After a much needed (and enjoyed) trip to spend time with the family, now it’s time to make the long journey back to NZ. First stop on an epic 3 day trek… LA.
It’s all been very Scottish around here for the past month or two… and I’ve a bunch more images to share although some are locked up in an NDA for a while and will need to wait. Anyway, for today i thought I’d offer you a little palate cleanser, something completely different to more Scottish landscapes. I’ve spent a bunch of time recently in the US with family, which has been awesome as I don’t get to see them enough, and on the way I took a little stop to visit an art gallery/exhibition/event in L.A. before heading on to Austin. Here’s a little shot I grabbed from there.
I’ve been to downtown LA many times, and there are many good angles, but I think this one is just about one of the best. There was a lot of waiting around, however. I had to wait for big busses to pass me on either side so I could set up for the long exposure.
Usually, I’ll take 5 exposures in these situations, but I do something a little special. I’ll take the quicker exposures right away (often 1 or 2 seconds). And then I’ll pause and wait for a bus or something before taking the longer exposures. I create the HDR then mask in the tail lights from the photos where I get the best trails.
I haven’t been to LA since Covid… man it’s really changed quite a bit. I listen to the Tim Dillon podcast a lot (one of my faves – not for the faint of heart!) – but he has the funniest things to say about LA. Anyway, I took this one, I think, following a photowalk, after the USA bus tour of 13 cities… what a fun evening that was in Santa Monica!
I’ll be in LA for the week soon… should be a fun time. Catching up with old friends and some art collectors. Also working on some cool Machine Elf stuff. If you haven’t seen the latest Machine Elf fractal creations, be sure to check out the-machine-elf.com.
This image was from a fun day with some friends a few years back in LA. I was there for some work for a collector of my Fine Art and was able to have an impromptu photo shoot with some friends at the collector’s house. This is Sacha, and over there in the background you can see Century City surrounded by the flatness that is LA. (I also remember we recorded this afternoon in 360 for Passport subscribers, so if you saw that back then you got a peek behind the scenes of this awesome home.)
Here’s a behind the scenes shot of an action-packed recording session for an at the time unreleased production, Sage and Milo… or as it went on to be known, Superman vs Batman…
Here is one of the special animated creations for the recent drop on OpenSea.
What a crazy couple of days! Those of you who read the last newsletter or some recent posts will know that I launched a new collection of NFTs on OpenSea this past Tuesday. It’s my fourth drop overall after some experimentation previously on Foundation, MakersPlace and another on OpenSea. They were all great learning experiences (and exceeded expectations) and this week was no different.
The short version is that in 2 days, split over the 50 Cities/NFTs in the collection, over $1million USD was processed. My thanks to any of you who got involved, it’s really incredible and we are full of gratitude. Today, along with there being some items still available on the first and secondary markets, there are 4 auctions ending (LA, Moscow, Tokyo and Paris) if you want to get involved in the fun.
As I’ve mentioned in previous mails, I think NFTs are certainly something artists and collectors should be getting involved with now. The potential is huge, and I think it will be a big part of the art world in the future. That, along with giving back to other artists, is why I’m now investing in other NFT projects. I know it can be a bit daunting though, so I’ll be producing a bunch of how-to videos and recaps of my experience so far for Passport Subscribers. There are already 3 or 4 available which can be viewed after signing up ($9.99 a month, cancel any time, and on top of those NFT videos you get access to all of my tutorials to stream, preset downloads, eBooks and a weekly video which can be anything from processing tips to behind the scenes of helicopter rides in 360.). Once you’re in there, check this page for quick links to the previous NFT videos.
In terms of getting yourself involved in this drop… it’s fairly simple. You’ll need an electronic wallet (MetaMask is one that works with most NFT sites, others are available so definitely read some comparison articles). You’ll also want a way to get Crypto in/out from the “real world” and services like Coinbase are used for that (again, there are alternatives so do a bit of reading to see what’s best for you). If you’ve got questions, drop into my new Discord collectors group where there are a bunch of awesome, friendly people who will be happy to help. Feel free to join and just lurk or chat too as you ease yourself into this wild new world as a collector or creator.
*On re-reading this I just realised I automatically #’d NFT… too much posting on Crypto Twitter. Time to go take a solo lockdown walk…
