Vlade Divac style.

As I had said before, I am posting more phot's ma'goats (photos) on here as a way to express myself artistically. Not gonna lie, the last 7 words or so of the previous sentence sounded rather douchey. Anyway, here are some more pictures from around town. Enjoy.


Tunnel vision.






Waiting for any of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to pop out.






Go.





Who's got next?

This last photo is one I have wanted to capture for some time now. I saw this hoop up a while ago while I was driving down this road in the Downtown/Mission Hills area. It caught my attention because it's in this vacant lot, dirt at that, next to the road, and the backboard is attached to a retaining wall of the side of a hill.


It seems like the oddest place to put a basketball hoop. I'm not really sure what was there, but I guess they liked to play some ball. It's almost like this was the last thing to have survived on this lot. No building or pavement could withstand the toll of time, weather, economic downturn, or business deal gone awry, and yet this lone backboard and hoop still stand.

The reason I really wanted to capture it was because a basketball court was the first thing I ever photographed with my current camera, 6 years ago. First thing I did when I got my camera in the mail was to go to one of the parks near my house. I snapped some pictures of the hoops, backboards, nets, and fence around the basketball court.

There is still this one basketball court that I wish to take pictures of. There is this basketball court I remember from when I was a child that I saw in Mexico. You might wonder, why or what makes it so special? Well, whenever we go to Mexico, we have to take a 2-hour drive from Guadalajara to my grandmothers house in a rural town. On this drive, I remember this one basketball court, which for some reason was in the middle of nowhere. Like, seriously, it was on the side of the road in between towns, on what seemed like the middle of nowhere. The way I remember it, it was perched on the higher ground overlooking over hills of undeveloped land, just plain ol' forest. Seeing it from the car as a child, it almost seemed like this basketball court was sitting on the edge of the world. "The last basketball court."

Since I started taking pictures I have had this idea for a project. This "mythical" or maybe even "mystical" basketball court has something to do with it. Not really sure if I want to elaborate on it, but hopefully one day I can put it together.

BLAKROC

I cannot wait for this album. I heard about a Black Keys, Mos Def, and Jim Jones collabo a couple of months back but I did not know it was going to be a whole album. Now I read about all the other artists on this project and I am extremely excited for it. It comes out 11.27.09 ("Black Friday").

If you haven't heard it's a Black Keys project involving: Raekwon, Mos Def, Jim Jones, Ludacris, Billy Danze (M.O.P.), NOE, Nikki Wray, ODB, RZA, Pharoah Monche, and Q-Tip. Check out this trailer I just found.

Blakroc Project from Myrhax on Vimeo.

Up in the sky?............Up in the sky.

First off, here's something for your listening pleasures while you scroll down. Classic.



So I went out recently to snap some pics around town. What I really wanted to do was go out east and try and capture some thunderstorm clouds up close. Seeing as these t-storms were out in the mountains/desert and I did not want to drive into hell I decided to drive around and see what I could find closer to home.


I like the way clouds look. I think they would be fun to chill on while sippin' on some ginger ale.


This pic would have come out way better if I could have had the angle I wanted to. So I had to settle for this shot from a further distance. If I only had access to a "cherry picker", I think I could have had an amazing photo.






This is another one I really like.


I hope you enjoyed those. I am going to start posting more photos on here of random shots I take around town and what not.

Go Forth!

It has been a while since I have posted a blog on here. Not too sure why though. I guess I have been somewhat busy, but that would kind of be a lie. I just haven't had that "need" or "want" to blog out some words onto this thing the kids call the "world wide web."

Well here's some good news to those few who stumble across my blog. I received great news yesterday morning via email that one of my photos has been selected to be shown at a gallery exhibit at the Union Square Levi's store in San Francisco. I was in shock when I saw the email headline in my inbox. Yes, I had day dreamed a couple of times when I first submitted the pics in July, but I really did not expect to win. Why? You may ask, well because there were "tons" of photos submitted and there were many many great ones from my perspective and yet I was one of five people selected to the exhibit.



Another reason I am excited is because this is the 2nd contest I have been on the winning end of in the last 6 months. To those of you who do not know, I won another photography contest earlier this year through the clothing brand GrnAppleTree. They selected my photo to be used on one of their new t-shirt designs coming out at the end of this year. Also, I am excited because the only other time that I had anything in a gallery was at Mesa College when I had a drawing shown at the school gallery on campus.

I have already had a chance to check out one of the other photographers work and it is awesome. He's a freelance photographer, went to art school and has done work for Etnies and work for some snowboard companies, along with work for bands. I am excited to meet the other photographers so I can learn about them and how they have gotten to where they are at now. I feel like I might be a little overwhelmed because I'm sure some of them will have gone to college for this type of trade and have some nice cameras, whereas I bought an old Canon camera off ebay 6 years ago and taught myself how to use it. I haven't had instruction in photography, but I really want to learn more about it and keep capturing things going on around me. Art is what I love, hopefully I can find a way to make it a bigger part of my life and see where that goes.

Now I just wait for them to contact me about travel arrangements. I'm getting flight and room accommodations paid for. Oh yeah lol.

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." - Picasso

Obey

On my bucket list.

I need to go there.

Hey Ya.

Today was a good day.

So lately I have been a little stressed out due to a few different things. Over the last week they have been getting a little better. Today was one of those days where I just kind of stopped in my tracks, sat down, took a deep breath, and realized that I need to appreciate what I do have.

As a part of my internship I took my group to Old Town. We were sitting there in the courtyard; in the beautiful sunshine, eating chips and salsa, drinking an ice cold Coca-Cola, had the hiccups, and hanging out with my group. I sat there and looked around just taking in the beautiful scenery when it hit me. I had my weekly realization that yeah I might not be in a "perfect" situation right now, but I do have it better than a lot of people out there and I need to grasp that thought more often.

On top of all of that, one of the boys from the group gave me a "trinket", I guess you could say. It looks almost like a dream catcher of sorts but it's from China, where this group of kids is from. They are a nice group of kids; pleasant, polite, and disciplined group, which has been a pleasure to show around town.

And, last but not least, an old old friend I used to work with found me on Facebook. I couldn't help but laugh when I saw he had added me. He was one of the coolest supervisors I have ever had.

Good times.

That just happened!!

So I was leaving the public library today, don't ask me why. I just have a lot of time on my hands due to not having a job. Anyway, as I'm leaving I see this little kid outside kickin it by the bike racks. He was a funny looking kid and was semi-mad dogging me so I laughed as I walked past him. Next thing I know, his large mother walks outside to see where he was at. As soon as she sees him out there she starts yelling.

This is what ensued, "What are you doing out here? Haven't I told you not to leave my side. You could have been hit by a car or taken by 'that guy' (pointing at me as I am about 10 feet away from her)."

As soon as I hear that I just kind of stopped in my tracks, stuck my arms out, shook my head, and chuckled while saying to myself, "What the fuck? Seriously?" I continued walking, thinking about whether I should have said something to this woman. This came to mind, "Hey large professor, are you trying to imply that I would kidnap your child?" or "Hey good job keeping an eye on your kid." I actually felt the event was fairly amusing so I wasn't angry. Kudos to you Miss for making me laugh.

Is that Matt Damon?

I just came across this picture through a yahoo! article. What I found amusing was the guy on the left is looking straight at the camera and looks like an overweight Matt Damon.