Oh, Snap: Stunning Sunsets Vol1

January 11, 2013August 9, 20131 Comment

Over the last decade, I’ve developed a knack for capturing events ‘in-the-moment’: confetti at concerts, priceless interactions between friends and the nuanced emotions of animals. You name it, I’ve probably at least attempted to capture it. The only difference between me then and me now is experience, age, wisdom and dedication; so, kind of a lot. You’d think that with so many moving pieces, shooting people and animals would be on the more difficult end of the spectrum – but that would be completely false. With animate objects, you can engage them into acting, or even reacting – either way, they engage the camera in a symbiotic relationship. When you’re trying to take a picture of a dandelion or mural – you can’t exactly ask it to shift into the light, or angle themselves in another direction. It’s all up to you to be creative, which is where I shine. I love taking something that exists and manipulating the image into something bigger: bolder, colorful, lively; and I feel like sunsets are the perfect subject to demonstrate this.

LA Skyline

Newport, CA

Dallas, TX

Hollywood, CA

San Diego, CA

Echo Park, CA

Downtown LA

Newport, CA

Sunset Spot

Malibu, CA

Coachella 2011

Oh, Snap: Street Art v2

January 4, 2013January 16, 2013Leave a comment

One of the best things about the street art in Los Angeles is the high turnover rate – as soon as something phenomenal is created, another piece of art is destroyed; either at the artists accord or because the city has had enough of it. Either way, the fact remains – the destruction of creativity breeds more creativity, it’s something that simply can’t be stopped or thwarted.

You can slow an artist down with writers block or take away his canvas and tools – but creativity is an ooze that bubbles and boils over, seeping into pores and out of airways. True artists eat, breathe and sleep their talents – and the artists of Los Angeles are no different; I hope you enjoy their street art as much as I have!

“Angels Will Ride”

[Roadtrippin’] It’s a California State of Mind

October 19, 2012January 13, 2014Leave a comment

For the past few weeks I’ve had little angel on my shoulder, coercing me to get the fuck out of my overheated Los Angeles bubble and venture up north for an extended weekend of good food, great meals and family time. But, whenever I was close to jumping in my car and cruising back home, the devil on the other side would start with the litany of excuses: I hate driving on the 5 – That’s too long to leave my cats alone for– gas prices are cray cray – etc, etc. The fact of the matter is those are all very valid reasons for not wanting to hit the road – but at the end of the

day, they all start to sound like the same excuse, ‘I don’t want to.‘ It’s been a long past few months and there was a lot of apprehension about being isolated, and in the middle of nowhere, for an extended amount of time – but I’ve also come to terms with the fact that I over-saturate my life with connections. My phone may as well be tethered to my side as a Siamese twin because I swear I’m always on it – Tweeting, texting, Instagram-ing and Facebooking; may as well just call me a walking, talking social media slut – I’ll take it.

I also, finally, took some my own advice: get out of my head and into my heart.

Being a creature of logic and reason is fine and dandy; but, emotions can’t be quantified, feelings can’t be measured and you can’t organize anxieties.

With this freshly pressed game plan in mind, I turned to packing up my troubles, both literally and physically. Piling clothes, jewelry, hair products and my work laptop in an over-sized duffel bag, I synced my iPod and kissed my cats goodbye. The drive can last anywhere from 6 and 9 hours, so I had a lot of music to load in to get me through it. For the first time, I wasn’t planning outfits or huge escapades – I was going to be comfortable and at home with the people I love. Yes, the 5 is awful and gas prices aren’t going down – but the idea that the people I love are only a tank of gas away is so comforting.

When I hit the road, I double checked my route and turned my phone off for a while; I was on auto-pilot, my car was on cruise control and it was just the two of us and the highway. I’ve had my new car since April and the furthest we’ve gone together is Ojai – this was our first big adventure and I had way too much fun. There’s a feeling that I get from being in the open road, windows down and music up; my mind opens up, my stream of consciousness is deep and introspective and I almost get this runners high. Maybe it’s a drivers high. Either way, that drive cleared out my mental cobwebs and reset my system. Around 10 pm I cruised into the city and it was bustling with lights and noise, roaring with personality as it always does.

San Francisco at Night

5 Roadtrip Essentials:

Map I know I’m captain obvious but you should probably know where you’re going – just in case your phone dies, your partner in crime slash navigator passes out or you’re just horrible with directions.
Music Make sure your playlist is twice as long as your total drive – if you’re like me, you probably have musical ADD and change a song halfway through…which means your playlist doesn’t last as long as you think it does. Plan ahead and your head will thank you later; besides, how many times can you really listen to Levels*?
Good Vibes If you’re no fun, your drive isn’t going to be fun! Besides, if you can’t have fun by yourself rocking out with an air guitar and singing lead vocals at the tippity top of your lungs – why would anyone else want to?
Comfort Grub There’s nothing worse than hitting the road, getting super hungry and not being able to find a damn thing you want to eat or drink – well, save yourself the problem and do a little store run before you head out or save some money and make sandwiches at home. Make sure you have something delish to wash it all down, and a few extra bottles of water – and you’ll have a happy heart, and stomach, the entire drive.
Car Charger Phone navigation applications, especially Verizon’s – and I speak from experience, do a pretty good job of draining your phones battery. Being lost in the middle of nowhere with no phone is kind of horrible, so do yourself a favor and make sure you have a working phone charger.

My Favorite Things: Falling for Autumn

October 11, 2012August 14, 2013Leave a comment

I’ve lived in Los Angeles for a little over four years now, and for those of you that have yet to experience our (lack of) seasons – there are really only two to be concerned with. We have “Summer“, which lasts from about March to the beginning of October, and we have “Not Summer” from mid-October through the end of February. My friends and I have also come to the conclusion that the weather in Los Angeles is taking some heavy meds – in the past, we would go for half the summer with awkward drizzle and clouds, then while the rest of the country was undergoing their Fall transformation – leaves changing color, air becoming brisk – we got a heavy dose of 100+ sunshine. It’s like the weather was making up for lost time; and we, the people, are forced to endure it’s bipolar tendencies.

On the other hand, if you look at one 24 hour period in Los Angeles – we actually manage to go through all of the seasons in one day! In the mornings lately, it’s been a tad Winter-ey: brisk, cold, overcast and drizzly but by mid morning the clouds in the sky are few and far between, birds are chirping and it feels like Spring. Over the next few hours, the delightful warmth turns into blistering Summer heat – reaching well into the 90s, and by dinnertime while the sun is setting over the Pacific, the temperature drops and a pleasant breeze flutters by carrying the few turned leaves, and it actually feels like Fall.

Autumn, Fall – whatever you want to call it, it simply makes me happy. Back in the Bay Area where I was raised, it was an actual season instead of a hypothetical situation. It would get blistery cold and a tad rainy; my remedy was to drink lots of peppermint tea and sit firmly on top of the furnace vent with a blanket to trap in the warm air. In LA, there typically isn’t a noticeable shift from Summer to Fall; Summer wanes and Winter promptly takes its place; this year though – there’s a crispness about the air that’s just enthralling, the cloud porn is fantastic and sunsets burn so beautifully. Now, don’t get me wrong – I loved those summer nights; it was warm until 2am and I could wear a tank top, shorts and flip flops day in and day out. But now that Fall has fallen we get to bundle up, curl up and wrap ourselves in warmth, comfort and cute boots. I couldn’t be more excited!

My unofficial Top 10 list of my favorite things about fall:

Pumpkin everything: pie, scones, waffles, candles, carving and lattes, etc!
Fashion: boots, scarves, tights and leggings
Basketball Season!
Curling up Sake & Stella, a good book and/or movie =)
Dressing Up for Halloween!
Leaves turning and fluttering everywhere
My Birthday!
Thanksgiving, Winter Holidays and Family Time
The sun rising just a little bit later
The pitter patter of rain

Doing it Right: All Day We Dream of Cities and Angels

September 23, 2012August 14, 2013Leave a comment

Over the last few months, I’ve managed to both migrate friend groups and music scenes; if you know much about LA you’ll realize that these are more or less the same thing. In Los Angeles, your taste in music and culture – apart from everything else – are truly what separates you from the rest of the bunch, essentially dictating which of the multitudes of subcultures you belong to. Though I have a firm and steady love for all things music – especially electronic, for the past few years I’ve been listening to a lot of trance, house and drum & bass. Well, about five months ago the trajectory of my life shifted – I started wavering away from my former group of friends into unfamiliar territory: the co-mingling worlds of deephouse and techhouse. Sure, I’d been to a few underground parties in the past but this was so different. My friends were essentially spoon feeding me music, events and DJs like I was a newborn child. I’ve always told my friends that the best way to experience a new type of music or new DJ is to see them live – and now I can say for a fact this is true.

Looking back at all the wonderful events I went to this Summer, I can tell you with 110% certainty that my favorite was ‘All Day I Dream of LA Sky‘ with Lee Burridge and Matthew Dekay. I went with a few of my new, close friends (remember: I’m excellent at this fastfriend thing) after an epic birthday weekend in Ojai. To be honest, I had no expectations because I didn’t know what to expect. But there were beautiful people sprawled out across the parking-lot-rooftop-turned-dancefloor, gorgeous light fixtures of all colors swaying with the slight breeze and the music – oh, the music. And I couldn’t be more thrilled, because they’re bringing the party back to Los Angeles one more time….today! As I type this, I’m getting all sorts of goosebumps reminiscing about just how amazing the last show was and this giddy feeling is developing in my heart, is it time to dance yet?! If you want to see what you missed last go around, just take a gander at the video below!

Doing it Right: Going Overboard with Harmonic Productions

August 18, 2012August 14, 2013Leave a comment

Besides the times I sing along to ‘The Lonely Island’ – I rarely step foot on any type of boat. When I was in preschool, one of my teachers had a little 15′ boat he’d take us little tykes out on; it was honestly one of the highlights of my childhood. A group of 15 kids would go out in the middle of the Bay and have story time; but the older I got, the more seasick I became and started to avoid smaller boats like the plague.

My body has a weird habit of internalizing my movements during the day and replaying them at night, and even if I was on a Ferry – I would wake up in the morning, feeling like my body was rocking to and fro. Last summer for the 4th of July, I went out in Santa Barbara on a friends boat and had to jump ship 30 minutes in because being in the cold water was preferable to feeling sea sick. Long story short, I’ve essentially sworn off boats of all shapes and sizes.

TWel, that all changed last weekend when I cruised down to Newport with some of my good friends for some fun in the summer sun. Harmonic Productions, the promotional team that runs HEAR, BASK,and Damaged Goods, has been throwing Overboard boat parties on the famed Tiki Boat in Newport Harbor for the past few summers.

Los Angeles was in the midst of a 100+ week long heat wave and being outside wasn’t exactly fun. Down in Newport the weather was a gorgeous 85 and sunny, a few clouds but overall amazing weather to sail around the harbor. The timing could not have been better.

The Tiki Boat has a fully stoked bar on the bottom level, a DJ booth, dance floor and there were a few booths to sit and relax in if you’re into that type of thing. But between the deep house jams, lively conversation and run ins with friends both new and old – that wasn’t a very likely scenario. The upper deck had a large observation area and ample space outside for us to mingle and enjoy some sunshine. The cruise lasted for five crazy fun hours and we were making friends up and down the harbor; there were a few little kid moments that reminded me of being on the school bus and making faces at the people passing by. But instead of faces, it was peace signs, good vibes and fresh dance moves.

I was lucky enough to have several different groups of friends in attendance, which FYI was kept to a very low number so we could get everyone on the boat. Maybe 250 tickets were sold for the event, and that’s being generous. But even if you didn’t know anyone when you got on the boat, when you left you had some brand spanking new friendships to show for yourself. Everyone that was involved, from the promotional team, to the DJs, to the bartenders and back to the fun loving, trouble making crowd in attendance – helped make that event as fabulous as it was. I can’t wait to go back for the party next year!

Oh Snap: Street Art v1

August 18, 2012Leave a comment

In every way of the word, LA is bustling with diversity, creativity and inspiration. There’s as much diversity between the different cultures in LA as there are within them. The creativity and inspiration of each subculture here is born out of colliding ideas. And these ideas are translated into art, architecture, music, performance dance, and more – the key is knowing where to look; with street art, it’s no further than the wall of a dilapidated building, a fire hydrant or billboard.

Over the past few months I’ve been taking Urban Nature Walks and taking pictures of anything that catches my eye and I can’t wait to share it with you guys through my Oh, Snap! series. What better way to kick it off than counting down my top 10 pictures. All of these photos are taken with the Instagram Application for Android, and I’ll let you know what filters and edits I’ve used. Enjoy!

10.