winter solstice

We got up early and drove to the ferry dock where we had to wait for the 7:40 AM boat as the one an hour earlier was four cars too full, then up the mountain we drove and had such a fun day of snowboarding,skiing. Mount baker is our place to catch the hidden wave of gravity. We are tired by the end of the day. Eski got to ride his brand new and longer snowboard he got for his BDay.

winter weather displays

here are 3 photos taken from the same spot on the driveway not to far away in time from eachother and the present.

Almost winter?

7AM, after taking the boys to the ferry boat so they could go to school I went out to the mail box to put in the return envelope of a netflix DVD we had. The frost and this horse inspired me to go back and get my low quality digital camera. I have been working on Lopez these past few weeks shooting on video a documentary about the local school and how they are starting to garden at the school and then using the produce in the school lunch program thus teaching the kids how to plant, grow, cook and eat healthy, organic whole foods.

Words are to follow soon

Kaj and Laurie and Tails all went walking down at the beach the other day. It was misty and nice. Cold but still nice. The house painting is slowly progressing as I find time to do it. I started up top and work my way down and save the bits that are under overhangs for when it rains. Which it is already doing.

A drive North

I drove North on the I-5 LA to Lopez Island. Here is the trip in a few minutes of stills. I leave LA in the evening, trying to decide what music to put to the movie, this piece by Anushka Shankar inspires me because I start thinking about thinking, which driving is so good for. I think about the past, future, and present. The parts of my life I like and parts I want to change. I am the self critic and the opposite as well. I stop often in places off the road and make a cup of tea, walk around and enjoy being alone. I drive on, sleep in the car one night for awhile at a rest stop, pick up a hitch hiker, see the Shasta dam, make tea. Camp at rouge river, nice place for almost nothing. Get my email in Cottage grove OR. Talk on the mobile phone, send text messages. Stop in Portland to look for Eski's BDay present. Visit Bjorn and Kirsten. Drive on to Redmond to see hong Mei. Wake up to rain again and stop in Seattle to get fish and a sleeping bag, going north with all the rest of the crowd getting out of the city for Friday weekend in Oct. I miss the ferry and have to wait till 5 pm to get on and then off again on Lopez.



my drive north on I-5 on Vimeo

I feel like all the photos are of me recently, I certainly have an ego but the real reason is that I had lost the cable that downloads my camera on to the computer. Well now it is found and again I can post photos worth a few words. This one is of me and Marie in the meat packing plant in downtown LA where we shot for a week. No sun, no air, dirty, ghosts, gross but still I found it interesting in my own twisted way. I am sitting on the wheel chair dolly waiting for the camera to be put on my shoulder. Another long shot in a dark hallway.

Im back on the cameras in LA again...

Here I am hanging out on the set of the film "The believers" yesterday in the hot So Cal sun. The camera assitant is a Chinese girl named Marie or Shou Gong and the film is a short 15 day shoot and goes straight to video, or TV? Its fun, its money, nice people too.

So it has been a month...

or longer actually but hey who is counting. I always need good photos to write to or good music to paint to or... Here is a fav picture of Eski in an airport somewhere on the west coast this summer as we seemed to be all up and down its 1500 mile length in a short enough time, on Lopez, visiting Portland, Bjorn Kirsten and seeing my mother and going to Patty B's dads memorial service, He was a great man, Jerry baum. Radical, anarchist letter writer, communist walker and user of public transportation. Ah life is too short. And then living a lot of time in LA, trying to walk on my weekends away from work , because I get tired of driving, want to save money and gas and hey everything I need is in a short enough distance and I can still walk as I'm young enough you know.

a couple of paintings

I made these two paingtings as gifts to my Camera assistants on the last two films. Camillie did the film "Home Land" in Seattle with me and not only did we have fun but it was so nice to get to know her and as she is a Buddist and I had found this little Buddha statue in the park I decide she needed it.
The eye is for Paul Horn, my focus puller on "Knocked Up" who left yesterday for another job on which he will be the operator. I made this one for him as a eyeline marker he can velcro to his matte box in ordser to give the actors a unique thing to look at.

Love both those guys. Hope to get to work with them again.

The chicken

This is a close up of the little chicken that lives on the camera and when the camera dept gets inspired we find a place on the set to put the little guy so that it will be in shot one way or another. We are discrete and subtle, finding the unique spot that is hidden but also visible is a load of fun that keeps us on our toes all day. So when, and if you see this film in the theater, DVD or Web make sure you look for the chicken!

My new haircut

So today at lunch I went down to base camp and got my hair cut by Nanxy our hair designer. My hair was getting at bit unruly, the crew gave me a round of applause when I got back, Paul took this nice photo on the camera truck this afternoon as we wait for our turn to do an insert of another TV

Photo coming later

Saturday and I didn't get in my car once. I had pulled my back helping to move the camera dolly on Friday night at work so I made a point of not doing much today, I rested, painted, walked to the store for limes and lemons, ate at my favorite crepes place down the road and rested all day. Very nice.
...Later...
Here is a photo of my crew, left to right, Jon the on set dresser, Paul the focus puller, and our hand model stand in, Courtney as we do some inserts of hands holding positive tests for a montage in which the main character and her sister frantically pee on 30 pregnancy tests.

The next week end

Its late Sunday nite, early Monday morning, I cant sleep so i will post a blog. The warm winds are blowing their ghosts around here in LA. I work long hours a making good money finally, doing a fun job with some really nice people. This weekend I do all the stuff I like to do. See a film, see friends, paint, work, do the laundry, sleep not quite enough, talk on the phone, go out for Sunday brunch, read the NY times, flirt with the waiter, write emails, make plans. Also get a camera, lights and shoot a screen test for Laurie and Niki's upcoming film.

These are pictures of bird formations over Denmark that I think are really cooool.

A weekend to do stuff...

Like eat out, read the paper, emails, rip a few good reggae disks from Suzannes awesome collection, pick up my repaired sunglasses, they got dropped when we were shooting at Knotts Berry Farm a couple of weeks ago.
Buy a few groceries and plant two tomato, 3 basil and a multitude of greens out on the balcony. Change the oil in the car, water the plants at a friends house, oh yeah and sleep!

My place in LA

I finally have a semi permanent place to stay in LA while working on this film. It is across from the Hollywood bowl so am looking forward to hearing the summer concerts but not the crowds that come with them. Ah well. I am almost never here but on weekends I hope to be so I have set up my painting studio here on the desk. 3 new paintings are taking place.

A photo of me at work

Another drive south on I-5

This time I was able to find away to walk along one of the canals that move tons of water around California. I wonder at them.

another photo I like

This is one of Kaj and Laurie around christmas time I think, we went to the beach and had tea and then a walk in the woods. I had my Lieca IIf and a 35mm lens, some Illford black and white negative. They look good standing together. This has been a long fun week in LA on Knocked Up.

a lot of work

I am tired. I having been working 12-14 hours a day for the last few months and have two more months to go at least. This new film I am on as camera operator. There are so many things to do as the operator besides just making nice shots all the time. There is lighting, crew management, communication, jokes to be told, food to be eaten, shared looks, sign language for setting lights and flags. The list goes on. We all work together in small spaces for endless hours and then scatter at the end of the day. I am staying at friends houses in LA here and there. Sofa surfing but not quite.

home land scouting

We were in Arlington, Washington, scouting a potential cabin to shoot a number of scenes for "Home Land" when out of the dark woods pops this gigantic tree, with a beam of light saying "come hug me." So I do. Here is the photo.