Excellent Party!

Enjoy the Blitz

"The journey is the destination."
~ Dan Eldon ~

Never, Never, Never, Never Give Up!

Remember Lindsey Foggett?

You don't? Did you read yesterday's post? Did you go to the Flickr page to see all the pics? You didn't? For shame! Drop and give us twenty, then go look at the pics. Yes, right now. We'll wait...

Okay, now do you remember Lindsey? Good. Let's continue.

Lindsey is a full-time, working artist. I had a chance to chat a bit with her and no joke, she may have changed my life. No, she didn't give me a new DSLR. (Drat!) But she did tell me about her artistic journey and, I have to tell ya, Lindsey is living the dream!

Originally from England, Lindsey now lives in the San Bernardino Mountains, right here in SoCal. She paints landscapes and wildlife. To do this, she has to research her subjects. That means travel -- lots of it! Lindsey's been around Europe, East Africa, and North America. She's gone out into the wilderness and had some dangerously close encounters with the residents. (Lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my!) Ya, she's like Adventure Woman, out in canoes and blazing trails and all that amazingly cool stuff. Sound exciting? Oh, ya! But it wasn't always gallery exhibits and art festivals. Nay, t'was not!

Lindsey told me that although she now has her paintings in museum exhibits and her work is sought after by collectors, she went through the whole "starving artist" thing in the beginning. "Poverty," she said. For a good fifteen years. But she'd always wanted to be an artist and didn't want to do a "day job" gig. This meant she had to be ultra-entrepreneurial. It was hard work, finding ways to earn a living with her art, but it allowed her to pursue that dream. Now, she's living in a beautiful, scenic town and still making art every day. Inspiring, is it not? (sigh) It makes me all misty...and kinda makes me want to kick myself at the same time.

Since way back, I've had a thing for photojournalism. (Must've been watching all those episodes of "Lou Grant".) But even after doing really well in my (optional) photography and journalism classes when I returned to college in the mid-90's, I didn't look into it as a career; I quit taking pics consistently about a year later. Stopped writing, too. Tim, who's always loved photography and basically taught himself the art of it, has been clicking pics ever since he learned how. But like me, he never made it a career. We just went through life, did the day job thing, like everybody else. (Well, except Lindsey.) We still had our dreams, though...but what it took to get those dreams out there was to find the kindred spirit that would say, "Hey, I've got this idea...what do you think?" Enter Tim, stage left, and Lisa, stage right. Boom! Ideas collide -- and fuse.

Now here we are, doing this PhotoBlitz.US experiment. Part creative outlet, part career exploration, part fun, with a dash of salt and a pinch of oregano, this is something we're doing to find out if it's something we can do. We're thinking, creating, learning (lots of learning!), and trying to figure out how this can be something we do every day, all the time. PhotoBlitz.US is our passion. It's our art. It's our "thing". We give up sleep. We constantly ask ourselves how we can make it more awesome. We live it. Not full-time yet, but maybe someday. In the meantime, it's our bliss and we're chasing it! And you know what would really help us out? Make some noise! Sign up as a Follower. We're not starting a cult or anything, so don't be afraid. We're just curious cats who really want to know who's joining our adventure. And post comments on what we're doing that's cool, what you like, ideas for other Blitzs, or things you want to see. (Unless it involves us wearing chicken costumes and tap dancing. We do have our limits.) Remember, as much as this is our thing, it's your thing too. So join in, participate, have some fun with us. Though there can be too many cooks in a kitchen, there can never be too many Blitzers at the party. And this is, collectively, our party. Wooo-hooo! Follow Your Blitz!

We Went to a Garden Party...

...last Saturday. But first, we stopped at the Kopper Kettle on Yucaipa Boulevard for a little breakfast.


Tasty! (Remember, kids, never Blitz on an empty stomach.)

Once properly hydrated and fortified with breakfast Yum-osity, your PhotoBlitz team drove -- though after all that food, maybe we shoulda walked -- a little further down "The Boulevard" to Newell Nurseries for the Fourth Annual Artisan Faire, "Art in the Garden."


The fair is put together by artists from the Yucaipa VisionQuest. VisionQuest is a local non-profit which promotes the arts and local artists. Anyone can join and members of the group can display and sell their artwork in the gallery. Awesome! It's one of the things that make Yucaipa a pretty cool place, actually.


Newell Nurseries has hosted this event each April and it's a perfect setting for the art. A mellow place to hang out any time, all that greenery makes a particularly lush backdrop for this kind of event. The 28 artists taking part in the fair filled the greenhouse patio and spilled out into the gardens. (Not literally, of course. That would've been awkward, not to mention potentially hazardous.)


Tim and I didn't have a particular agenda for the fair (we never do, actually), except for one thing: We knew for sure that potter David Porras would be demonstrating his craft and we wanted to take pics.


Having spoken to David at previous VisionQuest receptions, we were impressed by his passion for his art, not to mention the work itself. (Tim gave me one of David's tea cups and I love it! Glazed with manzanilla ashes, the color is a soft shade of green and the handle-free, contoured mug rests cozily between my hands. It's an amazing treasure.) We were determined to get shots of David as he worked the clay so that we could share some of the process with you. And we did.


We were also fortunate to find glass artist Debora Seaver demonstrating her delicate -- and potentially explosive -- art. (That glass gets hot and can shatter suddenly. Scary!) VisionQuest recently held an artist reception featuring Debora's work and it's very impressive. We were really excited to find her wielding the torch and working the glass. Pics of David and Debora ahead, along with other scenes from the fair. Click here to see the artists at work. Hasta later, Blitzers!

Scenes from Coming Attractions

Greetings and salutations, Blitzers! Have we got some pics for you! They're phenomenal! They're stupendous! They're...

...not exactly ready.

We've got a good reason though: we've been busy Blitzing, baby! Not just Minis either. No, these are full-on, Standard Blitzs. Want proof? Well, alrighty then.

We were on fire the past Saturday morning when we Blitzed the "Art in the Garden Show" here in Yucaipa. Posting tomorrow night, we'll have an overview of the show, a few artist profiles, and a surprise that you'll only be able to see on the PhotoBlitz.US Facebook page. (No, I won't give you a hint. Let's just say Maestro Tim is taking it to the next level.)

Not satisfied with one Blitz, later that afternoon we drove alllll the waaaaay up to Jenks Lake, in the San Bernardino National Forest. (Okay, it wasn't that far. But when you're ready to click some pics, it feels far.) Snaps from this mondo-gorgeous-o spot are being worked on by our hardworking staff even now.

Or will be, once our hardworking staff quits playing around. (What can we do? They work cheap.)

And, finally, since two lakes are better than one, I ventured out to the vast wilderness area that is Irvine Lake early Tuesday morning. It was a work-related thingy, but I managed to turn it into a Blitz. (Ninja skills, baby, ninja skills.)

Consider yourselves updated, everybody. Now y'all get ready for some fun, 'cause it's on its way!

More Than Meets the Eye

"A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile
the moment a single man contemplates it,
bearing within him the image of a cathedral."
~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ~

PhotoBlitz.Us Gets Dangerous

Hi-dee-hi, Blitzers! Guess what we're doing today? Field trip! Everybody stay together and hold hands, 'cause today we're heading into -- dun-dun-DUNNN! -- The Danger Zone. Oooooh. Aaaaah.

Meet "Johnny Danger", aka "The Dark Halo", aka John "Danger" Mills.

John is our friend, a member of our PhotoBlitz Posse, computer guru, and the writer/photographer/blogger of Capture the Moment! John is also a big time fan of HDR.

What is HDR, you ask? Good question. Not to be confused with FDR, the 32nd president of the U.S., HDR stands for "High Dynamic Range". It's this imaging thingy that...aw, I dunno. It's kind of technical. All I know is it makes pics go "POP! BOOM! POW!" Let's have Johnny D 'splain it to ya: "It is a process by which multiple images of the same object taken at different exposure/shutter/aperture settings are merged together. Why would you want to do this? Well, each time you change the settings on your camera it filters what it sees. It can be different depth of field, different exposure, different white levels etc. But what would you get if you could have the best of all those pics? You would get something that your camera can't normally do by itself."

Ya, exactly. Just like I said.

Anyway, Tim, our photo-knowledge-sponge, has been getting into the whole HDR thing. When he found out JD needed a bridge for a photo assignment, Tim decided to hike out with him on a PhotoBlitz expedition. The location: an undisclosed location which may or may not have been near the Martha McLean Anza Narrows Park in Riverside, CA and was nowhere near the Santa Ana River Trail, favorite of area cyclists, including myself. Let's just say they went to Italy and leave it at that. (Trust me, it's for your own good.)

So, our two intrepid Blitzers went out last Saturday to Rive, er, I mean, "Italy", and while John took pics of the bridge,...

...Tim took pics of John taking pics of the bridge...


...and just the bridge.

(And to think, I stayed home and slept in.)

Ultimately, it was a successful mission. Tim has started doing a little HDR experimentation and it's only a matter of time before he masters it. But for now, Johnny Danger is our resident expert. So follow him over to his blog, read his write-up on this adventure, and be sure to check out all his HDR pics. They're way cool!

Until next time, everybody, keep Following Your Blitz!