New temporary theme.

I got tired of the old one and until I can find one I like, or get off my arse and design one myself, this'll be my placeholder.

Disappointment

Man, I took the spawn to the Santa Ana Zoo today and it was such a disappointment. It took maybe 45mins to get through the whole place, and that includes time to feed little tidbits of info about the animal in question to the kiddo. Three of the exhibits were closed, and another was under construction and won't re-open until April. There were no lions, tigers or bears (oh my?). No rhinos, elephants, giraffe or sea critters of any kind. They had a good helping of monkeys, but no larger monkeys like gorillas or orangutan. It was really disappointing. The entire trip (Entrance fees and bus fare) only set me back 9 bucks, but I still feel ripped off.

The biggest issue I had was less the lack of wildlife, and more to do with the fact that everything was in a closed off cage. You can't get a good picture of something behind bars or mesh nets. It just makes it depressing. One of my favorite sections of the Phoenix Zoo was an enclosed monkey area that you could enter. Similar to an aviary. You'd enter through a set of doors and there was a walkway through the exhibit with spider monkeys running around with free reign. I used to go and sketch them as they ran around because, quite often, they'd run around near you to see what you were up to.

Anyway, this is just a long post with excuses as to why I don't really have any shots from the trip. I plan on taking the spawn to the San Diego Zoo/Sea World soon, so maybe that will result in a more fruitful session. So in the absence of Zoo pics, here's more stuff from around the city. I really need to go for some longer walks and find some more interesting subjects to shoot.

Another "Self Portrait". Also a chance to say "Who the fuck named this place?". I mean seriously, it's the most mind-numbingly ridiculous name. If I ever get the chance, I'm going to name a place "Trapezoidal Rhombus". Having any brain aneurysms yet?


This was a window in an old decrepit train station. I thought it had a lot of character, so I snapped a shot of it. I'm still planning on going back and hopping the fence to grab some other cool shots at some point.


This is how the spawn and I spent her sick day. Crafts day! I don't care how old I get, craft days are awesome days.

An edited shot of the kiddos paints. I thought it'd look good as a wall painting. I need to look into the cost of getting some of these shots printed to throw up on the wall. Maybe if I put them up around my desk it'll give me some inspiration to start drawing stuff again.

This is a shot of the ocean I took on our last trip to the dog beach. The waves didn't look super big, and then I went swimming and found it difficult to keep my head above water when trying to jump the waves. Lots of fun was had though. I can never get enough ocean time. I was away from it for far too long.

So anyway, that's it for now. My buddy and I are starting Detch: Round 2, so there will very likely be some musical updates in the near future. I'm also going to make sure I start drawing some more, so hopefully there'll be some of that coming as well.

Beach Fun & More

Pirate Cove.

Corporate Pond.

America, Fuck Yeah!

Fountain outside of Mimi's Cafe.

UGH. Blogger is not letting me upload any more photos, so there will be more to come.

Test Upload

Trying to find out what my upload size limits are.

Ahoy Ye Landlubbers!

Took the spawn to the beach yesterday and got some great shots. I have to admit, the biggest draw to this particular spot was the fact that it was named "Pirate's Cove". It seemed to be named with good reason. It was small, but it felt very "Caribbean". You know, aside from all the people and houses and boats, etc. Anyway, the following are some shots from the trip.

Ugh, Paddy's Day

Had a great Paddy's Day, but I'm still recovering. So here's some pictures and very little words. I wish the subjects in some of these were a little more interesting, but I'll take what I can get at this point.

First!

Alright, now it's time for my first official post.

So until I can afford the Nikon D40, I've been using my brother-in-law's camera. He's got a Sony Cybershot DSC-H2. I haven't had a whole lot of time with the camera, and I'm still getting the hang of the manual mode. It's been a while since I've had a Photography class, so I get to re-learn about ISO, Aperture, Shutter Speed, Etc.

A couple of days ago I went for a short stroll around the block and took some pictures. There wasn't a lot of great shots, or interesting subjects. I had decided pretty early on that I'd need to do some post production on some of them and see what I could do about the look and feel of some of the more mundane shots. Below are some of the shots from that session.

This is a shot of a rad fire hydrant I saw on my walk. Unfortunately, I don't have a tripod to work with atm, so it's a completely manufactured HDR-type image. It's not nearly as good as a real HDR shot, and way more contrast-y but I still dig the final picture.

I sat under this tree for a while to enjoy the morning. It's positioned in the island running the length of the road. Even with the cars running by it was quite peaceful. This one has very little PS work done to it. A little bit of color correction and some resizing, but nothing like the first.

Another "HDR-Style" image. I like the way this one turned out more than the hydrant. I took it primarily because I thought the sign had some character and I really like railroad crossing signs for some reason.

So I decided to follow the railroad tracks and found this cool, decrepit train station. There's just something about trains. Like, it's one of the few remaining links to the past that we actively use. Something that's been around since the days of Cowboys & Indians! Just makes me feel like a kid again I guess.

Anyways, that'll be all for now. I have more but I need to adjust them a bit before I post 'em up.

Ciao!

Welcome to Art Associated!

This page is my chronicling of everything that I do that's "Artsy". Whether photography, painting, drawing or music; I'll be making posts about my personal work, or a lesson that I've learned in my new journey.

I'm starting the blog as a way to get back into the things that I used to love to do. Things that I have let fall by the wayside due to life and other circumstances. This is my chance to "find myself" and enjoy life again.