Gran Marcha 2006

I went to the largest protest ever in LA's history today. I wrote somewords about it and took some pictures:

Welcome Boingboingers

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LA Photo Center

I am currently putting together 3 photography portfolios: Macro Blossoms, Club Portraiture and Industrial Landscapes (those links aren't to my actual portfolios, but to the pool of my shots I will be compiling them from). I am hoping to eventually show my work and get some more of my club shots published. So far the club shots have been published in local LA magazine Jointz and the UK magazine M8. Last weekend I went to an undisclosed location in San Pedro and took a bunch of refinery and dock shots, most of them on my 20D, but I also took three rolls of Ilford B&W film on my new/old Canon 650. It had been about 15 years since the last time I developed any film, but being the impatient person that I am I called Ray over at the LA Photo Center and asked if the darkroom was available.[Read the rest at blogging.la]

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Drawing Restraint 9

From the trailer this movie looks totally surreal and somewhat disturbing. I bet it will hurt my brain.

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Famous Photographer Relatives

I didn't realize this until just now, but supposedly I have famous photographers in my lineage, both from my father's side of the family. The two photographers are Edward S. Curtis the famous photographer of native americans and the nature photographer Wynn Bullock. I am trying to track down the full lineage to confirm the connection.

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Canon EOS 650

For the last 10 years or so I've been taking digital photos. Before my first digital camera I had a 35mm Konica SLR and I took some pretty cool pictures with it, which someday I will have to scan and add to my online galleries. I have been using my Canon EOS 20D almost daily for the last year and I decided I wanted to get a backup SLR that could take the same lenses that I have. I also decided I wanted to shoot film.

I didn't want to spend very much money because I am saving for a wedding and a honeymoon right now, so I looked on ebay and saw the first ever EOS, the Canon EOS 650 selling for about $15. I bought one (actually I bought 2, but hey they were cheap) and they arrived last week. I ordered a couple batteries and some film: Kodak Ultra Color 100UC, 400UC, Kodak Portrait 160, Kodak T-Max 100, Ilford Delta Pro 100 and Ilford XP-2 Super 400 from Adorama and waited patiently for it to arrive, which it did a couple of days ago.

Today I went to the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens to test it out. I took 4 rolls of film (all the C41 stuff) and shot it all, right after I shot the same subject with my 20D. I then took it to Ritz Camera at the Glendale Gallery Mall and had it developed, scanned and put on photocd.

You can see the results here, they are not too bad for my first attempt, but they aren't nearly as good as my digital shots. I am not sure why, but most of them came out overexposed, It may have to do with the camera only supporting TTL instead of the ETTL my MT-24EX can do. It may also have to do with the 650's metering system. Also if you zoom in all the way the photos are somewhat grainy, but to me it doesn't look like film grain and it may be artifacts from the somewhat low resolution scans.

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Canon EF 85mm f/1.2 L II

I really love my 85mm 1.2 although it can be slow to focus, but the results the lens gives me are amazing. I just read that Canon is now coming out with an updated lens that focuses much faster. I am not going to go out and sell my lens right now, but I will probably upgrade sooner or later, probably later because I am going to upgrade to a 5D first... oh yeah and there is that wedding and honeymoon to pay for!

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New Maps for the Downtown Art Ride

It has been about a month since the last Art Ride and some new galleries have been added to the route. Eric took the time to update the route and the map that the company he works for, Cartifact, was cool enough to let us use. You can download the map here in PDF [1 MB] or JPG [595KB] form. You'll see that we have added a note about spending only 10 minutes at each gallery. If we spend more time than that we will never make to to all the galleries on the route. See you at 5pm on Thursday at the Downtown Art Gallery.

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4 LA Things

Jim tagged me [as did Shannon] so here we go:

• Four Jobs I’ve Had In My Life in LA:
  • Equipment Reducer @ Los Alamos Sales Co. AKA the Black Hole (Los Alamos is technically an LA)
  • Sr. Web Programmer @ World Industries (actually in El Segundo)
  • Sr. Web Programmer @ America's Printer (actually in Buena Park)
  • Programmer / Freelance Handyman @ eecue [my consulting company]
• Four Movies About LA I Could Watch Over And Over:
  • Blade Runner
  • Chinatown
  • Falling Down
  • Pulp Fiction / Reservoir Dogs / Jackie Brown [3 way tie]
• Four Places I’ve Lived All Over L.A. (With Food Memories From Each):
  • Long Beach on Anaheim & Orizaba - only recently I've been back to the area and I tried Joe Josts which rocks.. I like pickled eggs
  • Long Beach on Broadway & Redondo - Coco Renos has great shrimp burritos
  • Hollywood - Koji's at H&H is good.
  • Downtown LA - too many to list... watch my blog for more!
• Four LA-Themed Shows I Love(d) To Watch:
  • The Shield
  • Three's Company
  • Sleeper Cell
  • The Monkees
• Four Places I Would Vacation At In LA:
  • New Otani Hotel
  • The Standard Downtown
  • Hollywood Hills in a mansion
  • Catalina Island
• Four LA-Based Websites I Visit Daily [with my RSS reader]:
  • blogging.la
  • blogdowntown
  • laist
  • lavoice
• Four Of My Favorite Foods Found In LA:
  • Natto and Mountain Yam @ Suehiro
  • Coconut Seafood Soup @ Sanamluang
  • Delmonico @ LA Prime
  • Danger Dogs
• Four Places In LA I Would Rather Be Right Now:
  • My Loft in Downtown
  • Huntington Gardens
  • In my fiance's arms
  • In the Mojave desert (not quite LA there)
• Tagged:
  • Peneloper
  • Brian Humphrey
  • Don Garza
  • Eric Garcetti

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Orochon

Some times I don't make the smartest decisions when it comes to my culinary explorations. There was that one time in Tokyo when I tried the chicken sashimi and repeatedly after a night at the bar I find myself drawn to the danger dog cart. Some of my hacker friends make something called Habeñero rum which is incredibly spicy and I've had it a few times, but it didn't prepare me for the Special 2 Spice Level Orochon Ramen.

Read the rest over at blogging.la.

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Desert Fun

Just got back from a birthday shooting trip in the desert. Penelope and I had a great time, but I'm glad to be back at home in my air conditioned loft with running water. Photos coming soon.

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Oomasa, Take Me Away!

The other day I did a short write-up about many people's favorite sushi spot in Little Tokyo called Oomasa. I don't think my one paragraph really did it justice so I am going to expand upon it. I also took some drool inducing photos during my most recent foray between the noren curtains.

Read the rest over at blogging.la

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Daikokuya

It was Friday night and Penelope got off after midnight. I was hungry for some hot ramen goodness so I hopped in the lopers' car and we headed down to my favorite area for late night dining, Little Tokyo. In my quest to try every restaurant in LT, starting with the spots that are open late, I have been to most of the eateries along First street south of San Pedro. Although my favorite low price restaurant is currently Suehiro, I was recently referred to Daikokuya in the comments on my post about Mr. Ramen.

Read the rest over at bloggin.la.

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Oomasa, Mr. Ramen, Yamazaki and Mikawaya

I'm sure it's a surprise to nobody that I enjoy eating Japanese food. I spent some time in Japan a few years ago and these days I really enjoy visiting the various eateries in Little Tokyo. Here are some mini-reviews of establishments I've visited in the last few weeks that I enjoyed: Oomasa, Mr. Ramen, Yamazaki and Mikawaya.

Read the rest at b.la

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Happy Valentines Day

To all the women in my life, especially my fiance Penelope. Every day our romance grows stronger as I fall deeper in love with you. I love you baby! I really enjoy our time together and I especially enjoyed the blogs you posted.

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Nacho Libre

This new movie starring Jack Black looks hilarious. Jack black is the ultimate underdog luchadore, Nacho Libre.

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Downtown Art Ride

I registered a domain and built a quick website for the Downtown Art Ride. I will be adding more info soon along with a great map that Eric Richardson created at his new job.

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