FUN! FAIR! FOTOS!

For the first time, I submitted my photography to the L.A. County Fair Photography Competition
(aka Millard Sheets Center for the Arts at Fairplex Photography Competition)

I sent in the maximum photos allowed and to my amazement all three images placed and two even got special "Best" mention.

The theme and categories change every year and this year's theme is “Recycled: Fashion, Food, and Lifestyle in Advertising Photography."

In the past, photographers had to print and frame their own work for exhibition, but this year the Fair had all winning photographs professionally printed and mounted, and when the Fair ends in October, the prints will be mailed to the winners.

Here are my shots:

“Rochelle” Fashion Category (Polaroid 195 / Expired Polaroid ID-UV Film)


“Time Traveler” Lifestyle Category "Best Alternative Method in Category" (Polaroid 110B / Expired Film)


“50's Livin'” Lifestyle Category "Best Depiction of Lifestyle in Category" (Nikon S2 Coolpix)


Photo Credits: Lydia Marcus

2009 L.A. County Fair
1101 W. McKinley Ave.,
Pomona, CA 91768

The exhibit is in the Tapestry Building under the Grandstand from September 5 - October 4, 2009.

Q IS FOR QUEER

"I would like to advocate replacing the word "gay" with "queer" when talking in broad terms about our collective experience. Queer isn't just about same-sex wedding tackle. Queer is about sensibility. You don't need to be gay to be queer. Indeed, some of the queerest people I know are straight. My mum is a bit queer. Obama is definitely queer. Little Edie Beale was very queer. I think if more people embraced their queerness, we'd all be the better for it."
- Alan Cumming (Newsweek April 13, 2009)

Photo © Lydia Marcus / www.lydiamarcus.com
Photographed April 23, 2006 in Santa Monica, CA

PAUL'S BIRTHDAY PRESENT

I created this quadtych for my friend Paul's birthday present. He's a fan of Ford trucks and drives one - the grill on the top left hand corner is from his truck - the other three shots are from various Ford trucks I've seen on the road.

Ford Truck Quadtych Photo by Lydia Marcus

GOIN' TO PHOTO L.A.

I'll be spending the weekend over in Santa Monica at Photo L.A. The fancy description of Photo L.A. is that it's the 18th Annual International Los Angeles Photographic Art Exposition, but basically it's an annual event where galleries from all over the world come to L.A. to show and sell their photos and books. Most of it is high end stuff - photos that cost five and six figures - some by historically significant photographers, others by contemporary artists. But for those of us that aren't big spenders there's also work by newer, unknown artists that will cost you a few bills or Vernacular photography for sale where you can pick up images for under a hundred bucks. I'm not going to Photo L.A. to buy anything (well maybe some books) - for me it's like walking around one great big photographic museum for the weekend. Last year was my first time at Photo L.A. and I really underestimated the volume of photography to take in. By the end of my first day, I hadn't made it through the entire show and my brain was seriously overloaded by too much beauty.


Last year, Martin Schoeller's 7 foot tall photos of female body builders visually and physically dominated the show.





More Schoeller - a great visual dichotomy - Iggy Pop and Tammy Faye Baker



John Divola - the one artist whose work I would love to bring home if his pieces weren't 5 grand. This photo depicting his Isolated Houses and Vandalism series' doesn't do his work justice.



Along with great work by photographers, were photos on sale capturing great photographers.

Diane Arbus


Andy Warhol (in drag) photographed by Christopher Makos


Photographer/painter Ed Ruscha


Photo L.A.
Barker Hangar
3021 Airport Avenue
Santa Monica, CA 9040

PUBLIC FAIR HOURS
Friday, January 9th, 12pm - 8pm
Saturday, January 10th, 12pm - 8pm
Sunday, January 11th, 12pm - 6pm

TICKETS
$20 1-day pass (includes catalog)
$30 3-day pass (includes catalog)

Z28 #1

Chevy Camaro Z28 photo by Lydia Marcus. Photographed November 27, 2006 in Encino, CA.

PREHISTORIC

Uncle Myles and Lydia photographed April 7, 2008 at Universal Studios.

A HEALING HOUR ON LAKE BALBOA

On Sunday I got to take the bandage off my hand and see my stitches for the first time. They were a lot smaller than I expected. Here are some photos I took on Tuesday of both my hands - the bruise on the left hand is from the IV. I have way worse bruising from the IV than from surgery! Weird. What's also strange is that my IV bruise didn't appear until Monday - three days after surgery.

While I was recuperating on Sunday, my friend (and photographer) Jack Slomovits dropped by and whisked me over to Lake Balboa in his Ford Mustang convertible. I took this photo of the Mustang back in December while Jack and I visited Joshua Tree.

Even though I go to Lake Balboa often to walk around the park and watch the birds, I haven't ever gone out on one of their Paddle Wheeler boats. Jack and I rented one for an hour and cruised onto the Lake. After going through surgery and recovery over the weekend, it was very restorative to be out on the lake with the sun and breeze hitting me.









These are some baby ducks - a rare sight on the Lake.



This is my favorite duck at Lake Balboa. He's a gives true meaning to the term "odd duck." He always gets picked on by the other ducks (I guess for being different) but he trudges on like nothing happened. Besides his hair, he just acts a little "off." He's a "rare bird" indeed.

These are some photos I've taken of him in the past.


And this duck just showed up recently - he's the other odd man out at the Lake. I asked one of the Lifeguards about him and they told me he's a Moscovy duck. The first image I took of him on another day at the Lake, the other two are from Sunday.



I saw this ice cream truck as we were leaving. I didn't buy anything from it, but I thought compositionally the truck looked cool with the arrow.

BLOOMS, BUDS, BUGS, & VEGAN TAQUITOS

Hiking in the Encino Hills, lately I've noticed a burst in growth of the wildflowers.



And on Saturday I noticed in my own front and backyard, the lemon and strange tangerine hybrid tree are full of buds just waiting to become fruit. It's so nice to see splashes of color everywhere after winter.
While I was shooting the buds, I noticed a strange bug on the deck. I have no idea what it is, but it looked pretty cool shot with my Nikon 105 f2.8 micro lens.

Lucy followed me out so of course I had to take some shots of her. I love capturing the variety of expressions on a dog's face!







Later in the day, I stopped by the Julia Dean Gallery in Venice to check out the new show 4 Frames - 11 Southern California Photographers (including my mentor/teacher/friend Aline Smithson's work). My favorite work in the show was by Cindy Schafer - if I had the cash I would have bought her two flower shots (a dark reddish fern and a white group of flowers set against a blue sky).

Before I left Venice, I walked out to the beach to check out the Sunset. Because there was a little bit of a threat of rainshowers later in the evening, there were more clouds than usual.
Then I went to the latest Slideluckpotshow event at 5th and Sunset Studios. Slideluckpotshow is a great free event - part potluck, park slideshow. I sampled the food and actually was surprised by the good taste of some homemade vegan taquitos. The actual slideshow was an open air event on the roof. They had tons of folding chairs, lots of heat lamps, a VERY BIG screen, and an excellent sound system (all the slideshows are set to music). The clouds overhead were very dark and threatening rain, but aside from some light drizzle, the outdoor slideshow escaped the a downpour. Even if you missed the show, you can check out many of the slideshows on their site. I definitely encourage any photographers and photo enthusiasts to check out the next slideluckpot show event.

So all in all, between taking some cool backyards shots, getting to see a sunset over the Pacific Ocean, and going to the slideluckpotshow event, I had a pretty great Saturday!