbourg Cedex

It opened 1998, and has a great permanent collection with works from such artists as Gustave Doré, Jean Arp, Max Ernst and Vassily Kandinsky.

It's open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and from noon to 10 p.m. on Thursday. The museum is also open Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

In the picture above I staged two friends in front of this replica of a house. My friends happen to be wearing clothes that matched the house.

What photographer's work am I trying to emulate?

Greetings from Strasbourg

Yesterday, after renting a car and then driving to Strasbourg with three friends, I came to the hotel, took a nap and then watched the town going crazy blasting off fireworks. 

If the blasts I heard and saw last night happened anywhere in the United States, a fleet of police cars would have come to arrest and book people for an overnight jail stay. 

Strasbourg, quaint and German-like has a unique history. It's situated in Northeastern France on the border with Germany and on the banks of the Rhine River. 

It became part of France after Louis IVX's troops took it over and then became part of Germany again in 1870. Then, in 1918, it became French again, only to be taken over by Germany again in 1940. Finally, in 1944, it became part of France, a city that is still an important part France today. 

The culture here is a unique combination of German and French culture.