RAM VAN

Photo credit © Lydia Marcus 2008 / www.lydiamarcus.com
Photographed December 28, 2008 in Venice, CA

A NEW YORKER IN VENICE

Chrysler New Yorker Turbo Photos by Lydia Marcus
Photographed December 28, 2008 in Venice, CA

ZEN

Photo by Lydia Marcus
Photographed December 28, 2008 in Venice, CA

SENIOR BOOGIE

This woman was definitely in her 70's or 80's yet she was heading out into the Venice Beach surf with her Morey Boogie Board - adormed with flames no less! Go Granny Go!!!

Senior Boogie Photo by Lydia Marcus
Photographed October 23, 2008 in Venice, CA

JULIE ANDREWS TALKS ABOUT HER BOOBS

I spent Sunday at the U.C.L.A. Festival of Books. My main excitement over going was getting to see Julie Andrews speak at Royce Hall.

I met these two "bears" while waiting in the line that wrapped completely around Royce Hall.

My adopted Sharp family (Joyce and Serena) stopped by the line and hung out.

Julie looked great and had interesting stories to share with author Patt Morrison (who did a pretty good interviewing job). She mostly spoke about her early years in Vaudeville, the subject matter of her new biography, Home. It's # 1 on the New York Times Bestseller list as of Sunday. I don't have the book yet, but I'd like to read it.


I scored a great seat in the eighth row center and shot some little video with my new Sony T100 digital camera. In the video below, Julie tells a humorous story about getting fitted for a special cut away dress that would reveal her breasts in her husband Blake Edwards' film S.O.B. There's something just great about hearing Julie Andrews talk about her boobs.



This is an adorable dog named Tomi. He worked the K9 unit for the New York Fire Department and LAPD. He also the "co-author" of a book called The K9 Chronicles: Book 2.

I have no idea what this costume was for, but it looked really funny and lifeless just reclining across the stairs.

After the book fair was over, I went to the Venice Pier and caught the lovely sunset.






In the distance you can see the Ferris Wheel at the Santa Monica Pier.





Post Note:
I want to give credit to Squared 5, a free program that helped me convert the .mov movie files from my Sony T100 to mpeg4 so that I could edit them in iMovie. Without Squared 5, my movies were opening in iMovie without sound.

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!

PEACE 'N LOVE

An absolutely beautiful day at Venice Beach complete with Peace N' Love. Photographed February 10, 2007.