Day 181: Male Muse

 

(Santa Monica, February 2010) 

Continuing my weekend of exploring, I met with my friend Matt in Santa Monica to take some pictures with my new/used 30D. After many years of resisting the DSLR, I bought one earlier this year and this weekend was my first time taking the camera out.

It was a lot of fun using the camera and Matt, like my other friends was  patient with me stopping and taking pictures constantly, even if it was mid conversation.

I have taken other pictures of Matt and he was my subject for an assignment I shot in the past, so it was nice to update his pictures with digital ones. It's always a pleasure to take pictures of him because he's very natural and he doesn't change when he sees the camera come out. I called him my male muse because he has inspired me to do more portraits, specifically of males.

We ended the day with pizza and a conversation while sitting on some stools looking out to the dark streets of Santa Monica. Looking forward to using the 30D more and finding more spots in Southern California.

Day 180: She Sells Seashells By The Seashore

(Laguna Beach, February 2010) 

  

I've been living in Orange County for over a year now and I am having a lot of fun discovering different places including Los Angeles and San Diego. This weekend, a friend of mine from San Jose came down for a mini vacation and I was able to meet with him. We decided to go to a cove in Laguna Beach. It was raining that morning, but when we arrived at the cove, the dark clouds had passed and we were blessed with sunny weather as we walked around the area. 

There were huge rock formations on the beach, but upon inspection I discovered there was a whole ecosystem living on these rocks. I have never seen muscles and other sea life up close andin their environment except at the aquarium, so when I saw this, I felt as though I was a kid all over again discovering this world. It was amazing to see the muscles and various shelled creatures in the crevices of the rocks. 

We stayed around the area for about an hour or two with me yelling out to my friend every time I discovered a new creature. Once we decided to leave, the dark clouds came back and it started to rain again. For that one hour or so, a new world opened to us.