Is It Art Or Just A Tennis Ball On The Beach?

I've either been a wanta' be photographer, an amateur photographer, or a professional photographer all my life. From first breath. I mention this because I have also never considered photography an art. Some do and that's fine. I don't. That being said I have made some photographs that explain or show nothing of value and therefore I call it art.

So is the tennis ball on the beach nothing of value, therefore art, or is it part of a photoessay showing man-made objects where they don't belong? You and I will have to wait to see what develops.

Now you have to ask yourself: "Was this post necessary?" Probably not.

Post Note

Whale Of A Wall

This post is our unoffical contribution to the Picture of the Day monthly theme photo. This month it's Mural or Graffiti.

The current whale mural is the third version at this site. The first whale mural was painted onto the white wall below the current whale wall. That first version was the first whale mural that Wyland did.

A few years later Wyland (He uses his last name only.) reversed the painting with the whales pointing toward the sea. Then the owner of the lower wall, for whatever reason, painted over the second version.

Wyland, just prior to the lower wall being painted white, had purchased the building that the current wall mural is on. The owner of the lower wall wanted the same building and may have painted over the whale to get even with Wyland. Whatever.

Wyland, after remodeling the building, created the current mural. It's made up of hundreds of porcelain tiles. Each tile is hand painted by Wyland.

The photo is made up of three images. We used Elements 6 Photomerge Panarama utility to create a single image. You can click the image to see a larger version.

You Wish

We think they ran out of the number 3.

It's The Photographer Not The Camera

Some photographers believe they need the most expensive cameras in order to do good work. This photographer demonstrates that this isn't the case. He's using a Canon G9 PowerShot to take time-lapsed photos of a parade in Laguna Beach. He hopes to make a short and quick film showing the entire parade going by in a flash.

Laguna Beach

This spot is just north of Main beach. The tide pools are just to the right. It was an overcast, wet, and windy day. This picture gives me the feeling that nothing good will happen here. In reality when people walk this spot they're usually on there way to Rock Pile beach and rarely notice what they're passing. Also at high tide this is all getting hit from the surf. We think if it had been a sunny day we wouldn't have notice this scene.

Alive And Well In Laguna Beach

Concrete Dust Everywhere - Camera Too

This photo was for another blog we publish, Laguna Beat. Liked it so much I posted it here. A fellow behind the one laying concrete blocks was cutting a block with a power saw. Result was crecrete dust. Wind was blowing dust at the worker and the photographer. I could of gotten out of the way but the picture was to good to pass up.

Enough With The Rain Already

You know when you've had enough rain when the flowers want to stay dry.

One to Ten Thousand

I have now taken over 10,000 digitals images with my Nikon D40X. For someone who has been taking pictures for 50+ years this is weird. In the 60's a busy day for me might have been 4 or 5 rolls of 35mm-36exposure Tri-X film. The day wasn't over by a long shot. Back to the photolab to process the film, make contact sheets and then try to decide what if anything should be printed. With digital it's shoot and back to the computer, where-ever it may be, and load the images into the computer and then decide what gets put up on the blog. If it takes 1 hour in the digital world it probably took 8 hours in the analog world.

Do I want to go back? No. But I do miss black-and-white photography. I still have my 35mm cameras but no darkroom. If and when I can set up another darkroom and Tri-X is still sold then I will get back to b&w photography. But it will never again be my primary source for photos, that duty has been taken over by the digital camera.

The camera, a Nikon D40X, with a 18-70mm zoom was purchased the day photo one was taken, August 16, 2007. The camera was cleaned by Nikon once. This was required because of user stupidy. I have had absolutly no problems other than keeping the photo-cell clean and that was operator error. Since the camera was cleaned on December 1, 2007, I have had only one spec of dust and that was removed and since then nothing.

I do have one big grip with Nikon and you can read about it here.

Below is number one, the Laguna Beach lifeguard tower, and number ten thousand, the tide-pools flooded at high tide. The hardest part of taking both pictures was keeping the horizon level. Both photographs are complete and unedited. No cropping.

If you want to view my old analog camera work then visit http://www.photoessayist.com/. I'm especially proud of the work I did in Vietnam while serving with the Marines.

Bowling Green With A Billion Dollar View

What with the dollar collasping a billion dollars really isn't out of line. The green is in Laguna Beach's Heisler Park. The park's western border is the Pacific Ocean.

Laguna Beach Icon

Laguna Beach's Main beach is one of the great beaches anywhere. The lifeguard tower pictured has come to represent Laguna Beach. We call it the Icon. It wasn't always a lifeguard tower. It started life as the office of the gas station across the street from Main beach.

Laguna Beach Fixer Upper Only 2 Million Plus

This is the main house. The garage with an apartment above is behind the photographer. The problem any new owner will have is that they will have to work with the existing foot print and gut the interior completly. Looking around it is hard to believe that any part of this structure is worth saving. One problem many of these old houses have is with the foundation. Add in the slow approval process in Laguna Beach and you could be looking at a 5 year timeline.