Echo Park - Rain

It's been raining for three days straight now, which is a blessing considering that when it rains, the neighbors who live not five feet from my window stop working on the new addition to the garage/house/livingroom/garage. I usually wake up to the sound of nail guns, and the puzzled expressions of old Mexican men/boys looking at me while I slumber. It's weird to know that these people have seen me naked more than girls I've dated, but that's life. I'm pretty well used to it by now, and was pleasantly surprised to find out they don't work on rainy days or sundays. Today was a rainy sunday, so... Wait a second; by the nature of the well-respected double-negative, doesn't that necessitate working? Anyway, everything, including my laundry, my dog, and my neglected skateboard is wet these days, and it's great. Murph got a haircut and a bath, and I went out to scour some photos with the handy use of Jeremy's huge umbrella. Enjoy.

Conehead - Stephen Tamiesie

One of my best friends - Stephen Tamiesie - is a great photographer, and recently took a trip to LA, where we proceeded to illegally park numerous times downtown. In the daytime, there is literally nowhere to park without having to return to your vehicle momentarily out of paranoia. The city makes so much bank off of parking tickets, and it's been one of my downfalls. Anyway, I got my last parking ticket ever last week. It was Jeremy and my resolution to never get another parking ticket. So, back to our trip to downtown. We were shooting random stuff, and Stephen mentioned that he had just been taking tons of shots of cones. Street cones are great. They are triangular, bright, and everywhere.

I can't wait to see the shots he got that day, as he was shooting on a medium format Hasselblad camera, and I was shooting on my digital. All this to say that I was downtown the other day and shot this cone because whenever I see one, I have to shoot it. Just to laugh and show Stevezie. Anyway, it's obviously nothing special, but here it is:




Here are some of the other photos we took the day he was in town:

Austin - Lost & Found

Austin - Lost & Found
Originally uploaded by garretcurtis

I was about to throw away an old CF card because it's 16 MB and worthless, and thought, "I should just see if anything is on this..." Sure enough, I see Austin's mug all up in my bidness. This was probably taken in '04 when we were working together at the dojo. I can tell by the desk configuration. Work can get sort of boring and it helps to have someone named Austin sitting next to you to keep you going.

Accidental Firing

Jeremy (my homemate) was trying to find me the other night, and was gonna pick me up. I was flashing the flash on my camera as a homing beacon so that he could find me, and accidentally took this photo when I finally got a little closer... You can kinda see him in there.  I think it's around a 3 second exposure with the flash.  

Late Night Foto Hunt

It's raining right now, and I can't wait to get out there and shoot more. It just sucks getting my gear all wet. Here are some that I shot last night. I enjoy shooting for hours at night. It lets me see things that I normally drive by and ignore. Yadda yadda. Enjoy.

Las Vegas Job

Recently, I got a job working in Las Vegas for Michael Mann and Dante Spinotti - two of my favorite film makers - and spent 4 nights shooting from 2 PM to 6 AM. It was my first time in Vegas without being under the legal age, and so I got to spend some quality time in the casinos at 7 AM after getting off work with Jeremy:



I had a great time playing Roulette, and scoring chick-dudes off the strip. Hahahaa, just playing.



The cars on the job would get up to 150 MPH and then we shot a huge crash sequence. It was amazing to see these pro's working. Here's some more fotos:










Working for myself and maintaining creative control over my work is great, but working for famous people has it's upsides for sure.

New Year Classics

The last sunset of 07.  Twas a great year, and im sure you'll agree, bout due for a change.  Ive been needing a reason to stop waking up at noon and eating cookies in my soup.  Time to grow up little Garret.  Its not the 90's anymore.  So here are a few photos from the new year's eve/day.  I decided to "do it real big" this year and throw a party at my place.  Thanks for showing up all you people, and I hope you had a blast.  My neighbor/landlord loves tequila and invited Jeremy and I over for some blackjack drinking games.  Lets just say, the new year luck was all going to the dealer... and I was about to be on the floor.

I like new years because it's the one time when you walk down the street in Los Angeles when everyone is nice to everyone else.  It's all smiles from the neighbors, and people put their worries on hold to have some fun.  

In the morning, Sterling came over at 7 AM with cheeses and booze.  Walking down the street the night after a huge world-wide bash is amazing.  There are no sounds, nobody is driving, nobody is awake, and everything is still - despite how trashed it is from the night before.  

Sterling and I decided to go skating and make video parts of ourselves even though we suck.  So as we were walking, we found a chair in the middle of the street.  It was so rad.  We rode the bus all day, and at the end of the night, I rode it home with some crappy footage of crappy tricks, and a feeling that it is going to be a great year.  

San Francisco Show & Tell

 
          "San Francisco Show & Tell"

Sterling Bartlett - art connoisseur and obsessive contemplative - puts the finishing touches on the dildo - probably, well, one, if not the major focal point of this piece.

In November, this piece was shown in the AGGRO art exhibit, which premiered artists from Phoenix, AZ - such as Sterling here - in Los Angeles. This was a show that was all about putting your balls to the wall(s), which isn't that hard considering the art on said walls.

When I first saw this piece - a compilation between heir Bartlett and Glen Allen - I thought, "wow, they are totally doing it, underwater, in and around sea life." Not too insightful, but honest nonetheless.

I am proud to own several of Sterlings works, and recommend that you join me in destroying all else.

To contact Sterling for his artwork, you can find him on myspace.com or lurking at the T.F. in highland park.

Sterling's Specs

 
               This hurts my brain!

Months ago, Sterling and myself worked on a job for basically nothing, no seriously, I think it was nothing. Crap! Anyway, we got paid nothing, which sucks for the amount of work we put in, and shot on a short film. Well, I left my glasses and my light meter in the producer's car. I have called the guy a million times, but we are never in the same place at the same time. So, I decided to wear Sterling's Glasses as we drank copious amounts of beer that night. Maybe it's me, but I thought I was wearing them all night.... I'm also sure Sterling needed them - to see.

Here's to Sterling and I getting new/my specs.... soon.

Lets Hope Not

 

I have been taking a lot of photos lately of reflected glass and water. I know there is no way that this is just for no reason because my brother, has posted several things about this look on his blog recently as well. I hope this idea is manifested into some kind of film project soon. You hear me Austin!? Come to LA for a day, and lets shoot photos! That goes for anyone who loves photography and wants to spend the day shooting with me. Come on down.

This photo was taken while I was B-CAM operator for a short film called Essential Life. I thought it was pretty interesting to shoot a photo of myself reflected in a hearse. But let's hope not eh?