Photographer Report - Annie Leibovitz (Disney Series)

I had the chance to see an Annie Leibovitz gallery in Balboa a couple years ago, and was mesmerized by her work. Most of her images seemed to focus on celebrities and pop culture in general - to me, there were a lot of sensationalized images.


As a big Disney fan, I was surprised to find out that 1) Annie Leibovitz was going to doing a series of images combining celebrities and classic scenes from Disney animated films, and 2) I even knew who Annie Leibovitz was. Really, it made me feel cultured, if even only a little bit.

On the surface this is consumerism in its prime, but me being biased towards Disney, I find the charm in the series. I think there's something otherwordly about them - two worlds that really shouldn't exist in one, yet they do. They are jarring, yet somehow natural.

Photographer Report - David Michael

David Michael, or "darkbeer" as he is known online, is a theme park photographer, best known for his work on the website www.miceage.com. His is job basically to provide images to narrate editorials by online Disney insiders who dish on the latest news stories regarding the future of the theme parks. Through his work, Michael frequently deviates from this and captures random images from the park - often small details that the everyday parkgoer would overlook, like an oddly placed statue or a mother duck with her ducklings in the Rivers of America. For all that is artifical in the Disney theme parks, there is actually a good amount of wildlife who choose to take up residence in Disney's manmade landscapes.

He has also found a good hobby in creating a library of downloadable windows wallpapers, most.y comprised of images from the parks. He can be found on darkbeer.smugmug.com.

FIELDTRIP REPORT - Quail Gardens

My final field trip for Advanced Digital Arts - QUAIL GARDENS.

I'd been before, but not in the same context. A few years ago, I somehow ended up here one December evening with a group of friends, where they were having a Christmas celebration, complete with lights, carolers, and free marshmallow roasting. It was pretty awesome, but I couldn't really get a good grasp on what was really going on here.


To be completely honest, I really didn't take many pictures of California native plants, and the few I did take weren't very good. I had to hike quite a ways to find them, and by the time I did, I'd already passed many other much more interesting and beautiful plants from all over the world that really dwarfed the California natives in style by comparison. As such, my best photos are from other parts of the gardens.


It really was hard to sort through my pics at the end of the day, as the gardens very amazing and there were so many different kidns of plants. It was almost like something out of a dream or fantasy novel - just a really cool place that somehow exists right in our own backyard.


This was another solo trip for me, so there's really not a whole lot to say as far as trip happenings - just a case of me showing up, wandering around for an hour and enjoying the scenery. I'll probably be back here.

FIELDTRIP REPORT - Las Pilitas Nursery

The drive out here by myself was really something I'd been needing for a while - after a few weeks of Big Love related craziness, a lengthy drive through some pretty scenery with reflective music was great.


The trip itself was a little weird, as there was really no one here aside from a guy hanging out at the information booth. Despite this, I had pictures to take, so take pictures I did!



Most of these plants I'd seen in other field trips (mainly Tree of Life), but I did like the setup they had going here at this nursery, set against a valley and under a lot of trees and vegetation. It seems it would be a pretty relaxing place to live and/or work.


As I was by myself, I didn't stay for too long, but it was a fun little outing regardless.

FUNES Digital Art Competition

Here's my entries:

Poster I designed for a play I was in. Charles Mee said he likes it.



A Leaf. YES.




I like DDR. A lot.

FIELDTRIP REPORT - Indian Rock Garden

The same group of us had carpooled for the last 3 fieldtrips, and I felt kind of guilty for not volunteering to drive until the trip that was most local out of any of them. I think somewhere in my mind I had planned on also driving to Camp Pendleton, but that trip never panned out, so now I must live with my guilt forever.



The location for this trip was somewhere I wouldn't have expected - in the middle of the pad part of Vista, there is a very nice neighborhood, and in the middle of that neighborhood there is this random rock garden place - unexpected, but cool.



The site itself was not very big, but full of vegetation. Perhaps the best part of this trip for me was the view of Vista and Oceanside and all the surroundings. What an amazing view! I don't know why, but I have a thing with sweeping vistas such as the one there - they make me very contemplative.

The rock itself was very imposing, and something about it made me want to conquer it. So yeah, I just kinda climbed up all over it, which apparently they weren't happy about, but I'd like to think many from my class got some good pictures out of it.

Some other miscellaneous notes about this trip:

- a small lemon grove reminded me of the secret garden and was a cool place to hide.
- free sandwiches! they really went out of their way for us and for that I am grateful.
- the tour guide type person reminds me of John Hammond in the pictures I took of him, even though he acted nothing like him in person.



This trip was an all around good time, despite me being yelled at for climbing on things. I’d say that was balanced out nicely by the free food, though. And because we can never have enough pictures of Zane looking weird, I will end this writeup with just that.

FIELDTRIP REPORT - Rincon - Digging Adventures!!!

I've been a lot of places this semester and done a lot of things, and for some reason this day put a lot of that into perspective. Two thoughts frequently came to mind throughout the trip, the first being ‘so, I took Advanced Digital Arts to learn how to dig holes?’, and the second being, ‘wow, this morning I was in lecture, and now I’m standing in the middle of this gorgeous valley somehow.’ Despite my confusion, this turned out to be a wonderful experience overall.




The trip started pleasantly, as the last one did, with a fun group of people to carpool with. I always enjoy drives out into Valley Center for whatever reason - it's fun to leave my typical suburban surroundings, and make me happy that I don't have to go very far to do it.

Not long after arrival, we were thrust into the work flow. A large patch of the valley had been divided into four sectors, and we were counted off into groups to start planting. They were sure to mix up people from the different classes, so I got to know some people through the experience.


As I will surely reiterate multiple times, I don't know, nor do I pretend to know anything about plants, and since I didn't take notes I can't speak of what exactly we were putting in the ground. All I know is that we had a method that worked pretty well - Someone arranged plants, I dug holes next to them, and our two remaining members removed the plants from their containers and planted them. Our efficient assembly line method made for a quick process, and allowed us to finish before most groups.


After planting, we were treated with powdered donuts and given Rincon coffee mugs as gifts, both of which I was happy about. At some point during my taking advantage of their hospitality, the rest of my class seemingly disappeared - I later discovered they went on a hike in the hills. While they did that, I was snatched up to help set up irrigation systems. Again, something entirely unexpected (never did I think I would be doing this during college for any reason,) but a pleasant learning experience.


At the end of the trip, I did not hesitate to snatch up an entire case of powedered donuts for the ride home - this was a bad idea, as a trip to Chipotle followed shortly after.

FIELDTRIP REPORT - Pechanga

I've been to Pechanga many times, as it's the casino of choice for me and my friends, but I'd never been anywhere else on the reservation besides the casino. As such, it was kind of weird bypassing the casino entirely on the drive there.

After meeting at the gas station and stocking up on some last minute snackage, we (and by that I mean, everyone in the class but me) got on a bus to drive over to the giant tree. Initially I had imagined we there would be a lot of hiking involved, so I planned accordingly, but this did not happen. On any other day, hiking would’ve been fine, but the windy weather made me thankful for the car/bus rides to each subsequent location. Despite the strong winds, the reservation proved to be a hidden gem in an area I typically associate with gambling and an amazing all you can eat buffet.

First stop was a giant tree, which I REALLY wanted to climb all over, but apparently was sacred and we were lucky just to be seeing it. The tree was so overgrown that is seemed more like a structure or shelter than anything else, which was pretty cool. We didn't stay there long, though. Pretty soon, we relocated.


The rest of the trip was a tour of the reservation, where there were authentic Indian structures scattered every which way. The tour guide knew quite about about the structures and locations, and also spoke much about basket weaving and showed us some of the plants used for it.


At the very end, they took us to the plant nursery and went into a little more detail about such processes, but by then the wind had really picked up and all I could think about was how stupid I was not to have brought a jacket.

Sally Mann

I've written about Sally Mann before, possibly on this blog, though it's hard to remember...



I've seen the photographs of her children before, in a shorter documentary on her life and work. This extended documentary dug a bit deeper into her life, possibly a little deeper than I wanted to go, but it was interesting nonetheless. They was she approaches life in general is fascinating, not anything like myself or really anyone I know - this is evident in her work. Though I can't say I see eye to eye with her on everything. I was admittedly a little disturbed by the segment on corpses, not because I have a problem with seeing images of corpses, but more because her I couldn't connect with why she would want to take so many of those photos in the first place. I agree that the body is only a shell of the self, but then she goes on to glorify it - seemed a bit contradictory to me.

Quiz 1

Sepia Junk w/ Frame


This is probably my favorite because the sepia combined with the frame just makes it look really cool. Or I think so anyway. Also, Zane's face cracks me up. Thank you Zane.

And here is what it looked like when I made it!



"Perfect Color"



Split Tone / Vignette



BW One Color



Double Image



I wonder what Zane is imagining...

FIELDTRIP REPORT - Tierra Miguel

This time it was Carrie's turn to drive, and the trip to Tierra Miguel was perilous, to say the very least. I think we almost died at least twice. My complaining about how we should stop and steal oranges along the highway distracted her enough to freak out about possibly missing the turn to get to the farm.... and what do you do if you miss the turn? How would you know? Should you turn around and go back, and risk getting hopelessly lost?

These questions aside, we got there, and listened to a presentation about how California is pretty much screwed if there's an emergency and we need food. That was their mission: make sure we're NOT screwed. They are trying to create a convenient, practical way of providing locally grown foods to the community, which is both healthy and better for all things in the long run.


After this presentation (which was legitimately interesting,) we toured the farm and it was awesome for many reasons. One part because the valley was beautiful, one part because I got a few good pics in during the trip, and one part the eccentric people accompanying me. But mostly, it was the food. I hadn't eaten all day, so for me, the farm was an open buffet. Carrots pulled from the ground, broccoli, all kinds of herbs and stuff, and some purple plant called kalrabi (sp?). It tasted kind of like a combination of onion and apple... I'm not sure if these plants actually tasted good, or if I was just so hungry I would've eaten anything, but I'm glad I got to try something new, which is something I don't do nearly enough.


The downside to the trip was the lack of lighting later in the evening - had the presentation occurred after the tour instead of before, it probably would've made for some better photography. That aside I had a fun time and learned some things too.

After that, I went to karaoke night and sang Billy Idol.

Framey Frames

Framers McFramersons galore...







Thank you. That is all.

Community Supported Agriculture

The articles "Eating Local..." and "Reclaiming the Heart..." provide a look at a topic I'd never really given much thought into - that is where food comes from and the process of how it gets to us. My lack of knowledge on this topic is quite evident my one of my last posts, aptly titled "FOOD".

One of the more interesting points of this article was how American's are becoming "disillusioned" with the food they eat, in a way. The trend of buying organic food is on the rise as people grow more and more health conscious.

This is actually somewhat surprising to me, as I thought people were becoming LESS health conscious as time went by. It seemed to me that society was only becoming more fast paced, leading to more of a shift towards processed foods and whatnot - perhaps our country is becoming self aware, and trying to rectify these mistakes. Time will tell.

Sepias

Edward Burtynsky - Manufactured Landscapes

This guy is all about man vs. machine type stuff, and what effect our creations have on our landscapes.

I feel like I can kind of relate to Burtynsky in some small way - I've always felt a similar feeling towards rollercoasters, and how they alter our landscapes in very artificial yet beautiful ways. I'm not really sure if Burtynsky thinks quarries are "beautiful" or not, but he definitely seems to think they are impressive, if for no other reason than their size and dramatic impact on our surroundings and of nature.

Many of his photographs have a colored pencil look to them - reminds me a lot of the images we saw last week using the photomatix software. I really want to get my hands on this program and start messing around with it, because the results are very striking. I'm not sure if Burtynsky used similar techniques or something completely different, but either way it's eye-catching and all in all pretty nifty.

FOOD

Before I left the house, I quickly ate a bowl of Frosted Flakes at 10 am this morning. It was delicious. I then grabbed a pack of strawberry Pop Tarts because I knew I wouldn't be back home until after 7 and I really don't have money for food. I carried those Pop Tarts around with me until around 2:30 when I finally had a chance to eat them. I enjoyed them thoroughly.

I don't really know where these foods came from, besides my pantry (and the grocery store before that.) Assuming Pop Tarts don't come from a bush in Africa, somewhere near the cradle of life, I guess they probably come from some factor - ditto the Frosted Flakes, though the milk is probably a bit easier to figure out. Dairy farm, cow, pasteurization plant, some kind of truck, and what not. Beyond that, I'd imagine there's probably not a whole lot of real food in either one of those... maybe it came from a science lab?

These choices were based on simply my hasty nature and unwillingness to get up earlier to cook breakfast or make a sandwich to pack for lunch. Cereal is easy to prepare. Pop Tarts are a good snack to have between classes when I don't want to have a full meal (and I do try to avoid big meals and run on as little food as I can, where possible.)

I'd say that I'm slightly more conscious of the nutritional value of the food I eat than, let's say, a year ago. I waiver in an out of a diet, so when I'm trying to lose pounds I tend to count the calories in the nutrition facts panel on the foods I eat. Of course, when I'm at my weight I want I completely ignore them. Discipline is something I still need to work on.

Mark Dion

Mark Dion made a garden, but not in the traditional sense. When I see most gardens, I think they look like gardens - a pretty simplistic statement, but I have a very clear image in my head when I think the word "garden".

When they've done here is take an actual tree from a forest and move it into a metropolitan area, with all it's moss and other such plants intact. Rather than a garden, it looks like a little window to a much larger, much more untamed place. It's both real and fake as the same time, with it's wild look contained in its completely artificial greenhouse structure.


Making it all even stranger is the shape of the greenhouse, which isn't symmetrical like most buildings; the walls are all kind of slanted, in a "forced perspective" as they described it.

I wouldn't think that something like this would work, taking something out of it's natural habitat, I mean. Obviously, a lot of work went into the life support systems for the plant life to face this challenge. The piece is definitely a clash of two worlds.

I am curious to know what local residents think of having this near them. I'm sure many think it's a little weird. I did, too, until they really explained it at the end of the video.

FIELDTRIP REPORT - Tree of Life

Saturday morning included ditching work, narrowly avoiding traffic while driving up the coast through Camp Pendleton, breaking my diet (regrettably), and taking a journey though San Juan Capistrano to the Tree of Life nursery.

Admittedly, I didn't do a whole lot of research on the place before going, but the prospect of getting outside on a beautiful Saturday morning was much more appealingly than spending the hours indoors at my job. Also, I was partially swayed by the double field trip credit, I must admit.

The nursery's main focus was on preservation. Somewhere during the proceedings, between random photography and video taking, we listened to Abe Sanchez as he gave a presentation on the goal of such preservation and what their efforts were really about. His lecture seemed focused primarily on basket weaving - it's roots, traditions of practice, methods, techniques, and (most importantly) the materials used. As they're all natural materials, the nursery aims to preserve mainly of the plants needs to form baskets, as well as those used to create dyes and such. It seemed like they were very dedicated in keeping a dying art form alive.

Abe also spoke a little about the cultural and ways of life of the indigenous tribes - an interesting bit came out of his recount of today's native American youth losing interest in basket weaving in favor of things such as internet, yet still using ancient dialects on the internet to communicate. This seemed like kind of a strange clash of culture and time periods.

The outing as a whole was very relaxing. The type of weather I describe as such being the type of whether where "I want to go surfing, even though I don't surf." I managed to get out of work, get some good photos, and also some video for a documentary I'm going to (attempt to) make for another class.

More pictures and video later (if I feel like it.)

Scott Calhoun - "A Lake of Pure Sunshine"

"I took a deep breath, hoping to inhale a large dose of poppy confidence before heading home."

I like how Scott Calhoun writes; his trip report seems like the perfect model for my outings - casual, yet getting the point across.

He seems to be a man who shares my love for the desert (and for saving money on cheap hotels) - there's something about the desert that is comforting. It's nice to know that there are still places in this world that are vast expanses, and have not yet fallen victim to urbanization. Something very peaceful about it.

Deserts also have such interesting plant life - almost alien. I would like to go back to Arizona just for the sake of photography. I think I will.

An-My-Le

"Unfortunately, pictures do not smell."

Indeed, they do not, but if they did, artists would have an easier job. Sometimes I try to put myself somewhere that I once was, trying to remember every thought, feeling, smell... everything. It creates almost an out of body experience. No form of art can fully capture the experience of actually being somewhere, so artists have to do the best they can with what we have.

"Scale is important because it shows us how insignificant we are."

If more people realized this, they might realize how unimportant war is as well. We're all headed for the same fate, really - coexistence just seems like it would be easier for some reason.

"War is very complicated, it's not black and white... that's why the work is ambiguous. It's meant to be."

Though her final sentiments indicate her feelings against war in general, her photography doesn't really show a bias one way or the other. Mainly, her work just suggests a fascination of war in general - a curiosity, really. I think curiosity is important for an artist.

Robert Adams

When you put two pictures side by side, you are influencing how the viewer looks at them; how they react. This is what Robert Adams believes. This is very helpful advice when looking at photography from a technical standpoint, or at least from a book-making standpoint (something in which I'll have more experience in doing very soon.) It's something to keep in mind when I design my next couple books - images tell a story. Another interesting tidbit from Adams: images imply more than what they show.

His images of the so-called "valley of death" were kind of haunting, in a way. The black and white on all of his images probably had something to do with it. I believe it at least leads the viewer to think differently. In color, the images may not have had such an effect.