JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK

1/23/2010 I visited Joshua Tree National Park with flickr friends. Vivid blue skies and a smattering of light snow dusting the park just made everything that much more picturesque.

From the nps.gov website:

"Joshua Tree encompasses three of California’s ecoregions. Its geology shows the effects of plate tectonics, volcanism, mountain-building, and stark erosion. With elevations ranging from 900 feet to over 5,000 feet above sea level, the park is home to a diversity of biological communities found nowhere else in such proximity. Sand dunes, dry lakes, flat valleys, extraordinarily rugged mountains, granitic monoliths, and oases are all found within its nearly 800,000 acres. Each feature makes its contribution to the natural tapestry of the southwest."

Joshua trees are so beautiful far away or super close up.


Even their shadows are pretty.


Me hamming it up in front of one of the Joshua trees. Photo by Matthew Dillon, a flickr friend.


Me too!


I don't know why, but these signs just always crack me up. I don't want to do something 'til I'm told I can't do it! I never wanted to shoot or camp so badly before. ;-)


I think this one can easily ;-) be misinterpreted to mean that dogs off leash are totally okay! LOL.




This rock formation already looked like a man's profile to me but the Joshua Tree mustache just cements the deal. :-)


Speaking of mustaches, I shot this photo of this little girl at the end of the night at a local 29 Palms pizza joint. She got the fuzzy thing out of a vending machine that sold facial hair (and mole) disguises). A little drag king in training - so cute.


There were a lot of great hiking spots at Joshua Tree. These snow covered rocks were beautiful. Matthew Dillon took all these shots of me.






I like that this shot shows off my yoga booty. :-)


Laurie Thomson, a fellow flickrite, took this shot of me. I love it! Wonderful use of natural hair light.


Sunset light over Joshua Tree




Photo credits © Lydia Marcus 2010 / www.lydiamarcus.com
Photographed January 23, 2010 in Joshua Tree National Park
Twentynine Palms, CA

PIONEERTOWN

Last weekend I went on a Los Angeles Group flickrmeet to Pioneertown and Joshua Tree National Park. For this blog post I'm sharing photos from Pioneertown. If you'd like to check out photos other people took on the meet, check out this discussion thread on flickr. Next time I post, I'll share my Joshua Tree shots.

Here's a description of Pioneertown's cinematic history according to to www.pioneertown.com:

"Pioneertown was built in 1946 as a movie set for western movies, including the movies of Gene Autry, The Cisco Kid, with Duncan Renaldo, Annie Oakley with Gail Davis, Judge Roy Bean with Edgar Buchanan, Range Rider with Jock O. Mahoney, and Buffalo Bill Jr. with Dick Jones. The movie set was to provide a place for the actors to live, and have their homes used as part of a movie set. Some of the original investors in the town were Roy Rogers, who also built thePioneer Bowl, Sons of the Pioneers, which the town was named after, Dick Curtis who was a professional villian in old movies, Bud Abbott, Russell Hayden, who played Lucky on the Hopalong Cassidy series, Louella Parsons the Hollywood gossip columnist and Philip N. Krasne: The Man Who Saved Pioneertown. Mane Street is private property and is always open to courteous pedestrians."

Pioneertown is only a two hour drive from L.A. We were graced by the beautiful presence of fresh snow all over Pioneertown.



Me on "Mane" Street. Photo by Laurie Thomson.


While most of the group wandered through the Pioneertown, I found myself drawn to the Pioneertown Motel in the back and the snow covered cars and landscape behind the Motel.













This is the motel.


The motel was very cool and had a lot of character. Each room has it's own kitchenette. It's definitely the kind of place I'd like to stay at in the future - quiet, peaceful, nostalgic.



A beautiful tree on Mane Street.


A funny snow woman by the motel.

This snow woman reminds me of Dustin Hoffman in drag as Dorothy Michaels in the classic early 80's romantic comedy "Tootsie"

It was pretty much a ghost town at Pioneertown - we were the only tourists. The only other people I saw were staying at the motel. A few of those were out walking their doggies out in the snow.

This cute doggie named Gracie was sunbathing in front of her two mommies' motel room.









As the group was getting ready to leave Pioneertown, I met these three amigos.



These guys were kind of like Jackass or Dumb and Dumber come to life. The guy on the left was a groom to be. On the way to get married, he got his car stuck in the mud. While working to get the car dug out of the mud with a shovel, he split the tux pants he was supposed to wear to the ceremony. Once they got the car out, the trio did some pre wedding celebrating with Pabst beers. This was just before 11am. The last thing I heard the groom say was something about he should have known better about getting the car stuck because he grew up driving that road and that his wife to be was going to be pissed and he probably wasn't going to be "getting any" tonight. At least he had a sense of humor about it. Good luck with the marriage buddy.

Photo credits © Lydia Marcus 2010 / www.lydiamarcus.com
Photographed January 23, 2010 in Pioneertown, CA

THE CATTY COUGAR

Fun portraits of me from the Photographer's Fling, January 16, 2010, Santa Monica CA by The Holgasnake aka Carmen Luceno

EXTRA, EXTRA: THE DOGGIE NEWS

Cali goes nuts over squeaky toys - I'm convinced she's made up her own language based on squeaks! I bought this rubber chew toy at Cost Plus World Market over the holidays. I hadn't given it to Cali yet because I was nervous about how quickly she would chew through it but lately she seems to be taking it a bit easier on her chew toys as she matures. So today I debuted the Doggie News ("All the news that's fit to chew") and she went wild over it. Unfortunately the toy only lasted about 15 minutes before she's chewed the corner off and it no longer squeaked. At least I got a cute picture out of it!

Cali, 10 Months Old
Photo credit © Lydia Marcus 2010 / www.lydiamarcus.com
Photographed January 19, 2010 in Encino, CA

SLIP AWAY

I did this teaser photo for the SLIP AWAY movie website. The film's director, Tina Scorzafava, did the all post processing on it. The photo is of Michelle Bonilla, the film's writer, producer, and lead character. Michelle is known for playing paramedic "Christine Harms" on "ER" from 1999 to 2009.

We did the shoot at the director's house. I used ambient light coming from holiday lights in the room and reflected light coming from a small lamp's bare bulb bounced off a reflector. I shot with my Nikon D80 and Nikon 85mm f/1.4 lens opened WIDE. I panned and dragged the camera very quickly (but steadily) a little to the left for some slight blur. Two fans were also used to create movement in the Michelle's hair.

The director wanted the teaser shot to look mysterious and was keen on having it look a little dreamy and out of focus. It's the first time I've been directed to shoot something intentionally out of focus and it was a fun challenge trying to match the vision in the director's head with the images I was getting with my camera. The shoot was a blend of technique and just pure happy accidents of movement until the director got what she envisioned.

NARCISSISTIC EXPRESSION

We all do it - self-portraits that is - whether we use reflection or shadow as our means or merely extend one arm outward as an organically connected tripod.


Self-Portrait, holding Polaroid SX-70 Alpha, Encino, CA 2006

This is the image that I use the most online as the photographic representation of me (it's the image that greets you here on my blog, and on my flickr and twitter feeds) is a self-portrait that I shot in one of the bathrooms of my house. I like bathroom light, sometimes it reminds me of candlelight and it's usually a little softer and moody and the mirrors usually provide nice soft fill light. Holding my beloved Polaroid SX-70 Alpha in one hand, I used my other hand to hold my Polaroid SLR 680 SE and take the photo. I had to try it several times to get the expression and framing just right. I like how my eye connects with the viewer and that my expression is sexy and assured. I'm wearing no makeup whatsoever - what you see is what you get - natural me. But there are some tricks too, by using a slightly higher angle, I get more definition around the jaw line and eliminate any double chin. I like this picture the best because it distills me best as how I see me.

The reason I bring up self-portraits is that yesterday I saw The Sum of Myself: Photographic Self-Portraits from the Audrey and Sydney Irmas Collection at BCAM (Broad Contemporary Art Museum). The exhibition's last day is tomorrow, January 3, so I urge you to go this weekend. LACMA & BCAM have a great pay what you wish policy after 5pm, so you can even go for free or a slight donation.

Strangely, BCAM doesn't have an actual webpage devoted to the exhibit, but if you go here, you can scroll down and find a blurb about it. There's also a link here to the Irmas' collection online that has more info and photos.

What really struck me about the collection is the extra creativity people have when photographing themselves. Nearly all the shots represent truly thinking outside the box. Plus it's a chance to see prints from amazing photographers including Nan Goldin, Robert Mapplethorpe (represented in a self-portrait as a young man in drag and in a second intense portrait near the end of his life when ravaged by AIDS), Andre Kertész (the master of working with distortion from mirrors), Catherine Opie, William Wegman, Diane Arbus, Weegee, Walker Evans, and Lee Friedlander (whose buzz cut shadow self-portrait on the back of a woman's head and fur coat was pure genius). Honestly there's so much incredible work in this exhibit that it's the kind of show that gives me the good kind of headache that comes from inspirational overload.

Here are a bunch of my self-portraits:


Self-portrait, costumed as Andy Warhol for Halloween, Woodland Hills, CA 2006


Self-portrait, top of a boulder at Stoney Point, Chatsworth, CA 2009


Self-portrait, ornament on the Venice Canal, Venice, CA 2008


Self-portrait, mirror in antique shop, Oatman, AZ 2009



Self-portrait, mirror at Bagdad Cafe, Amboy, CA 2009


Self-portrait, reflected off a building at the Getty Center, Los Angeles, CA 2009


Self-portrait, mirror on trolley in Beverly Hills, CA 2009


Self-portrait, Stoney Point, Chatsworth, CA 2009


Self-portrait, shadow behind Tom's Welding, Barstow, CA 2009

And here are some self-portraits on display in The Sum of Myself: Photographic Self-Portraits from the Audrey and Sydney Irmas Collection at BCAM (Broad Contemporary Art Museum).


Clockwise from top: Nan Goldin, Self Portrait in the Mirror at the Lodge, Belmont, MA, 1998, Diane Arbus, Self Portrait in Mirror, 1945 (detail), Robert Mapplethorpe, Self Portrait, 1988. All images in this post: The Audrey and Sydney Irmas Collection
(Image pulled from the LACMA blog UNFRAMED)


Bruce Nauman, Study for Holograms, 1970, Catherine Opie, Self Portrait, 1993
(Image pulled from the LACMA blog UNFRAMED)

LUCY THE BOXADOR MODELS HER HOLIDAY SCARF (TAKE TWO)

I originally blogged on 12/08/08 a diptych of Lucy in other poses from the same shoot. Even though Lucy is no longer with us, I couldn't resist going back through the photos from that day and trying to find another pose to post for the holidays. She was a lovely model, so human and soulful in her expressions.

Photo credit © Lydia Marcus / www.lydiamarcus.com
Photographed December 02, 2008 in Encino, CA

COMING OR GOING

Volkswagen Vanagon L
Photo credit © Lydia Marcus 2009 / www.lydiamarcus.com
Photographed December 10, 2009 in Studio City, CA

PIERCING

Lucy The Chocolate Lab

Photo credit © Lydia Marcus 2009 / www.lydiamarcus.com
Photographed December 9, 2009 in Encino, CA

SUBURBAN 'STANG

"Suburban 'Stang"
Polaroid Photo credit © Lydia Marcus 2009 / www.lydiamarcus.com
Photographed May 17, 2009 in Lake Balboa, CA

MOM, THINKING OF YOU ON YOUR BIRTHDAY. THANKS FOR ALWAYS BEING MY GUIDE.

Beverly Burton Marcus November 30, 1931 - December 15, 2002

Today I was cleaning house and going through old photos and found my Mom's signature written for no particular reason on the inside flap of one of my photo envelopes that had pictures from the 1980's. Crazy huh, but stuff like this has happened before on special days relating to my Mom. In ways I can never predict, her presence will pop up.

"Have a Shrimpsgiving!!! Good Catch For Your Holiday Gathering." #iPhone #Thanksgiving photo by Lydia Marcus

- Lydia :-)

www.lydiamarcus.com
Sent from my iPhone

LUCY & CALI SHARE A SNACK

On Sunday afternoon, I went hiking for two hours in the Encino Hills (at Westridge-Canyon Back Wilderness Park) with Cali and her doggy friend, Lucy the Chocolate Lab. After the hike, we went to Coral Tree Cafe to refuel.

Not all dogs will eat lettuce, but these two sure do. In this video, they sit obediently and alternate taking bites of my salad. How sweet they are!!!! :-)

iPhone 3GS video by Lydia Marcus

ADOPT A RESCUE DOG IN LOS ANGELES

Every time I take Cali out with me I get questions about where I got her from so I thought I'd do a reference blog for anyone looking to adopt a labrador in Los Angeles. I am also including a few other general references to good general rescue groups in L.A.

The biggest misconception people seem to have about rescue groups (and even shelters) is that they can't get a puppy or a purebred there. Labs of all colors and ages are available at rescues and shelters.

After my beloved Lucy The Boxador died of lymphoma in late June, I searched many places looking for another dog: petfinder.com; craigslist; petorphans.org; petadoptionfund.org in Canoga Park; karmarescue.org; and more.

The three main places I found that specialized in labs were: Labs And Buddies; Southern California Labrador Retriever Rescue; and indilabrescue.org.

Here's a breakdown of each group.

1). Labs And Buddies is where I found my last dog, my beloved Lucy The Boxador. labsandbuddies.org is run by the blood, sweat, and tears of Laura Portillo and a small group of volunteers.

This is a blurb from their website:

"Laura Portillo is the founder of 'Labs and Buddies Rescue'...Although her first love is the Lab, she loves all breeds and will rescue any breed in need, space and finances permitting. She specializes in black dogs, because unfortunately they're always the last ones to be picked by adopters at shelters, and too often they're not picked at all..."

It breaks my heart to see some dogs available on their website that have been around since I adopted Lucy from them in December 2007. Labs and Buddies have a wonderful heart but unfortunately I don't think they have the time or resources to get every dog shown (some live in kennels). I know with Lucy, they rescued her from the Camarillo shelter in September of 2007, then she was put in a kennel for several months, and because she was not doing well in that environment, Laura personally took Lucy into her home a couple weeks before I adopted Lucy in December 2007. Lucy was lucky to get out of the kennel in a few months, it's horrible to think that some dogs are stuck there for years.

Most of the adoption events are held on weekends in Woodland Hills, so please check them out if you're looking for a dog. They have much more than labs too.

2). Southern California Labrador Retriever Rescue is where I found Cali. I was very impressed by the work that SCLRR does in fostering the dogs and interviewing applicants before adopting a dog out. The woman who fostered Cali is one of the founders of the group and has personally fostered around 500 dogs herself! Getting Cali from SCLRR saved me a lot of time, money, and training. At four months old she was already crate and potty trained, knew sit and lie down commands, was spayed and had all her shots. As an incentive to put your dog through obedience training, SCLRR refunds $50 of the training cost (you can go to any training place you choose) for basic obedience. Dogs at SCLRR aren't kenneled, they are fostered in homes with dog savvy owners and generally exposed to other dogs, children, and sometimes cats. This way the foster parents are able to report about how well a particular dog does and if they should be placed with another pet, be a solo dog in the home, if they're too boisterous for kids, or if they have a prey drive with cats. Personally I found it really nice to have more information on a dog's personality, temperament, and even energy level before making an adoption decision. Also a really nice touch, when I adopted Cali I was given a folder that included all her medical papers and other information about raising puppies and labradors in particular. There was even a training dvd! And Cali's sweet foster Mom even gave me a couple of her toys (Cali still plays with her stuffed lambie - how she hasn't destroyed it with her puppy chewing is beyond me), a nylabone, and a few days worth of her kibble. And Cali's foster Mom has always been available for follow-up emails or calls. One extra perk from my experience with SCLRR is that I've become friends with the lady who did the home check. She has a black lab too and Cali and her dog Kylie have had a couple doggie playdates so far.

3). Independent Labrador Retriever Rescue of Socal (indilabrescue.org). The only personal experience I have with indilabrescue is a representative coming to my house to do a home check. But I can see from their website that they seem to be run in a similar way to SCLRR. All the dogs are fostered in homes and there's always a very informative description of each dog available for adoption.

What I think is really good about both SCLRR and indilabrescue is that the dogs don't seem to be stuck in foster care for long. They both appear to have a very good turnaround.

Another good rescue group I encountered is Karma Rescue. They were very organized, had lots of info about each dog they fostered (they also mainly do home fosters, but have some dogs kenneled), and spent a lot of time with me answering questions and trying to match me up with dogs. They don't specialize in labs, but when I was going to their adoption events I saw a few pit/lab mixes, and some older black labs. They specialize more in Pit Bulls so the pit mixes are probably what you will encounter there.

Also check out Hope For Paws, a group run by one of my flickr friends Eldad Hagar. Eldad has an amazing flickr photostream documenting all the dogs and other critters he has saved and adopted out. He and his wife Audrey put together an amazing hard cover book Our Lives Have Gone To The Dogs that's only $9.95 and filled with heartwarming tales and before and after photos of wonderful dogs that went from neglect to loving homes.



All the money made from sales of the book go directly towards saving more homeless animals and towards veterinary costs. I highly recommend buying this wonderfully inspiring book for yourself and if can afford it, get a few copies for gifts!

Along with the nearly 100 pages of photos and stories, there are some great dog related quotes inside. I love this one on page 24, "The reason a dog has so many friends is that he wags his tail instead of his tongue."

If you want a dog please consider adopting from a local rescue or shelter. I think petfinder.com probably has the most comprehensive list of rescue groups by zip code. I've never bought a dog from a store or a breeder in my entire life. The bond you will have with a dog that comes from a shelter or rescue is unbelievable. They are so happy to be in a loving home and they will thank you with their love and companionship forever.

- Lydia Marcus