June 8 2016

Sam Throws Parker Up in the Air!

Yesterday, we went to Santa Rosa Plateau to go on a hike. While there, I decided to try out one of the suggestions in the post 9 Times to Take Photos of Your Children, via A Cup of Jo, the one titled In the Air. Sam picked up Parker, who is well past that light baby stage, and threw him up as high as he would go. Parker reveled in the moment. I was able to catch this shot of his ecstatic expression. It was one of those sad yet sweet moments when you say to yourself, “I wish I could just freeze time!”

June 8 2016

Herb Ritts’ Iconic Images of Rock Stars

Often, it was Herb Ritts who took the picture that now comes to mind when you think of your favorite rock star. Who could forget that seductive photo of Madonna or that powerful pose by Tina Turner? In a new exhibition starting June 24, the Chrysler Museum of Art will present Herb Ritts: The Rock Portraits. It will feature iconic portraits of the biggest names in music over the last 30 years including David Bowie, Tina Turner, Elton John, Prince, Madonna, Cher, Janet Jackson and Bruce Springsteen. Ritts took these intimate portraits for prestigious magazines such as Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair.

Interesting fact: Herb Ritts didn’t just shoot snapshots with his camera. He was one of the first still photographers who transitioned to directing music videos, like Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game” and Janet Jackson’s “Love Will Never Do Without You.”

Sadly, Ritts, who was HIV positive, died of pneumonia in 2002 at the still young age of 50. The touring exhibition is presented by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in collaboration with the Herb Ritts Foundation. This is a must-see.

Above: Herb Ritts (American, 1952–2002) Madonna, Hollywood, 1986, From the True Blue album cover, Image © and courtesy of Herb Ritts Foundation

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Herb Ritts (American, 1952–2002) David Bowie III, Los Angeles, 1987, Photographed for Rolling Stone Magazine, Image © and courtesy of Herb Ritts Foundation

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Herb Ritts (American, 1952–2002) Cher, Los Angeles, 1990, Cover and story for Vanity Fair Magazine, November 1990, issue, Image © and courtesy of Herb Ritts Foundation

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Herb Ritts (American, 1952–2002) Tina Turner, Hollywood, 1989, Foreign Affair album promotion, Image © and courtesy of Herb Ritts Foundation

June 8 2016

Majestic Wood Animal Sculptures Created with a Chainsaw by Jürgen Lingl-Rebetez

Bavaria, Germany-born artist Jürgen Lingl-Rebetez is an artist that creates majestic animal sculptures by carefully applying a chainsaw to wood. The 44-year-old spent his early childhood dabbling in art, he drew and painted everything he could set his eyes on which included animals, buildings, people, buildings and landscapes. At the age of 20, after graduating from Josef-Effner Grammar School, he exhibited for the first time in a gallery in Dachau. After his mandatory civil service in Schönbrunn, Lingl-Rebetez became a wood sculptor apprentice to Master Hans-Joachim Seitfudem. In 1996, Jürgen Lingl-Rebetez moved to Switzerland and worked as an independent artist. It was then that he began creating works with a chainsaw. His sculptures take on the appearance of drawings, however, they’re made with a chainsaw in a three dimensional space.

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Jürgen Lingl-Rebetez’s website
via [Arteide]

June 7 2016

Photographer Spotlight: Robert Doisneau

Instead of buying more photography equipment, I read somewhere that you should invest in photography books, in other words, study the work of masters. I just bought a hardcover book on the photography of Robert Doisneau. (I’m hereby committing to buying one photography book per month.) Doisneau is most famous for his photograph of a couple kissing in the busy streets of Paris but his photos of children are equally as arresting. I also like his quotes.

“The marvels of daily life are exciting; no movie director can arrange the unexpected that you find in the street.”

“Life is short! Break the rules! Forgive quickly! Kiss slowly! Love truly, laugh uncontrollably and never regret anything that made you smile.”

“I always keep my foot a little in the door to let chance come in, pilfer something, or bring something I hadn’t thought of.”

“I don’t photograph life as it is, but life as I would like it to be.”

Doisneau was known for his playful and ironic images of amusing juxtapositions on contemporary Paris streets. Influenced by the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson, in more than twenty books he presented a charming vision of human frailty and life as a series of quiet, incongruous moments.

Interesting fact: In 1948 he was contracted to work as a fashion photographer by Vogue. The editors believed he would bring a fresh and more casual look to the magazine but Doisneau didn’t enjoy photographing beautiful women in stunning surroundings; he preferred street photography.

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June 7 2016

New Serpentine Gallery Pavilion is an Unzipped Wall of Bricks

Around this time every year, it’s exciting to see what a selected artist or architect creates as the new, temporary Serpentine Gallery Pavilion. Located in London’s Kensington Garden, the structure this year was made by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels who created an unzipped wall of bricks. Using 1,802 hollow rectangular fibreglass blocks, the 41-year-old stacked each piece on top of each other until it became a 46-foot high futuristic structure. It is “a wall that becomes a hall,” says Ingels, “a gate that becomes a space” – and a shelving system that becomes a pavilion. “Why have one,” he asks, “when you can have both?”

“By taking something as conventional as a wall or a giant shelf and pulling it apart to make new spaces, you’re actually creating something extraordinary out of the ordinary,” said the BIG Architects founder.

“I think that’s, at its core, what architecture is: It’s creating poetry out of the practical; it’s taking all of those quotidian elements and putting them together in a way that becomes an adventure.”

He adds, “[The pavilion] is a wall that becomes a hole; something that’s opaque that becomes transparent; something that’s curvilinear that becomes octagonal; something that is a sculptural shape that also becomes a grid or a matrix,” he said.

“It definitely has something Minecraft-esque, for sure.” The architect references the popular world-building computer game.

This is the 16th structure commissioned by the gallery as part of its summer series. The first was designed in 2000 by the late Zaha Hadid and others who have created their own version include Ai Weiwei, Oscar Niemeyer, Herzog & de Meuron and Sou Fujimoto. Visitors can come see Ingels’ pavilion from June 10 to October 9. This year, you can also view four smaller summer houses by architects Asif Khan, Yona Friednman, Barkow Leibinger and Kunlé Adeyemi. If you can’t visit London anytime soon, you may be able to see it in Asia or North America. Because of the way it’s built, it can be recreated. Talk about a selfie spot!

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Serpentine Gallery website
via [Dezeen and CNN]
Photos via Dezeen, Serpentine Gallery and CNN

June 6 2016

Inspiration Pad: A Crazy Notebook for Creatives

While curating art, design and photography for the last seven years, I came across a lot of interesting projects. One of them that caught my eye was Inspiration Pad, a warped notebook that inspires creativity. Designer Marc Thomasset took a relatively simple idea and turned it on its head. At first glance, it might just look like a traditional school notepad but, inside, it contains an innovative twist that makes it a surprising take on an old classic…the blue lines take on the look of waves, topographical contours, or loops!

Here’s the story of the Inspiration Pad:
“I was drawing projects in a notebook when suddenly it hit me how a classic notebook, however beautiful, is always very rigid and grid like. This is how the Inspiration Pad was born.”

This third version comes in three different colors – blue, brown and yellow. It’s a 56 pages notebook with a softcover, and it’s designed and printed in Belgium on sustainable paper. All of the interesting designs inside of the notebook are new.

If anything this notebook will make you “think outside the box.”

You can buy Inspiration Pad here.

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June 6 2016

How to Make Your Images Stand Out From the Crowd

“In this technological era we are surrounded almost constantly by photographic imagery, so if we want our images to stand out from the crowd they often have to be unique in some way. Consequently there is a strong pressure imposed on photographers for originality in their imagery. Beware, though, as there is an obvious danger here if the photographer simply tries to be different for its own sake. Simply being different doesn’t make an image good. Invariably, we will end up putting our own stamp onto our images anyway as we develop our personal vision and style, which will give them some degree of uniqueness in itself. To close this brief discourse on the role of the mindset, remember that to free our creative juices we need to remove the filters that a stressed, distracted mind would impose on our work and develop an ability to focus intently on what we are doing, to be totally calm and present, as we go about it. Take time to get ‘into the zone.’ Engage the subject with a sense of awe and wonder, opening up all your senses to relish the experience.”

– Richard Garvey-Williams in Mastering Composition: The Definitive Guide for Photographers

June 6 2016

For Love Book: Where Are They Now?

A few weeks ago, we got an email from our publisher, Chronicle Books, to see if we wanted to be featured on their blog. We, of course, jumped at the chance! The idea was to follow up with each photo story and find out where the photographers’ newfound fame led them. It brings me great joy to now share that information with you. Here’s an excerpt:

“Need a pick-me-up for your faith in humanity? Enter For Love: the book by the founders of My Modern Met, Alice Yoo and Eugene Kim, that compiles a collection of highly creative and incredibly moving visual stories. From Batkid’s mission to save San Francisco to a collection of portraits of people “happy at 100,” you might find yourself reaching for a tissue.

“Here, the authors followed up with some of the subjects of their book to answer the following question: where are they now?

“In our recently released book For Love, we share 25 heartwarming photo stories that celebrate humanity—incredible stories of ordinary people who performed extraordinary acts in the name of love. We thought it would be fun to follow up with three of these stories. Where are the photographers now? As their series spread throughout the world, how did their newfound fame affect their next body of work, let alone their life?”

You can read the rest over on Chronicle Book’s website or pick up the book at a discount right now on Amazon.

Photo by Grace Chon.

June 3 2016

Fun Links of the Week

What are you up to this weekend? We’re headed to the Discover Cube with friends to check out the dinosaur exhibition. It’s going to be good catching up with one of oldest friends. Hopefully I’ll be able to practice some photography out there.

Now, for this week’s Fun Links of the Week:

Love fashion? Here are 8 fashion photographers you should have on your radar.

This illuminated planter is pricey but interesting.

Here’s how to make the ultimate appetizer board. Yum!

Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones fans, here’s an online art exhibit.

Art lovers, check out KLIO. It’s pretty cool.

For those consumed by wanderlust, check out the Travel pieces of art on Yellow Korner. (Especially like this one.)

This bronze knot cuff bracelet is understated but pretty.

I’m loving these pants on Madewell.

Bring on the emojis!

Digging this simple black and white dress with a twist.

Gochujang sriracha? Yes, please.

Interior design lovers, bookmark these blogs. (I’m a fan of CupofJo and decor8)

This antique lantern would be pretty with candles or a string of lights.

These brass lanterns have a pretty geometric shape.

Though I don’t wear color often, I think I’d make an exception for this pretty coral dress.

Though I prefer galbi, bulgogi is a close second.

Brazilian artist duo OSGEMEOS, one of my favorite street artists, bring their iconic animated characters to Times Square!

If I was in my 20s I’d totally rock this.

Flowers photo by Lu Diamond Flowers.

June 3 2016

Life Unfolding: Top 14 Moments of the Week

This week’s been all sorts of fun. Sam and I checked out the Do Ho Suh exhibit at the downtown MOCA in San Diego yesterday and we were blown away by his work. In other news, Parker got a brand new Hot Wheels play set and we spent a fun evening at the mall where the boys got to jump around on toy cars.

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My sister, Carol, stayed with us for Memorial Day weekend. Here’s her son, Riverton, huddled together with Parker and Logan. I think they’re checking out a roly poly.

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I love watching the kids blow on dandelions. This is Logan in front of our house blowing with all he’s got.

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I captured this picture of Logan and his dad sharing a sweet kiss.

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A curious Parker checking to see if the jumping water fountain was working.

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One of our stops at the mall is the water fountain where the boys love to throw in pennies. Here they’re checking out where the pennies all landed.

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Inside the mall’s playground, the boys climb onto these big plastic cars. If you look closely, you can see Parker’s foot.

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Parker and Logan were exhausted from all the play in the mall’s playground so they had to catch their breath on a bench.

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I ordered the Tattly scented tattoos from the Colossal Shop and I received a surprise Field Notes notebook in the mail along with a sweet Post-it note. Made my day.

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This is a shot of the bathroom and the kitchen. He meticulously recreated different parts of his New York home using fabric. Here’s the brief synopsis: “This exhibition will transform MCASD Downtown’s Jacobs Building into a maze-like installation that replicates the artist’s apartment spaces from a single building in New York City. Created in luminous swaths of translucent fabric, the ghostly rooms and hallways are mysteriously supported by a subtle stainless steel armature.” You’ve got to see it to really appreciate it.

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This was a cute sculpture of a big rig carrying his Seoul garden.

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This is a blueprint like piece by Do Ho Suh. Depicting a plan of a room in a house, it was made with blue colored pencil.

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This was Sam’s favorite piece. It showed rooms of a house from three different perspectives.

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Yesterday, Parker’s big gift came in the mail. It was a the Hot Wheels Ultimate Garage Playset. A bit expensive but pretty impressive.

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