Last week I teased you with a Polaroid image from Trisha and Jason’s engagement session.
I have collected over the years a list of over 50 engagement session location ideas that I allowed Jason and Trish to view. The couple chose a street filled with pink trumpet trees in Los Feliz (which I learned about from an article in the Los Angeles Times years ago) and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House in Barnsdall Park.
Here is another Polaroid image from the shoot.
Trisha and Jason were one of the couples that won an engagement session with me.
Here is a sneak peek of an image I shot of them with my Polaroid camera.
I am honored to be a part of the RayKo 3rd International Juried Plastic Camera Show in San Francisco, California. The opening reception is February 26 and the show will be up until April 17.
Click here for more information about the RayKo Photo Center and the exhibition.
Last night I attended the gallery reception for an exhibit I am a part of — I Spy With My Plastic Eye.
The exhibit pays homage to the plastic camera and my print “Childhood Memories”, shot with my Holgaroid, is one of many amazing images in the exhibit. I feel so honored that I was asked to participate in this show.
The exhibit is at A&I Hollywood and benefits WeSpark, which provides free cancer support services.
A fine art book sponsored by HP is available for sale, featuring all images from the show with shot details and artists commentaries. The book is $40 and you can purchase it by clicking here.
Here is Aline Smithson‘s foreword to the book:
I Spy With My Plastic Eye is an exhibition visualized by photographer Astor Morgan. The exhibit, brought to life by A&I, is a testament to the unique qualities of toy cameras. Each artist approached their imagery with a singular voice, using a variety of film types, techniques and cameras. The photographs in this book speak of gesture, of time passing, of simplicity and complexity, allowing for a wide range of expression. And all of this magic has been captured through an inexpensive plastic lens, part of an inexpensive plastic camera that inspires discovery and serendipity. And that is the best part.
-Aline Smithson
I was invited to join the Polaroid Team on Etsy and they recently showcased one of my Polaroid images on their blog. Click here to view the blog entry.
Etsy teams are groups of organized Etsy members who network, share skills, and promote their shops and Etsy together. The Polaroid Team has shooting with Polaroids as their common interest and passion.
Two Holgaroid images from my trip to the Ace Hotel & Swim Club in Palm Springs in June of this year.
Click here to read my previous entry on my trip to this fantastic hotel.
Happy 100th Birthday Santa Monica Pier.
My hope is that the images I have shot and will continue to shoot will pay tribute to a place that I love and hold close to my heart.
Santa Monica Pier images for sale on my Etsy site – click here.
See the images on Flick here.
Don’t you wish you could always have with you a little piece of home?
With Kolo’s Essex Album customized by me you can.
Santa Monica, my hometown, has many iconic landmarks and I’ve included some of them in this lovely journal.
The Santa Monica Carousel and Ferris Wheel
Station 26 Lifeguard station
Vintage postcards of Santa Monica
A vintage map of Santa Monica from 1940
A glassine envelope where you can add a Santa Monica bus token or some other trinket
The rest of it is for YOU to fill out yourself with what you consider to be your personal little pieces of home.
The journal can also be additionally customized by adding a 2010 calendar (standard or accordion-style) or an address book.
Click here to purchase this beautiful little book.
Size of book – 5×5″ x 3.6″
Each book has two inserts – photo sleeves (one already filled with an image) and
a blank journal insert which includes a glassine envelope. The address book or calendar can also be added for an additional fee.
There is also a pocket in the back of the book
My good friend and fellow photographer, Laurie Bailey, came back from this hotel a couple of weeks ago and told me immediately that I had to go there myself. I went to their website and I was hooked!
The Ace Hotel & Swim Club in Palm Springs was a former Howard Johnson that had fallen into disrepair. It reopened as the Ace Hotel & Swim Club in February of this year.
I don’t consider myself the queen of hip but I immediately felt at home in this hotel — from the record player in your room, the vintage-looking bikes you can ride and the old GMC van near the swimming pool (I looked for a choke inside the van but alas there wasn’t one, my Dad’s 1969 Ford van had one).
When you hang out in the pool or eat in their great restaurant you hear Bill Withers, Johhny Cash and Nick Drake over their sound system. There is also a real and I mean real photo booth in their lobby (which I went a little crazy with since it takes credit cards). I mean you just can’t beat it.
I asked hotel management if I could photograph their hotel and they immediately said yes. So I brought every camera I own and every type of film I had in my fridge and shot away. I even shot a roll of (don’t freak out people)……Kodachrome film and used a pack of my very precious Polaroid Viva Type 80 film with my Holgaroid.
I will definitely be going back there some time this summer to shoot more.