TIDE POOLIN'

Leo Carrillo beach in Malibu is consistently one of my favorite places to visit and photograph. I just love climbing around the rocks and investigating the tide pool. There are several ways to get there, but I usually take the 101 North to Malibu Canyon, head south over to Pacific Coast Highway, then West (a right turn) on PCH approximately 25 miles until you hit Leo Carrillo. From the Valley to Leo it's about a 45 minute to hour drive each way. The tide pool is just in front of the #3 lifeguard tower (and incidentally, dogs are allowed on leash from this tower and continuing west up the beach). I just google low tide Malibu to find out the best time to go there and check out the tide pool. Usually there's a several hour window about an hour before to an hour after low tide that's good. If you go after that, the waves usually are just hitting the rocks too hard and it can be dangerous to stand there. I always see tons of starfish (many different colors including orange, light blue, and purple), sea anemones (they are really fun to touch), mussels, crabs (little teeny black ones and bigger red ones), and even little fish swimming in the watery crags and crevices of the tide pool rocks. And I've even spotted dolphins and whales from this beach.



















After an outing at Leo Carrillo, I always stop at this little food shack called Malibu Seafood, located just before you find yourself back at Malibu Canyon. It's totally no frills - you order food inside, wait for your number to be called, and find an open bench to sit down. My fave meals there are swordfish with rice pilaf and salad (the ranch is really good), fish and chips, clam chowder, or a pot of steamed clams in a nice broth.








Leo Carrillo State Park / Malibu photos by Lydia Marcus

For additional images from this series go to my Flickr page

Leo Carrillo State Park: 35000 Pacific Coast Hwy, Malibu, CA
Malibu Seafood: 25653 Pacific Coast Hwy, Malibu, CA 90265 (310) 456-3430

XPAN AT THE AUTO SHOW

Late last year I borrowed a Hasselblad Xpan camera from my friend Jack. The Xpan is a very special panoramic format rangefinder that was manufactured from 1998 to 2006. A kit with the 45mm f/4 cost around $2000. A super wide angle 30mm f/5.6 went for $2566 new.

I shot one roll at the 2008 Los Angeles Auto Show. All the shots were done with available light using the 45mm f/4 kit lens and Kodak Portra 800 film. Since I can't process the Xpan at any regular lab, the roll has sat in my office for quite some time until I took it to A&I in Hollywood a few days ago for processing and scans. For $15, A&I did processing, medium resolution scans of 5800 × 2376 (ranging from 10mb to 17mb in size), and a contact sheet (free with the order). They did a pretty good job but I have to go back to get some rescanned because they got the borders of a few shots wrong so I basically have two photos in one frame. With Xpan, one photo spans one and a half frames of 35mm film.

Here are the best of the roll:












Toyota had a free photobooth at the Auto Show so I did a self-portrait with the Xpan. The funny story behind this shot is that the photobooth started talking to me when I sat down. I guess they have somebody off site who sees you, but they make it sound like a HAL type computer voice. Right away the booth asked me who was going to take the shot because I immediately posed with the camera in front of my face. I responded that it was going to take my picture. And then it was asking me all kinds of photo questions, like was I a professional photographer. I guess the Hassie looked pretty serious to the photobooth. It was really funny.

Xpan photos of the 2008 Los Angeles Auto Show by Lydia Marcus.
Photographed November 19, 2007 in Los Angeles, CA

THE SWIMMER PART 2

More portraits of my Dad at the pool, this time shot digitally. He turns 87 in less than a month.





When i was a kid, my Dad could lay on the floor of the pool for at least a minute (probably more). He would just let out a little bit of air at a time - teeny, tiny bubbles. My Dad isn't that playful of a person, but this always was a crowd pleaser! i'm naturally too buoyant to do this.

Fred Marcus photos by Lydia Marcus
Photographed August 6, 2008 in Encino, CA

BIG THANKS

Once in a great while, special people come into your life, and photographer Aline Smithson is that person to me. I first met Aline when I began taking "The Next Step: Getting Exposure in the Fine Art and Documentary World" at Julia Dean in April of 2007. Aline has turned out to be the most amazing teacher, mentor, friend, and constant encourager. Through her class I finally found a small community of fine art photographers willing to support one another. Instead of being competitive, Aline has encouraged her students to share resources and be each other's best cheerleaders. Before I met Aline, I didn't have a blog, wasn't showing any of my photography on the web or publicly, nor did I have a network of other photographers to bounce ideas off of or get feedback. Because of the course, instead of miscellaneous photos, I now have different series of work including "Curious Transport" and "Sign Language." Without Aline's influence, I know for a fact that "Sandra's Stare" would not currently be published in JPG Magazine, because I wouldn't have even tried to submit it anywhere. So today, I send out a big THANK YOU to a wonderful woman who has helped the artist within me emerge. To a fantastic friend and mentor who has shared both her heart and her knowledge - Aline Smithson!

Aline & Me at the opening of my first group gallery show "Photography Now" at the Julia Dean Gallery on October 18, 2007.


Here is some of Aline's amazing, one of a kind work:






Aline's website is alinesmithson.com and her blog is lenscratch.blogspot.com.

TACOMA & TOPIARY

Tacoma & topiary photo by Lydia Marcus
Photographed July 27, 2008 in Encino, CA

JPG MAGAZINE POLAROID PORTRAIT CHALLENGE

Well here it is - my photo "Sandra's Stare" in the pages of JPG Magazine Issue #17. I was one of the winners of the JPG Magazine (teamed with Flak Photo and File Magazine) Polaroid Portrait Challenge. Among the four page spread, I was pretty psyched to have the second largest image (as far as layout) and to be one of the five images (out of 23 total) that had some text about the shooting of the photo included. The feature starts on page 18 and my image is on page 20. As a winner of the competition, I get paid real cash money (I actually received payment BEFORE the issue came out - a FIRST for me for sure), a free year's subscription to JPG Magazine, and of course, my photo printed in the magazine. JPG also lists the web address of the image on jpgmag.com and lists me in the back of the magazine in the contributors index (and that includes a mention of my fotonomous blog). I have to say, JPG is a real class act, now if only more publications treated their contributors so well. Big congrats to all the other Polaroid photographers whose work was featured in JPG.

STARS AND STRIPES IN TIME ZERO

I originally posted this shot as part of my 4th of July party wrap up, but I think that it got kind of lost among all the other snaps and I'd like to give it a solo spotlight. Also, if you like this image, please go vote for it at jpgmag.com where it's currently up for the "Geometry" theme. Voting is open until August 12, 2008.

"Stars & Stripes in Time Zero"
Polaroid photo by Lydia Marcus.

Photographed July 4th, 2008 in Encino, CA using a Polaroid SX-70 Alpha and expired Time Zero film.

ROCHELLE

Tonight I was at a wedding. In between the ceremony and dinner, people were hanging out and I spotted this lovely young woman in this exact pose resting at the edge of a beautiful fountain. Of course I had to ask if I could take her picture. I knew it would be a good shot but the Polaroid 195 at f3.8 delivered beyond my wildest expectations.

Rochelle Roepke Polaroid portait by Lydia Marcus.
Photographed August 1, 2008 at Orcutt Ranch (Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #31) in Canoga Park, CA