life in technicolor

moving along orange grove blvd at dusk.

aaron proctor has a great review of the blogger party right here.

portrait of two bloggers

yesterday i had the privaledge of attending the 4th san gabriel valley blogger picnic, held at the historic aztec hotel in monrovia. not only did i meet some of my fellow bloggers, but i finally connected with my fellow city daily photo blogger, petrea of pasadena daily photo (her blog is fantastic by the way, go check it out if you haven't already).

great to meet everyone in attendance, and a big thanks to our hosts at the aztec.

a fantastic event, i can't wait to go to the next one.

tower with clouds

located close to the intersection of hudson and del mar, this tower rises above everything in the area. my best guess is that it is some kind of radio tower, but i have nothing to back that up with. i should have looked around and done a bit more investigation. do any pasadenians out there have any insight?

a-american storage co.

the friday neon quest continues. pasadena is full of these bright signs adding to the unnatural nighttime glow over los angeles county.

the desirable colorado street bridge

the photo from which the banner image at the top of this blog was cropped gets seen every day, but has never been featured as a daily photo. due to some recent events, it deserves to make it's debut today.

long story short, earlier this week i was contacted by an online company who apologized for stealing the title banner image from the top of my blog and using it on their site. an intern had "borrowed" my work and passed it off as their own. fortunately the company was honest enough to inform me because i probably would have never seen the picture in use. it turned out to be random chance that they stumbled upon my blog and found the controversial image. the situation was resolved and the image was taken down but it raises an interesting question - how do you protect your online photography?

adding a watermark seems to tarnish the artwork, and even those can be airbrushed out. should we just take it as a form of flattery when our work is used, regardless of if permission is obtained? and what should the consequences be if you discover that someone has stolen your image? i'd love to hear your comments on this issue. let's get a discussion going on this.

burlington arcade perspective

two city daily photo bloggers in the same town means you're bound to photograph the same thing from time to time. petrea just posted a similar pic two weeks ago but our two images prove how personal perspective changes photography. amazing how things like lighting, angle, time of day, camera, photographer, all change the image that is captured.

i think pasadena can handle several more photo blogs (no rhyme or reason and green tea, etc. are two of my favs). get out there and take pictures, and let us all know where you post them!

backside in black and white

i'm not sure how to explain this one.

last night, while walking, i took out my camera and my good friend (and very funny guy) tim struck a pose. i don't often take pictures of people but this one is a keeper. it turned out kind of blurry, but i think that adds to the spontaneity of the shot. oh, and the backwards glance from his fellow walkers is a nice touch too.

tim - i told you i would post this.

casting directors - give tim a movie already.

210 from the wilson overpass

i played with the color on this one, i'm happy with the way it turned out.

"watanga ma tula pum"

when i was 10 my family spent a year in a tiny village in northern ghana doing mission work. the only phrase i remember clearly in mampruli (the local dialect) is the title of today's post. it means "the sun is very hot" - which is fitting because the sun has been very hot in pasadena lately. yesterday i went out for a bike ride at 5:30 and my laptop informed me that it was 102 degrees. the high yesterday was 108. today we're expecting a much calmer 97. at least it isn't very humid here.

capitol dome

i don't consider myself to be a very patriotic person (at least not toward the usa), but it's hard not to be when you visit dc. for the first time ever i toured the capitol building and even sat in the gallery for a little while. it was a cool addition to my lobbying with bread for the world - a different way of visiting the capital.

i'm back in pasadena now. a great trip, but it's good to be home. i've posted some photos of my trip here if you want to see a few shots from my week.

community?

i love the concept of community. i have no idea what community bank stands for, but it sounds lovely :) happy friday!

back in pasadena tomorrow, it will be good to be home.

the norton simon museum

i haven't been, but my wife claims that it is a fantastic art museum. pasadena has quite selection of museums for a town of this size, i'm sad to say there are quite a few i still have yet to visit.

this is a post office?

my wife meredith discovered that the pasadena post office is something i needed to blog about. the stained glass ceiling alone (photo above) is worth going in to check out. for those of you who have lived in pasadena for a while, or grew up around here this is probably old news, but i was blown away by the sight inside.

checking in from washington dc

hey there faithful blog readers. just a quick post from my trip to the nation's capital. i'm here for a bread for the world conference (you should check them out, they do amazing stuff), and have been living at the lovely catholic university of america campus. this building is the impressive basilica of the national shrine of the immaculate conception - quite a mouthful, i know.

path to freedom

billing itself as the original modern urban homestead and sustainable living resource center, this lovely home is located right in the city of pasadena. instead of a grass lawn, they have a garden, and not just any garden.


their goal in 2008 is to harvest 10,000 lbs of food on their 1/10 of an acre plot. not only do they grow food for themselves, they also sell food to local establishments, families, and friends. impressive!

you can learn more about their goals and mission right here.

bike expo at one colorado

going back in time with this one. bike week was back in may, but this image stood out to me so it made the cut for today.

more of the jacaranda

it's true - petrea hit the nail on the head. we can't stop taking pictures of pasadena's purple trees. it seems like they are everywhere now. for how long I cannot say, but as long as they are around, i assume they will continue to creep into my photos.

this image is of south lake avenue. lake has quite a lot going on, yet it always seems to end up second fiddle to colorado blvd and old town pasadena. too bad really, because it's really a pretty cool street!

by the way, today is the start of the pasadena chalk festival. i'm really sad to be out of town for it. if you get a chance, swing by to check it out and tell me what i'm missing.

cheesecake factory

i try and stay away from chain restaurants in my blog postings, but i'm going to make an exception for the cheesecake factory in old town.

for those of you who are new to this blog, friday is usually a posting of something in neon lights. you can see past postings right here.

today i fly across the country for one of 4 trips east this summer. i'll be spending the week in washington, dc where i will be attending a bread for the world conference and hanging out with friends. i also hope to take in a ballgame at the new nationals park. hopefully i can find an internet connection and post a few pictures of my trip while i'm on the east coast, but in case i don't, this thing is on autopilot for the next few days. try not to miss me too much!

archstone del mar station apartments

these multi-colored apartments are situated right over a metro stop. amazingly convenient, but i do wonder how noisy it might be living above a metro train.

they are magnolias, but are they steel?

the magnolia trees in front of city hall have started to bloom, accentuating an already beautiful building.

taco cart

the street taco is one of the hidden gems of living in southern california. it's fast food, but not like taco bell. it's not a restaurant (although this cart is actually a part of a restaurant), but it serves tasty food. totally mobile, sometimes controversial, and really fantastic.

this cart is situated in front of "el carrizal", a mexican restaurant in pasadena located along orange grove blvd. it opens late in the evening, most nights of the week. i recommend the al pastor tacos, but i bet everything is pretty tasty late at night.

if you want to learn more about the los angeles taco scene, check out this great website.

music at tangiers restaurant

tim and deb invited me to go check out their friends play a set at tangier in los feliz on saturday night. jeremy and joey put on a great show mixing together rock, jazz and blues in front of a crowded house. live music is one thing i really miss about moving away from harrisonburg, va. for a small town, it had a ton of great local shows happening all the time. if pasadena is lacking one thing, it's variety of music venues. although we had to leave pasadena to find it, saturday was a breath of fresh air.

uniquely pasadenian

at first glance this photo could have been taken on the main street of any town across the us of a. but i promise you, this picture could only have been taken in pasadena. no, i'm not referring to the cool building that jamba juice is located in (although it is pretty cool), i'm looking at two other things. the first is the diagonal crosswalk. if you notice, the traffic lights in both directions are red. traffic is blocked four ways and people are free to cross in normal directions, as well as crossing the intersection at an angle - free of traffic from any direction. i'm sure this exists in other cities, but pasadena is the first place i have seen this take place.

the second unique distinction may not be so easy to notice. it is the red line painted on the middle of the road. it's not that pasadena doesn't like the color yellow, this red line actually denotes the rose parade route. it is easier to see when the photo gets blown up to a larger size...


so now you know two new facts about pasadena! prepare to impress your friends.

photo request #4: rose covered pergola at ninth circuit court

michael coppess of the fantastic east of allen blog had a few suggestions for photos. this one in particular caught my attention. i snapped off the requested photo but found myself wondering if this structure ever becomes totally covered with roses, or if this is about its peak. interestingly i was once again informed by an employee that i couldn't take pictures (second time within a few weeks? see this post) - however this one was informed enough to say that they were permitted from the sidewalk.

a side note - for those not familiar with pasadena, this isn't the first time you have seen this building photographed here, albeit from another angle - found here.

a'float sushi

i like sushi, but i'm also intimidated by going out to a sushi restaurant. for those native pasadenians who read this blog, do you have any suggestions or tips on the best restaurant in town? there are quite a few to choose from.

something in the sky

weird things were happening yesterday. channel 4 news was parked in the vons grocery store parking lot and a helicopter was circling overhead. no one seemed to know why, but everyone was gathered around watching it. maybe the gray skies? that is a rarity in pasadena - usually you can see the mountains from here, but they were barely visible. if it was a traffic copter, why was the van parked at vons? start your speculation. maybe there is something i'm missing...

trio apartments

thanks to pasadena daily photo, i've been wanting to snag a picture of this building when the "three graces" were all lit up. although it gets even brighter when the sky is black, you can start to see the illumination taking place.

the rugged beauty of king's canyon

this past weekend we took a trip up north to king's canyon and sequoia national parks. both completely surpassed my expectations. if you want to see a bit more, i set up a gallery of our trip right here.

downtown los angeles from above

view from the griffith park observatory on a cloudy day

june 2008 theme day: my corner local shop

the corner of orange grove and los robles includes a new pizzeria, a funeral home, and a dry cleaner, but what stands out as my shop is the king ranch supermarket. i enjoy it because i'm a minority when i shop there - the majority of their customers are hispanic - and they offer somewhat unique items to purchase, like fresh cactus.

this photo isn't exceptional, but it turned out to be the only one i could take that day. as i was snapping it off a security guard ran toward me and wondered why i was taking pictures of private property (is a supermarket private property? i was taking the picture on the sidewalk!). i mentioned that it was a photo for my blog and for monthly theme day and that seemed to satisfy him. he mentioned that they had some trouble in the past with people taking pictures... i wonder what kind of trouble?

180 other bloggers are working with this theme today. check them out!

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants
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