Black Friday Sale!

Presenting something new this year: a Black Friday Sale at Hermosawave Photography!

This Friday only get 25% off all orders on the web site. All sales on November 27th from 12:01 am through 11:59 pm (Pacific Standard Time) will receive 25% off. That includes calendars, prints and framed photos.

You don’t need to do anything, the discount will be automatically taken on the checkout page.

Don’t miss out! Click through to the photo site for more information.

Vintage Hermosa Photos

Over on Flickr, Ron Felsing has been collecting vintage shots of Hermosa Beach. While I have seen quite a few, many are new to me. Many shots of Santa Fe Depot on Pier Ave., the aquarium on the beach and of course, lots of girls in swimsuits. Take a look…

The Macintosh at 25

1984, the year of Big Brother, was 25 years ago. And on January 24,1984 Apple introduced the Apple Macintosh, the computer that changed everything.

At the time I was writing owners manuals – among other things – at the Los Angeles musical instrument company Oberheim Electronics. Oberheim was a hotbed of the latest technology, since we were creating state-of-the-art synthesizers for professional musicians, such as Van Halen, The Police and Chaka Khan.

Tom Oberheim picked up one of the original Macs, which made its way around the engineering team before it started collecting dust in the corner (didn’t take too long, the engineers didn’t see the Mac as much more than a cool expensive toy).

But I was charged with creating owners manuals for the keyboards and drum machines we were making, and my current creative setup was a word processor and a daisy-wheel printer (imagine a typewriter controlled by computer and you’ll be pretty close). Needless to say, this setup did not lend itself well to visual representations, which needed to be outsourced by hand and at enormous cost.

But the Mac was new, fun and slightly rebellious, as Apple designer Andy Herzfeld described it. And it did graphics, perfect to communicate to my non-reading musician audience how to use the box they just maxed out their credit card buying – our instruments were not cheap back in the day.

Enter MacPaint with its ONE BIT color graphics (you had two colors: White or Black) and fun-to-use tools that made for fun-looking graphics. The last piece of the puzzle was discovering a lab in San Francisco that would print out my MacPaint graphics files on pristine photo paper. And with that I was off and running! That Mac never left my desk ever again. And a Mac has been on my desk every day since.

Here are some graphics from the first manual I did with the Mac, for the Oberheim Xpander – itself a groundbreaking synthesizer.

What about Pagemaker you say? The program that started the desktop publishing revolution? This was before Pagemaker. Pagemaker and the Laserwriter came the following year. And that really changed everything.

Announcing “The Picture Online”

The past six years since launching my Hermosawave Picture of the Day website has been a great ride of new experiences and opportunities. The site opened up new avenues for creative expression and also created more synergy among all the other digital things I do, as well as more hyphenations in my job description.

As I’ve navigated the world of digital photography, I realized that my years of web design/digital media experience brings a unique approach to my photography and a unique perspective from which to contribute to the online community.

So I am thrilled to announce a new blog, “The Picture Online,” in which I will discuss photography, the World Wide Web and how they work together. Targeted to photographers and those that enjoy photography, I intend to recount my experiences creating photographs so that everyone can enjoy, learn and appreciate.

Hope you enjoy it and I look forward to your comments.

Holiday Gifts Large and Small

For your holiday consideration, I have created two print specials:

Large limited-edition 17″x25″ prints, suitable for gift giving as is or ready for framing, for a special low price of $125. These are signed and numbered in an edition of just 25.

For smaller stocking-stuffing needs, give 5″x7″ matted prints for just $10 each. These are perfect for your college student, out-of-town friend, or just to remember the South Bay.

Both of these specials can be ordered on my web site and will be ready for pickup or mailing within 24 hours, so you can procrastinate for a long time :-) Select “Buy a Print of this Picture” and the specials are highlighted on the price list.

Keb’ Mo’ Video: America the Beautiful

The music video of Keb’Mo’: America the Beautiful, that I took on-set still photos for last month is now available for viewing on YouTube.

You can see it at this link…

This Weekend: Manhattan Beach Hometown Fair

My last art show of the year is this Saturday and Sunday (Oct 4 &5) at Manhattan Beach’s Hometown Fair.

My booth is number 156, greenbelt side of Valley Drive. See you there!

Hermosawave 2009 South Bay Calendar Now Available

Announcing the Hermosawave 2009 South Bay Calendar, featuring my most favorite photos of the past year.

The 16 month calendar with images of Hermosa, Manhattan, Redondo and Palos Verdes starts September 2008 and goes through December 2009.

The Hermosawave 2009 South Bay Calendar is shipping now. You can order online, or pick one up at my booth on Pier Plaza this weekend, during Fiesta Hermosa.

Hope you like it!

Eyes Over Africa

German Photographer Michael Poliza has produced a stunning collection of aerial photos, Eyes Over Africa. He says, “The images came mostly from an 8-week helicopter expedition from Hamburg to Cape Town. Lots of zickzacking over this amazing continent. You can browse more than 200 of the images on his site. Beautiful zickzacking indeed.
– via John Nack of Adobe