DonWhitlow.com

I took this photo this past Saturday afternoon while out shooting some stuff for Mindy. The interesting thing about this picture is that the sky is so dark because of smoke from the Corona and Yorba Linda wildfires that were raging to the east of where we were. The sun was still relatively high and behind me during the shot, but the smoke nearly obscured most of it, making for some really funky light. As we drove around later that afternoon and got a little closer to the fires, the smell of the smoke was really noticeable and there was a lot of ash in the air. Even then, we were probably more than 20 miles from the flames. Amazing.

In these times of high gas prices and people looking for more economical and enviro-friendly modes of transportation, this seems like the perfect car. That box on the top has to add close to another 60 or so cubic feet of cargo capacity. That’s as good as a lot of SUVs without the headaches associated with >$100 fillups.

I, for one, solute our friend’s green initiative as long as I’m never behind him on the freeway.

Besides my newfound appreciation for fabric stores in order to find great texture and color for photos, it struck me that art supply stores are another great source of inspiration as well. The shot on the left is from Sterling Art located here in Orange County, CA. The shot on the right is from Britex Fabrics in San Francisco. Though different in their respective missions, both deal in the raw materials for making art, be it wearable or on paper, and both provide the visual ingredients to become art themselves.

Yesterday, I bummed around up and down the coast for the better part of the day. On my way home, I drove out to the southernmost tip of the Balboa Peninsula and hung around at the beach there for a while. While there, I got to watch three guys skimming at the Wedge, which apparently is a well-known bodysurfing area; popular for its large waves and the way they break so close to the shore. Skimming is similar to surfing but done with a running start from the beach and into the surf on a smaller, flatter board than those traditionally used by surfers. In the pic above, the trio is catching their breath and waiting for the next wave to take shape for their next run.

All in all, a pretty cool day, in spite of the sunburn I wound up with. Got a chance to see some of what drew us to California in the first place and learned that I shouldn’t leave the house without SPF-100 sunblock.

I took this picture of the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall during our trip to Los Angeles back in December. Only recently did I play with it as a black and white image and I’ve got to say, I really like how it came out. I love the undulating ebb and flow of Gehry’s architecture and this building is one of the prime examples of his work. I’m always amazed at how he is able to coax materials into interesting form and volume. I’d have loved to have seen the inside, but alas, that wasn’t on the agenda that day. Maybe next time…