Dave Bullock / eecue

PhotographerEngineering LeaderNerd

Blog | page 11

links for 2010-06-13

Sunday, June 13th, 2010 - Read more...

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Friday, April 16th, 2010 - Read more...

Coachella Photos

This weekend I will be shooting photos at Coachella. I've covered the show the last few years for Wired, and some of my shots have ended up in other places like URB and BoingBoing. This year one of my photos (below) will grace the cover of the Coachella Camping Guide, being put together by URB.

This year I released an update to the Official Coachella iPhone app and created a streamlined Coachella Android app as well.

Here are some of my favorite photos from Coachellas past:

Coachella Camping Baloons and Orion

Jack Johnson Cherry Picker

M.I.A.

Click here to see more of my Coachella Photos...

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010 - Read more...

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Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 - Read more...

Death Valley In Bloom With The Desert Explorers

Last weekend my lovely wife Penelope and I took a trip to Death Valley for the Desert Explorers Rendezvous. The Desert Explorers are a group of fun, knowledgeable folks who like to spend time exploring the desert. The exploration frequently involves 4WD vehicles traveling over challenging terrain through beautiful scenery in and around Southern California. I've written about the Desert Explorers before.

This year's Rendezvous took place at the Amargosa Hotel and Opera House. The hotel is located in a unique and historic town, currently with a population of three, called Death Valley Junction.

The photos below are from a day trip we took through Death Valley. We hit dirt between Zabriskie Point and Furnace Creek, heading up Echo Canyon road. Along the way we saw wildflowers, petroglyphs and drove up a rock waterfall, a very difficult part of the road. We eventually ended up in the city of Amorgosa, Nevada after traveling roughly 40 miles on a 4WD trail.

Here are some photos from the trip, as you can see the flowers are starting to bloom. I would say this weekend or next would be the perfect time to see them in all their glory:

Primrose and Phacelia

Petroglyphs in Echo Canyon

Telescope Peak from Echo Canyon Road

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 - Read more...

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Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 - Read more...

Happy Valentines/Nursiversary To My Lovely Wife Penelope

A year ago today my lovely wife Penelope and I were also staying in San Francisco. She had just taken the nursing exam known as the NCLEX. We were both eagerly awaiting news of the results of her test, which are posted on the California Nursing Board's website. Early Valentines morning she woke me up excitedly and told me the wonderful news. She passed, my wonderful wife was a nurse!

My reaction: "BEST VALENTINES DAY EVER.... @peneloper IS A NURSE! SHE PASSED HER NCLEX!!!! WOHOOOOOO!!!!!!".

I just want you (and the whole world) to know how much I love you, sweetie. Thank you so much for your hard work, companionship and most importantly your sweet, caring love.

Dave and Penelope on Lake Tahoe

Penelope and I in our matching Search and Rescue team jackets.

Sunday, February 14th, 2010 - Read more...

Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe was beautiful and I couldn't help but to pull over and take some photos during our drive around the lake. These were taken on the Nevada side.

Lake Tahoe

Snow covered boulders make for a beach on Lake Tahoe.

Sunday, February 14th, 2010 - Read more...

Waterhouse Peak in Lake Tahoe

After three nights of camping in Death Valley it was time for the second portion of our vacation: Lake Tahoe. Penelope found an amazing bed and breakfast called the Fireside Lodge. We will definitely be returning to stay here in the future.

On our first night we had dinner at a restaurant called Evan's, which is right across the street from the Fireside. Our waiter was really cool and he suggested a good place to go skiing or snow-shoeing that the locals love called Waterhouse peak in Luther Pass.

The next morning we drove up to Luther Pass, parked, put on our snowshoes and started up to the peak. The hike was several miles, but the fun part was the 1700 feet of elevation we gained. It was great, strenuous snowshoeing. It took two hours to reach the peak and an hour to make it down. Fun stuff!

View From Waterhouse Peak near South Lake Tahoe

The view from Waterhouse peak is stunning.

Sunday, February 14th, 2010 - Read more...

Tucki Mine in Death Valley

After driving through Emigrant Pass, we decided to take a side trip to Tucki Mine. The four-wheel drive road to the mine is about 9 miles long and fairly rough in some places. It was a nice drive on a beautiful canyon road, some of which was covered with snow. Once we reached the mine we ate lunch and checked out the cabin that the National Park Service keeps maintained for emergency use.

Cabin at Tucki Mine in Death Valley

The Park Service maintains this cabin at the Tucki Mine in Death Valley

Saturday, February 13th, 2010 - Read more...

Death Valley Snow: Emigrant Pass

After camping at the Wildrose campsite on Saturday night, Penelope and I hit the road around 8 A.M. We took Emigrant Pass into Death Valley. On our way in we passed a ranger on the snow-covered road. I waved, he nodded and that was that.

Later on we discovered that the road we were on was actually closed, he was headed in to lock the gate on the other side! I'm guessing he saw our vehicle and wasn't worried. The road was beautiful. There was about six inches of snow covering the pavement and the ground was white as far as the eye could see. It was really amazing.

We took a side trip to Skidoo mine. We made it about 5 of the 10 miles when we decided to turn around. We were driving through three foot deep snow drifts on a steep, narrow mountain road with sheer cliffs off to the side. We had chains, but didn't need them as we weren't slipping at all, but I decided it just wasn't worth the risk so we turned around at a great lookout point.

Emigrant Pass in Death Valley Covered in Snow

Emigrant Pass is covered with snow after a big snowstorm the night before.

Saturday, February 13th, 2010 - Read more...

Trona Pinnacles

On our way to Death Valley, my lovely wife Penelope and I took a detour to check out the Trona Pinnacles. It was raining pretty heavily and the road was a flooded muddy mess. Our trusty FJ Cruiser handled the gooey clay beautifully.

Trona Pinnacles

The Trona Pinnacles jut out of the ground behind a river of muddy water in the foreground.

Saturday, February 13th, 2010 - Read more...

Prints Now Available And New LA River Photos

After many many requests I now have prints available for purchase online. You can buy prints of my work here on my PhotoShelter page. I currently have some of my recent galleries up there. I plan to put nearly all my work up in the near future so keep checking back here for updates.

New LA River Photos

Recently a friend of mine took me on a tour of the Los Angeles River. He is working on one of the bridge widening projects and we drove between several of the projects his company is bidding on. Of course we stopped at each bridge along the way:

110/5 Intersection Bridges In LA River

Sixth Street Viaduct

Click here to see the rest of the Los Angeles River at Dawn photos.

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 - Read more...

Station Fire In Photos

Last night I stood on my balcony in Downtown Los Angeles and saw the Station Fire burning in the hills. I jumped in my car and headed towards JPL. This time instead of robots trying to get out of the sand or high-tech radar systems, I would be photographing fire. A giant fire, making its way down towards NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory:

Station Fire Above JPL

The Station Fire burns out of control separated by a single ridge above the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

After photographing the fire from below JPL, I decided to head up into the hills to shoot a bit closer to the action.

Firefighter Watching the Station Fire

A firefighter waits for the Station Fire to cross the gully separating it from the home he is protecting.

Click here to see the more Station Fire Photos.

Saturday, August 29th, 2009 - Read more...

Republic of Texas Biker Rally

Our short trip to Austin last weekend happened to coincide with the Republic of Texas Biker Rally. I don't own a motorcycle and am not a biker. This didn't prevent me from enjoying some of the great motorcycles on display in Downtown Austin.

Penelope, her brother and his girlfriend hit some bars during the rally. Of course I had my camera with me.

Motorcyles at ROT Biker Rally

Man Examining Motorcycle

Friday, June 19th, 2009 - Read more...

Cathedral of Junk

As I mentioned yesterday, I love junk. Last weekend, my wife and I visited her brother in Austin and on our last day there we took a trip to the Cathedral of Junk.

The Cathedral of Junk is basically a giant sculpture in Vince Hanneman's backyard. It's open to the public on most days and entry is free, although donations are accepted. The cathedral is an amalgamation of thousands of random pieces of junk including electronics, bicycles, toys, lamps, bottles and more. It's actually quite beautiful to look at and fun to climb on.

I shot some HDR photos of it using my trusty Canon 5D Mark II and 16-35 f/2.8 L II lens. As usual I combined the +/- 2 EV bracketed shots with Photomatix. The results are after the jump.

Click here to see the "Cathedral of Junk" photos...

Cathedral of Junk

Cathedral of Junk Doorway

If you have an opinion about me embedding the larger sized photos please let me know by leaving a comment. Enjoy!

Thursday, June 18th, 2009 - Read more...

June Gloom Series: Part 6/6: HDR Scrapyard

I love junk. One of my first jobs was working at the world's most amazing junkyard: The Black Hole.

Over the years I have photographed some really cool junkyards including Norton Sales and APEX Electronics. I am always on the lookout for cool places with giant piles of interesting junk. If you happen to know of any particularly cool junkyards let me know in the comments below.

A few weeks ago when I was shooting my June Gloom series in Vernon, I came across a metal recycling yard. On a whim I walked in with my camera and tripod and asked if I could take some photos. As it turned out they were fine with that. I made my way through the giant piles of aluminum, copper and steel scrap and captured the HDR images you'll find after the jump.

Giant Pile of Aluminum Scrap

Metal Recycling Yard

Click here to see the "June Gloom Series: Part 6/6: HDR Scrapyard" photos.

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 - Read more...

June Gloom Series: Part 5/6: 6th Street Bridge Revisited

One of my favorite perspectives of Downtown Los Angeles is from atop a little hill between the 101 and the 5. I shot one of my most popular photos from that location. A few weeks ago I captured some more photos from that spot on the hill.

It saddens me to think that the 6th street bridge will be demolished someday in the near future. It has cement rot, due to the materials used in its construction. The new bridge won't be the same, but it will still be fun to document the transition.

Dowtown Los Angeles and the 6th Street Bridge

Dowtown Los Angeles and the 6th Street Bridge

Click here to see the "June Gloom Series: Part 5/6: 6th Street Bridge Revisited" photos.

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 - Read more...

June Gloom Series: Part 4/6: Los Angeles River

The Los Angeles River is not your average waterway. Before it was channelized in the 1940s it frequently changed its path and flooded various parts of the Los Angeles basin during big rains.

Today the LA River hardly looks like a river at all, being completely encased in concrete. It does still attract waterfowl on their migratory paths and water does flow through it throughout the year. That water is about 80% treated sewage when it's not raining. I still find the LA River beautiful with its sloping concrete walls and many bridges and railroad crossings.

A few weeks ago I waded through muck and treated sewage to capture some photos of the endearing Los Angeles River.

LA River Reflections

LA River and Trees

Lush LA River

Click here to see the "June Gloom Series: Part 4/6: Los Angeles River" photos.

Monday, June 15th, 2009 - Read more...

June Gloom Series: Part 3/6: Vernon

Vernon is a very interesting city. I have written about and photographed it several times over the last few years.

South and slightly East of Downtown Los Angeles, Vernon is a fully industrial city with only a few residents (91 in 200 census). These residences are for the employees of the city. The Mayor of Vernon is the grandson of the founder of the city, according to Wikipedia:

The city held no contested elections from 1980 to 2006 ... most of the municipally owned housing is occupied by city employees, and has regularly voted to cancel elections...

Mayor Leonis C. Malburg is a grandson of one of the founders of the city, leading to frequent allegations of political fiefdom or illiberal democracy.

Currently, the District Attorney's office of Los Angeles County is conducting a criminal investigation into allegations of public corruption by city officials...

Vernon is packed with warehouses, food processing plants, glass and plastic bottle manufacturing, scrapyards, and it's crisscrossed with railroad tracks. I love shooting Vernon. To me, it's beautiful.

Graffiti on Underpass

Abandoned 24 Hour Emergency

Click here to see the "June Gloom Series: Part 3/6: Vernon" photos

Saturday, June 13th, 2009 - Read more...

June Gloom Series: Part 2/6: Los Angeles River Fowl

As I mentioned yesterday, I spent Saturday tooling around taking photos of the lovely clouds above the industrial wasteland that is Vernon. At one point I made my way down into the Los Angeles River.

The birds were out enjoying the water and the sunshine. I saw ducks, finches and sandpipers. It's great to see life thriving in a giant concrete spillway filled with muck and a bit of water.

Ducks in the LA River

Sandpiper and Power Lines

Click here to see the photos.

Friday, June 12th, 2009 - Read more...

June Gloom Series: Part 1/6: Industrial Graffiti Canvas

Last weekend I spent the day wandering through my favorite industrial city in greater Los Angeles: Vernon. The sky was perfect for HDR and I captured a wide range of interesting industrial goodness. I have decided to split the photos into a 6 part series.

The first part of this series is also the smallest. The two photos it contains feature two graffiti walls near Vernon. I shot these with my Canon 5D Mark II through a 16-35mm f/2.8 L II lens. Each photo is a combination of 3 bracketed RAW files which were used to create a tonemapped HDR image in Photomatix.

Check out the photos:

Graffiti on a Warehouse

Graffiti and Railroad Tracks

Keep an eye out for the other five parts of the June Gloom Series coming soon.

Thursday, June 11th, 2009 - Read more...

South Central Farmers Coop: Our First Box... Win!

Today I picked up my first produce box from the South Central Farmers' Coop and its contents were simply amazing.

My lovely wife Penelope and I have been trying out different organic delivery services over the past few months. We started out with L.O.V.E. Organic Delivery, which we really enjoyed, but much of the produce was grown far far a way. The nice thing about L.O.V.E. was that they delivered right to our door every week.

We stopped L.O.V.E. because we really want to support local farmers and not waste energy having our food shipped from other states or countries. Our next move was to try Community Supported Agriculture.

With a CSA you basically buy a semi-yearly share in a farm, if the farm is successful (and most are in sunny Southern California) you get a box of veggies every week. We read great things about Tierra Miguel, so we gave them a try.

Tierra Miguel's boxes were huge, but of the three we picked up, we found their selection to be lacking. This could be related to the season we're in right now, but for us, it was just too much greens. Our first two boxes were almost entirely different varieties of lettuce, and several bunches of each kind. TM's quality was top-notch, but for our small family of two, it was just too much. And for $45 a week, it was just more than we could justify while still having to buy other veggies to round out our meals.

I understand that a big part of the price of the CSA is supporting the farm, but TM just didn't seem like a fit for us. Enter the South Central Farmers' Coop.

South Central Farmers

Bordering on a reasonable amount of vegetables for two people in one week, the South Central Farmers' Coop box was packed full of beautiful organic, locally-grown vegetables.

Initially we didn't go with the SCFC due to the lack of fruit in their offerings. Today when I went and picked up the box at the Farmer's Market at City Hall I also picked up some organic fruit from the other vendors at the market, so that solved that problem. Once I got the box home and opened it up I was amazed. So many quality veggies inside, including:

  • Spring Onions
  • Red Romaine lettuce
  • Romaine Lettuce
  • Carrots
  • Fava Beans
  • Red Beets
  • Golden Beets
  • Rainbow Chard
  • Swiss Chard
  • Black Kale
  • Blue Kale

I don't think we've ever prepared golden beets, but we love beets, and Penelope has a mean recipe for salt crusted beets with horseradish creme fraiche. I actually didn't realize you could eat kale, but I've already found some good recipes for it creamed. I make a mean fava bean cassoulet, and today at the Nickel, owner Monica May gave me a great recipe that I think I'll try.

We're very excited about the SCF Coop box, and we'll almost certainly buy a whole season's worth. The boxes were only $15 a month for the cheapest option, but you can pay more to support the farm or pay $30 and someone who can't afford it will get a free box... now that is cool. We'll most likely do the buy one, give one deal when we subscribe.

South Central Farmers

At first sight, the amount of vegetable matter contained in the SCF Coop produce box is deceiving.

Thursday, May 14th, 2009 - Read more...

Tamrac 619 Revisited: Too Big, Too Heavy For Daily Use

Due to its massive size and weight when loaded with camera gear, I am no longer using the Tamrac 619 as my daily-carry bag. Last year I wrote about switching to the Tamrac 619. It served me pretty well until one day when it nearly broke my back.

The Tamrac 619 is a huge bag. Like everything from Tamrac it is constructed from tough, high-quality materials, and designed to last a long time. Unfortunately for me, my eyes were bigger than my stomach (shoulder?) on this one. Fully loaded, the 619 weighed in at almost 40 lbs! Way too much to wear on my shoulder every day.

After I nearly threw my back out, I went down to Samy's to peruse their selection of camera bags. I needed shoulder bag that provided quick access to my camera, had room for a couple of lenses and had a padded laptop enclosure to fit my MacBook Pro.

Up until this point I had sworn by Tamrac bags, but they just didn't make one that I felt really good about carrying around every day. After looking around I found the super-tough and non-camera-bag-looking ThinkTank Urban Disguise 50.

ThinkTank Urban Disguise 50

The ThinkTank bags are designed to not look like camera bags. The Urban Disguise 50 looks just like a laptop bag, but has some really nice features. Obviously it has room for cameras, but it also has lots of nice pockets for various gear and accessories, a laptop sleeve, a super-comfy shoulder strap and an integrated rain fly.

The guys are ThinkTank really went all out with their design, including unique features like a hidden pocket, super-tough ballistic nylon and YKK zippers. I love this bag and will likely devote a post to it for a more thorough review at some point.

Bottom Line

The Tamrac 619 is a well-constructed bag, but it is simply too massive to carry around every day. I still use it to carry equipment for big shoots, and at some point it will become my RedRock Micro DSLR rig case. If you need a giant bag, this one certainly meets that requirement, just don't try and carry it with you every day.

Tamrac 619

The massive Tamrac 619 / Super Pro 19 with a 77mm lens cap provided for scale.

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 - Read more...

Wet Shaving: Save Money, Reduce Burn, Get a Better Shave

A few years ago I switched to wet shaving and in doing so I saved money, got rid of my razor burn and now get a much closer shave.

Wet shaving involves using a badger brush and good ol' shaving soap. You soak the badger brush with water and coat it with shaving soap. You then spend a few minutes working up a nice thick lather. I form the lather directly on my face, but many folks prefer to use a separate bowl to do so.

Don't be fooled by the photo below, I actually use handmade natural soap from Classic Shaving. I just happen to put it in a vintage Old Spice mug. The shaving soap lasts for months and is much cheaper and more effective than the store bought glop in a can.

For the actual shaving I use a vintage Gillette safety razor. It has a nice large handle and feels well balanced in your hand. It's called the Fat Boy and is especially popular with vintage shave enthusiasts.

The blades I use are made by a Japanese company called Feather. They're pretty much the sharpest razor blades you can buy and they work wonders. You can get a pack of ten for about six bucks from Classic Shaving. That equals big savings if you consider that Gillette five pack of Mach 3 blades will run you around $15.

Regardless of price, the sharper blades combined with the badger brush and soap have eliminated the razor burn I used to get. Plus, wet shaving is fun!

Wet Shaving Kit

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 - Read more...

Rickey The Pirate Housewarming Party

Last night Penelope and I attended Downtown LA icon Rickey The Pirate's housewarming party at The Exchange. After 30 years living on the street Rickey finally has a place to hang his (pirate) hat. Rickey had a blast and received tons of gifts to help furnish his new apartment at the Rainbow.

Penelope and I brought him various food items and a first aid kit. Penelope also gave him a beautiful handmade card she put together with her card making kit. Here are a couple photos from the event:

Ricky the Pirate Gets His Portrait Drawn

Ricky the Pirate Gets His Portrait Drawn

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 - Read more...

Wired Gallery: Igniting a Star With Laser Light

A few months ago while on a San Francisco vacation with my lovely wife Penelope, I took a tour of Livermore Lab's National Ignition Facility.

NIF is an amazing experiment designed to create fusion using lasers. As you've probably noticed, I love lasers and robots, and NIF employs both to get its job done. The NIF gallery just went up on Wired.com. It uses the new gallery format which allows for bigger pictures and the ability to view the whole thing at once. NIF is probably the coolest thing I have ever photographed.

Click the photo below to see the gallery:

Energy of the Future: Igniting a Star With Laser Light

Screengrab hosted by flickr.

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 - Read more...

Photo Project: Bad Religion New Maps of Hell Deluxe Edition

Last year I worked with Brett Gurewitz and Epitaph on a photo project for Bad Religion's newest album: New Maps of Hell. The photos I shot around Los Angeles were used for the Deluxe Edition of the album.

The project was really fun and I really enjoyed working with Brett and the folks over at Epitpah. I just got around to photographing the album artwork and booklet. You can check out the work below:

Bad Religion New Maps of Hell Special Edition Album

Bad Religion New Maps of Hell Special Edition Album

Bad Religion New Maps of Hell Special Edition Album

More photos after the jump...

Thursday, April 30th, 2009 - Read more...

Coachella 2009 Photos

Keeping up with tradition, I photographed Coachella last weekend. This time around I shot for Wired, URB and of course, my blog. As I mentioned in a previous post, I also wrote the Official Coachella iPhone application for Goldenvoice.

I had a great, albeit busy, time at the festival this year and took about 50GB of photos and 10GB of video. If you look through some of the Coachella VRs, you will see me in about half of the panoramas shooting from the photo pit.

Here are some of the photos I shot:

Coachella Crowd for The Killers

Coachella Crowd for The Killers

Robert Smith

Robert Smith

Photogs Shooting Morrissey

Photogs Shooting Morrissey

Henry Rollins

Henry Rollins

More after the jump...

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 - Read more...

Coachella 2009: Thursday

Made it to Coachella yesterday around 5pm. Got our RVs situated and our base camp set up then took a walk through the field and camp site. Here are a few photos to get you excited for Coachella:

Coachella Camping Baloons and Orion

A string of balloons blows in the wind above a row of tents in the Coachella Camp Site on Thursday night.

Coachella Thursday: The Do Lab

The Do Lab's new look includes a plethora of shipping crates and a wooden trough fountain, which they estimate will use up to 7,000 gallons a day.

Coachella Stage on Thursday

The field is nearly empty for Paul McCartney's rocking sound check.

Coachella Camping

People from all over the world travel to Coachella, many of them camp.

Coachella Thursday: The Do Lab

A worker puts the final touches on The Do Lab on Thursday evening at Coachella.

Keep your eyes on Wired and Urb for more of my shots throughout the weekend.

Friday, April 17th, 2009 - Read more...

Coachella iPhone App / Cartifact Map Portal

For the past few months I've been spending all my evenings and weekends working on two big projects: the Coachella iPhone App and the Cartifact Map Portal. I am really happy with the results and ecstatic that I am not currently working 14 hour days and weekends!

I've been doing web programming work for Coachella and Goldenvoice since 2005 when I wrote the Coachooser, a online scheduler where concertgoers could choose who they want to see. As soon as the time-slots were announced the Coachooser then allowed the user to print out their schedule for the event. I have programmed the Coachoooser each year since then.

This year I pitched Goldenvoice on an iPhone application for the festival. They finally gave me the green light a bit over a month ago. Considering that it was my first iPhone application I think it came out really well. The Coachella iPhone App has been up on the iTunes store for about a week and has been downloaded thousands of times. It was hard work hammering out this application in a month, but the response was worth it.

Another project I recently finished is an interactive map portal for a really cool mapping company called Cartifact. This project is the most advanced javascript application I have written. It does some really cool things, especially the lens tool which let's you see a different map over the top of the map you're viewing.

I enjoyed the hard work, but I'm looking forward to enjoying my evenings and weekends again!

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 - Read more...

San Francisco Vacation Photos

Last month my lovely wife Penelope I took a vacation in San Francisco. We go up every year to visit family and enjoy good food and culture. This year was no exception.

We drove up to SF the day before Valentine's Day and just two days after Penelope had taken her nursing board exam, the NCLEX. The stressful part of taking the NCLEX, apart from the five hours it can take to complete, is that you don't know if you passed for several days. Our first night we went to bed not fully ready to relax, worrying about the test.

That next morning, Penelope woke me to tell me she passed, we both screamed, tweeted, and jumped up and down on the bed. That was the our best Valentines Day ever. We had a lovely dinner at the tiny, but delicious Canteen. Afterwards we visited a plethora of bars.

During our trip we tried to jog every morning despite the rain, and we did a pretty good job. I think we jogged 6 times during the 10 days we were in SF.

I took a few working breaks to shoot photos for Wired, which due to work and a few other projects I have yet to post. They will be coming very soon, keep an eye out here and on wired.com from galleries from NIF, SLAC and a few other cool places.

The trip was wonderful and as always we can't wait to go back. Here are some of the photos we shot:

Sunset Over Japan Town

A lovely sunset as seen from our hotel room at the Kabuki.

Penelope Flying a Kite

Our kite soars above Penelope's head, despite the lack of a strong breeze.

Flowers from The Ferry Building Farmers Market

A bouquet of locally grown flowers from the Farmer's Market at the Ferry Plaza.

More after the jump...

Friday, March 27th, 2009 - Read more...

Ed Grothus, RIP: Peace Activist, Nuclear Junk Collector, Friend

Ed Grothus died in his home yesterday February 12th. He will be missed by the many people who knew him.

When I was in High School, I worked for Ed for a few summers at his amazing scientific equipment salvage yard, The Black Hole.

Ed is responsible for some of my best memories from New Mexico. His salvage yard is simply amazing, and according to Tom Jennings from World Power Systems, it will remain open.

If you never met Ed, you missed a chance to know an amazing person. He was funny, intelligent and quirky. His massive collection of nuclear and scientific equipment contrasted nicely with his anti-war and anti-nuclear weapons viewpoints.

I was lucky to see him again two summers ago and introduce him to my wife. He was still the same Ed, just older. I hope his peace obelisks will be installed somewhere in memory of Ed and to carry on his legacy.

Ed Grothus, you will be missed. Rest in peace.

Ed Grothus and his Peace Obelisks

Ed Grothus stands next to his Peace Obelisk in this file photo from 2007.

UPDATE: I just talked to my friend Don Orie in New Mexico and told him about Ed's passing. He's been visiting Ed every week for that last few months as Ed's sickness has been worsening. He is going to let me know about the arrangements which I will post about here.

UPDATE 2: I just received this from Ed's son Mike Grothus:

Edward Bernard Grothus, of Los Alamos, died of cancer at home, at peace and surrounded by love on February 12, 2009. He was born June 28, 1923 in Clinton, Iowa. His family moved permanently to Davenport, Iowa in 1930.

Following graduation from high school, he traveled extensively by ship and motorcycle. He attended the University of Iowa where he (most importantly) learned to play bridge and made lifelong friends. He eventually followed his father's trade as a machinist, the trade that brought him to Los Alamos in 1949. "Working at the Lab," he said, "gave me an education that I could get nowhere else." He met Margaret Jane Turnquist playing bridge in Los Alamos. They were married in 1951. In 1952 he began working at the Lab's R-Site where he was a link in the process for making "better" atomic bombs. By 1968, he had become an antiwar activist and was an alternate delegate for candidate Eugene McCarthy at the notorious Democratic Convention in Chicago. He left LASL in 1969 when his conscience could no longer tolerate his role in nuclear bomb development. Since then, because of his singularity in speaking out against the nuclear mission of the Laboratory, he became the most interviewed and photographed person in Los Alamos.

Ed was a hardworking and successful entrepreneur who invested in "things." A child of the depression who extolled thrift and hated waste, he established the Los Alamos Sales Company in 1951 to buy and resell things--mainly surplus equipment from the Los Alamos Laboratory. For many years the company operated as a catalog business, selling to universities world-wide. He typed and mimeographed pages that were assembled into catalogs by his children who also assisted with mailing, packing, and shipping.

Ed took an active interest in the community. When the government began to plan a subdivision for individual owners to develop, Ed got involved. He helped name the streets on Barranca Mesa and purchased the lot on which he built the first adobe home in Los Alamos. He took great pride in his plans and designs for the house, seeking to make it as durable, functional and maintenance free as possible. Nearly 60 years later, the house remains a testament to his attention to detail. Ed was a founding member of the do-it-yourself home builders association known as "The Nailbenders." Later, in a new area known as Pajarito Acres, he was the first to build a home with the intention that it would be a rental property. When government houses came onto the market, he bought and sold those too, and upon his exit from the Laboratory, he and Margaret used proceeds to purchase The Shalako Shop which they operated for thirty years.

In 1973, he purchased the Grace Lutheran Church property which he first called "The Omega Peace Institute" and later named "The First Church of High Technology." In 1976, he acquired the adjacent "Mesa Market" property, which remained a grocery store for two years. When the grocery operation ceased, the Los Alamos Sales Company began moving things into the building. In recent years, the operation became known as "The Black Hole," because "everything went in, and not even light could get out." The business is well-known to set-decorators, artists, inventors and tinkerers, and tourists from around the world. He worked at the business six days a week until his illness forced him to slow down in late 2008. He never stopped thinking about the business despite his physical absence from it.

Ed refused to abandon The Black Hole during the forced evacuation of Los Alamos in 2000 when the government-set fire devastated the mountain landscape and burned more than 400 residences. The fire burned up to the foundation of the Black Hole, but Ed's vigilance kept the fire from consuming it. He was arrested after the fire passed and was sentenced to community service for "refusing to obey a police order." He had predicted such a disastrous immolation and had encouraged the County to build a perimeter road as a fire barrier. He strongly fought the use of salt on snowy streets because of its killing effect on trees and the subsequent erosion of soil and further environmental degradation.

Grothus was most known for his antiwar and antinuclear activism. He was a frequent writer of "Letters to the Editor" and in 1966 wrote "An Ode to a Leader, Misleading," dedicated to President Johnson. In it he wrote "... search and destroy, ignoble duty..." His motto became "Semper Fabricate, Numquam Consumite" or "Always Build, Never Destroy." As an early Obama supporter, Ed was pleased to note in his inaugural address that President Obama said, "... people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy." Despite his antiwar and antinuclear stance, he never called for the closure of the Laboratory. He said the Lab should stop making things useful only for killing, but he supported a mission for scientists to more efficiently harvest the energy of the sun, the infinite power source.

Grothus designed and commissioned two granite obelisks to mark the explosion of the first atomic bomb. The obelisks were quarried and carved in China, then shipped to Los Alamos in December 2007. The obelisks are white granite and are designed to sit on black bases, "doomsday stones," engraved with text in 15 languages that describe the "most significant man-made event in human history." Important to him among the messages engraved in the stone was, "No one is secure unless everyone is secure." When erected, each monument will weigh over 39 tons and stand nearly 40 feet tall. At the time of his death, Grothus remained optimistic that the obelisks would find a home.

He was featured in numerous international magazine and newspaper articles and stories on national radio and television. He has appeared in various historical books, as a character in novels and, thanks to a variety of international artists, in theaters, galleries and music productions. He also has a significant presence on the internet. He was the subject of two documentaries including "Atomic Ed and the Black Hole," by filmmaker, Ellen Spiro, broadcast on HBO. He was also the subject of investigations by the FBI and Secret Service on several occasions.

In 2006 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Indigenous World Uranium Summit for his work to promote a Nuclear-Free Future. In 2007, he was humbled to be the first non-Native American to receive the prestigious Alan Houser Memorial Award from the Houser family at the annual Governor's Awards in the Arts for the State of New Mexico.

He was proud of his family with whom he enjoyed traveling, working, exchanging thoughts and opinions and sharing challenges and successes. Ed's deafness, "my only problem," was a cruel burden, not just for him. A voracious reader and life-long learner, his intellectual curiosity and interest in ideas, "things" and world events remained strong even as cancer consumed all his energy. "Dying," he said, "is not very exciting."

The eldest of eight, he was predeceased by his parents, Edward Theodore Grothus and Regina Hebinck Grothus, his son Theodore, his grandson Preston Edward Burns, and his brother Joseph Grothus. He is survived by Margaret, his wife of 57 years, his children Barbara Grothus of Albuquerque, NM; Tom Grothus (Wendy Slotboom) of Seattle, WA; Susan Burns of Albuquerque, NM; and Mike Grothus (Heidi) and their children, Casey and Michelle Grothus of Niwot, CO. He is also survived by three sisters, three brothers, and their extended families. Loved and admired by many, despised by a few, he will not soon be forgotten.

**UPDATE 3:**A memorial service will be held on Saturday, April 4, 2009 at 2:00 PM in the Duane W Smith Auditorium at the Los Alamos High School.

Friday, February 13th, 2009 - Read more...

Shutterbug Magazine Reviewed My Website... Glowingly!

Last month, my all time favorite photography magazine, Shutterbug, reviewed my photography portfolio website.

Shutterbug is an excellent magazine aimed at photographers in the serious amateur to professional range. Their pages are filled with great reviews, photographer profiles and advanced technique how-to articles. Every month a section of their magazine is devoted to reviews of various photographer's websites.

Last year after updating my website, I submitted it for review. I was excited to find that Joe Farace had chosen my site to be included in the Web Profiles section of the magazine.

Below is the review in its entirety. I especially love the praise he gave to my mother, R.G. Bullock and her wonderful website.

After having learned to develop film in his mom's darkroom when he was in grade school, Dave Bullock was bitten by the photography bug. The straightforward site design shows off Bullock's colorful images in an equally straightforward style. Big thumbnails. You click 'em, they get bigger. Big enough to enjoy the depth and nuance of images in his "Projects" collection, and showcased in his "Industrial Landscapes" section that is yet another answer to the bored photographer's oft-voiced cliché that "there's nothing to photograph." His photographs of bridges, rail yards, and urban waterways transcend their subject matter because of the same impeccable craftsmanship that large format landscape photographers lavish on their images. Here Bullock finds "beauty in odd places," revealing unseen aspects of the world that we really live in, not the California Carleton Watkins photographed 100 years ago.

In his "Photojournalism" collection Bullock explores the beauty of science, two words seldom used in the same sentence. His images of NASA's Goldstone Deep Space Network facility combine gritty yet stylish editorial images inside the facility and Star Trek-like images of sweep and majesty outside. Don't miss the studio and environmental photographs of people in the "Movers and Shakers" and "Artists" sections (in the "Portraits" collection) for another, more sensitive side of Bullock's work. His mom is Rhoda Gordon Bullock, an accomplished photographer, proving that sometimes talent is genetic. I urge you to also visit her website (http://rgbullock.com/home) to view her fine art images.

Shutterbug really is a great magazine, and I'm not just saying that because of the great review they gave me. I've been a subscriber since April of 2006 and it is currently the only photography magazine I subscribe to. If you're a photographer you really should subscribe to Shutterbug. It rocks!

Monday, February 9th, 2009 - Read more...

Dave Bullock Gallery Show Next Thursday @ Downtown Art Walk

I will be showing my Los Angeles HDR photography for the first time in print form during the Downtown Art Walk next week at Niche LA Gallery.

I have had two public showings in the past, but this will be the first show of my Los Angeles HDR work. If you've been following my blog you've likely seen these photos (shown below). To really get the full experience of this work you have to see it large. The amount of detail is really quite stunning.

Depending on how the clouds look in the next few days I may also be showing some brand-new work. No promises on that, but it is a possibility. Either way please come down and check out my work.

Niche.LA is located in the Spring Arts Tower at:

453 S. Spring St. #443

Los Angeles, CA 90013

February 12th & March 12th, 4:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Here are some of the photos I will be showing:

6th Street Bridge and Downtown Los Angeles

Los Angeles and 6th Street Bridge

Los Angeles River and Downtown

Los Angeles River and Downtown

Blue gravel factor for Scott Brown

Blue Gravel Factor for Scott Brown

Griffith Park Fire and Downtown Los Ange

Griffith Park Fire and Downtown Los Angeles from 7th Street Bridge

You can see more of my photography on my portfolio website.

Friday, February 6th, 2009 - Read more...

Skid Row Photo Club Show Part III: The Beauty of the Street

Members of the Skid Row Photography Club will be having their third show next week during the Downtown Art Walk on Thursday.

The show will be held at Russel Brown's gallery/community space: The Exchange (114 W 5th Street). We will have an opening during Art Walk starting around 6pm at which we will be serving wine and snacks.

Along with the framed and unframed prints for sale we will be exhibiting videos and slideshows from our members. The work is really amazing and the slideshows will permit the public to see much more than what had previously been shown.

Please come down and support the show and the Skid Row Photo Club members.

Related Press: Downtown News: A New Focus on Skid Row Wired: Skid Row Photography Club Uses Donated Cameras to Make Street Art BoingBoing: Donate Your Used Digital Camera to LA's Skid Row Photo Club

Previous Posts: Skid Row Photo Club at Old Bank Holiday Art Bazaar Skid Row Photo Club's First Show: The Beauty of the Street Skid Row Photography Club

Thursday, February 5th, 2009 - Read more...

Community Gardens and Why Downtown Needs One

Downtown needs more green space. We need more parks and we could really use a community garden.

Very few residents of downtown, if any, have yards. In our loft we have a dog run on the roof, but no place to grow fruits, vegetables or herbs. Our loft faces north and thus we get zero direct sunlight. Growing edible plants with natural light is thus impossible for us.

Most communities throughout Los Angeles have plots of land set aside for community gardening. Last Sunday, my lovely wife Penelope and I were on the West Side and stopped to watch the sunset at the lovely Ocean View Farms community garden.

I couldn't help to think that Downtown Los Angeles desperately needs something like Ocean View Farms. I don't see it coming to us any time soon, as we also need parks, but I can wish, right?

For now we'll just have to be happy with our guerilla garden!

Sunset From Ocean View Farms

The sun sets into the sea in the background of this photo of the Ocean View Farms community garden.

Penelope and Sunset From Ocean View Farm

Penelope watches the sunset outside of the Ocean View Farms community garden near Santa Monica.

Click here to see more photos of the Ocean View Farms community garden.

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009 - Read more...

USC Medical Training Center

Last year I shot a gallery at USC which covered the use of robots for Iraq combat medic training. As I've mentioned before, I love robots.

Here is the intro I wrote for the Heal a Robot, Go to War gallery on Wired.com:

As of last week, 4,000 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq. While a grim statistic, the number would be much higher without the well-trained medical staff deployed to combat service. Before their tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, many corpsmen, doctors and nurses are trained at specialized facilities with elaborate combat-zone simulations, which include sound effects and realistic robot patients.

The Navy Trauma Training Center, located at the University of Southern California Surgical Skills department, is one of only three training centers in the United States. It is adjacent to the Los Angeles County Hospital, which has the busiest trauma ward in the city, treating about two-dozen gunshot and trauma wounds every day. While this real-world experience is invaluable to enlisted medics, a collection of programmable robots are able to tailor their symptoms and reactions to specific scenarios that doctors will encounter in combat zones.

Here are some of those photos from the gallery. If you want to see them in all their full-resolution glory, click here.

Inside a METI Human Patient Simulator

Dr. DJ Green Holding an IV Bag of Fake B

CyberKnife Radiation Oncology Robot at U

Click here to see the rest of the USC Medical photo gallery.

Monday, January 26th, 2009 - Read more...

Nellis AFB Solar Farm

Not every gallery I shoot for Wired.com makes the cut. Last year during my PMA coverage, I took a short detour to Nellis AFB to take photos of their gigantic solar farm. Until now, the photos were never published.

The solar power farm at Nellis is the largest in North America. Thousands of solar panels glisten in the sun, gathering energy to help run the Air Force Base. It is quite a sight to see.

Clearly our country needs more green energy infrastructure. I predict in the next few years we will see hundreds if not thousands of solar farms like this cropping up all over our nation.

I also think that using nanotechnology, researchers will soon make a solar panel that doubles or triples the efficiency of current photovoltaics. Personally I think this will happen at UCLA's California NanoSystems Institute, about which I have done several stories for Wired.com.

CnSI has brought together the top scientists and researchers from almost every department at UCLA. They are collaborating on nanotechnology in a brand new, super-high-tech facility. Keep your eye on CnSI for a wide array of nanotech breakthroughs in the next few years.

Back to Nellis, here are a few selections from the Nellis AFB Solar Farm shoot:

Solar Panels at Nellis AFB

Snow-covered mountains in the background are framed by an array of photovoltaic panels in this never-before-published shot from the Nellis AFB Solar Farm.

Mitsubishi Melsec FX3U-16M

The brains of the solar tracker control are exposed in this shot from 2008.

Sun Shining Through a Solar Panel

The sun peeks through a solar panel at Nellis AFB.

To see the rest of the Nellis AFB Solar Farm photos click here.

Friday, January 23rd, 2009 - Read more...

Discount I-Sobot or How to Get Robots Cheap

I love robots. I especially love buying robots at a discount. Discount robots rock.

A couple years ago I found a Robosapien II on eBay by saving a search for "broken robosapien". I bought the robot for a tenth of its retail cost and when it arrived I found that it merely had a loose wire in the controller.

Last year when the I-Sobot was announced I wanted one, but the price was just too high for me to justify. I-Sobots are amazing little robots with a dozen servos that allow them to dance, do kung-fu, somersaults and much more. After watching a few videos showing their capabilities I knew I had to have one.

I saved a search on ebay right then for "broken i-sobot". A few months later that search came up with some matches. I bought two of them, figuring I could use the parts from one to fix the other.

As it turned out one of them just needed to be adjusted. So that was a working I-Sobot for about one tenth the retail cost. Win.

The other I-Sobot worked for the most part, but had some strange errors which I think were related to the processor. Either way, one working I-Sobot, and one semi-working I-Sobot made me happy enough.

If you're in to fixing things and don't mind taking a chance with a broken robot, I highly recommend searching for broken robots on eBay. In all likelihood the bot won't be broken or will just need minor adjustments.

I-Sobots

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 - Read more...

My 2008 Reading List

I have always loved reading. Sadly in the past decade I haven't set aside time to read on a regular basis. This all changed in 2008.

I made it one of my daily goals to read get in bed by 10pm and read for an hour before falling asleep. I accomplished that goal more times than not last year. In doing so I read 21 books.

As you will see in the list below, I read mostly non-fiction. This year I'm changing it up a little bit. I am reading one work of fiction and one non-fiction in parallel. I try and switch back and forth each night, but I've really been hooked on PHP 5 Objects, Patterns and Practices. I guess that says something about me that I find it more interesting than the other book I'm reading: The Vicar of Wakefield.

Here is an un-ordered list of the books I read last year, I likely forgot a few, but you get the idea:

  • An Empire of Their Own - After rediscovering my faith and interest in Judaism I starting reading everything I possibly could about it. This book, although not specifically about Judaism, covers the immigrant Jews who created Hollywood. Great read if you're interested in Jews, the motion picture industry or both.
  • Fast Food Nation - My wife read this book a few years ago and stopped eating beef and fowl that wasn't free-range, organic and grass-fed. I finally got around to reading it and I no longer eat beef or poultry that wasn't raised the way animals were intended to live: on an open range, eating grass and being happy. If you read this book you'll understand why. Basically, feeding herbivores meat, blood and guts from other animals or of their same species, is a horribly disgusting practice that has a wide range of frightening ramifications.
  • The Clarinet and Clarinet Playing - Last year I picked up the clarinet again and decided to learn a bit more about it. This book had amazing reviews on Amazon and they were spot on. I will likely read this book every year or two.
  • The Wicked Son - This book is part of the Nextbook series. I decided to read it because my Temple decided to start a book club. I enjoyed the book and I will actually be re-reading it so it's fresh in my head for the discussions.
  • History of the Jews of Los Angeles - This is a great book from the 1970s about the history of... ok you get the idea. Great read.
  • The Elements of Journalism - A very interesting and informative discussion about bias and public perception of the media.
  • The Artful Edit - This book has helped me immensely. I recommend it for any writer, aspiring or otherwise.
  • The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law - This book is mostly a dictionary reference on accepted spellings of common people, places and things. There is also some good stuff about the law included.
  • Photojournalism Sixth Edition - This is the best book I've ever read about Photojournalism. Amazing. I have both the 5th and 6th editions.
  • Ansel Adams' The Camera - This should be required reading for any photographer.
  • Ansel Adams' The Negative - This is also great reading, although obviously somewhat dated and becoming more and more obsolete.
  • Ansel Adams' The Print - [See previous comment]
  • The Associated Press Guide to Photojournalism - This book has become almost too dated to be worth reading. I'm guessing the AP is working on a new edition if they haven't already released one.
  • How to Photograph Absolutely Everything - This book was pretty good, I would recommend it for beginning photographers.
  • The Pragmatic Programmer - This is a wonderful book. I'm going to re-read this one soon.
  • Treasure Island - This was the only tome of fiction I read last year. It's an awesome book and a quick and enjoyable read.
  • Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills - I re-read this last year. Filled with great tips for mountaineering, it is critical knowledge for me when it comes to Search and Rescue.
  • The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Judaism - Despite this series derogatory name, this book was actually really insightful and informative. Keep in mind though that it was written by an Orthodox rabbi so a large portion of it doesn't apply to people like myself who are Reform Jews. It was still very interesting to read.
  • The Family Treasury of Jewish Holidays - This children's book was actually quite informative and fun to read.
  • The Associate Press Guide to News Writing - This nice short read helped me improve my news-writing tremendously. If you write any type of news, or even blog, you should definitely pick this one up.
  • Getting Things Done - I believe this was the second or third time I've read this book. As I mentioned before, this one changed my life.
  • What's Your Poo Telling You - This was one of my birthday presents from Penelope. A great little book about poops.

If you're interested in what I'm reading, click here to see my Good Reads profile. I'd love to hear what you're reading, so please post a comment below or link up with me on Good Reads.

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009 - Read more...

My Top 10 Wired Galleries From 2008

Last year I shot 26 galleries for Wired.com. Although we're well into the new year and past the usual top-ten retrospective period, I've put together a collection of my ten favorite shoots from 2008.

I really enjoy shooting for Wired, mostly due to the fact that I'm a huge nerd and love technology and science. I'm looking forward to shooting many more cool locations, labs and lairs this year.

So without further ado, here they are, my top ten favorite Wired.com galleries from 2008:

As I mentioned yesterday, I am going through all my Wired.com assignment archives and uploading my favorite shots, including never-before-published out-takes, in full resolution on flickr and my gallery. Here are a few shots from my tour of Paul Bellan's Plasma Lab at Caltech:

Plasma Vacuum Chamber

A high-speed camera peers into the vacuum chamber, awaiting plasma to form.

A View Through A Lens

A lens magnifies the view inside the vacuum chamber at the Bellan Plasma lab at Caltech.

Auna Moser Fires The Plasma

Caltech graduate student fires a charge of electricity into the vacuum chamber, creating plasma in the process.

Click here to see the rest of the Plasma Lab shots.

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 - Read more...

One Wilshire Meet-Me-Room and My First Internet

I got my first internet access account in 1992 when I lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Believe it or not, the internet has changed somewhat in the past 17 years.

These days everyone and their grandmother, literally, has internet access. Getting online is as easy as turning on your smartphone or plugging your computer into your cable modem. In 1992 it wasn't quite so easy.

My first account was from a company called Studio X. It was a SLIP account and gave me access to all kinds of great search engines running on university servers. These search engines weren't quite like gooogle. WAIS, Archie and Veronica used Gopher to search FTP sites, mailing lists, and more all over the world.

My SLIP account was text based and required me to set up a painful little application called Winsock. Back then, Windows (which I no longer use as a Desktop platform) did not have a TCP/IP stack. In other words, Windows didn't know how to get onto the internet like it does now. Installing the cumbersome and buggy Winsock fixed this problem.

Once I was on the internet (back then it was capitalized: Internet) I found tons of interesting documents to read. I began to learn about various subjects the knowledge of which would later provide me the income I depend on to survive. The Internet was amazing. The internet is amazing.

One Wilshire Meet-Me-Room

Last year I took a tour of One Wilshire for a Wired.com gallery I shot. One Wilshire is an amazing place that has always fascinated me. Here is how I described it:

In the bowels of the world's most densely populated Meet-Me room -- a room where over 260 ISPs connect their networks to each other -- a phalanx of cabling spills out of its containers and silently pumps the world's information to your computer screen. One tends to think of the internet as a redundant system of remote carriers peppered throughout the world, but in order for the net to function the carriers have to physically connect somewhere. For the Pacific Rim, the main connection point is the One Wilshire building in downtown Los Angeles.

If this facility went down, most of California and parts of the rest of the world would not be able to connect to the internet. Tour one of the web's largest nerve centers, hidden in an otherwise nondescript office building.

I'm slowly going through my archives of Wired.com shoots and posting them on my blog/flickr in full resolution for your viewing pleasure. Here are a few selections from the shoot:

One Wilshire Meet-Me-Room Cable Monster

A giant twisting mass of cables spills out of an over-stuffed cable tray in the Meet-Me-Room at One Wilshire.

One Wilshire Antennas

The roof of One Wilshire is covered with antennas of various sizes and shapes.

Technician Working in One Wilshire Meet-

A technician works to untangle the mess in the Meet-Me-Room at One Wilshire in this shot from 2008.

Click here to view the other 21 photos from my One Wilshire Tour. Stay tuned for more cool photos from my Wired adventures.

Monday, January 19th, 2009 - Read more...

Skid Row Photo Club at Old Bank Holiday Art Bazaar

Last weekend the Skid Row Photography Club sold a dozen prints during the Old Bank Block Party's Holiday Art Bazaar.

The turnout was amazing. Hundreds of people took time to look at our club member's amazing photos. Everyone was enthralled by the quality of the work and excited to learn about the concept behind the club.

I felt like a carnival barker luring marks to the table, but it was for a cause more noble than a ring-toss. My hard-sell helped to bring people to the table who otherwise would have just passed by. This in turn helped to sell a dozen prints.

The deal we have worked out with the club members is that half of any print sales goes to the club and the other half goes to that member. Yesterday at our meeting I handed out envelopes to all of our members who have given me photos. It was great for them to see a monetary response to their work.

Bert Green kindly sponsored our entry fee for the Bazaar and made sure our paperwork was pushed through. The table was a great idea and I really enjoyed talking to so many people about the project. We also earned enough money to buy another camera!

The next step is to update the website so that each member has their own blog, bio and gallery. Their galleries will also allow people to purchase prints online. I am going to try and have this done by year's end.

I am looking forward to seeing more amazing work from our participants. Our next show coming up will open during the January Downtown Art Walk at Raw Materials. Come down and see the work if you get a chance!

Skid Row Photo Club Table @ Old Bank Block Party Holiday Art Bazaar

A folding table is covered with prints for sale from members of the Skid Row Photography Club.

See also:

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 - Read more...

Guerilla Gardening in Downtown Los Angeles

My lovely wife Penelope and our neighbor who wishes to be known as Quietearth have created a beautiful Guerilla Garden in Downtown Los Angeles.

What once was an empty cylinder filled with dirt and trash is now a thriving garden filled with drought-resitant, sustainable plants.

In their quest to bring more greenery to our mostly paved neighborhood, they go to the garden every few days to water. Every few weeks they plant new seedlings, cacti and succulents.

The Skid Row residents who live in SROs nearby thank Quietearth and my wife every time they see them. I think the garden really cheers up both the local residents and the guerilla gardeners.

I've watered the plants a few times, but my wife and Quietearth have done all the hard work. It's really inspiring to see the green, sustainable plants when I drive or walk by their garden.

A few weeks I tagged along with them when they went to dig in the dirt and install some plants. Here are a few of the photos I shot:

Penelope in the Guerilla Garden

Penelope bends over to plant a succulent in the planter.

Tending the Guerilla Garden

Nearby SRO residents stand around the planter while Queitearth packs dirt around a freshly planted shrub.

Penelope in the Guerilla Garden

Penelope scoops dirt around a plant she just placed in the planter.

The Guerilla Gardeners

The Downtown Guerilla Gardeners stand proudly on the rim of their planter.

Click here to see more photos from my Downtown Guerilla Gardening gallery.

Tuesday, December 9th, 2008 - Read more...

A Short Hike to Eagle Rock

On Saturday Penelope and I took a short hike to Eagle Rock in Topanga Canyon. After a few weeks off following our Cactus to Clouds trek and we were eager to get back to it.

We weren't sure which hike to do, we had originally talked about hiking Mt. Baldy again, but we opted for something closer to home. When Penelope said Eagle Rock, I thought she meant the Eagle Rock suburb near Glendale. Apparently the Eagle Rock she was talking about was an actual rock in Topanga Canyon.

We drove up PCH to Topanga Canyon road, paid our $8 state park fee and started out hike. We laughed at the easy specs of the hike, 7 miles and 800 feet of elevation gain, nothing compared to the 24 miles and 10,000 feet of gain we hiked a few weeks back.

Once we were getting close to Eagle Rock, about 2 miles in, we weren't laughing anymore. Penelope was feeling under the weather and the simple hike became highly unpleasant for her. We were also running short on time due to a meeting I had scheduled.

We opted to turn around at Eagle Rock and head back to the car. We ended up doing a little over four miles, but it was still great to get out into the hills and away from the city.

This time around I brought a good camera and tripod and took some photos of the beautiful views and the beautiful wife.

I'm sure at some point we'll do this hike again and complete it. In the interim we're looking forward to some snow so we can break out the snowshoes. Now that will be fun!

View From Eagle Rock HDR

The view from Eagle Rock in Topanga Canyon is beautiful as seen in this composite HDR photo taken on Saturday.

Penelope on Eagle Rock

The illustrious and beautiful Penelope Bullock shades her eyes from the sun after a short hike to Eagle Rock in Topanga Canyon.

Dave on Eagle Rock

That's me, Dave Bullock, sitting atop Eagle Rock after a short hike on Saturday.

Click here to see the rest of the Eagle Rock photos.

Monday, November 24th, 2008 - Read more...

Skid Row Photo Club's First Show: The Beauty of the Street

The Skid Row Photography Club's first show, The Beauty of the Street, premiered last Thursday during the Downtown Art Walk. The participants were ecstatic to see their beautiful work on the walls and the hundreds of people who came into the gallery loved what they saw.

The SRPC started as an idea I "borrowed" from the movie Born Into Brothels. I wrote a proposal to the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council to buy digital cameras which we then gave to people living in Skid Row. I gave the participants brief lessons in composition and turned them loose. For the last six months we've met every Tuesday at UCEPP in Skid Row.

During that time they shot over 20,000 photos between them. An amazing body of work ranging from flowers to architecture to a man defecating in the middle of the street.

I pared the photos down to 11 selections for the show. Conor Colvin-Hunter designed a flyer, posters, banners and the website for free. My employer AmericasPrinter.com donated the flyer printing. I then printed the 13"x19" photos with my Epson 3800 on Ultra-smooth Fine Art Matte paper and had them framed at the Downtown Framing Outlet. DLANC paid for the framing.

Stella Dottir hosted the show in her gallery at no charge and took no cut of the sales. The SRPC members helped me hang the work a few days before Art Walk at the gallery.

The show was a hit, the turnout was amazing. Click here to watch a video of the opening put together by the SRPC founder Michael Blaze. I estimate we had over 500 people come through the doors during the evening. The response to the work was wonderful and the artists were all so proud of their accomplishments. It was quite moving.

Prints are available in a limited edition run of 5 each for $100 per print unframed and $290 framed. Half the proceeds goes to buy more cameras and the other half goes to the artist. I will update the website with the available photos along with more of the club member's work soon.

I am looking forward to our next show and seeing more amazing work from these talented photographers.

If you are interested in participating in the club we meet every Tuesday at 3pm in the UCEPP room on the corner of 6th and Stanford. If you would like to donate digital cameras please email me: [email protected]

Skid Row Photo Club

Members of the Skid Row Photography Club stand together in front of their first show at Stella Dottir's gallery in Downtown Los Angeles. From left to right: Lawrence Landry, Lance, Sandra Y. Kornegay, Manuel "OG Man" Compito, Dave Bullock, Michael Blaze, Queen RA, Conor Colvin-Hunter, Don Garza and General Jeff.

Sandra Y. Kornegay

Photographer Sandra Y. Kornegay stands proudly in front of her photo (upper left) which she shot on a cell phone.

Councilwoman Jan Perry and OG

Skid Row Photography Club member Manuel "OG Man" Compito interviews Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jan Perry at the Beauty of the Streets show during last week's Downtown Art Walk.

Click here to see more photos from the Skid Row Photo Club show.

Thursday, November 20th, 2008 - Read more...

Brilliant Klezmer Violinist Stabbed In UK

Recently I picked up the clarinet again and have been practicing various Klezmer songs, including one of my wife's favorites: Papirosen. A sad song about a boy selling cigarettes on the streets during WW II in order to stave off hunger and avoid the fate of his sister who died from exposure.

I found this brilliant rendition on youtube by a duo known as the Klezmer Gourmets.

I was shocked and saddened to read in the comments that the violinist Michael Kahan was stabbed earlier this year by a 'discharged schizophrenic' in Macnhester.

This song will now be twice as sorrowful when I play it. Rest in peace Michael Kahan.

Sunday, November 9th, 2008 - Read more...

Cactus to Clouds: San Jacinto Peak the Hard Way

On Saturday my lovely wife Penelope and I completed what Backpacker Magazine calls America's 5th Hardest Day Hike. The Cactus to Clouds hike begins in Palm springs at roughly 600 feet above sea-level and tops out at the peak of Mt. San Jacinto at 10,800 feet. The grueling day hike covers over 23 miles, one of which takes you up almost 2,000 vertical feet.

Friday night Penelope and I stayed in Palm Springs at an amazing hotel, which also happens to be #1 in the country on Trip Advisor, called the Desert Riviera. The hotel and its owners are really amazing, and a subject of a future post on this blog. On Saturday morning we woke up at 2:45 a.m. and headed out to the trailhead.

We hit the trail at around 4:00 a.m. with our headlamps blazing. After hiking for 15 minutes the trail petered out and we were left wondering where to go. Penelope became worried that we were never going to find the trail and wanted to go back to the car and try from a different trailhead.

The other trailhead has an even harder-to-find trail so I decided that would be a bad idea. I told Penelope to relax and we backtracked a few hundred yards at which point I saw a white arrow spray-painted on a rock facing uphill. I followed the arrow and we were back on the path to the peak.

After two miles we came to a rock with white writing painted on it which told us to make sure we had plenty of water and that we had 8 miles and 10 hours to go. From what I've read, the actual distance from this point is closer to 10 miles. We hiked on for another hour or so when we saw another headlamp behind us and one ahead of us.

As the sun rose we saw the hiker behind us was a gray-haired woman. She was quickly gaining on us, but she ended up taking a shortcut and was suddenly way ahead of us. We never did catch up to her!

Around 6:30 a.m. the sun began to rise. We had gained a few thousand feet of elevation by that point and the sunrise was beautiful, one of the most enjoyable experiences of the hike.

For the first 9 miles the trail gradually gained altitude, then all of the sudden it basically goes nearly straight up for 3 miles. These miles were difficult and challenging with a steep, loose, rocky trail winding to Grubb's Notch. It was slow-going but we made it to the traverse, which was a welcome change in pace.

After traversing for half a mile we started back up on our final push to the top of the Skyline trail. The last quarter mile was almost straight up, but we were so close we powered up without stopping except to talk to a ranger.

The skyline trail ended up taking us about 8 hours including breaks. We sat down at the ranger station, filled out our permit and ate lunch.

Most people just do the Skyline trail and take the tram down. We decided to do the full Cactus to Clouds and hit the peak. After lunch we powered on up the final 5 and a half miles to the top. As we ascended the temperature dropped and the during the last few miles we were shrouded in clouds.

On our Deer Springs hike to San Jacinto the week before we spent a half hour on the peak and ate lunch. This time we took a few photos, sent out a SPOT message and quickly headed down.

We were very happy to reach the tram station 14 hours after starting our hike in Palm Springs. We felt good that we stuck through it and completed the hike, but boy were we tired. I can't wait for the next (hopefully shorter) hike, maybe it will snow and we'll do some snowshoeing!

If you're up for a serious, grueling, extreme-dayhiking challenge, definitely give the Cactus to Clouds hike a try. Just make sure to bring plenty of water (we brought 1.5 gallons each) and to train for it with at least a 5,000 foot elevation gain hike a few weeks before. Have fun and happy hiking!

Dave and Penelope Atop San Jacinto Peak

Penelope and I stand on the peak of San Jacinto at the apex of our Cactus to Clouds hike.

The Sun Rising Above Palm Springs

The sun rises a few hours into our Cactus to Clouds hike.

Kaufman Rock

Coffman's Crag juts out from the mountainside after the hardest part of the Cactus to Clouds hike.

Click here to see the rest of the photos from our Cactus to Clouds hike.

Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 - Read more...

FedEx Shipping with Rails

Today I created a Ruby on Rails module to calculate shipping from FedEx. I based it on a similar module from Ben Curtis which he wrote to calculate UPS shipping.

We both based our modules on the Shipping ruby gem, which hasn't been updated in several years and no longer works with the current version of Rails as far as I can tell.

My module is pretty straight forward, you feed it your zipcode, total weight and number of boxes and it gives you an array of prices and methods available from FedEx. You call it like this:

fedex = FEDEX::Client.new :account => '1000000', :meter => " 1000" , :origin_zip => '90000', :url => 'https://gateway.fedex.com/GatewayDC' fedex_quote = fedex.rate_list '80000', '500', '20'

You can check out and download my FedEx shipping calculator module here on pastie.

Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 - Read more...

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