Another night, another interior

This image I call "Blue light special". It isn't new , but it was in a show this year at the Madlab gallery The gallery is a cool place part gallery part improv theater. It is another example of when I was looking at the light and composition that was existing in the room I walked into. The next night I came back and shot it. For regular readers ( if there are any) you can tell I've done the same thing again here. It seems like I'm getting to the point of putting one serious photo piece every other day , followed by something more off the wall. Seems to be working for me

George Jetson at the Swivel lounge!

Here is our favorite spaceage man George Jetson stopping off at the swivel lounge! This is something I never remember seeing on the T.V. show! I don't see Jane in the Picture, and who is swiveling anyway? Is this a strip club?
Party on George!

New "Improved Ruins" project

This is the first of a new series I started using photos, and adding color. The photos I'm looking for are the same buiding ruins, industrial shapes, but pieced together. This is something I've been thinking about doing for a while and this is a first stab at using the photo for the shape and adding color. I think this is one turned out o.k., but I'm looking on to bigger things like layering 2 or 3 images, and adding the color to blend or add contrast. Well, It's out in public now, hopefully some more refined examples will come along later.

Inca Pottery

While visiting Peru, we saw Machu Picchu, and several other awesome displays of MASSIVE stone building projects. The Inca culture also made some pretty cool pottery! We saw this example at a museum in Lima.(Peru, not Ohio)

Machu Picchu Terraces

This photo was taken on a trip to Peru a few years ago. This was a totally awesome sight seeing this entire city built on the top of a mountain at 8,000 feet, thats higher than Denver by quite a bit. It was a ceremonial center and had a solar observatory for the eqinoxes. It was abandoned by the time of the Spanish conquest , no one knows why.
This shot is of the terraces on the side of the mountain that make it possible to walk around. All of this stone and building material had to be carried from the river valley at the foot of the mountain, and they didn't use the wheel! The photo is done on infra red film which is why it looks the way it does. It records the infra- red radiation not the visible spectrum. I think it adds quite a bit to the other wordly feel of the place. It is definately someplace worth visiting!

A heads up on the situation

This pink head was from a C.P.R. dummy I found while walking around and exploring an abandonded place. These are used to teach people C.P.R. so it must have been required for at least some of the employees. I also found family polaroids lying on a desk that had been there for who knows how long. I didn't disturb them, for future visitors to see. I did take this head with me however, and he will show up again in future photos I'm sure. I think he adds to the mystery of the scene, and is also funny in a sick way. If anyone has any ideas for where he might look good let me know.

An Interesting bit of Westside History

The pictures on todays post are the shopping center Display of the seven wonders This is a cool display that was near my home when I was growing up. This ws truly a one of a kind 1950's-1960's display.
It took up the whole center of the shopping center, and was quite elaborate as you will find out if you read the article which is linked above. This is something I have a lot of great memories of. I think The article which was in the local newspaper under "preserving westside history" is very interesting, And I hope you will enjoy it.

Hollywood California

This is one of the hidden gems that I saw. This was part of a building facade on Hollywood blvd. that wasn't particularly obvious. I was attracted to the oriental mask look. More than one of the buildings had little things like this on built into them. Very garish, but not necessarily all that obvious without looking. The climate keeps this type of thing from deteriorating as fast as it would other places I'm sure.

On Location

Going on location as I do,to abandonded and decaying areas can sometimes have its dangers.....

Decomposing Composition

This is a piece that I did while on my Youngstown
trip to check out the abandonded steel mills.

I Know there is always art to be found in the industrial landscape, and I thought the color here was great. I went looking for any thing I might find there to shoot. I was blown away by the whole scene and ended up doing a lot of overall documentary type scenes. Those pics. are posted on here earlier.

I have seen the composition in the manmade landscpe for a longtime, and always wanted to grab it as can be seen a lot on this site.

Here is a concrete lawn statue I saw while cruising through a trailer park one day seeing what I could see. Paydirt! This is exactly the kind of stuff I'm hoping to see.( I put the mushroom cloud on his head) The plan was to work it into another composition somehow, but we'll see what happens, Sometimes an idea just comes to me, and sometimes things sit on the shelf.
I think this kind of stuff is funny because it is so weird. I can see why people find it offensive, but I also know of some Black people who collect this type of thing. The watermelon idea being associated with black people has always intrigued me, since I never understood the association. I asked an older black lady from Mississippi if she had any insight on that.
She said that it might be a sterotype of black people having watermelon seed spitting contests. She said that was a common, low cost entertainment, that was wholesome fun.That was very enlightening to me This was then perverted into what we see here.Some politically correct people might think this should not be seen at all. with or without any understanding of it. I am now and have always been out of the jurisdiction of the politically correct thought police! Ha! ha!

What! Me P.C.?

I saw this scene while in a small town last year.I am always on the lookout for this type of thing.. That makes my wife uncomfortable with my driving sometimes! I don't know what the small black man figures are called, but I do know that they are usually holding a fake lantern. This one has the ability to put 60 watts up close on the Virgin Mary! ITS A MIRACLE ! Unfortunately I didn't get to see it lit up at night, even though I was there 2 nights and drove by both nights! What a ripoff.

Working the steps at night

This is one of the first night shots I ever did. It started by sitting on the porch looking at the steps in the dark and saying that looks like a cool composition! I found it stashed away recently. It wasn't particularly well received at the time in an intro photography class where people were working on traditional subjects. Hoowever, I can see how my eye for composition really hasn't changed all that much, and this was the beginning of what I'm still doing.

Pimp My Dog!

THIS IS ELVIS THE WHOLESOME SPOKESDOG
ISN'T HE CUTE?


I have a friend who runs a business making trendy dog clothes for little dogs. The website is CHIWOWWOW.BIZ Apparently there is quite a market for hip handmade dog clothes. The website was having a "photoshop Elvis" contest going on, so I got on it! I had recently seen the 1972 movie "Superfly" so I was inspired by the pimp hats and related accesories. I wanted to find a good picture of a big old Cadillac with huge whitewalls , but couldn't do it. The motel picture came from my L.A. trip I loved the sight of the neon on that place, and I thought it would be a great movie set. I stopped the car to get a picture of it and a few other cool things on that trip. So that is the story of how the innocent Elvis had his image makeover, gold tooth and all!