crazy:

Posted on October 13, 2023 by -dg

10:13:23
10:08am

Vons: Belmont Shore: Long Beach

Coming off our last shoot, Eric and I decided to adjust where we looked for our inspiration word since newspapers aren’t found in the most predictable places any more. We decided to meet somewhere there were magazines, like a supermarket. So we met at the Vons in Belmont shore and went straight to the magazine rack where we picked up the first magazine in the rack, “The BTS Ultimate Fanbook”. We turned to page 7 and the second word on the page was “crazy.”

Immediately we both felt like this was going to interesting to interpret crazy in so many different ways.

As I started my timer and we headed out of the store, there was a commotion coming along with us out the door – their security guard was escorting a girl outside when she then stood right in front of us in the middle of the parking lot traffic and proceeded to make all kinds of exaggerated arm motions and shouting all kinds of gibberish. She was definitely acting crazy! We didn’t even have time to prepare for this one. In no more than 20 seconds into our shoot we were confronted with what we thought might be the craziest encounter possible. Eric wasn’t even ready with his camera and as he was pulling it out and removing the lens cap, she took off down the street like she was on a mission. Eric and I were beside ourselves. What was that? Should we follow her? What if we get too close? Is she safe to be around? We felt that between the time we realized what had happened and the time we were figuring out how to approach this shoot, our best shot might have gotten away from us. We had to track her down.

Eric and I headed up Ocean Blvd to find the girl who was acting crazy. We could see her a block ahead of us and picked up our pace. As we got closer to her we passed her up to scope out the situation and then decided we would double back. Yep! Still acting crazy. We decided we went far enough and then came back toward her. We figured we would take photos as we were passing her, but the closer we got, she locked her eyes on us and it turned out she was now the one approaching us. She proceeded to tell us about how she was in charge of the area we were in, giving us permission to take our camera to the rooftop of the apartment building across the street to get great aerial photos of the neighborhood. Then she segued into letting us in on a secret plan by the entertainment companies to spy on us with all the wires on the telephone poles overhead.

…All the while, Eric kept snapping away. As we walked away, we felt that definitely got something that you just can’t plan for.

About only 20 minutes had passed and we had almost an hour to go. We felt there was no way we could top what we just witnessed, but we had to try. We took off toward the pier where we captured some photos of what we were encountering, but nothing that said “crazy.” We could have called it a day, but then it wouldn’t be a minute:72 shoot, we had to trust the process and continue. We kept walking around the Belmont Shore streets when we came across something discarded on the sidewalk. It was a greeting card that was torn in half like something drastic had just happened. As Eric captured photos of the torn card that had a big XOXO on the front, I looked closer at the inscription on what used to be the inside of the card, “Just wanted to tell you how happy you make me and how crazy I am about you.” Now that’s just crazy! What are the chances that our word was right there in the middle of this scene? All I could imagine is that something crazy must have happened for this card with hugs and kisses on the front to end up like this.

As we wound down our shoot we knew we would have a good debate about which direction we would go to represent our crazy photo. Call us crazy, but we ended up choosing two instead of the usual one.

original:

Posted on October 10, 2023 by -dg

10:06:23
10:08am

Starbucks & El Super: Long Beach Blvd: Long Beach

Eric and I were recently talking about the good old days when we used to do our minute:72 shoots pretty regularly. I had been quite a while, and as we calculated how long it had been we were surprised to learn that it had been 72 months since our last shoot! We took it as a sign to start it back up again, so here we are:

Eric and I met at a Starbucks on Long Beach Blvd like we used to to get our inspiration word from the newspaper. We realized that a lot has changed since our last minute:72. Where newspaper stands once stood, easily offering up our unknown inspiration word, there was nothing. Whether it’s the pandemic that changed all that or the lack of popularity of printed newspapers, we had to figure out a plan B. Eric and I walked to the next-door Spanish market, El Super, thinking they might have a newspaper. We figured we might find a Spanish paper that might need to be translated, but we didn’t let that get in our way. Upon entering, we saw no newspapers so we asked a clerk and she pointed to a rack of their weekly specials printed on newsprint. It wasn’t much, so we had to turn our plan B into a plan C. We took the 2nd word of the 7th item in the paper and used that as our inspiration for our shoot: original.

We started the timer. And it felt really good to be back.

We knew what “original” meant, which is the same in both Spanish and English, but we looked up the word anyway to be sure we didn’t miss any possible inspiration. Not a copy or imitation. Something that is present from the beginning. Something serving as a model or basis for imitations.

As we shot for the next hour plus. our conversation mainly consisted of both of us agreeing how good it was to be back shooting minute:72 again. It was good to be back doing something that gets us out of our comfort zone and challenges us, even for a little bit. It is that commitment that we both know is good for us to follow through with that is more important for growth than anything else, especially when it’s so easy to fall back on what’s comfortable and easy. It’s the original idea that we had 11 years ago that came back to the surface. It’s that idea to challenge ourselves that served as the basis for all the shoots we have done, and for the ones we will continue to do.

We looked all over for what we felt embodied the word, original. We shot original art pieces on the downtown Long Beach streets. There were plenty of older buildings that were original to the Long Beach skyline of years past. Some of the people we shot were original in their own right.

At the end of it all, we knew that any of our shots will be original but we wanted to choose one photo that we felt embodies the original intention of minute:72. Our photo was chosen for many reasons: the composition, the light and shadows, the person who happened to be walking by at that split second. All things coming together perfectly at that moment to create something that we will continue to imitate and reinvent.

manager:

Posted on May 11, 2017 by -dg

05:10:17
9:24am
Starbucks: Pine Ave : Long Beach

It’s always good to get out and shoot. And both Eric and I felt that way when we met for today’s minute:72.

The morning in downtown Long Beach was overcast and chilly with the sun warming us up only when it decided to peek out from behind the clouds. Even though the light was flat, it was good to get out and see what we could produce with what was around us and given the inspiration of the day.

We picked up the top paper in the rack as we always do and flipped to the 7th page where the 2nd word waiting for us was: manager.

Already knowing what manager meant, we still looked it up online to make sure we didn’t miss anything. Manager – a person responsible or in control. Taken literally we could find people at their jobs who are managers, but we knew we had to dig a little deeper and try to capture an image that represents what managing is all about. We brainstormed a bit and figured that there were lots of things around us every day that manage us or control us in one way or another, thus being a manager in its own right – for example, the street lights, street signs, and the lines on the roads all keep us in line when out on the street.

We were on the hunt to find those things effectively doing their job. We shot people moving through intersections, the lights controlling them, gates that contain and control us in one way or another, and lots of other things managing something.

Out of all the photos we took, probably the most interesting image we got was of one telephone pole which was working extra hard at managing all that was going on around it. It stood there above the rooftops routing intersecting wires, serving as the vision for the street below by supporting a streetlight, managing the load of all the electrical by hanging transformers from its top, and clearly the one in charge when it came to this corner of Long Beach.

players:

Posted on April 7, 2017 by -dg

04:06:17
11:36am
Starbucks: 7th & Park : Long Beach

Eric and I met today for another minute:72. It’s been a while since we’ve both been busy with our businesses. But we finally got back together to challenge ourselves once again.

We grabbed the top paper in the rack and had to move a couple sections to get to a 7th page without an ad. Finally landing in the sports section, the second word on that page was: players.

Simple enough. Those who play a game or instrument. Or those who are skilled at manipulating others. Looking around us, there were options – lots of sporting locations: baseball, golf, tennis and lawn bowling. We thought of different angles to take – shooting actual players of a game or even the equipment they use that implies there are players there.

As we approached the local baseball field, there was nobody there. No players, only little gaps in the fence to see where players compete. Not much to see there. Next up were the tennis courts… again nobody to be seen. But a gate was open and Eric shot a few photos of some tennis balls in a ball machine. We ere hoping our luck would change at the lawn bowling greens.

As we approached the lawn bowling greens there was nobody at the first ones we came across. Could this also be a bust?

We continued to another and then another still where we finally found a handful of people playing lawn bowling. We went into the gate and sat on the perimeter benches and took a few photos. The lady who runs the greens approached and we explained our project. She was more than accommodating and even invited me to try my hand at lawn bowling. Not as easy as it looks, yet it was a lot of fun.

As I bowled, Eric grabbed some images of the experience. Our favorite image is actually an image of the players who are partially blocked by an object in the foreground. You still know they’re there, but what’s plainly visible are their lawn bowling balls focusing on the act of playing.

attack:

Posted on July 27, 2016 by -dg

07:27:16
9:50am
Starbucks: Pine Ave : Long Beach

Between Eric and myself it’s been hard lately to find days where we can meet up between photo shoots and ongoing design projects, but today we found some time where we could meet up for another minute:72.

We met again at the Starbucks on Pine Ave in Long Beach. We like what the downtown area has to offer – always something going on, and it’s always different.

The day started out hot and I decided to forego the coffee, however Eric still needed the jump start and grabbed a cup. We then grabbed the top paper on the rack, the Wall Street Journal, and thumbed through to the 7th page where the 2nd word was “Attack.”

Attack: to take aggressive action against; an aggressive and violent action against a person or place.

Our first thought: this is going to be tough! How do we photograph “attack”? Do we stage it? Are we going to be lucky enough to find someone attacking someone or something? Probably not, and we didn’t really want to witness such an event and just stand by and photograph it. Not knowing where to take this, it seemed like we were going to go into this somewhat blindly. So with that, we figured we would head in a different direction than we had been in before – to the East…

We captured lots of images – people attacking their day, graffiti on windows, chunks of a building removed that seemingly had been attacked by something. We even came across a stuffed animal that had been tied to a metal post like someone had attacked and tied it up. You find the craziest stuff if you just take the time to look!

We came across an art gallery that was displaying some ink drawings in the window. They all had an explosive look to them – letterforms, explosion clouds, animals, and other organic shapes being blown apart. Could this be our visual for “attack”? As Eric shot the artwork, I noticed that there was a police car across the street and if you looked at one of the explosions at the right angle, it looked as if the car was the one under attack. Eric shot this from different angles and ended up capturing what could also be a commentary on the public’s attitude toward police in our society today:

buyback:

Posted on June 29, 2016 by -dg

06:29:16
9:28am
Starbucks: Pine Ave : Long Beach

So we meet again at Starbucks on Pine Ave in downtown Long Beach… we love exploring different areas in downtown, as they all offer something unique and interesting to shoot each day. The day started out overcast and cool – a perfect day for a coffee. As usual, we grab our coffee and the top paper in the rack to retrieve our inspiration word for the day.

Buyback: the time starts now. The buying back of goods by the original seller.

We brainstormed a bit about what kind of stores buy back items: pawn shops, car dealers, record stores…. We knew there weren’t any car dealerships nearby and the nearest pawn shop we found online was about 10 blocks away, however there was a favorite record store just about 4 blocks away that is famous for its used record selection – Fingerprints. We checked their hours and they didn’t open until 10am, so we figured we would create a plan first before heading there on foot. As we talked, we got excited that we could focus on one idea in a very specific place to get our image for this minute:72 photo shoot. It reminded us of the time we shot the word “spar” and we chose to focus our shoot at DG Boxing to create our image for that inspiration.

We started walking toward Fingerprints and arrived at 10am on the dot. We talked to the Fingerprints staff and explained what minute:72 was all about and they were kind enough to let us shoot inside their store. We found tons of used records categorized by price, by genre, by alphabet… you name it. We also found lots of CDs and cassette tapes all bought back from users ready to be resold in the old brick building that’s characteristic of many buildings in downtown Long Beach. The selection was amazing and the lighting varied throughout the store – from fluorescent light to direct sunlight streaming in through a skylight to indirect light from the large front windows flooding areas with an even light. We knew we came to the right spot to illustrate the inspiration word, buyback.

Among the images captured, there were many that said “buyback.” However, one said it best and yielded an interesting textural image. We found stacks of used CDs, out of their wrappers and stacked on the floor. They weren’t ready for the sales floor, as they hadn’t been labeled with prices or sorted in any way. These were clearly in the process of being bought back.

Thank you, Fingerprints, for allowing us to capture today’s image inside your store!

To find out more about Fingerprints visit their website and if you like what you see, give them a big thumbs up on their Facebook page here, we did!

seal:

Posted on May 4, 2016 by -dg

05:04:16
9:21am
Starbucks: Pine Ave : Long Beach

The morning is overcast and we met again at the Starbucks in Downtown Long Beach. Although we try and hit a different location each time, this spot seems to just have so much going on around it and there are many directions we can head from this starting point, which leads to something different every time.

We got a coffee and went to the top paper in the stand to get our inspiration for the shoot. The seventh page: the second word: seal.

Although we could think of a few meanings for the word, we looked it up any way just in case there was something we were missing:

1: something used to join two things to keep them from coming apart.
2: wax or other material, stamped and used to show where a document came from.
3: something used as a confirmation or guarantee of something.
4: a fish-eating aquatic mammal.
5: a member of an elite force in the US Navy.

We could take this in a number of ways, so we decided to head out and see if there was anything around that would help us create a visual for any of these meanings.

We almost instantly found things that could represent our inspiration: pipes sealed off, fire hydrants’ openings sealed up tight, tape bringing together different materials so they don’t come apart.

About 10 minutes into our shoot we found a couple painters using masking tape to seal off part of a building with paper and plastic. We thought this was our shot: something actually in the process of being sealed. We shot it and joked that we could be done now – after all it’s an unusual piece of street photography. But we knew that there could be something else waiting for us around the corner. We had to let the minute:72 creative process take place.

We walked blocks and blocks and found many more examples of things that were sealed – all which could represent our inspiration for the day. We knew that we would have some editing to do on this one. And sometimes we see different things when we come back and look at all the images together on the screen.

After some time away due to some work that had to be done, Eric and I both looked at the images again quite a few days later. With a fresh eye, we saw things a little differently than we did when we were shooting. There were more images that could work than we initially thought we had. But one image stood out more than the rest to us – it wasn’t even one of the images that we thought was a hero when we shot it.

There was a manhole cover in the middle of the sidewalk. As expected, one sees a manhole cover as sealing up a hole in the ground. But what was unique about this one was that, although it sealed the hole, there was an additional seal over that when someone added asphalt on one edge to cover the uneven ground nearby. This totally showed sealed on multiple levels and pushed this image in the hero spot to represent this day’s minute:72.

blunts:

Posted on April 13, 2016 by -dg

04:13:16
09:35 am
Starbucks: Main St.: Huntington Beach

Another trip to Main St in Huntington Beach and another overcast beach morning. There were plenty of people on the street and even more huddled in side the corner-situated Starbucks. Eric and I grabbed a coffee and our inspiration word for the day: blunts.

We punched in the word “blunts” into our smartphones and found a few meanings:
1: a marijuana filled cigar. 2: having an edge that is not sharp. 3: abrupt in speech or manner.

After discussing our strategy, we figured that we probably won’t find a marijuana cigar anywhere in the next hour. Next idea was to shoot things that weren’t sharp, or if we could interpret it differently – out of focus.

That was it: a whole shoot that’s out of focus. Sounded pretty crazy and it would be a huge commitment to end up with a bunch of blurry photos. Quickly Eric shot a photo of a palm tree that yielded a pretty cool blurred graphic. So we figured we’d go for it.

Off we went in search for some more graphically interesting images that would look good blurred: high contrast, interesting angles and shapes. We came across some other things that might be an interesting composition if it was to be in focus, but they didn’t say “blunts” and so we kept with our original plan.

Heading down to the beach we shot many images – some that you could tell what they were and others that you couldn’t. About 45 minutes into our shoot we came across a few men in suits sitting in chairs near the beach. It was kind of a peculiar sight judging how they were dressed. But what was even more interesting was how 2 of the men were acting. Their standoffish body language spoke volumes toward another man who had crashed their well-dressed sit in. This find made us switch gears a little and tighten our focus to capture what we thought was a perfect example of 2 men acting out our inspiration word.

For the rest of our shoot we kept the focus and came across some other interesting images, some saying “blunt” in their own way and some just interesting in their own right. Many of these became some worthy seconds which can be found here.

to:

Posted on April 8, 2016 by -dg

04:08:16
9:23am
Starbucks: Ball & Valley View : Cypress

It’s been a couple of weeks since we hit the streets and shot for 72 minutes. Spring break kept us from getting together… and now the rain is trying to keep us from shooting, but today we’re determined to keep it going and shoot rain or shine. And that we did. By California’s standards it was pouring, however by other parts of the world, I’m sure this was just classified as humidity.

Eric and I grabbed a nice hot cup of coffee and our word to serve as today’s inspiration:
to
Seemed pretty easy, as we knew what this meant and it shouldn’t be too difficult to grab photos of people or things going ‘to’ somewhere. But it started to rain harder and as we brainstormed inside the dry Starbucks with our hot coffee, we didn’t want to go anywhere.

After about 10 minutes we knew we had to get out there and see what we could find. I ran to my car and grabbed a hat, then we hit the street. We walked blocks and grabbed plenty of photos of cars which were about the only things going to somewhere out in this weather. We got lucky and were able to mix it up and also capture a few people with umbrellas out in the rain.

Further investigating brought us to a park with a basketball court, however nobody was out and about. There were some images captured of a tattered basketball net showing the trace of someone who dreamed of taking their skills further.

As we searched, the rain came and went and we ventured out further to get a glimpse of different surroundings. We came across an interesting payphone which probably hadn’t been used in quite some time. It didn’t say ‘to’ to us, however the image of its broken handset dangling by its wires served as an interesting subject.

We finally were stopped by a loud noise coming up the street – an ambulance. We froze and immediately turned toward it coming at us. All the cars at the intersection also stopped. Nobody was going to anywhere, except the ambulance. It’s as if time stopped for everyone except the ambulance driver. His ambulance was the only thing in the vicinity which was going ‘to’ anywhere. Eric panned as the ambulance tore through the intersection leaving everyone else around frozen in time.

western:

Posted on April 6, 2016 by -dg

03:23:16
9:45am
Starbucks: Magnolia Ave : Long Beach

Eric and I headed back to downtown Long Beach because there was so much to see the last time we were down there. So we hit up another Starbucks across the street from the courthouse. We grabbed a coffee and the top paper on the rack. Seventh page, second word: western.

The time started and even though we knew what the word meant, we sat and brainstormed a little. Situated in the west. Facing west. Living in or originating in the west. An entertainment genre about cowboys. Even our last shoot, once, said “western” – if only we could have had that word when we shot that photo. Oh well, no dwelling in the past.

Well we couldn’t get any more west than we were. after all, the Pacific Ocean was only blocks from where we were. But we had to think of what showed western to us. We looked around us and knew we had to start walking to find more.

As we took to the streets, there were interesting people who showed western to us – business people with tattoos, interesting fashion statements and the like. We went further and found other signs that we were in the west: apartments with bicycles and surfboards perched on balconies. We even took photos of arrows pointing in a western direction.

All of these things said “western” to us in one way or another. But when we came across the old Long Beach courthouse being demolished, we stood transfixed for a while. Large dinosaur-like machines ripping apart the floors, dropping heavy chunks of metal to the ground. For some reason we knew this said “western” to us… Where else in the United States do we regularly rip apart buildings instead of preserving them for future generations like they do back East? And the amount of rebar sticking out of the concrete is totally reminiscent of a building that could be subject to earthquakes like they might be in the West.

Eric and I knew this had signs of “western” all over it. After we shot and went back to edit what we found, there was one photo that looked very map-like. The blue of the sky against the jagged demolished concrete wall seemed like blue ocean against the western land of the United States. It may take some imagination, but to us, this says western: