WALKN' IN L.A.

In a city built for cars some of the everyday beauty can go unseen as you speed by at 50mph down Melrose or La Brea. Yesterday, while taking advantage of a beautiful 80 degree day shopping the L.A. area, Nathan and I decided to take a walk to kill some time and see what we could find. With new hip boutiques and vintage shops sprouting up all the time we took the opportunity to park the car (which resulted in running out of time at the meter and getting a $25 parking ticket) outside of American Rag and see L.A. at street level. Now we only walked for about 3 blocks, but I found the street littered with art and inspiration. It just got me thinking, this is just the tip of the iceberg and I wonder how much of this stuff goes unnoticed everyday.

LA LOVE

It's mid February in southern California and the weather is amazing. I've been meaning to meet up with my fellow designer Caleb on his home turf up in downtown LA for a while and this past Monday we finally made it happen. Now usually I have my key spots I need to hit...La Brea, Melrose and possibly 3rd Street. This day was completely different, It was all about letting Caleb show me his LA and taking in a new perspective. It was a perfect start to the work week and really reenergized me and the way I view this wonderful city. Only a 45min drive up the 405 freeway and I was transported to another world. See for yourself...

BACK TO NINGBO

The sights and sounds of Ningbo, China never seize to amaze me...I mean, this place is such a bustling city, yet at times it can come across so primative in nature. I hate to bore you with words when pictures are worth a thousand, So first of all let's put this into perspective. This is where I am talking about...

Now that we got that out of the way, let's take a look at some of my favorite shots from the trip...

HITTING A WALL

So, its been over a month since I've posted anything and I figure I could either let you in on my laundry list of excuses or just push through and start up again. I've come to realize hitting the wall can happen in any creative process and in this day and age with so many creative and social outlets it can be hard to keep up. Two weeks ago I was traveling in Ningbo, China and started noticing these great textures on the walls around me. Ningbo is an up and coming city with construction happening all over the place. This makes for an insane contrast of old and new seen all over in today's China. I am a huge fan of taking something found in it's natural environment and using it in design, so in these everyday walls I saw inspiration. Weather it's for color, layout or a great distress texture, these walls spoke to me.

AND BOOM GOES THE DYNAMITE

Fireworks are always cool, whether you remember lighting "flowers" and "snakes" as a kid in the street or lighting piccolo pete on the neighbors doorstep at 4am as long as you walk away with all your limbs and appendages in tack your all good. If your all about leaving it to the pro's, Disneyland and San Clemente pier on the fourth of July take the cake in my book. Last Sunday I was happen to figure out that my new Cannon s95 (which I love) had a fireworks setting the same night we had planned to head down to the Manhattan Beach pier to take in a great display and the camera did not disappoint. Here are some of my favorite shots...