Strongly Worded Letter

Take A Picture, It'll Last Longer

Alfred Eisenstadt was perhaps the most famous photographer of the 20th century. No one reading this has not seen his most famous photograph, shown here.

Here's is what the master said about that fateful day where luck and preparation collided.

"In Times Square on V.J. Day, I saw a sailor running along the street grabbing every girl in sight. I was running ahead of him with my Leica looking back over my shoulder. Then suddenly, in a flash, I saw something white being grabbed. I turned around and clicked the moment the sailor kissed the nurse...I took exactly four pictures. It was done within a few seconds."

There are several other notable pictures from the hundreds Mr. Eisenstadt took in the decades he worked for LIFE magazine.

Here are some children watching the story of "St George and the dragon as the a puppet theater in Paris,1963.

"It took a long time to get the angle I liked, but the best picture is the one I took at the climax of the action. It carries all the excitement of the children screaming,"The dragon is slain!" Very often this sort of thing is only a momentary vision, my brain does not register, only my eyes and finger react. Click."

Headwaiter Rene Breguet brings aperitifs to English guests at the skating rink of the Grand Hotel, Saint-Moritz, 1932.

Though I have alway admired his work, I never got to meet Alfred Eisenstadt. He passed way in 1995 but I do count one of his photographs among our most cherished possessions. Last year we were fortunate enough to be able to acquire a signed copy of his magnificent Premiere At La Scala, 1934. It is my favorite of his pictures and made visiting the famous opera house last year in Milan all the more special.

"In Italy, I photographed a gala evening at La Scala. This was one of my first pictures with a Leica on a tripod. Suddenly I saw a lovely young society girl sitting next to an empty box. From that box I took this picture, with the girl in the foreground... Without the girl I would not have had a memorable picture."

To see many more of Mr. Eisenstadt's pictures, click here.

Miss Washington Is A Goer!!!

It was the big only story in Seattle yesterday and I couldn't be prouder. Our state's beauty pageant winner kicks your state beauty pageant winner's ass! That is, unless you live in Nevada - that girl is crazy!

Our Miss Washington, a delicate little flower named Elyse Umemoto, was the second runner up in the Miss America contest last year. But like most beauty queens, you would never have even heard of her if not for TMZ.com posting some private photos yesterday.

Here was their description of the shots: "Miss Washington 2007 might wanna take the crown off before flipping off the camera, getting her Beer Pong on and making suggestive oral sex gang signs."

Judging from the reaction here and online from around the world you would think a video just surfaced of her drowning nuns.  My informal breakdown of the comments shakes out this way: Half think she should be stripped of her crown and the other half say she is a "stupid whore."

To the first point, she'll give up her title Saturday night anyway when Miss Washington 2008 is named. To the second, no, these photos do not necessarily demonstrate she is either stupid or whorish.

What she is is 23 years old. If you don't think these things go on at almost every single party where young people drink then you are as naive as Miss Umemoto. That she was a young woman with public ambition and didn't consider the possibility of shots like this coming back to haunt her was possibly ignorance and more likely naivety. Sidebar question to TMZ; What makes this a "suggestive oral sex gang sign?" Wow, gangs have really changed since I rolled like that in the 80s.

I don't really care what happens to her with respect to the Washington State beauty pageant because the Miss America pageant is as relevant to the 21st century as Beanie Babies.

I have two pieces of advice, not that anyone asked.

Thing One: I hope our own 23 year-old Mystery Daughter learns from Elyse's poor judgment and now better understands that the only surefire way to not be the victim of embarrassing photographs, even if the behavior itself is not particularly scandalous, is to not be in them.

I'm sure our Miss Washington would agree that she would much rather wake up tomorrow virtually anonymous again like she was 48 hours ago than have these photos be the only thing most of us will ever know about her.

Thing Two: For all other drunk beauty queens who forget this incident and do end up in regrettable party photos, don't let your no-good back-stabbing friends get them and potentially  ruin you with their lack of discretion. Send them to me for safe keeping. Word is bond.

"V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N In The Summertime....."

Donna and I were blessed with many visitors over the long holiday weekend. We had friends and family in town from Nashville, Las Vegas, Washington D.C., and Los Angeles along with dozens of folks who live here in western Washington that we hosted at several events.

Today's blog post is just a few photographs mostly for the benefit of those we invited over who couldn't make it due to work or other summer plans.

Left to right, me, my Dad, and my brother John. Taken on the ferry from West Seattle, pulling into the Island.

The Atomic dog sleeping in the guest room to be near my dad.

 

My friend Dave with Sophie and Godzilla.

My friend Christine with Happy.

 

Donna's dad Howard and my dad on our friend Eric's boat taking an Independence Day cruise around the Island. Thanks, Eric! And have you ever seen two guys more excited to be boating?

Dave, stealing my wife. That's Dave's painting on the wall too. He is one of our favorite artists. Get him while he is cheap!

My brother at our July 3rd party. It rained quite a bit that morning  but cleared up nicely for the outdoor event that night. Whew.

I've mentioned the 1905 waterfront place we plan to restore. The boat ride was my first chance to get a picture of it from the backside. That's what she said.

 

My dad, cutting his birthday cakes on July 4th. When you get to be his age, one cake is not enough. Happy 70th though!!! You kicked Tim Russert's ass.

And finally, a few random fireworks shots from the Island's display. Taken from the yard of the new place. I hope everyone else had a safe and happy holiday weekend too!

It's That Time Of The Month

Actually, it's been more than eight weeks since I last shared some of my favorite new photos from the LiveJournal picture feed site. For new readers, this is a constantly updated page of whatever photos users of the LiveJournal community are uploading at that minute.  Warning! If you go here, you will become addicted.

Bonus photos: These two have nothing to do with the LiveJournal feed but they are so great I have to share them. Former Dancing With The Stars contestant Steve Guttenberg reacts to a cameraman on the street.

More, More, More

About every six weeks or so I take a day to share some of my favorite photos from the LiveJournal picture feed site. For new readers, this is a constantly updated  page of whatever photos users of the LiveJournal community are uploading at that minute.  Warning! If you go here, you will become addicted.

Hope you enjoyed the shots. The brunette hottie is actress Megan Fox. And, no kidding, the girl in the last photo used to be a man.  Yep.  Please enjoy.

 

Failure Is The Best

I'm not sure why but many folks delight in the failure of others. Not me, of course, but maybe you. Okay, maybe a little bit me too.

Thanks to blog reader Sylvia for her tip about The FAIL Blog . The premise is simple. Readers send in their photos of failing in action. Hilarity ensues. Some examples:


Catching Fail:


Sunroof Fail:


Girlfriend Fail:


Salad Fail:


Cat Fail:



The site's creators might be unhappy to see their site called "successful" but I think I like it.

All About Eve

This is one of my very favorite photographs hanging on the wall at Chez Bean.  Taken in Mongolia in 1979 it's a militia soldier training a horse to  play dead.

One of the giants of 20th century photography, Eve Arnold, captured this image during her six years spent working in China. 

Miss Arnold was born in 1912, the same year the Titanic sank. She became interested in photography in her mid-thirties and in 1951 became the the first female member of the prestigious Magnum Photos agency.



Besides her China photos she is perhaps best known for her many pictures of Marilyn Monroe taken over a ten year period.

So why do I bring all this to your attention today? Because if you live in the Bad Place you are in luck just this once. My friend David is presenting a major exhibition of Eve Arnold's photographs at his gallery beginning this Saturday, 29 March.

I don't know exactly which photos will be on display but here are a few more of her images that I really love.


Retired Chinese Worker.   

Bar Girl, Havana.

Malcolm X.

If you missed the link above, the David Gallery is at 5797 Washington Boulevard in Culver City, Ca. 90232. If you go, please say hello for me.

Oh, I saved the most interesting thing about Eve Arnold for last. I told you she was born in 1912.  Well, it turns out she is still alive! At 95 she doesn't take pictures anymore but is still active in managing her photo portfolio. Neat, huh? 

"Gummy, Gummy, Gummy, I've Got....."

This doesn't happen very often but I saw a piece in the paper the other day  and made a mental note that it might be a good blog topic. But then, before I had the chance to write about it, the subject of the article emailed me too!

Photographer Kealoha Villa of Long Beach, California has embarked upon a once-a-day photo project where he takes pictures of gummy bears. He's been at it for almost eight months so far.

Here are gummy bears doing a crossword puzzle.

 

Here they are enjoying some art.

Enjoying leap day!

And playing with a Slinky!

If  Kealoha's  project tickles you too you'll want to see more at his Flickr page.

I smell a coffee table book down the road!!!   

 

Dig If You Will This Picture

Way back on December 12 I wrote about my favorite internet time waster; a photo feed that constantly updates itself as users add pictures to their LiveJournal pages. At any moment you see the latest 50 shots and the randomness makes each refresh a one-of-a-kind momentary art project.

What I didn't know then was that if you see a photo you like and demand context, just click on it and it takes you to the actual page that features it.  I've been saving some I liked over the last week to share with you. I believe the link is really worth a visit.

   

A House Is Not A Home

Donna and I got the chance to tour an historic old house on the island recently. I'm sure it was beautiful in 1906 when it was built but it has fallen into some disrepair in the short 102 years since. Some people just can't have nice things.

We enjoyed the visit though and I took advantage of the opportunity to snap a few pictures.

Snow Day

I mentioned a few days ago that my friend Marty, the best friend a guy could ever have, and I drove down to Oregon to bring my pig, Godzilla, home after a ten day hospital stay. On the road, we hit a few patches of winter weather which, while never fun to drive through, always makes me happy if I have a camera with me.

Here are a few snapshots that I took through the passenger side window of Marty's truck, while we were moving. I wish I had time to get out and compose them properly but we were on a pretty tight schedule to get all the way there and back in one day. Please enjoy.

 

You can click on any image to enlarge too. It was a winter wonderland!

Ore - Gone!

Last day of vacation pictures from last week's getaway to the Beaver State. (I think I rented that once) (Click on any photo for larger version)




A few from the Wildlife Safari in Winston, Oregon.



Elk, I think. I always get them confused with moose.



Paging Don Johnson. Don Johnson, courtesy phone please...





"Catch a wave and you're sitting on top of the world....."




We are so moving to this street.....Happy New Year again. Come back tomorrow for something completely different.

Oregon 3: Oregoner

Nothing is more boring than someone else's vacation pictures, right? I'm here to prove it too. (Click on any photo for larger version)


Happy Holidays ... from Jimmy Buffet maybe?



One day I'd like to have a set up like this for my cows.....



Squawk, squawk, squawk...It's always something with you.



Purty, right?


One more set tomorrow.....Oh, and Happy New Year!

South Of The Border

Oregon's official state flag was adopted in 1925. It is the only US state flag that still has a design on both sides. It's true: you can source me!

A few more snapshots now from my drive down the Oregon coast over the weekend. (Click on any photo for larger version)

Water, water everywhere...

Rocks too!

And lighthouses.....

And rain....

And  me.

And no caption needed.

More tomorrow.

Go Beavers!!!

I squeezed in a short road trip down to Oregon last week and here are a few photos and a short description of same. (Click on any photo for larger version)

Creepy trees, leading to certain death, I'm sure.

Christmas lights on a fire station, I believe in Toledo, Oregon, celebrating the birth of the baby George Washington, I guess.....

Decorations inside the State Capitol in Salem. I'm standing in front of the Senate chamber, looking across the rotunda to the House. The wreath in the center is around the State Seal on the floor.

They must not get many visitors here.

Excellent advice from the Tokyo Japanese Steakhouse And Sushi Bar (correct)  in Corvallis, Oregon!

More tomorrow!

Going Outside Is Overrated Anyway

Thanks to blog reader WhiteDevil for this tip, my favorite new internet time waster useful resource. 

Someone smarter than I has written a program that continuously offers the top 50 new images posted by members on LiveJournal, the popular social network/ blogger virtual community. There are so many users that the pictures are on the page only for about a minute before they are replaced with the newer 50. Never knowing what is coming next makes it hard to step away without one more "refresh."

Here is the link along with a few of the pictures that were displayed in the minutes leading up to me writing this post. I love that some of the photos are so puzzling out of context since you don't see captions or the posts about them when you view them this way.

   

 

                                                                                     

Picture This

Thanks to the digital revolution, photography has become one of the cheapest, easiest and most rewarding hobbies anyone can take up. I don't know anyone who doesn't enjoy looking at pictures and these days there is no reason why you shouldn't take your own.

Good digital cameras can be had for under a hundred dollars anymore, free digital editing software is available online and if you don't have a photo printer at home (like me), you can have your photos professionally printed out for less than 20 cents a print. Add a 99 cent frame and Boom! Instant artwork.

What to shoot? Anything that interests you. In the digital age, there is no cost to shoot 100 pictures in a row that suck. It's not like in previous days where you had to wait until you got your  pictures developed before you knew what you had. By-the-way, I am so old that I remember before there was no such thing as a One Hour Photo lab and you used  to drop your pictures off somewhere and come back two or three days later to pick them up!    

Here are two pictures that I snapped with my camera phone last Friday. In the first, I was the only car at a traffic light right waiting to turn right into the John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California.  As you can see, it was raining pretty hard and I liked the way the palm trees lining both sides of the street looked in that weather. So I turned off my windshield wipers for a second and took the picture just as the light turned green. I only had that one chance to get this picture but am happy with the way it came out.

 I took the second photo shortly after my arrival Friday back in Seattle.  My flight landed in one of the satellite terminals at Sea-Tac airport and in the train on my way back to the main terminal I snapped three or four shots of the tracks through the back window. I like this one the best.





No, they are not great pictures. Neither is going to win an award and I probably will never even think of them again after this post. Just because they are not candidates for a scrapbook or a frame, though, doesn't mean it wasn't fun to see take them and see what they looked like.