nyt.people watching/janet hankinson

New People Watching post for the NYTimes T Style is up! Gardens this time, just for summer. Meet Janet Hankinson, landscape architect. Outtakes next week!

blog post 1/

One realization I had from redoing every single blog post was that my first post, or what I intended my first post to be, was never published. This is the image I intended to start of my little blog. The first Pic of the Day. This is one of my favorite images from Henry Varnum Poor's home. The paint chips on the floor are especially good aren't they?

500/really?

Apparently I have done over 500 blog posts. Today will be the 507th to be exact but I have been sitting on this news because I have been in blog crisis for awhile. I've been moving all the images to another server. That means looking at each and every image I have ever posted and slowly redoing each post. I am at a point where at least all the images are redone (not all sized, but soon!)
It has been illuminating looking at each blog post, to say the least. Happily,  I am at the point where I can squeal a proper WHOOHOO!!! I never thought much about what posting a picture each weekday would mean when I started back in April 2010. Some of the time I wonder what the heck I was thinking, but at other times, I realize what a wonderful practice it has been for me. So thanks for being along for the ride. I am leaving in a couple of weeks for round two in Europe. Looking forward to sharing more of the journey of my European book with you all.
Today an image from one of my shoots in LA. I loved seeing an old Mac floppy on the wall...how far we have come...

what is ugly/

I have been thinking about ugliness lately. OK, maybe that isn't the right way to put it. I'll go back a bit.
I was driving from LA to SF after a long weekend of work there this past weekend. I LOVE driving the I-5. Most people really hate it, but the mundane, landscape always inspires me somehow. This time, though there was road work so it was a bit more arduous with traffic slowly bottlenecking to one lane not once but two times in the 300 some odd miles. And it was hot. So my mind was wandering and I began thinking about all the things I have been shooting. I am so fortunate. I get to shoot beautiful, amazing places and people all the time. It almost seems easy. Of course it isn't really, but you know what I mean? I started to think "You need to do shoot something you would never shoot. You need to challenge yourself." This has been rolling around in my brain ever since. There are so many things I just have no desire to shoot at all. Maybe I should try and shoot those things just to push myself and my work. Self assignments are so valuable. Handcrafted Modern was basically a self assignment! Photographing ugliness is not the right way to put it, but I am compelled by this idea of shooting things I have no desire to shoot. Maybe it will be the most interesting thing I have ever done...I wonder how it will make me feel?
When I was sitting in stopped traffic, with sweat dripping down my ribs I realized I was in a stretch of the I-5 I always want to stop, but never can. SO here are two pics just out my window. I didn't notice that beautiful bit of roadkill in the first one. A bonus! Clearly I don't consider roadkill ugly.  ; )

happy 4th/

travel day/

Driving the 5 back to SF from LA. I'll be back after the holiday...or maybe on the holiday...who knows.
; )

quotes/

I've been in LA this past weekend doing all sorts of fun, work related things. Yesterday found me shooting an artists studio. I caught myself reading his walls quite a bit because they were filled with wonderful quotes.
This one has stuck with me. I hope this is true...