 Camera: iPhone, Taken: 03.09.2009 @ 12:53 p.m., Exp: unknown, F/2.8, Altered w/: CameraBag app L.A. Angst: Los Angeles is a vast place. I didn't call it a city because L.A. is not just one city but this huge grouping of cities that come together to make up what everyone calls Los Angeles. This picture represents a group of photos I've been posting on the site that I've taken with my iPhone. Since the "death" of my beloved Canon ELPH I've relied on my iPhone to take those snapshots that I would have taken with my Canon. A happy little convergence happened in which the iPhone has had a myriad of applications added to it, some of them photo related. CameraBag is one such app that I gravitated to when I first saw it. It has many "filters" that make the normal iPhone picture look a little different, such as this one called Helga. Helga is basically Holga vignetting look under a different name. Vignetting seems to give an instant "artsy photo" look to photographs. But the subject still has to be interesting. I picked this one to talk about because of where I found it, and how it relates to how I feel about this city. I took this picture at the Universal CityWalk right before going into the IMAX theater there to view "The Watchmen" with a friend. The night before I met an attractive woman at a comedy club. We hit it off quite well. Now I'm not very good at this sort of thing, but nevertheless she and I began an acquaintance at that point. It's a rare thing, because in a city with nine million other people in it, it's still hard to make a connection with someone. Everyone is so stand-offish. I can understand why, the social contract doesn't allow for much human contact other than cutting someone off on the freeway. The funny thing is that the text on the billboard says the following: "Oh Andy... The hot tub overflowed and ruined my cellphone. Then the cappuccino maker exploded and the top on my convertible is stuck shut ...AGAIN!" It's telling that all her problems are superficial in nature, relating to the hoards of tourists that Los Angeles is a place where no one has any "real" problems. But beneath the "glamour" are real lonely people with real lonely problems, like myself. I have found that the more I reach out the more the world retreats from that outreach. The lesson is clear.  Camera: Canon ELPH SD 780 IS, Taken: 05.13.2009 @ 04:54 p.m., Exp: 1/13 sec. F/3.2, Altered w/: Photoshop Ephemeral is the first picture posted on Vista Drive taken with my new Canon ELPH SD 780 IS, and it represents a subtle, but I think substantial, change in the pictures I take. I have always said that my photography is about capturing a perfect moment of beauty. While that still holds true, my idea of what's beautiful has definitely expanded. In contrast to this wilting rose I point out that the first picture one sees on Vista Drive's color section is a picture of a perfect rose. There was something that compelled me to take a picture of the fleeting beauty of what must have been a beautiful red rose. It reminded me that all things have their time here on Earth. What lies beyond is probably nothing, and that means that what we have here is all that much more important. Everyone of us forgets that during our busy day. In my life I've tried and failed over and over again to find a partner, because that's one of the only things we can do in life to not feel so insignificant in the face of being an insignificant speck on a tiny piece of dust orbiting a common star. But in light of these constant failures I decided last month to definitely stop trying and resolve myself to life the rest of my life alone, my art is an outlet for my longing to understand my place here. I have an eye for photography, everyone says it, but it's incomplete. I see beauty, but I need to also see that isn't thought of as beautiful and show it for what it is. Even in the profane there is something beautiful deep inside, because no one thing is all good or all bad; nothing is all beautiful or all ugly. My world has contracted to a point where there's my art and nothing else matters. I know we're all doomed, and what I leave here will one day not exist. I'm OK with that because for a brief moment in the time this universe existed I captured beautiful moments with my camera. If only for me to see perhaps. But I can look at the universe and tell it that I appreciate its wonder, the absolute wonder I feel when I see a little something that is beyond words. I speak to the Universe sometimes, cursing it for some things, but also praising it for the beauty that others trample over. I thank the Universe for letting me see that wonder. |