Your Daily Photo (Some Dogs Don't Know They Aren't a Pointing Breed Edition)

Squirrels, there's squirrels in that tree (off camera, palm, naturally), he just knows it...

2008 MAR 16, Dog Walking Photos (The Return)

Just a few snaps taken while walking the dog.

Also experimented with creating a panaroma view by stitching together 3 photos taken at the same corner.

Came across a National Park on my dogwalking. Here's the website the sign points to, it's basically vandalism masquerading as art, but so far they're careful to make their stuff easily removable and they don't seem to do anything that would damage the stuff they put their "art" on. It's all fun and games till somebody decides to make a sign a bit too close to a real traffic sign and it confuses some inattentive driver into doing something stupid behind the wheel.

Yes, Los Angeles Does Have a Downtown

UPDATED to fix factual errors

It's a special extra urban edition of Sunday Dog Walking photoblogging. Ventured into the wilds of Downtown Los Angeles. The set can be viewed here.

The two tallest building this side of the Mississippi. OK almost got that right, the US Bank Building (appears smaller, but is taller) is still the tallest building this side of the Mississippi, but the Aon Center has been surpassed by a few building in Dallas during the 80s building boom.

A close up of the Aon Center. also, while I'm at it, I like my shot better than the one that accompanies the Wiki on this building.

An even closer up of the Aon Center.

A*Hole



You can't tell very well from this photo, but that bright spot in the middle is a driving rig with two motorcycles, one of them with Mary J. Blige perched upon it. Most likely a video shoot. I passed two different shoots while walking the dog today.



City Hall (from a distance)



A rather poor snap of Disney Hall (see, I don't hate everything Gehry's done)






Went down Broadway on the way back to the car, it's the vibrant center of the area, and almost like stepping into a foreign country. Also, my doggie didn't seem real popular, I think he looks a bit too much like the kind of dogs dirty cops use to intimidate in Mexico and beyond.



How long since they changed that marquee?



A couple of tempting shows upcoming at the Orpheum




A few shots of the exterior of the United Artist Theatre (now a church).



Finally, NAKED MANNEQUINS!!!

Yet More Photoblogging, Hancock Park + Miracle Mile Edition

Sundays are for watching football, and driving someplace different to walk the dog.

Did not anticipate temps in the mid 80s on November 19th, but sometimes you have to suffer for your art. Doggie did o.k., though his tongue grew to prodigious lengths by the end of the walk.

Went to Hancock Park "aka" LACMA "aka" La Brea Tar Pits. Wasn't as much shoot worthy as I anticipated, but it was a pleasant walk, and it was opening day for the big Magritte show (which I'll try and get to sometime in the next two weeks, naturally I'll blog my impressions).

Whole set here, below a select few with comments



Doubt and Pain



Anxiety



Belief



Sloth?







A shot of the big poster at the entrance, and some shots outside the exhibit area for the Magritte show, I was shooed away by security, big dogs aren't welcome on the plaza between the museum spaces (just in the park area surrounding).

That's enough pictures, if you want to see more, go over to flickr.

For This Photoblogging Post I Had an Art Director . . . (But I Treat Him Like a Dog)

More, photoblogging? Yes, more photoblogging, Sunday is my day to take the family doggie for a long walk. As has been my habit these past few weekends, I've grabbed my camera as well.

This time, for many of the photos, I let Mofo (the family doggie) be my art director.

I shot almost everything (I forgot twice, I think) he chose to mark. 16 times he felt the need to leave a 'calling card' and 14 times I captured an image so that he could upload his work. Think of it as the doggie equivalent of myspace. When we engineer dogs with the ability for speech and give them some sort of web access, I'm sure you'll see stuff like this proliferate. Until that day, dogs like Mofo will have to rely on their owners (I refuse to not 'own' a pet and just be their 'companion' or worse yet, their 'parent') to use the web to increase the reach of the territory they can mark (but of course for this to have maximum utility for dogs, Mofo suggests coming up with some sort of 'scratch-n-sniff' system over the internets)

Below are five of the examples of his decision making as an art director.




First up is the classic lamppost, Mofo's not a big fan of the fire hydrant, too cliché.



Next, trees with porous bark are always good for marking, plus Mofo felt he wanted to get in the shot, so I obliged.



To switch things up, Mofo chose a clump of grass. Just keeping me on my toes I guess.



Ivy's also a great place for leaving a message for other dogs' noses.



For the final shot, Mofo was angry with me for lazily shooting all the shots from above, so for the final tree, I got real low and took the shot from a more dramatic angle.

The whole set can be found on flicker, titled 2006 OCT 29 Territorial Pissings (A Collaborative Art Project Between XWL and Mofo (His Dog)).

And yes, the Nirvana reference is intentional. Even though I don't do Friday Funk Lyrics anymore I do like posting lyrics, so I'll use this as an occasion for some Sunday Grunge Lyrics (borrowed from here)

Come on people now

Smile on your brothers

Everybody get together

Try to love another right now



When I was an alien

Cultures weren't opinions



[Chorus]

Gotta find a way

To find a way

When I'm there

Gotta find a way

A better way

I had better wait



Never met a wise man

If so it's a woman



[(Chorus)(x2)]



Just because you're paranoid

Don't mean they're not after you



[(Chorus) (x3)]

Enough with the Photoblogging, Already

I know what you're thinking, big deal, you've got a new camera.

But now it's something that I feel compelled to throw in my overalls while walking the dog, so while the doggie and I get some exercise (and he marks some trees), I'm looking for things of interest to shoot.

I didn't find a lot interesting today. Probably cause I walked north, and I just don't find much that's interesting north of Wilshire. I'm a reverse snob, what can I say?

Here's all the non-duplicate pictures I took today, all seven of them (with commentary)

First up, just a shot gazing north on 18th St. looking at the palm trees, a sliver of the Santa Monica Mountains and the clouds collecting against them. Am I mocking all you folks back east who suffered through an early snow?

Next up, on Montana Ave. a GEM car. Because sometimes in the race to be greener than thou, the Prius just isn't green enough.

The backside of the same GEM, here's my proposal (possibly even a modest one), anyone over 80 should be required by law to drive a GEM or similar electric car. Folks like this gentleman would be far less capable of doing damage if they were faced with that limitation.

Electric homes must have seemed like a great idea at one time, now they are just a huge headache and a massive utility bill.

This isn't Jay Leno's garage, instead it's a car dealer on Wilshire. The 57 Chevy wagon way in the back is the one I want (I would have gone in and taken more photos, but they probably wouldn't have liked me bringing the big black doggie with me).

I don't trust any financial services company that tries so hard not to look like a financial services company.

Finally, at the local Mercedes dealership, their concept of a red tag sale is different than most places (the price is hard to discern in the photo, but it's $149,688).

My First Photoblog Post

Prof. Althouse didn't invent random walk/photo blogging. But she's elevated it to an art form. Now that I have a new Sony Cyber-shot S500 I thought I'd try out the same on my late afternoon dog walk.

I've uploaded all the shots I took onto Flickr, no editing, and no manipulation.

Here's six that might convince you to click on some of the rest.



Who says you can't shoot hummingbirds?



I'm not the only Republican in Santa Monica, and here's the proof.



I'm as confused about this one as you are.



Ummmm, No Comment?



There's a state law that requires any photosets taken in Southern California MUST include some shots that include references to palm trees. Hopefully I am now in compliance.



Can you say Squirrel Blogging?

Here's a link to the whole photostream from today's photos. I'm still learning how to use my recently purchased Sony Cyber-shot S500, so expect better photos in the future. Also, it was an intermittently hazy day, so conditions weren't ideal.