A Fist Full of Film

This is the Rebellion against overproduced images often in the digital world. These are images made from my film cameras. Each image I shot myself. The subjects are often friends, and acquaintances in their world.

City of Angels The cell phone rang, I clicked over from the ipod music with the PTT button on the headphones connected to my iphone, it was douchebag, “Hey, you remember my friends Harriet and Rochelle from our church?” “Yeah, I know who you are talking about, why?” I asked, as I was dodging traffic on the 210 freeway in Pasadena about to hit Glendale(where we used to Live), I was going to try and call up one of my friends Josh, and see if he was available. “Well,” said my brother, “they are in LA somewhere, and they need a ride.” “Are you kidding?  LA is not Orlando, its huge!”   Turns out they were in Pasadena, not far from where I already was at that moment.  Now LA stinks with visitors.  Since most of your friends who visit usually don’t have transportation, and even if they did, knowing sidestreets, alleyways, and traffic patterns is something you just learn from being on the street and driving it.  And most times, most out of towners want to look at handprints at the theatre, which is cool(the first time) but then you have street artists(homeless people with spiderman suits or facepaint) or t shirt shops.  The trappings of Tourist Trap.  Plus Hollywood is dirty, and such a pain in the liposuctioned rear.   So when they got in to the Rodeo, and they told me that they were already done with H-wood and wanted to see Real California.   “Like the Observatory?” “No that’s cool, but something “Real.” What I do for work is pretty cool, and we travel to some of the most exotic locations that are hard to get to, but worth it if you have adventure.  I had just finished a job at this place, and I was like… “I can take you to this place that we just shot at, and you will see it in the cover of such and such magazine next month…” “Yes!”  ”Deal!” And we were off. Rochelle and Harriet are about my brother’s age and they knew my mom and my sister as well.  My family had started going to their church right after my dad passed away, and I was happy that it was a small church that my family felt welcomed in.  Especially when that’s when they didn’t need an insincere megachurch to quote bumperstickers to them(which can happen in small churches too, but this was a different place since they spoke the language…literally, since it was a predominately Filipino Church). So anyone that helped out my family, was family to me. We were blazing down the 101, and I said that we might be able to catch sunset.  And they were like, “Like in City of Angels?” Now they must have been like 8 or something when that movie came out, and I like most 8 year olds was busying trading garbage pail kids and not watching existential re-enactments of a Wim Wenders classics using relatives of the Coppola family who switched their names to Cage and bubbly curly sue haired Meg Ryans. Yes, that’s down the way a little bit, but this is where they did that sunset scene.  I chuckled a little bit, and started to mentally strum and finger on the steering wheel going 75mph……..D, Em, G, Bm, A, G.  I had learned to play that song on the guitar when I used to play way back when I used to wonder at the world. “And I give up forever to touch you, ‘cause I know that you feel me somehow…” After stoping by a Banksy on the side of the road, we pulled into a dirt parking lot, unmarked from the PCH.  I stared at the sun and its position to the beach, and said, “We’ve got 15 mins max.  As soon as I park, climb down the staircase, and just GO.  I’ll pay the meter, just get down to the water, I will meet you there.” They did as they were asked of, no questions, and I loaded a roll of film and brought the Rolleiflex down to the ocean, a perfect camera that had been in storage for over 50 years, was now traveling with me, all over the place including an ocean, a beach, and a constant supply of crashing waves.  It was making up for lost time. The sheer awe and wonder in their faces, was worth the trip.  The Pacific was pretty forceful that day, with waves continuing to pound the rocks and what was left of the beach due to the high tide.  The spray of salt and mist served as an amazing backdrop to a picturesque scene of a very loud Call of the California Wild.   Its was a place where you could leave your own handprint, just for a moment of course.  And it was the gift of seeing so much excitement and joy in witnessing a scene, grandiose, inspiring, and essentially free.  They looked out across the cove to where the sun was setting, and I positioned myself and the Rollei behind them, and said, “Hey Rochelle, Harriet!” *Rolleiflex Click* “Got it.” “I can’t believe this is where they shot it!”   All in all it was great, I got to go to one of my new favorite places, and they got to experience for the first time, the lore of California.  Judging by the expression on their faces of fear and awe and wonder, I think that they liked it.  All that, and we didn’t even have to validate parking. When everything seems like the movies, yeah you bleed just to know you’re alive. Malibu, CA Rolleiflex 2.8E 80mm Schnieder-Krueznach Porta 400 NC

City of Angels

The cell phone rang, I clicked over from the ipod music with the PTT button on the headphones connected to my iphone, it was douchebag,

“Hey, you remember my friends Harriet and Rochelle from our church?”

“Yeah, I know who you are talking about, why?” I asked, as I was dodging traffic on the 210 freeway in Pasadena about to hit Glendale(where we used to Live), I was going to try and call up one of my friends Josh, and see if he was available.

“Well,” said my brother, “they are in LA somewhere, and they need a ride.”

“Are you kidding?  LA is not Orlando, its huge!”  

Turns out they were in Pasadena, not far from where I already was at that moment.  Now LA stinks with visitors.  Since most of your friends who visit usually don’t have transportation, and even if they did, knowing sidestreets, alleyways, and traffic patterns is something you just learn from being on the street and driving it.  And most times, most out of towners want to look at handprints at the theatre, which is cool(the first time) but then you have street artists(homeless people with spiderman suits or facepaint) or t shirt shops.  The trappings of Tourist Trap.  Plus Hollywood is dirty, and such a pain in the liposuctioned rear.  

So when they got in to the Rodeo, and they told me that they were already done with H-wood and wanted to see Real California.  

“Like the Observatory?”

“No that’s cool, but something “Real.”

What I do for work is pretty cool, and we travel to some of the most exotic locations that are hard to get to, but worth it if you have adventure.  I had just finished a job at this place, and I was like…

“I can take you to this place that we just shot at, and you will see it in the cover of such and such magazine next month…”

“Yes!”  ”Deal!”

And we were off.

Rochelle and Harriet are about my brother’s age and they knew my mom and my sister as well.  My family had started going to their church right after my dad passed away, and I was happy that it was a small church that my family felt welcomed in.  Especially when that’s when they didn’t need an insincere megachurch to quote bumperstickers to them(which can happen in small churches too, but this was a different place since they spoke the language…literally, since it was a predominately Filipino Church).

So anyone that helped out my family, was family to me.

We were blazing down the 101, and I said that we might be able to catch sunset.  And they were like, “Like in City of Angels?”

Now they must have been like 8 or something when that movie came out, and I like most 8 year olds was busying trading garbage pail kids and not watching existential re-enactments of a Wim Wenders classics using relatives of the Coppola family who switched their names to Cage and bubbly curly sue haired Meg Ryans.

Yes, that’s down the way a little bit, but this is where they did that sunset scene.  I chuckled a little bit, and started to mentally strum and finger on the steering wheel going 75mph……..D, Em, G, Bm, A, G.  I had learned to play that song on the guitar when I used to play way back when I used to wonder at the world.

“And I give up forever to touch you, ‘cause I know that you feel me somehow…”

After stoping by a Banksy on the side of the road, we pulled into a dirt parking lot, unmarked from the PCH.  I stared at the sun and its position to the beach, and said,

“We’ve got 15 mins max.  As soon as I park, climb down the staircase, and just GO.  I’ll pay the meter, just get down to the water, I will meet you there.”

They did as they were asked of, no questions, and I loaded a roll of film and brought the Rolleiflex down to the ocean, a perfect camera that had been in storage for over 50 years, was now traveling with me, all over the place including an ocean, a beach, and a constant supply of crashing waves.  It was making up for lost time.

The sheer awe and wonder in their faces, was worth the trip.  The Pacific was pretty forceful that day, with waves continuing to pound the rocks and what was left of the beach due to the high tide.  The spray of salt and mist served as an amazing backdrop to a picturesque scene of a very loud Call of the California Wild.  

Its was a place where you could leave your own handprint, just for a moment of course.  And it was the gift of seeing so much excitement and joy in witnessing a scene, grandiose, inspiring, and essentially free.  They looked out across the cove to where the sun was setting, and I positioned myself and the Rollei behind them, and said,

“Hey Rochelle, Harriet!”

*Rolleiflex Click*

“Got it.”

“I can’t believe this is where they shot it!”  

All in all it was great, I got to go to one of my new favorite places, and they got to experience for the first time, the lore of California.  Judging by the expression on their faces of fear and awe and wonder, I think that they liked it.  All that, and we didn’t even have to validate parking.

When everything seems like the movies, yeah you bleed just to know you’re alive.

Malibu, CA

Rolleiflex 2.8E 80mm Schnieder-Krueznach Porta 400 NC

7 months ago 21 notes
  1. burbanked said: Gorgeous picture. Spectacular story. Business as usual.
  2. mistercakesphotoadventures said: Beautiful! (Words, photo, models, sunset…)
  3. motothelissa said: Great shot, great story. and now I miss California. …and kind of want to listen to the Goo Goo Dolls.
  4. fistfulloffilm posted this