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| This 4th of July I spent it with my friend Edizen from Venice Paparazzi and her husband Alex. After shooting the Muscle Beach event and a couple of drinks at her place. We headed over to the Marinapalooza Festival in Marina del Rey. |
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| It was fun because with her there gave me an excuse to do two things I like to do, shoot and drink. So as she socialized with almost everyone there I took pictures of the important stuff, like taking pictures of every dog in the neighborhood. |
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| … of course pictures of the pretty girls there |
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| and the bands.. |
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| Then more pretty girls… |
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| The place was packed, and everyone seemed to be having a good time. |
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| Though I did run into some people I knew. Most of the pics are of total strangers! The whole Gallery is on my site [Here]. Now remember most of these shots where done my one hand while my other hand had a beer. |
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4th of July 2009 0
Carnevale! Venice Beach 2009 0
| The colorful costumed festival, inspired by the famed Italian Carnevale, and promoting cultural and artistic diversity in Venice Beach returned in 2009.
Carnevale! Venice Beach is a free costumed themed festival based on Italy’s famous “Carnevale”. This wonderfully flamboyant festival has been celebrated for the past 7 years and has become a true Venice Beach tradition. It is a perfect match for such an artistic community. It captures the spirit of Venice Beach and is now attracting Californians from all over who want to come join the party |
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| Carnevale ! Venice Beach produced by Esquire Jauchem, Miriam More and Brady Walker in association with The Venice Chamber of Commerce took place on Saturday June 6th from Noon till 10:00 pm at the West end of Windward Ave, and Venice Beach. There was a main stage with Live music, DJs, and a Dance area. Some of the artist were Eric Reed & Ufonik, Kathy Leonardo, Wadada Reggae, Sugarbitch and the truly entertaining Mutaytor which combined not only a crowd pleasing pulsing musical show, but also a visual spectacle to include multiple drummers, fire spinners, dancers and pyrotechnic acts as seen at the famed burung man festival. Their primal percussive sounds are known to “mutate” crowds of unsuspecting spectators into participants! |
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| Check out my [Gallery] for many more pics |
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| Their web site Venice Carnevale — Mutaytor |
Memorial Day – 2009 Muscle Beach International Classic 0
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| Monday, May 25: The Muscle Beach International Classic bodybuilding, figure, and bikini contests, which are open to all amateur athletes. The entry fee was $80. In conjunction with this will be the “Battle of the Branches” Armed Forces Bodybuilding Championships, which was open to all active, reserve, National Guard, and retired armed forces personnel. Prejudging for both competitions was held at 10:00 a.m., with the finals were at 1:00 p.m. A full Gallery of picture I took is here – Click Here – |
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| The bodybuilding and fitness was okay, but I am glad they added a bikini contest. |
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Rumble in Venice – Amateur Boxing 0
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| The Muscle Beach’s “Rumble in Venice” was held May 24th, 2009 at the Venice Recreation Center on Ocean Front Walk. The Amateur Boxing 2009 was presented by Pro Fight Supplements. The 2nd annual “Rumble in Venice” amateur Boxing was hosted by Ramon Espada of Espada Boxing Club in association with Joe Wheatley Productions and Venice Beach Recreation Center. There were roughly twenty-five 3-round bouts of amateur boxing including fighters from Espada, USC and UCLA Boxing clubs along with members of the Navy, Marines and Air Force in honor of Memorial Day Weekend. Here are many more pics |
| …sorry I had to put this pic up, because every time I see it I have to laugh! |
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Point Dume – Malibu CA 0
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| I drove out to Malibu today. Sat in traffic for almost an hour, but made it to Point Dume to relax and take pictures. What a beautiful …well, big rock that sits right no the ocean’s shore. Here is my gallery of Malbu |
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L.A. Urban Iditarod 0
| I can upon this event by accident as suddenly I hear yelling and screaming out my window. I processed to walk out to my balcony and what do I see, but a parade of people dressed up in strange outfits and pushing shopping carts. So I did what any photographer would do. Grab my camera and began to take pictures. |
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| The L.A. Urban Iditarod took place Saturday March 7th, 2009 in Venice Beach California. Now this isn’t the Alaska Tundra so you can’t have a sled dog race, or can you. How about instead of a sled you have a shopping cart, instead of dogs you have people pull the shopping cart, and as for the “musher”. Well, it’s their job to get the drunken grunt to move that shopping cart. Oh wait, did I mention this is also a bar crawl? No, did I also mention that the teams dressed up in different themes and outfits? No — Okay then, you really have to check out and view these images I took from Westminster Ave, and the Westminster Dog Park. As the crowd got larger and a police swirl around, the police did step in and began pouring out the party goers drinks. Till the party began to disburse. |
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| Now that is what I call one hell of a shot of whiskey!! |
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| Yes, that is a bra on her head???? |
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| They even had ‘The Baby making machine’, the one and only Octomom! |
| To see more of this wild event go check out my event gallery, and if that is not enough see even more of this wild event go check out Venice Paparazzi!!!! |
Green Flash 0
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| Today was another slow day at work, so I got spent home early. but instead of working on my portfolio I found myself feeling ill and fell asleep. I did get up before the sunset and noticed how bright it was, so I grabbed the camera and went out to shoot it. Then it happen, I have lived close to the coast for most of all my life and heard about it but never saw it till today. The ‘green flash’ right at the end of the sunset, my reaction was that was “cool”. |
| More sunset pics here |
Heat Wave 08 0
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| The first of summer came in with a wave, a heat wave that is. At first I figure I would be good right on the beach. I know the valley would get up to 108 degrees, but they ended being wrong about the coast forecast and it got upwards of 92 degrees. Which wasn’ t so bad and I laid out in the sun in the morning, but the humidity was also high and I felt like I was back in Florida. |
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| So when I got a text from my friend Sheldon that is was over at nikki’s I decided to head over there for a drink and beat the heat. |
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Early Summer Day 0
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| I finally broke free from the computer and walked outside to scope out an area to shoot the reference photos for the surfer girl sculpture that Margeau Bull is going to help with me. As I was out and Margeau called me to let me know that she could meet me at 5pm. I had to run back in pump some air in my tires of my bicycle and go for the first ride of the year. Now I am not sure why but I think there is an auto pilot in my head, because it doesn’t matter if it’s my first ride or my 101st ride I always seem to at least ride to Hermosa Beach. Of course this first ride around the 25 mile mark I began to ache a little, but I can’t remember the last time I went for a ride. |
| When I got back I felt good and the second I laid down I took a deep afternoon nap for an hour. Got up and took a walk along the beach. But soon got a call that Margeau got called into work and we had to reschedule. |
| I thought about the whole hanging out at Sidewalk, but ever since I washed my wallet and finally reported my debit card missing last Friday. I have to cash on hand. SoI went home and did the watching TV thing. For some reason I have been watching the History channels AX Men. |
Jules Ross 0
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| I took the car in to be serviced today, new tires, new battery connectors, and an oil change. But that is not what I wanted to talk about today, nor all the photoshop work I did last night and today. Even thought I came up with a cool digital infrared look. I will save that for later. No, it wasn’t until I was walking back to the service station to pick up my car that I happen to be waiting to cross the street with Jules Ross. Now, if you are a resident of Venice Beach you might know him or his work. He is a street performer that plays out his physical comedy act on unsuspecting pedestrians that walk by. For his act he goes into this playful mimicry mode that is quick thinking and on the spot improv, which to me is hilarious, and I often will go out of my way to watch him perform. Which is saying a lot considering how many street performers there are in Venice Beach. For those of you that have not seen his act I happen to have a clip of him below. |
| Normally I would keep to myself as I stood there waiting for the light to change. But because I admired his work so much I had to at least let him know that, so I spoke out “Jules, Right?” He focus his attend on me, and was very attentive as I told him how much I liked his work. Then he began asking about what I did as we walked along the sidewalk. I could tell right away this guy was really cool, so I began to ask him more questions. It seems he has been a performer for over 20 years now. Though he said even as a child he would perform in front of his family. He said he created his signature style which he refers to as a Chaplin/Marceau reminisce while he attended “the Marceau School of Mime” in Paris back in the mid 80′s. He mention that he got to meet Marcel Marceau and that he was a role model for him. The body suit stocking act, which I do not have footage of, he said came from a theater piece he was in a long time ago and thought it would be great for his street performance. Seems he did quite a bit of theater too. Because he does prey on making fun of unsuspecting people for it’s reaction, I had to ask has anyone seriously gotten offended? He just replied he has been punched, slapped, kicked, arrested and spit on. He said he is not sure why people get so offended over the littlest things, but I guess that is the price you pay for his brilliant work. As we continued talking, It seems he travels quite a bit. Doing his performance for fairs, shows and concert openings. I personally really enjoy watching him perform, and apparently he is a really sincere and overall nice guy. So if you are visiting Venice Beach and some guy comes out of no where and is tapping your head with a feather for a comical laugh. Don’t hit the guy, just lighten up and laugh at yourself. Then give him a buck or two for his performance. |
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