31.3.11

tilt

i've been in a really jerk mood all week with a rough case of wanderlust so i don't have anything nice to say... one thing i love this week is getting a tax return. and then some links and pictures and such.

pinterest favorites of the week
1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8


owls, garfield, lasagna, and gifs

30.3.11

photographer feature: sinziana velicescu












Age
21

Location
Los Angeles

Who or what sparked your interest in photography?
My father, documenting my friends in 9th grade.

Who are some of your favorite photographers?
Lewis Baltz, André Kertész, William Eggleston, D Yee, Martyna Galla, and Yosigo.

Do you have any formal education in photography or are you self taught?
Yes and no, I have taken some photography and cinematography classes. Aside from that, I regularly attend museums and look at photographers online for inspiration. I also take screen shots of movies with breathtaking cinematography.

Is photography your career?
At the moment, I would say yes.

Are you currently working on any photography projects?
My friend is putting together a website for an arts collective titled disagne.com and I am submitting a collection of photos I took during road trips throughout the US titled Nowhere, USA. I am also shooting a few short films and editing a band interview within the next few months.

What is your favorite thing to photograph and why?
Architectural detail in buildings because I love lines, shapes, colors, and symmetry. Small people in big open spaces because I've lived most of my life in Los Angeles, where you everything is polluted with advertising.. hence I like my shots to be clean and the people in them able to breathe. Abandoned buildings - interior and exterior - because you can feel the presence of people who used to occupy them.

Where do you find and how do you instruct your models?
Some models need direction, others don't. most of my "model" oriented photography consists of candid portraiture so I don't have to direct much. Most models are my friends or relatives.

Do you listen to music while you shoot? If so, what is on your photo shoot play list?
No but that's probably a good idea.

What is in your camera bag?
Canon AE-1 with a 50mm lens, Canon EOS 20d with a zoom lens, black and white film, slide film, fuji superia, Yashica TL-Electro with a telephoto zoom lens and a wide angle lens, and disposable cameras! I hope to get a medium format camera soon.

What is your favorite lens and why?
My 28mm wide angle lens because I love to capture small things in big empty spaces

Where do you find inspiration?
Modern art, cinema, industrial areas, architecture, nature.

Future photography goals?
When I'm 40 I want to work for National Geographic. In the near future, I'd like to shoot architecture, portraits, fashion photography, and have some of my work shown in galleries. I'd also like to do gaffing and cinematography for short films here and there.

Describe a day in your life that includes photography:
In Los Angeles, it's hard to get inspired because I spend most of my time in the car. I prefer a city with public transportation, where I can hop on a bus and it will take me anywhere. I prefer cuttier parts of the city where I can find abandoned buildings, trash, run-down architecture, and interesting people I can photograph. Otherwise, I go on road trips to find places off the beaten path that nobody cares to visit. That's where my most interesting photos are from.

What does your work flow consist of?
When I'm not traveling, I get out and take pictures when I can... right now I'm focusing on making my website.

Three interesting facts about yourself?
I study literature and film at USC. I learned Photoshop at age 7.

What, if anything, do you do to promote your photography?
Submit work to magazines, zines, art galleries, and blogs.

It looks like you have traveled a lot. who do you travel with?
I travel generally with friends or by myself, with the exception of snowboarding trips with my dad, which always turn into photography adventures in bizarre places.

What is your favorite place that you have had an opportunity to visit?
This is a hard question, for photographic purposes, usually the most undesirable places become my favorite. I recently went to SXSW and although Austin was the coolest city I've visited in the United States, the feeling i got from being in abandoned ghost towns in the middle of nowhere was entirely something else. On the other side of the spectrum, Budapest in Hungary is my favorite city in Europe for its architecture, Paris for its culture, and all of Romania for the interesting people that inhabit it and the juxtaposition of the most beautiful nature I've ever seen with some of the poorest living conditions I have been around.

Thank you so much Sinziana for the interview! Check out more of Sinziana Velicescu's work on Tumblr and Flickr!

29.3.11

tat-tuesday

wrist star

lets go fly a kite


film tattoo

tea time knuckles... adorbs and i love the turquoise!


sweet little hearts that looks like freckles

27.3.11

miss mary mack

miss mary mack, mack, mack,
all dressed in black, black, black,
with silver buttons, buttons, buttons,
all down her back, back, back
she asked her mother, mother, mother,
for fifty cents, cents, cents,
to see the elephant, elephant, elephant.
jump over the fence, fence, fence.
he jumped so high, high, high,
he reached the sky, sky, sky,
and he never came back, back, back,
‘till the end of july, ‘ly, ‘ly.

24.3.11

tilt | things i love thursday

the works of amazing artist camille rose garcia:

tempura chicken maki from sake house and cucumber rolls from sushi factory, i had every intention of taking pictures of it, but as soon as i opened the box i gobbled it all up without a thought of pulling out my camera. i could easily eat sushi every single day.

free coffee. either i look so bad that the guy in au bon pain thinks it is a public service to give me a free cup of coffee the last few times i have gone in there or maybe he thinks i'm cute. either way, yay for free hazelnut coffee!

indian food. now this was the real shocker for me because i have always refused to try it. i was convinced by a friend of mine to try it on sunday and i LOVED it. we went to india garden. i had chicken tikka marsala and vegetable samosas and they were SO good, i'm a total convert, i'm sorry about all the smack that i ever talked about indian food without trying it.

photo adventures. the day that we went and had indian food we also went on a mini photo adventure. it was aimless since the skies were grey, but we found an amazing abandoned house and a couple of cows with amazingly long horns. of course all of my photos were taken on film so i can't share them right now.

23.3.11

photographer feature: matthias quasthoff







Age
29

Location
Berlin, Germany

Who or what sparked your interest in photography?
The way friends who are photographers interact with people

Who are some of your favorite photographers?
I probably wouldn't have been able to start without my friends Michael Schrenk and Erich Kronsteiner. Other than that I mostly follow photo blogs like Swampy, Sandy Kim's, Jack Siegel's, and Alex Olson's

Do you have any formal education in photography or are you self taught?
No, just asking friends and looking at books and exhibitions

Is photography your career?
No, computer science.

Are you currently working on any photography projects?
Not really except that maybe I'm trying to smuggle as many analog photos as possible into social web sites like Facebook and Qype.

What is your favorite thing to photograph and why?
My friends and maybe strangers in the streets and some places I like. But also surprising things like a swan in the mist on my way to the office just inside Berlin.

Where do you find and how do you instruct your models?
No real models. And I gotta learn a lot for the instruction part, as I wouldn't want to do more than slightly optimize natural situations, if that's possible.

Do you listen to music while you shoot? If so, what is on your photo shoot play list?
No, I don't or I don't notice in public places. But if I would it'd be rather jazz than d'n'b.

What is in your camera bag?
Olympus XA if it's a small bag, Canon SLR if I'm by car, and Panasonic GF-1 at night.

What is your favorite lens and why?
Mostly normal lenses for their simplicity: Canon EF 50mm/1.8 and Panasonic 20mm/1.7.

Where do you find inspiration?
Photography books, few photo blogs.

Future photography goals?
Make people forget I have a camera and find the line between a funny photo and an interesting one

Describe a day in your life that includes photography:
With the XA it could be anywhere from a disastrous public restroom to something more exciting. I like days with bright sun, although it might not be the best for photography it makes the photos look like they were from California.

What does your work flow consist of?
I try to avoid most post processing to force me to take more when shooting the photo. A roll of film lasts one or two weeks.

Three interesting facts about yourself?
You'd have to ask somebody else for that :-)

What, if anything, do you do to promote your photography?
At the moment only in Flickr and my photo blog. I submit my photos to groups for the camera models and to a film group.

Please check out more of Matthias’ photography on his website and Flickr!