Archive for January, 2012

Light Is My Friend: Hollywood Park Alley

Light Is My Friend: Hollywood Park Alley

This is part of my on-going photography studies of how light plays on familiar places where we live. Almost every day, or at least every other day, I’ll walk the dogs either from the house or back to the house by way of this alley that runs behind Freeport Boulevard in Sacramento. The dogs love it for the smells — there are three Chinese restaurants in this one strip mall. Photographically, I’m always drawn to the visual texture of the brick walls, the various shades of paint, or lack of, on them, the cracks, as well as the different...

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Ed Burns Guests On New Sundance Channel Series

Ed Burns Guests On New Sundance Channel Series

Last weekend I posted a blog about actor/writer/director Ed Burns premiering his new self-financed indie Newlyweds (a cousin effort in naked filmmaking). This morning I received an e-mail from an east coast promotions agency asking me to share with the readers of this site about a new series that’s been running on the Sundance Channel in which Ed Burns is one of the special guests. This Monday at 8PM the Sundance Channel is featuring Ed Burns in new episode of their series The Mortified Sessions where celebrities share their most embarrassing stories from before they were famous, from awkward childhood photos to...

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Light Is My Friend

Light Is My Friend

I generally find harsh sunlight to be the ugliest light of all, but this morning, for some reason, it was amazing. Perhaps because it was early and there was just enough humidity in the air to allow a little filtration in the air. I shot these while walking the dogs around the neighborhood. I normally keep my Nikon Coolpix pocket camera in with me for grabbing pictures on-the-go, but for some reason I felt compelled to hang the Canon 7D around my neck with the super-wide Tokina 11-16 f2.8 lens. The distortion that the sideness of the lens creates...

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Ed Burns makes “Newlyweds” for $9,000 with a Canon 5D

Ed Burns makes “Newlyweds” for $9,000 with a Canon 5D

How long have I been saying to aspiring & first-time independent filmmakers that theatrical distribution is not only dead, it is nonexistent? Filmmaker Ed Burns became one of the Sundance stars and indie filmmaker poster childred with his $20,000 16mm feature The Brothers McMullen — a great film with some of the best performances I’ve scene in films. The DVD has one of the...

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Good Deeds Open Doors At Goodwill

Good Deeds Open Doors At Goodwill

The last day of 2011. New Year’s Eve. KCRA reporter Brian Hickey and I are sent out on assignment to cover people making last minute donations to get breaks on their 2011 taxes. Last year Brian Hickey had gone to the Deseret Industries thrift store and done stories and morning live shots at their drive-up donation area and it had gone very well, so we headed over there. This time, however, we were told that all media requests had to be submitted in writing and would be sent to Salt Lake City, Utah, (Deseret Industries is operated by the...

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