So I’ve taken a little (large) hiatus from posting an image of the day, and I apologize for doing so. Things have been busy around these parts, and I haven’t had time to post an image all the time. I hope to start it up again in the future, and if I do, you’ll know about it…
With that, I’ll leave you with a recent iPhone snapshot…
Nary a boring day in Hermosa Beach.
On Sunday I was working on a photo class assignment that resembles a scavanger hunt, which meant I was outside wandering around with my camera. An example of one aspect of my mission was to capture a scene with three pastel colors on three-dimensional objects with no black or white in the frame. To imagine how difficult this is, take a look around you quickly. Assume you wanted a 4’x6′ frame to be filled with an image. How many places can you see with no black or white within this area? Not many. This was one of seven shots where the instructions were this specific. While I understand there is a purpose to the assignment, I still reserve the right to be frustrated when wandering the streets for hours looking for these Holy Grails…
Wandering around with my brain in “Pastel” mode, I was nearly knocked over by a man running past me not looking where he was going. He was staring over his shoulder into the sky behind him, as if he were about to be attacked by birds or air sharks or something awesome like that. Just as I’m hoping this moron decapitates himself on a volleyball net, a giant silver flash comes into my field of vision… The man catches a 15 foot silver bullet as it falls out of the sky.
“Pastels, pastels, pastels, pastels, HEY watch out! WHAT THE FU<K?!” Says the hyper-eloquent Matt in his head… These things are instinctual, probably picked up in my past life as a Duke of Somewhere-landia…
Turns out, he’s got a massive tubular balloon that he can punch into the air and send it sailing 60+ feet up. It’s pretty cool to watch him play with it, but most of the entertainment comes from watching him chase it as it drifts back towards terra firma. Knocking over children on bicycles (don’t worry, that’s why they wear helmets these days), crashing into patio bar areas, and even bouncing off the top of a police SUV; this shiny inflatable contraption rained down terror from the sky. It was awesome. Keep your eyes open for this device to be used as the next cutting edge weapon in urban warfare… And hope you never have to see it!
Check my Image of the Day Project HERE to see which images from the collection below will make it into the project… They’ll be up shortly…
P.S. The flower images were from outside of my office on Monday.
Nobody likes to move. Fact.
Nobody dislikes moving more than me. Speculation.
Proof: I dislike moving so much… I avoid buying normal things people use on a daily basis because I’m afraid of amassing a pile of junk I’ll need to move in the future.
Case in point: I don’t own a cookie sheet. The only reason I have silverware at all is because Joel felt so bad for my pathetic ass when he left, that he was compelled to leave some behind. My apartment does not have a kitchen table, coffee table, toaster, spatula (making eggs is hilarious), television… You get the idea.
If I’ve made you concerned about my well-being or left you thinking I’m pathetic, I’m sorry. I assure you, I’m not. Well, that’s like, my opinion, man. I’ve managed to live with people who’ve had all these things for the first 28 years of my life, and haven’t found a need to collect the things we so loosely call “necessities” at this point.
SLAP! Back on topic, Matt! Sorry for the digression.
My point here is that I’ve recently come to terms with the fact that I’ll be moving away from the beach. Sad. So very sad. This weekend the PTB (Powers That Be, remember? Keep up people!) were either trying to make the separation anxiety kick up early, or they were trying to give me a show for one of my last few weekends here. That show (read: Beautiful Sunset) is the subject of the images for today… Now since it’s blistering cold elsewhere in the country, I won’t dwell on this too much, but I’d like to mention that this beautiful sunset came with a side of ridiculous wind. A wind that ripped chills through bodies, ripped hoods off heads, and ripped feeling from hands gripping cameras.
Maybe that wind was part of the mixed message, but there’s more. Just when I think there’s no way I can walk away from this lovely little beach town buried in big ‘ole L.A., I get the hint that I need to get the ford out of dodge… PTB had me open my patio door at just the right time, which led to an introduction to my downstairs neighbors, or as I will now call them, the Ghost of Hermosa Future. Ebenezer Matt introduced himself to the 42 year old New Yorker who now occupies the room directly below him (one of two roommates). A perfectly polite gentleman. What’s the problem Matt? Well, since you asked, here’s the problem. In the slightly invasive 5 minutes he spent walking through my apartment and telling me the differences between his and mine, he managed to bring up the fact that he’s been living in Hermosa for 16 years. He moved here when he was a punky little 26 year old, and has been juggling roommates and living the beach life ever since. A little strange you say? Well consider the fact that some of his recent roommates were younger than he was when he moved here in the first place. Jebus.
Old man neighbor is all well and fine, until you smash cut to 9PM last night. Said 42 year old man is scream-talking to someone about some fight somewhere involving someone he knew. “Bam! blah blah blah blah… BAM! muffle muffle muffle… Knocked OUT!”
Welp sunset, you were pretty. You are replaceable though. The Ghost of Hermosa Future is powerful, and has opened my eyes. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not about rush into a responsible amount of responsibility or anything drastic like that. I just know that there is more for me out there, and now it’s time to move on. Hopefully moving on gets me closer to my lady, because she’s the missing link in the evolution of my life…
I hope you like the images below, I risked having my hands amputated to get them for you…
See which one I picked for the Image of the Day Project HERE…
Yesterday’s images come from my drive home from work. The rain slowed it up a bit, but it was nothing to worry about. The secret to LA traffic is to make your time in the car productive. I’ve thought about lifting weights, teaching myself how to cut sushi, or maybe giving myself some face tattoos. None of these panned out, so I’ve taken to listening to some audio books. It won’t work for every type of book or every type of person, but if you find something that holds your interest, it can be a great way to pass the time.
In summary, we’ve got the road, the ride, the rain, the Richard, and the Rand (The Fountainhead, read it)…
I intend to post an image from these as part of the Image of the Day Project HERE…
Life has a tendency to be in a state of flux for me lately. I consider this a good thing. Looking back on my past, I can’t think of many circumstances where major things changed and it didn’t improve my life in the long run. What’s important is how we react to change.
That being said, my Image of the Day Project is struggling. New surroundings, new work scenario, return to class, longer commute. It has been hard for me to phocus on photos. I apologize for the neglect. I’d prefer to make the updates less frequent and keep up my sanity and quality… Please keep checking back. Add me as a friend on facebook and I’ll let you know when the updates come.
Note: Studio photos below are from a class I’m taking at SMC. Setups are not mine, and I’ll be doing my shoot next week. I just snapped these photos with my point and shoot during class.
Sleep now.
This post has images from Hermosa Beach, Agoura Hills, Las Vegas, and all points between. Their common thread is that I took them recently, which is pretty awesome, isn’t it? Also common amongst them is that they seem to be lacking in people. There was no conscious effort to avoid people in the images, but I often find myself looking for compositions that can exclude people. Things end up a little more graphic that way. Oh hey, I just noticed that there is some form of water in a bunch of these too. I like what the rain does to the planet photographically. Over half were taken from the car too… I guess maybe they do have a little more in common than I thought…
Anyway, check out the images. Click on the thumbnails below to see the larger versions. You can navigate through the larger images as well. If you want to see which ones I picked for the Image of the Day Project, please click HERE… I’ll have them up soon.
Thanks for looking!
Welp, apparently just claiming you never get sick only works most of the time. I’ve been fortunate enough to be relatively healthy in recent history, but this week doesn’t appear to follow that trend. Whilst attempting to prepare myself for work this morning, my daily 100 point inspection revealed I was in no condition to work. Today’s photos were taken in my 3 block stroll to gather some grub. Wet and rainy is probably the best way to have a sick day, and the PTB (a.k.a. Powers That Be) were happy to oblige.
I will soon be selecting an Image of the Day for the Project (viewable HERE…)
How do you think?
Another batch of recent images… These are from last Thursday and forward, mostly from Phoenix…
I had a great weekend in Arizona where I was pleased to meet and see again some old friends of Kayla’s. She knows good people. Good people know her. It was fun. There were a few pop quizzes involved, in which I was tested on my suitability for my lady. I hope I got all the answers right, and if I didn’t, perhaps I can bribe some kind folks with a nice image or two…
See which ones get picked for the Image of the Day Project HERE… I’m almost back in the swing of things!
So an Image of the Day Project should probably have an image posted every day, right?
Well I’m really not doing so hot when it comes to staying on track lately. Don’t fret, I haven’t stop shooting photos, I’ve just been doing a poor job of getting them online in a timely manner.
I have another large batch below of images taken since the last update, now the chore is to get them on the project website (HERE)… I will attempt to get back on track now, so please come back and see if I’m making good on my goal!
Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you like what you see. Feel free to contact me and let me know what you think!
matt@matthewandersonphotography.com
So I started to post some catch up galleries, and then I thought better of it. Rather than making a ton of posts to show late images I have to catch up on, I thought I’d combine them into a couple galleries.
In early January, my computer broke for nearly two weeks. I’m starting to catch up on getting through the images I took since then, and this the first part of the result.
Once I get everything sorted out, I’ll update the entire project gallery HERE… so that everything is in order… I hope you like the images…
Matt He Wanders On 