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The Camera You Wear

Check this out...number 1 on Amazon's best selling camera list is a wearable camera that shoots automatically.

For around $250 you can have a camera to wear while you are playing basketball, baseball or soccer, not to mention while you are surfing (catching a shot under a wave) or while you are following a subject/object when shooting street photography.

The camera is GoPro HD HERO2: Motorsports Edition, brings a new reality to images-on-the-go.



Check out the narrator's fingernails!
Check the wearable camera out now.

Phone Booths from Around the World

Catholic phone booth

For the past 10 years I've been shooting phone booths. Their styles and locations are unique. Since they are on there way out, no time is better than now to catch a last glimpse of their existence.

Many of the shots here contain phone booths that no longer exist as a stately get away from the masses of the city and country. Go inside a phone booth (or tuck your head in a small overhead phone with shelter) and you've got a bit more quiet so you can talk.

Helen Levitt took the most famous phone booth image in New York City long ago.

The above photo is a religious take of a phone booth taken in Los Angeles. This has to be the top favorite of all the phone booth images I have taken.

Web Directory

Vector Illustrations

Vector illustration

You've probably heard the term vector illustration before, especially if you've visited a stock photo website like Dreamstime or iStockphoto.

These websites offer not only photographs, but also these types of clip art.

I chose this one (it was free at Dreamstime; to access type "night fever" into the free image section) because it was kind of funny, the subject is a bit overweight, something is wrong with the red hair (if that's hair), and I love the halter top (so 70s).

Vectors (unlike rastors, which are photographs made by combining pixels) are made like a connect the dot drawing in programs like Adobe Illustrator.

You can use Photoshop to make vectors as this vector tutorial shows you. This kind of gives you an idea of how a vector is made. The vector-making process is quite different for making vectors in Illustrator.

It might look rather challenging, but if you do it enough it gets easier. Now I have to go search for some really wild and crazy vectors so you can see all the possiblities you have in making them. More about this in the next post.

A Dozen Characteristics of Hollywood Regency Style

Hollywood Regency style chairs in a Palm Springs hotel

Part of my everyday activities are keeping up with the latest trends in design.

You might ask why a photographer would do this. If you do, it's because the latest designs are what people, hotels and businesses want on their walls.

If you've noticed the art in a hotel room lately, there's a 50/50 chance it'll be a photograph.

What's depicted in that photograph might well be the latest fad in the design world.

Today's up-and-coming design is Hollywood Regency style. The style is a narcissist's dream, filled with reflected surfaces where you can check yourself out. Also, the style is a great escape for those of us who like shiny things and cougars (not the elderly woman types, but the fur).

The design that predominated during an earlier part of the 20th century than mid-century modern.

The word Hollywood in the name is just that--black and white stills of Marilyn and Garbo, skirt up for the former, head up for the later that has you recalling that famous line: "I want to be alone, I just want to be alone."

Words don't do the style justice, you've got to see Hollywood Regency style yourself. Want Hollywood Regency style in your images?

Look for:

1. clean lines 
2. elaborate detailing 
3. reflective surfaces 
4. lots of chrome 
5. shiny hardware 
6. chandeliers 
7. textiles 
8. faux fur or real fur
9. plaster molding 
10. mirrored tables 
11. bamboo chairs 
12. animal hide rugs 

The best locale to find this style is where else but Hollywood. Try the hotels on Sunset Blvd. Palm Springs also has quite a few places in the style.

Want images of Hollywood Regency style on your coffee table, then get a book about Hollywood Regency style.

retro framed prints

Priceline, Hotwire and Travelocity Taxes and Fees

Travelocity charges less  taxes and fees than many other websites .

Back again. No posts lately because of the  passing of my brother, Dr. Norman Bamberg. Will miss him dearly.  Read on for my post.

After buying hotel rooms in LA, I've found a tremendous difference in taxes and fees among these travel agency websites.

The differences in the amount the travel websites extra charges are twice as much between the highest priced for taxes and fees at Hotwire to the lowest prices for tax and fees at Travelocity.  Priceline bids come in the middle range.

When you take a look at the minimal taxes and fees at Travelocity charges (see image) for a hotel room and compare it with those charged by Priceline and Hotwire, you might be surprised by the differences in what they charge.

Here's the skinny:

Hotwire fees and taxes for a $88 hotel room in LA are $19.85 for one one night. Yikes!
Priceline fees and taxes for a $47 hotel room in Ontario are $12.84. Another yikes!
Travelocity fees and taxes for a $75 hotel room in Glendale are $8.35. A bargain compared to the other two.

If you're considering a trip to take photos like those in the National Geographic and looking for a cheap hotel room in your chosen destination, consider the taxes and fees of the travel agency websites.