Recently I’ve been studying the work of Michael Kenna. He has an exhibit going on in San Francisco and will do a book signing on July 24th. I’m planning on attending, but I figured since I have the time, I might as well get to know him better. I started with his A Twenty Years Retrospective book. A great book – I am planning on reviewing it soon. I will buy few more of his books next month. Kenna has always been one of my favorite photographers, but now even more so that I take the time to study his work and his life in greater detail.
In that spirit, I went back to one of my favorite B&W photos, which sort of resembles Kenna style a little bit. I took this photo at Golden Gate Bridge back in the summer of 2008. I reworked it from an earlier version to match my current vision. I plan on getting out and shooting in the fog a lot more this coming summer. I don’t necessarily want to copy Kenna, but I would like to explore that new world of fog that I really haven’t had a chance to shoot in just yet. Not sure what will come out of it – but I’m excited to try.
Yesterday me and few of the DMU photographers got together with San Francisco Photography Meet Up Group for their meet up that took place in Dolores Park in San Francisco. While we were supposed to shoot the skyline, we end up shooting fire dancers who came along. I shot 300 or so frames of them, and I don’t think I like any single image, so instead I’ll share a couple photos of fellow photographers that I took. After the meetup, we end up in a local restaurant where we reviewed the photos, and were treated to free food and drinks, courtesy of HP. Best shot even won a $2,000 HP laptop.
This is Shims, one of the admins in the DMU group. Very dedicated member there, he’s also a great photographer. I’ve always admired his street and abstract photos. Check out his photostream here.
This is Benjamin Heath, who I met few months ago in the DMU group, but have not met him in real life yet. I always wondered why his avatar looks like Pushkin, famous Russia poet, and while you can’t really see it here, but he does have curly hair, so that makes sense now. Check out his photostream – love his vision of San Francisco.
We visited the pumpkin patch in downtown San Jose yesterday. When asked which of the two pumpkins Maks was considering we should buy him, he made a very smart decision and headed for the exit..
After over two years of living in the Bay Area, on Saturday I finally visited San Francisco Museum of Modern Arts, and the afternoon was well spent. If you have the chance, I highly recommend a visit, and I’ll tell you why.
I initially went wanting to see the new exhibit that opened couple of weeks ago (thanks to Mike Olivella for the tip), featuring the work of Ansel Adams and Georgia O’Keeffe, titled Natural Affinities. I’ve seen several exhibits by Adams, but have never seen the work of O’Keeffe in person, and both did not disappoint. It’s always good to see some of the well known works by Adams (Moonrise Hernandez and Monolith are on display, among others), to see Pepper 30 by Weston (also part of the exhibit), but along with those, there was a number of photos which I have not seen neither in person, nor in books. Some of them were from New Mexico, others were from Yosemite. All of O’Keeffe’s work was new to me, and I enjoyed her style and her vision.
While there, however, I came across an exhibit that I liked even more and it is the work by Robert Frank, The Americans. While I do not do a whole lot of documentary photography myself, I appreciate it as much as any other kind. Seeing this famous work by Frank in person took me back in time, and this is the kind of history trip that is both educational, and emotional. I am planning on going back to see that exhibit soon and give it the time it deserves.
Towards the end of my visit in the museum, however, I was pleasantly surprised to run into two of my Flickr contacts, Martin Taylor and his wife PJ, whose work I have followed ever since I first opened Flickr account almost three years ago. We never met in real life, but it was fun to recognize them and visit with them for a bit. It’s for sure a small world.
Finally, SFMOMA is a beautiful architectural structure, and I’ll be posting a few of my favorite photos I took inside the building.
I’ll wrap up the weekend of shooting swimming with a picture of 2nd best all-around swimmer in the world, Ryan Lochte. I’m a big fan of Lochte and I probably like him even more than Michael Phelps. Lochte is always in the shadow of Phelps because they swim the same events and are about the same age, so Lochte came second in many events behind Phelps. Yet take away Phelps, and Lochte is the best all around swimmer in the world. Phelps himself said many times that he’s a better swimmer because of Lochte.
SANTA CLARA, CA – Michael Phelps, the greatest Olympian of all time, is finishing 200m butterfly race at the Santa Clara Invitational. Phelps won the event with the time of 1:54.31, breaking the previous meet record, belonging to himself.
I’m spending this weekend attending this big meet held in Santa Clara (next door to San Jose) where some of the best swimmers in the world participate in preparation for the World Cup held in August in Rome, Italy. In today’s events they saved the best for the last, but it was worth the wait. Just as you have seen it at the Olympics, Phelps won his signature race without too much effort or competition.
Looking through these frames and how much body he gets out of the water with each butterfly stroke, it is no wonder Phelps has no competition in butterfly.
As a swimmer myself, this is one of my favorite weekends of the year.
This famous Moscow landmark symbolizes a new beginning that took place with Perestroika and collapse of the Berlin wall. Since we have an international child, I only thought it was appropriate I have an image of my son, who’s half Russian, half American, in my collection in front of the wall.
Carolyna Marks was invited in 1989 by the Center for Creative Initiative and the Vocational Schools in Moscow to go as their guest for a year to work with Soviet youth to build a Peace Wall. In the course of the year, a Peace Wall Core of ten translators – four adults and six teenagers – and Carolyna worked with 7,000 children, ages ten to eighteen. This is where the Peace Empowerment Process was first conceived.
The Moscow Peace Wall was completed in November 1990, less than a year after the Berlin Wall fell, and is prominently located on the Arbat, a 12th century mall near the Kremlin. It is over a city block long and eight feet in height. (Source)
As I mentioned previously, I recently shot a wedding of my friends Jen & Jordan. Instead of posting a few images from that memorable event, I figured the story of their wedding is better told through many images compiled in a video, so there..
Haven’t uploaded any self-portraits in years, literally. This picture allows you to check out how big Maks is now. It seems that it was only yesterday that we welcomed him into the world.. Yet he’s scheduled become a Big Brother this Fall!
Entries (RSS)