Synthetic Happiness and Photoshop

I have a strange array of answers I give when people ask me questions at book signings and stuff. I recently met a cool guy named Casey Berner, and he asked me if I ever “go back” to a photo after I am done to work on it again. I told him no, and then referred to a TED video from Dan Gilbert. Most of the time, I say this stuff and people just nod… but I don’t really know if it sinks in. But it did with Casey – in fact, he wrote a whole blog post on it and included the video I mentioned!

Coming to California

I’ll be coming out to California soon… to both LA and Northern California.  I’ll be sneaking into a few bookstores here and there to secretly sign books.  I hope things are warmer there than here!

Daily Photo – Sunset Under the Pier

We had a great time at the workshop today!  After a sunset dinner at the Oasis, we came back to the Driskill and I offered to let people watch me stay up late and process photos.  Everyone came but Cliff Baise who was probably drunk.  (Actually, during the workshop, Cliff uploaded this cool pic to Flickr).

I processed three images, and I had a bear of a time with this one from Manhattan Beach.  It was a class “HDR Problem” shot that had ghosting in the waves, a dirty gray sky, and unfortunate artifacting.  I showed everyone how to fix these problems, and I hope some of it sunk in!

This is the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. It was designed by Frank Gehry and completed in 2003.

The day was pretty hot, even for LA, so I ducked inside for a bit. There was some kind of event going on, and I was able to slip between the cracks of security to enter the inner sanctum. I would go grab a manager and try to explain the whole situation… like… you know… you really DO want me to take photos of this place… millions of people on the website will see it and want to come here and pay you money… but then again, I usually end up speaking to some low-level functionary that barely has the authority to tie their own shoes while on the clock. So, often, I don’t bother, and just sneak around, which is not easy with a tripod and the tank of a Nikon atop. I did get some shots from the interior of the concert hall as well, which I hope to process in coming months… as always, this is another thread that will get closed in true Lost fashion before the season ends…

This is a cool part of Hollywood with a lot of activity and interesting people-watching.  I do very much enjoy sitting stil with my camera and watching hundreds of interesting-people walk by, and it’s even better when there is a surreal background.  In the distance there is the famous El Capitan Theater.  You might have to click on ALL SIZES to get to the larger size to see it in detail.

Some lovely fountains just after dark in the center of a popular shopping center in Hollywood. The red sea of children playing in the water parted in time for me to take this photo.

This is one of most famous buildings in LA for these kind of advertisements. I can’t think of a cooler one than showing those three characters from GTA4. Even though I played and beat the game, I am not quite sure I ran into that gal on the left… I think I would remember that.

Here is one of everyone’s favorites, in his prime walking the streets of downtown LA, with his camera over his shoulder, in his element.

I had a great afternoon with Kris Kros (Joe)! We’ve known one another for years, and, like so many people, I’ve always admired his work. He’s one of many of you cool photographers here on Flickr that inspires me to change and experiment. I was just as impressed with his person as his photography.

I had a few spare hours on Saturday, so I contacted Joe that morning to see if he had some spare time, and, luckily, so did he! We started out by planning to go around LA shooting, but I think we spent about 75% of the time sitting around cafes while discussing photography, art, techniques, and a bunch of other adventures!

Right in the middle of downtown LA is this really unique and cool hotel called the Figueroa. It’s worth a visit if you ever make it downtown!

It’s a poor-man’s Times Square… LA’s attempt to make a cool hip place outside of the Staples center is the Nokia Blade Runner-esque montage of crass commercialism… It seems like a very strange place to me – it was pretty empty when I was there.

The LA nights tend to get a little cool, so there is nothing like an open pit fire to take the chill away. This is the hotel I stayed at in LA called the Custom Hotel (Stuck in Custom Hotel? Too easy!). I found it on this cool new boutique hotel site called TabletHotels.com. The site has the tagline “Hotels for Global Nomads”;, and aren’t we all?

It’s right by LAX and surprisingly inexpensive. They have this trendy club and bar (upstairs there) by the pool…

I had a great and busy time in LA last week… The weather was perfect and I found some time during the sunset to go out and shoot the dock at Manhattan Beach.

As I move my pics over to Flickr, I find some of these old funny ones. This one is for Lauren. Lauren, isn’t that you in the red? Why aren’t you closer to Will?

Of all the weird things that happen in my life, here is one I forgot to mention a few months ago. When I was in LA, I was staying at this fairly high-tone place called “Shutters”, where a lot of famous people end up gravitating from Hollywood. Anyway, while I was in the lobby answering email on my laptop, drinking a hot chocolate, and watching The Big Labowski up in the corner of my screen, Jerri Manthey came up to me. Remember her? Jerri from Survivor… you know, the gal that was all into Colby? These are facts I remember thanks to my familiarity with reality TV.

She was really into this movie I was watching and aghast that I had not seen it. I told her to shut her pie hole and then she gave me her email address and I got hers. Since then, she emails me about all these various Hollywood-ish events she is in. I’m really much too busy playing computer games and reading magical fantasy novels to attend, but she is nice enough to keep inviting me. Here are pictures from one of her recent events, where she was raising money for the hurricane. I told her I was against hurricanes, and I would not support her cause.

I think she was giving away a car or something. I’m not sure.

I came out to LA for a board meeting and ended up spending the 4th of July here in Santa Monica. It was a cool 60 degrees out on the Santa Monica pier, about 42 degrees (seriously) cooler than the heat I left in Austin! Here is a picture of the Santa Monica pier…

This place I am staying I highly recommend! It’s called Shutters and has a lot of nice little touches. My room has this cool shower with a lower showerhead that aims right at your ho-nannynanny (not that I have one of those). It is also filled with books and DVDs and weird quirky things like these juggling balls.

I decided to take full advantage and juggle while in the shower after my night on the beach.