California Love

I've had a lot of mixed feelings the last few weeks.  So take a look at these California love based pictures.  On film.  As they should be.  Courtesy of my Olympus OM-2n.

Multnomah Falls

Waterfalls really fascinate me. &nmsp;There is so much water flowing so fast, practically infinitely. &nmsp;I don’t think I had ever had the chance to see huge waterfalls before going to Portland. &nmsp;And while in Portland, I got to see a few. &nmsp;The largest was Multnomah Falls, which also happens to be the highest in Oregon. &nmsp;It was pretty spectacular. &nmsp;Here it is via my Olympus OM-2n and Holga.










I got pictures of the others we saw too, so stay tuned.

Pizza at the Beach

I noticed today that I’ve only posted here once this whole month.  That’s a problem, especially if you never visit my flickr page.  I need to do a better job of spreading the wealth between flickr and here.  

This is one more from Venice Beach.  There are so many shops along the boardwalk.  If you want some sunglasses, Venice Beach is the place to go.



This isn't the pizza served there, but is the pizza served at a place at Huntington Beach.  It was good.



Both film.  Both Olympus OM-2n.

Zzyzx Road

Zzyzx Road is an interestingly named road in southern California, in between LA and Las Vegas.  I probably wouldn’t have ever gone down this road if it also hadn’t been the title of a great Stone Sour song.  I also probably wouldn’t have ever watched the low budget horror movie just called Zzyzx if I hadn’t gone down Zzyzx Road.

Apparently the word Zzyzx was coined by some guy who owned a “mineral springs and health spa” at the end of Zzyzx Road.  He claimed it was the last word in the English language.  No word whether he thought it was physically the last word possible if it were listed in a dictionary or the last word possible to coin as he believed all other combinations of letters had been used.  He was later arrested by Federal Marshals (probably Waco style) for misusing the land (which was federal land) and for violating food and drug laws.  The buildings he built are still there, but now the land is used as a Desert Studies Center.

Let me take a minute to tell you about the movie Zzyzx.  I want to make it perfectly clear that I am a fan of bad horror movies.  Unfortunately Zzyzx Road was worse than bad; it was terribly awful.  If I may quote Futurama, this movie was “a crummy world of plot holes and spelling errors.”  Now I can’t be sure about the spelling errors, but I can only assume based on the quality of the movie that there were a good few.  I won’t give away much about the real plot of the movie by asking, but what in the hell is this Mexican family doing digging up human bones in the desert?  Not even deep in the desert, but off the side of Zzyzx Road after they stopped for some reason.  They find human bones and their instinct is not to call the police like a normal person, but to dig them up with the care of Alan Grant digging up a Velociraptor?  What?  Why?  This is just one of many confusing and nonsensical aspects of this movie.  Don’t watch it; unless you are in the mood for a truly awful movie with negligible amounts of entertainment.

Oh, maybe I should talk a little about photos?  Just a little though.  This will be part one of Zzyzx Road.  These are all film shots taken with my Holga on AGFACHROME RSXII 200 slide film and cross processed for some sweet looking and appropriately weridening effects.  Part two will be digital pictures.  I stopped off at this road twice; once on the way to the Mojave with a friend, and once on the way to the Hoover Dam.  These are all from the Hoover Dam trip.  Henjoy.

Venice Beach

What a great Memorial Day weekend.  Here are some highlights from Venice Beach.  That place is so cool.  I could easily spend all day there wandering around and people watching.


This Asian kid was tearing up the skate park.  He was one of the better skaters there while we were watching.




This kid in the black was probably the best overall while we were there.  He caught some huge air.




What in the world are these things?  This guy was flying around the pool thing on these.  He was damn good on these things.




Mini skater guy...


There was a power lifting competition going on over at Muscle Beach.  This guy squatted a little over 980 lbs!  Holy cow!


This kid was dancing for some girls.  Every time his parents tried to move him along he’d freak out and eventually run back and dance for them some more.


And of course..  Chihuahua in a bag with a hat!

holga.8

Are you guys enjoying my film? Aside from my 365 project it’s the majority of what I’ve been shooting lately. I still have a backlog of digital to share, but I just haven’t gotten around to those yet.

This is another Holga picture, as the name would indicate. I feel like my blog posts, aside from the photos, has been boring lately. Not much funny. I’ll work on that. It stems from me not preparing posts in advance. I need to step it up. But for now, there’s just this Holga.

The Ocean

Geez I love the ocean. This is one of my favorite Holga pictures I’ve taken. Something about it works well for me. I don’t think the ocean will ever get old to me. I’d live on a yacht in the ocean if I had the means. I’d spend my days puttering up and down the coast; docking at other cities and spending some time sightseeing. West coast, east coast, Mediterranean Sea. Any would be right for me.