The Candid Frame #169

I just enjoyed a podcast you might like. Altadena photographer and photography teacher extraordinaire, Ibarionex Perello, interviewed author and historian Michele Zack at The Candid Frame. It's podcast #169.

Michele talked about photography's relationship to history, how it makes a clear statement when you can show how things once were while you're telling the tale. She brought it home to me: part of what I do here I think of as making a record. Not all, but part. A lot of City Daily Photo bloggers do this, whether they mean to or not.

Michele Zack's contribution to our area can't be measured. You must read her book, Altadena: Between Wilderness and City, because she tells truths you'd never guess about the place. Southern California Story, about Sierra Madre, is another must-read. And Ibarionex is a good interviewer, not to mention an Altadena treasure himself.

Full disclosure: Michele briefly mentions me on the podcast. She mentions the Altadena Hiker, Karin Bugge, too. Further disclosure: I took the photo above on private property in Altadena, on on 5/29/11, a day when that property was open to the public. Just in case the owners, who don't know me, wonder how the hell I got a close-up of their sweet old Ford.

Boz, Muse

I resist posting about Boz every week--even every day. He's one of my favorite subjects, so as soon as I think I've let enough time pass as not to bore you, I'll put up a picture of him. I've got a million of 'em. I mean that very close to literally.

Boz is muse to other photographers as well. He even appears in Ibarionex Perello's Chasing the Light, an honest-to-goodness published book about photography by an honest-to-goodness professional photographer.

John made this impressionistic image of our elderly beastie on one of our Hahamongna romps. Boz mopes around the neighborhood like Eeyore. But a dog can have a muse, too. Out in the open spaces where his cousin coyotes roam, he is inspired.

Shadow Courtyard

I've been waiting for just the right occasion to post this photo. There hasn't been one, so I'm posting it because it's Friday.

I took the picture last December when I was at City Hall with photographer Ibarionex Perello and his Digital Boot Camp workshop. (He's got another one coming up this month; I highly recommend it.) I don't know why the courtyard was so filled with people but it looked like perhaps a couple of school field trips were visiting. They sure had a nice day for it.

Photographic History

the Curtin House at Pasadena Museum of History

In conjunction with the exhibition Southern California’s Evolving Landscape: The Photography of Helen Lukens Gaut (1872-1955) at the Pasadena Museum of History through Feburary 26, the Museum is offering some pretty cool photography workshops next month. Three different teachers, three different workshops, three different perspectives.

Saturday, February 4: Working the Angles with James Staub,
Photo Services Specialist, California Institute of Technology
Staub will focus on what he calls "Moving the furniture around" -- framing the scene, dealing with lighting to your advantage, color balance and other methods to enliven a photo through simple changes to your camera and yourself.
Participants will meet at the Information Kiosk in the East entrance of Pasadena City Hall.

Saturday, February 18: The Basics of Composition with Ibarionex Perello,
Adjunct professor at Art Center College of Design and author of the bestselling book, Chasing the Light: Improving Your Photography with Available Light
Perello's workshop will teach students to improve their compositions. You will learn how to carefully consider what to include and exclude from the frame as well as how brightness, contrast, sharpness, patterns, and color saturation shape how we create and see photographs.
This workshop will take place in Curtin House at Pasadena Museum of History.

Saturday, February 25: Phoneshots with Eliot Crowley, Santa Barbara-based commercial photographer
The best camera is the one you have with you. As Eliot says, “It’s not the camera, it is the photographer.” In just a couple of hours you'll learn some of the capabilities of your phone camera. Be ready at a moment’s notice to make the image, set up the composition and lighting to flatter your subject just by pulling your phone out of your pocket.  Equipment needed:  Cellular phone with camera.
This workshop will take place on the Colorado Street Bridge. Participants should park on Grand Avenue and meet at the East entrance to the Bridge.


Museum Members, $25 per session; Non-Members, $30 per session; Museum Members, $60 for all three workshops; Non-Members, $75 for all three workshops.
Reservations are required. Call 626.577.1660, ext. 10.

I've never gone wrong at the PMH. They're cool people who care about offering quality programs.

Learning to See

I want to show you a couple more pictures I took during Ibarionex Perello's workshop. (I'm proud of this one.)

When you arrive at the workshop, which begins at Memorial Park and takes you trekking through Old Town, you'll be greeted by Ibarionex, his wife Cynthia, and probably a few of their friends. With smiles. And hot coffee. It sets the tone.

Then, like ducklings following your leader, you head out into Old Town in search of challenge, texture and, most of all, light. Ibarionex will give you some basics about using your digital SLR camera, then you're going to start chasing the light and learning to see in new ways.

For my first couple of years of blogging I worked with an Olympus SP350, a nice, purse-sized point-and-shoot that had some manual settings I never used. I still shoot with it sometimes (with the automatic settings) but not as much. I learned a lot and I was ready to move on to a better instrument.

I met Ibarionex at a local blogger event about two and a half years ago. We had already met online. Some time after that first meeting I bought a Canon 20D from him. It might have some of his mojo, but I'll never know unless I learn how to use it. I've been trying to teach myself and I've made progress, but I'm lazy about reading manuals. So when the chance came along to take a workshop with the man himself, I jumped at it. I'm going to jump again this Saturday. It's his last workshop of the year that isn't full yet.

(I'm proud of this one, too.)

I can recommend the class because I've taken it and I already see results. If you want to make the leap, go to the Candid Frame Workshops sign-up page, ignore the other discount codes and get the workshop for $50 by entering this code: perellovip.

I was out shooting today and got a few good pictures, although I admit several were overexposed. It's not like this stuff comes easy. With practice, though, it comes. I could set everything on automatic and let the camera make all the decisions, but in that case I might as well use a point-and-shoot.

Dorothea Lange said "A camera is a tool for learning how to see without a camera." I love wrapping my mind around the meaning of that statement.

Chasing the Light

As I write I'm very sleepy, so just this:

Saturday I took the Digital Camera Bootcamp I told you about with Ibarionex Perello, pro photographer and gifted teacher.

I'll tell you more Tuesday but I couldn't wait to say at least this much: there's one more workshop this year that isn't already full and it's next Saturday. To sign up and pay only $50 for the class, which is worth three times as much, will make you as tired as I am now and will also make you a better photographer in a single day, go here, ignore the other codes and enter this code: perellovip.

Chasing the Light is Ibarionex's most recent book about photography. Boz managed to get his picture in it.


6:58 pm, An Electricity Update and Warning from Ann Erdman, Pasadena's Public Information Officer:

CAUTION STRONGLY URGED REGARDING HIGH-VOLTAGE ELECTRICITY

There are been reports of some residents opening pole boxes at the base of street lights and stringing wire from the boxes to their homes.

The voltage in most boxes is much too high for individual homes. This practice is illegal as well as extremely hazardous to people and structures.

Pasadena Water and Power officials have been contacting households without electricity with updates on restoration of services.  Power was restored to several homes today and PWP crews will continue working throughout the night and for as long as it takes to ensure power to all homes is restored as quickly as possible.

Robinson Park Center, 1081 N. Fair Oaks Ave., will open at 7 p.m. tonight to provide a warm place for residents without power.


We have a WINDSTORM UPDATE from Ann Erdman, Pasadena's Public Information Officer Extraordinaire:


today, 5:30pm

The City of Pasadena has been working around the clock on recovery efforts in the wake of the fierce windstorms that struck overnight Nov. 30 to Dec. 1. In response to the disaster, the city declared a local emergency, a proactive protective measure consistent with other neighboring cities that have sustained significant damage. It occurs when a disaster has progressed or is anticipated to extend beyond the capability of regular municipal personnel and resources, assisted by personnel and resources from contiguous municipalities, to maintain order and control and confine the incident.

The following is an update on services and infrastructure as of 5:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 4, 2011.

Shelter

Robinson Park Center, 1081 N. Fair Oaks Ave., returned to regular recreation programming yesterday.
The center will open at 7 p.m. tonight to provide a warm place for residents without power.

Streets, Trees and Parks

All primary and secondary arterial roadways were passable as of Saturday afternoon.  As of Sunday afternoon 85 percent of all residential streets are passable.

Removal of debris still along the side of roads will be trucked to two county facilities near Eaton Canyon – the L.A. County Public Works Eaton Yard and the Hastings Spreading Basin.  There it will be chipped and used for mulch citywide.  The removal is expected to take two to four weeks and the chipping could take four to six months depending on the volume of material.  

The removal and clearing of trees that are not in the public right of way is the responsibility of private property owners.  Those who suffered damage to vehicles, homes or other property caused by fallen city trees or tree limbs should contact their private insurers for proper handling of claims.

An assessment of city parks has been completed.  Approximately 100 trees have fallen and approximately 30 have sustained structural damage and may need to be removed for safety reasons.  A number of park improvements at various sites, including play equipment, backstops, pathway lighting and playground surfaces, have been damaged as well as the scoreboard at the historic Jackie Robinson Stadium at Brookside Park.


Refuse (trash, yard waste and recycling) Service

Regular refuse service resumed on Friday, with weekend service provided to those whose regular service was missed on Thursday.  The city’s bulky and abandoned item collection crew has been combing the city to remove large items ahead of the workweek.

Electricity

Utility Crews, including those from Anaheim Water and Power and Burbank Water and Power as well as private contractors, continue to work around the clock to restore service.  As of late Friday 99 percent of customers had service.  Efforts are being made to contact remaining customers without power to advise of the status of repairs.  In some cases it may take days to restore service, as most remaining issues involve problems on private property. Priority has been given to customers with life-safety concerns and where further structural or electric-system damage is a risk.
Customers may experience intermittent interruptions as Pasadena Water and Power (PWP) disconnects  service momentarily to allow crews to reconnect portions of circuits they repaired or rebuilt.
Some properties in a small section of Northwest Pasadena are served by Southern California Edison and should call (800) 661-1191 to report outages.

Water
All water customers have water.  There are about 150 customers with temporary connections where permanent repairs were not possible due to lack of access caused by fallen trees.  Permanent repairs will be made over the next two weeks as access is made available.

Approximately 25 customers in Northwest Pasadena are experiencing low water pressure due to pumps that are offline at two pumping stations in Edison’s territory where power outages remain.  Edison has restored power to one of the stations.  In the meantime PWP has provided bottle water to residents.

Safety

Everyone should stay clear of compromised, overhead electric, cable and telephone lines. Do not attempt to remove trees that are touching any utility line. A list of tree-care professionals with expertise in electrical safety and tree health is available under the FYI section at www.cityofpasadena.net.

Athletic Fields

Athletic fields in city parks are currently being cleared of debris and assessed for playing conditions.  It is anticipated that most, if not all, will reopen Monday, Dec. 5.


Parking Restrictions

Enforcement of all normal parking restrictions is back in effect.  Those needing to park on the street due to the presence of storm debris should obtain a temporary overnight parking exemption (TOPEX) which may be purchased at www.cityofpasadena.net/Transportation/Temporary_Overnight_Parking_Exemptions.

Scams

Verify all credentials of anyone offering to perform inspection or repair work. Call the Pasadena Police Department at (626) 744-4241 if you suspect a scam.

More Information

To report fallen public trees and hazardous tree conditions, call (626) 744-4321.

To report downed power lines, call (626) 564-0199 or (626) 564-0299.

Customer service representatives are on duty around the clock, documenting all call details and forwarding to appropriate staff for resolution. Reports can also be made at the online Citizens Service Center at www.cityofpasadena.net/csc.

Pasadena residents and others who want to sign up for local alerts can go to www.cityofpasadena.net/fire/PLEAS or www.nixle.com.

Update by the Numbers Begins on the Next Page.

PASADENA WINDSTORM UPDATE – BY THE NUMBERS
Updated Sunday, Dec. 4, 2011
• 1,382 incidents have been logged in by the Public Works Department since Wednesday.

• 3 of 5 public art pieces at Walnut Street and Foothill Boulevard were damaged. 2 have been stabilized and 1 remains down.

• 3 areas of the San Pasqual pedestrian bridge in the Arroyo Seco were damaged by a fallen tree. The damage will be assessed fully after the tree has been removed.

• A 12-inch diameter concrete drainage pipe that outlets to the street through 4 curb drains was exposed due to a fallen tree at 1824-1826 El Sereno Ave. Public Works engineers will conduct an evaluation next week.

• 325 miles of streets were impacted by storm debris – falling trees, tree limbs, utility poles and/or wires. The primary goal has been to move debris to the side of the road so at least one lane in each direction is open. Debris will be removed over the coming weeks.
   * 100 percent of arterial streets are accessible
   * 100 percent of secondary streets are accessible
   * 85 percent of residential streets are accessible

• 34 traffic signals reported for repair
     * 8 were not Pasadena and were referred to Caltrans and the county of Los Angeles
     * Of the remaining 26, all will be back to normal operations by Monday morning.

• 25 street lights have been evaluated with 19 immediate repairs completed and 6 pending.

• 99 percent of power customers are operational and all water customers have service.  Crews continue to work on restoring service to remaining power customers.

• 37 people were transported by Pasadena ARTs buses to a temporary shelter at Robinson Park Center and there was one walk-in.  All have since been relocated.

• Only 4 known injuries

• Trees
   * More than 600 street trees fell and an unknown number of street trees were severely damaged
   * Approximately 100 trees fell in City parks and 30 are several damaged
   * 67 trees fell at Brookside Golf Course and 120 more were severely damaged

• 5 building inspectors have inspected approximately 200 homes with varying levels of damage
   * 46 housing units have been red-tagged, 40 in the same apartment building
   * 13 structures have been yellow-tagged.

• Street clearing
   * 160 Public Works Department field employees were on duty Thursday and Friday.  93 were on staff Saturday and 65 were on duty Sunday. 
   * 29 workers from Los Angeles County Department of Public Works were on duty Thursday, 32 on Friday, 15 on Saturday and Sunday. 
   * 122 field employees from contractors were on duty Thursday and Friday and 51 Saturday and Sunday.

• Fire Calls - Fire service has returned to normal activity level
     * From 8 p.m. on Nov. 20 to 9 p.m. on Dec. 2, the Fire Department was dispatched to the following:
          - 57 fire calls
          -  42 medical calls
          -  109 service calls
          -  163 wires or other electrical system-related calls
          -  15 natural gas-related calls
          -  Total = 386 (roughly 8 times the normal call volume)
     * 11 other agencies assisted us on 94 calls. At our peak, we had 27 units from other agencies handling calls in our city.
     * Pasadena Fire Department regularly has 7 engines, 2 trucks and 5 ambulances available in the city and added 4 engines and 1 patrol to supplement capacity on Thursday.

• Police Calls – Police service has returned to normal activity level
     * From 10 p.m. on Nov. 30 to 1 p.m. on Dec. 2, the Pasadena Police Department Communication Center processed 4,650 calls for service including 9-1-1 and non-emergency requests.
     * During the same operational period the Police Department called back or extended the shift of on-duty personnel, including:
          -  13 police officers
          -  11 Police Volunteers
     * 248 pending incidents to be investigated were reported on Dec. 1

Apropos

This picture is apropos of nothing, a shot I took on Pasadena's east side maybe two years ago on a blustery day a lot like yesterday. At the time, this was at the back of a furniture store. It may still be at the back of a furniture store, but a lot can change in two years. It's just off of Rosemead Blvd., about a half mile south of the 210 freeway.

All you have to do to find good photographic subjects is get out of the car and walk. Anywhere. Try it.

Here's an exclusive offer for readers of Pasadena Daily Photo: you may remember that on October 28th I announced Ibarionex Perello's Digital Camera Bootcamp. Pro photographer and teacher at the revered (and expensive) Art Center College of Design, Ibarionex is someone I not only admire and recommend, but also someone I really like. For the November 19th workshop only, PDP readers can take his workshop for $50 by entering the Promo Code "perellovip" when checking out. I don't do a lot of advertising here but jeez, that's a super discount and it's just for us.

Chasing the Shot

Last weekend I saw a wonderful exhibit of Vivian Maier's street photography. You can see it, too, at the Stephen Cohen Gallery in Los Angeles, through November 12th. The fascinating story of Maier's life and the discovery of her photos has intrigued me since it came to light. I love how you can see her, or sense her presence, in her photos.

Street photography had been around for a long time before Maier shot in Chicago in the 1950s and 1960s. It'll be around for a long time to come. She was one of the greats.

Altadena's Ibarionex Perello is also a great street photographer, and photographer in general. Besides being my friend he's the producer and writer of The Candid Frame: A Photography Podcast and an adjunct professor at Art Center College of Design. (Plus there's a photo of Boz in Ibarionex's book, Chasing the Light.) Ibarionex will soon be teaching a Digital Camera Bootcamp for beginning and intermediate photographers. Small groups, instruction on how to use your DSLR, and personal attention from an expert. You can't beat it.

No two photographers are alike, nor should they be. I'm not comparing Ibarionex Perello and Vivian Maier. Their work is their own. What I'm saying is I would have liked to have met Vivian Maier and to have learned from her. That's never going to happen and I'm sorry about that. But Ibarionex is right here right now. Lucky us.

Update: readers of Pasadena Daily Photo will find a coupon for a generous discount on Ibarionex's workshop by reading the comments on this post. Thank you, Ibarionex and CP!

Bug and Bokeh

A photographer who inspires me is Ibarionex Perello. He's a student of light and color, a fantastic portraitist and an artist to his core.

Ibarionex teaches photography at the high-tech high-fab Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. He also teaches online via his hugely popular podcasts at The Candid Frame. He travels, lectures, leads photo safaris and is a very busy guy.

I'm fortunate to call Ibarionex and his wife Cynthia my friends and I want to keep it that way. So when I get a chance to go walking at Hahamongna Watershed Park with them, their dog Spenser and our cameras, I try not to bug the poor guy every second with, "how would you shoot this?" and "what kind of lens is that?"

But Ibarionex can't help but be generous. He let me use his macro lens. I didn't even have to ask, he just offered. And he found this leaf with this bug on it with this light coming from behind and this beautiful background and he pointed it out to me. All I did was focus and shoot.

Spenser fell madly in love with Hahamongna, so Cynthia had her hands full. But she managed to get off some good shots with her iPhone while Ibarionex and I drifted about the Hahmongna basin, just shooting away.

There is important news about the Hahamongna basin, which I'll tell you tomorrow.

I love that macro lens, by the way.

A Blissful Affair

J and I were actually out after dark last night, and I believe we were at the social event of the season. It was the 9th Annual Perello Private Outdoor Affair, where we got to meet new people, chow down on great food, have a drink and--believe it or not--enjoy a brief massage. Now that's what I call a party favor.

If you visit here often you've heard me mention Ibarionex Perello, a photographer and human I admire. Well, there's a Cynthia to our Ibarionex, and she, too, has the soul of an artist. When she shared her original poem, "Bliss," it seemed to have everything to do with having her family and friends all around. We were honored to be included.

I took a lot of pictures of Cynthia. Most of them weren't clear, but in this one I caught the light of someone else's flash. That flash was so bright it worked on her like a spotlight, and she worked it right back.

Irresistible Threat

A few days ago, this was this.

As flames close in on the hills above JPL and Altadena, I eat the words I wrote on my Thursday Overdog post: "obviously not threatened."

I wasn't going to take photos of the Station fire last night but I had to go look at it. We've all seen photos and news footage of brush fires, but to see this element doing its thing, which is neither good nor evil but magnificently ignorant of human values, is to feel awe.

I'll be asleep when this post goes online at a minute after midnight. Fire changes in seconds. At this writing, the Pasadena Star-News is reporting that the main JPL campus is "shut down" and some Altadena neighborhoods are preparing to evacuate. That could change at any second, just as the fire does. While John and I watched, the flames would disappear for moments, then reappear, red against the hillside, as high as buildings.

One neighborhood that may have to evacuate is The Meadows. It's a beautiful, rural area in the hills above Altadena. Greg Stanton, a very cool real estate agent, lives in and blogs about The Meadows and has more photos of the fire. It's from his blog I found this link to updates on the Station Fire.
In this photo, taken yesterday at about noon, Altadena residents watch the flames from the corner of Lincoln Avenue and Altadena Drive, not far below The Meadows. Incidentally, it's the first publishable photo I've taken with my new Canon 20D. I purchased the camera from Ibarionex Perello, who is probably out getting amazing shots of the fire right now. I'll bet he can't resist. I'll bet he has to go look at it. (Oh! I just clicked on his blog. Sure enough.)

Update, 8:40 am:
Kathy Christie Hernandez, our blogger buddy in La Canada Flintridge, is (as usual) posting excellent, up-to-the-minute information.
And check out more photos and info:
Tim, at Altadenablog.
Laurie, at Glimpses of South Pasadena, and click on her link to her overage blog.
Karin, the Altadena Hiker went up to the fire line last night.
Ben, at the sky is big in pasadena

Go ahead and click on the San Gabriel Valley blog links on the left side of the page here. I wouldn't be surprised if you find more.

Creative Muscle

Altadena Junction looks like a small theater, which it is. But it's more than just a theater. It was entirely appropriate that the Altadena Junction celebrated the Arts Coalition Open House with Alex Schaefer painting twenty-minute portraits, because from what I can tell the place is all about art, whatever form it takes.

I say "from what I can tell" because I don't know much about it yet. But I know proprietor Lance Anderson brings world-class storytelling to Altadena. (I quizzed him Friday night and now I've had a chance to Google him.) He's also bringing in a photography exhibit, teaching workshops and performing his one-person play.

Another cool thing about the Junction is the Healing Arts aspect. Dr. M. (Dr. Marisol Martinez) offers a variety of services including chiropractic. And yoga! I hear the classes are great.

Click on Alex Schaefer's link to see the final painting from the session above. It's the one on the middle right (obviously). Middle left is Altadena photographer and teacher Ibarionex Perello. If you want to study some great shots, study his blog. When I ran into Ibarionex at the Altadena Junction it didn't surprise me. It's a place for creative people. It has that energy.

I can't wait to see what else Lance Anderson is going to do.