Artist Sergio Huerta

Compelling visual artist and good friend of mine Sergio Huerta asked me to do some photos of him, for a recent new project. The basic concept was a portrait, but knowing me and him I knew it wasn't gonna just be a plain portrait. We set out with a few basic ideas and a couple of original paintings of his. After a bit of brainstorming and a few tests, we opted to use a piece called "State of Emergency". The canvas size and the ratio of the painting seem to be the perfect size. I asked him to get behind the canvas and align his head with the top of the painting. The idea worked! Now to take it a step further. Simple! Add a basic plain but interesting background to use for "negative space". The human eye tends to gravitate towards the top left corner of just about any flat surface that resembles a book or a piece of paper. So the concept here is to drag the viewers eye across the image through a texture filled brick wall and ultimately ending and resting visually on the subject.

Live- Last show ever at Milano.

TJ From the Dirty Sanchez. No Flash 50mm at 1.8

Tokyo Death March. No Flash open to 18mm.

Thunder Mountain.

Built over the years by a Creek indian. He said that an old medicine woman told him, "In the final days, there shall rise up a place called Thunder Mountain." She also said that those who live in there would survive the apocalypse. He spent years building it.

A very interesting place to say the least. It is now alone and inhabited. There is access in to this radical place, but the door at the fence reads "Enter at your own risk". No-one there to guard it or much less. Creepy, but that sign made me want to go in even more.

Dark, Cold, Hard

More people jump off from this bridge than any other in the world. Only one has survived.

The longer exposure makes the waves of water coming in an out look more like a ghostly mist. I set out to capture just that, and to my surprise it worked. I like the city of San Francisco, but the Golden Gate gets photographed so much that I wanted to provide a less traveled perspective. I chose a perfect day for this look. The city and the bridge were covered by a fog/mist that hovered right over the bridge. I made sure to use a "cool" white balance for the extra "cold feel".

The Fire Pretzel in Nevada

This from a recent trip to the state of Nevada. Stayed with some friends. Near midnight they realize I had a camera with me. One tells the other "you should do your fire spinning for them". I was like "fire what?", but I was in the room grabbing my camera before they could fully answer. Thanks to Christian for putting on a private fire show even-though he had to get up to get to work at 4 am.

Vehicles painted by Smufs. (from photowalk)

(click to enlarge, I made this one Bigger!)

This was taken during the World Wide Photowalk Fresno edition (today). This year it included 30,000 photographers in hundreds of cities around the world. Fresno's was scheduled to start at the Zoo, which I have a love hate relationship with. The basic concept was to start at the Zoo and end at a local photo gallery (Spectrum Gallery). I device my plan to not spend all my time (2hrs) at the zoo and actually get out and find some street shots.

Minutes before the 2 hrs were done I found this blue motorcycle less than a block from the gallery. Plenty of bikes around town usually, but the paint in this one had a satin texture, which looked very soft. Possibly could make for a good picture. I figured it could almost produce the feel of fancy lighting equipment, making it a good candidate for a photo. I did take some animal pictures, including 4 legged ones, but this time we are sticking to the 2 wheeled one.

What is Art? Cell phone Art?

What is Art? I'll never have an answer. Not needed, because its relative. About the photo(s) This is a compilation of CellPhone photographs. Inspired by commercial photographer Chase Jarvis. He believes there is at least 10 good possible photographs around you at any given time. And that the best camera is the one you have with you. True? Well, lets find out. All this photos were taken with in 1 hr time frame with a my cell phone camera. This time we have a bit of an mini-architectural-abstract feel. Plus I compiled it in a art installation form (does that make it more artsy? No you say! Ok).

I want your brief (long is ok too) interpretation/explanation of this "piece". Tell me what you feel when you see it for the first time. Very quickly analyze how you felt the first 5 seconds after you first saw it. Does it make you vomit or take more cell phone photos? Does it automatically bore you or do you find yourself staring at it for a while? etc etc... you get the point.

Also if you have cool cellphone photos please post the photo or a link. I'd be interested in seeing them.