Adventures of a Quantum Cowboy

Birds, a bench, and a bum near the Santa Monica pier.

The most recent addition to my photographic arsenal is the Blackberry Pearl 8130 smartphone.  Obviously it lacks anything close to power and creative flexibility of my SLRs, but it *is* notably portable and generally always on me, something I can’t say about my significantly less easily portable SLRs.

You can read the full CNET review of the phone if you’d like, but the essentials are that it’s a 2 MP camera with 5x zoom and a small flash unit that allows for limited user control of white balance, quality setting, and color effect.

My general impression is that it’s a fairly decent camera for what it’s designed to do… that is to say: spontaneous shots meant to document or for odd creativity.  The low resolution means large scenes tend to get this sort of smeared effect, which can be kind of cool.  For example in the photo at left, slight overexposure of the background has grayed out the sky, and this combined with the los-res smearing and the ’sepia’ effect, the image is given a very apocalyptic feel.  Detail on any one part of the image is quite low, but the overall impression is actually strongly delivered in my opinion.  While it runs counter to my usual style of trying to capture detail, I must concede that this could be a source of new experimentation for me.

Extreme contrast test, walking from Santa Monica Pier to Venice Beach early evening.

Color fidelity is in general quite poor, and I think most of the color ones I have taken could do with a bit of sat boost.  However, I should point out that I have until now only tried the camera out in situations for which I have already admitted that the device is not designed - large scenes with a moderate to large amount of detail.  This is what I usually like to take when doing city and street shots, so I’m not really surprised that this is the bulk of what I have.  Sometime in the near future, I would like to try usign the Blackberry camera on photographs where there is a single point of focus, one which is quite close up and filling the frame.  I suspect that these will turn out much better and more interesting.

Good photography depends only partially on equipment.  Cheap and low-key stuff can turn out good photographs, you just need to bear in mind the different aspects of what you are using.  Apparent shortcomings can be turned into very creative advantages in the right hands.  Sure, if you want to do a particular kind of photography, you may need special equipment; you won’t get very far trying to photograph birds without a decent telephoto, for example.  But good composition and creativity are qualities that are completely independent of equipment.  The important thing for a photographer to remember is that, regardless of your equipment, don’t fight what you’ve got; see where the natural intersection is between the equipment you have and where you are, and go for it!

Produce on display in the core of the market.

“They call Los Ang-hal-les the city of angels,” drawls the narrator in the opening line of The Big Lebowski.  “I didn’t find it to be that, exactly.”  It’s true… Angels, CA is full of all kinds of interesting people, and is well-known for being the intersection of glamor and grit.  I actually honestly expected to hate the place when I moved to southern California for the first time; if the media and the movies are to be believed, why LA is nothing but smog, crime, and traffic.  But I’ve come to learn that because of (and sometimes in spite of) the incredible diversity of people and culture in the LA metro area, it really can be a fantastic city for just about anything you want to do.

One of my favorite places to hang out in the city is Grand Central Market.  Tucked away in the block defined by Hill, Broadway, 3rd, and 4th streets a short walk from Pershing Square, GCM is neither as big nor as cosmopolitain as its rather more well-known downtown street market - Seattle’s Pike Place Market.  However, it is a vibrant intersection of food, smells, people, spices, liquor, and sweets… and defintely the place to go when looking for a tasty, filling, and cheap lunch downtown.

Unlike Pike Place, which is really closer to shopping mall than street market these days, Grand Central Market’s wares consist almost exclusively of food and drink.  Besides the produce trucked in locally  from around the southland, and the rows of fresh meat and seafood, the stalls are packed with vendors of made-to-order eats.  The fare is mainly different flavors of east Asia and Mexico (it is California after all), but middle eastern, grill, and desserts can also be found.

It was hard to choose (I was eyeing the blacken whole tilapia… head and all), but last Saturday morning, I got the craving for a real taco… “Uh… taco por favor?… pollo… si, con todos, everything!… salsa? uh… roja.  Er… cuanto?  Dos?!  Sweeeeeet….“  So for $2, I stumbled my way into getting a rather large chicken taco, wrapped with onions, cilantro, and pico de gallo in a warm tortilla, and drenched in spicy salsa.  And I’m seriously not kidding about large… check out the load of fire-grilled chicken the guy was chopping for my taco in the image at right.  Mmmmmm, best… taco… ever.

After lunch there’s plenty to wash it down.  Choose from standard sodas and juices to exotic fruit concoctions with shady names, a nice cool horchata or tamarindo, or one of the most well-stocked bars around (see photo).  Oh, and don’t forget dessert; at least one of the vendors has a glass display lined with pies, cakes, tarts, and other sundries to satisfy the sweet tooth.

With no shortage of tastes, and sitting just a quick walk from the central part of downtown and a Red Line subway station, Grand Central Market is a perfect, quick, and authentically Los Angelino lunch stop on your busy day of exploring the city.

Spices and chilis for sale... dare to brave the heat?

The grilled meat of my $2 massive chicken taco gets chopped.

A few shots from my trip to Boston last month. What a beautiful city! I loved it. Those of you who know me know that I’m awfully skeptical of that strange land east of Denver, as well as that other coast over there that sometimes comes up in conversation. But Boston blew me away for its fantastic food (my key factor), friendly people, and ample picturesque scenes for any photographer. (As an aside, if you’re looking for good Indian food while you’re in that area, see my post of 11/9/07 on Hartog’s Den.)

These all with the Elan 7ne on Kodak Gold 200 and Kodak BW400CN.

Beautiful fall colors… hooray for lovely New England! This one in is actually on Harvard campus in Cambridge.

A churchyard in Boston at night.

The T is Boston’s very clean and convenient public transit. Definitely worth not dealing with that traffic and those parking rates!

Walking through the Italian district in the North End is one of the best experiences your nose (and tastebuds) will have. The food here is *so* good… I don’t even know where to start in describing it. I had better Italian food here than I did when I was in Italy (granted I was on a student budget when I was in Italy, but still).
Try the fettuccine napolitano at Cibo… heavenly. They had a fantastic pinot noir that went perfectly with it too. I don’t remember the name, but it was the only pinot noir on their menu, so it should be easy to find.

Don’t gorge on dinner too much… the canoli and dessert at this and other pastry shops is to die for. Mmmmm canoli… *so* not on my doctor-ordered low-cholesterol diet, but… whatever.

A cool graveyard in Cambridge. Em and I took a nice quiet walk through here one evening and I found it very picturesque.

A different graveyard in Boston, taken in black-and-white… I love how the light came out in this one. A little erie and a little beautiful. Note the “Franklin” tomb isn’t Ben, who was of course from Philly; this grave is his parents. (Thanks to Emily for the historical note).

Looking off the side of the boat, the water was surprisingly still, and I snagged this shot while we were waiting to cast off.

Elan + Fujicolor Superia 200.

“Excuse me, what?” I was lost in south Philly and had decided to get a real cheesesteak from a street vendor while I was about it.

“Dem onyonsh!” He gestured to a pile of chopped, grilled onions with his spatula.

“Oh!” It all became clear. “Oh yeah, sure.” Armed with the genuine article (and yes it is as good as they say), I ventured out into Philadelphia. Mind you, a real philly is not just twice as good as any other you’ve had anywhere else, its twice as heavy… the gf’s digestive tract was none too pleased for quite some time.

Here are some images from my foray into the City of Brotherly Love.

Post 5 of the roadtrip series. Wonderfully relaxing for a quiet, peaceful walk. We made a note to come back and actually have tea in the cafe sometime.

Post 4 of the roadtrip series. World famous for seafood, fantastic panoramic views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz, and shopping. Ghirardelli of course, is chocolate land… So in summary, seafood and chocolate. Oh man.

In and around Fisherman’s Wharf.

Alcatraz Island.

Pier 39: Wholly owned and operated by… sea lions. Apparently.

To quote Homer Simpson: “The land of chocolate… (drool)”

Post 3 of the roadtrip series. A huge district of colorful shops, delicious-smelling food, “interesting” meat markets, and tea parlors.

In retrospect I should have photographed more people.

As you may have read earlier, Emily and I just took a massive 5-day tour of the great state of California. Prepare for a flood of posts!

Day 1 was Los Angeles. Many of the places we went I have already shown in previous posts and have many photos of from previous trips down, so I didn’t take many photos. Here are three that I thought turned out well though.

My lovely girlfriend.

A bird-of-paradise near LA Union Station.

The plaza between Union Station and Olvera St., the oldest neighborhood in and birthplace of Los Angeles.

I decided to post a few more.

The original Starbucks Coffee, Tea, and Spice Market. Est 1971.

Street Musicians near Pike Place Market.

Ryan poses for the paparazzi.

Mmmmm… spicy. Looks like that place on Olvera St. I posted several weeks ago.