Photography by Marilyn M, travel photography

Iphoneography

noreply@blogger.com (Marilyn) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 14:09:00 +0000

I know... I am not very prolific on this blog lately... but last night I discovered a new passage in Paris and it was so beautiful, because of the Christmas decorations, that it made me want to share it here. As you know, I already did a blog post about Passages in Paris, so let's say that this is the iphone version of it (aka lower quality).

All photos were taking with my Iphone. I will probably add a category on this blog for Mobile Photos. Also, this gives me the opportunity to say that you can follow me on Instagram @marilyn_m2pics!

(taken with Instagram)

Gorges and río Sil in Galicia, Spain

noreply@blogger.com (Marilyn) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 12:41:00 +0000

Welcome back! It's been too long I haven't done a blog post and I feel terrible. I got a new job in Paris and I had no time to take photos or even post old photos. So since I spent a few days at my family's in Galicia, Spain, I thought I could post the few photos I took there when we went to visit some gorges near Ourense in Spain (region of Galicia).

The trip also included a one-hour-long boat ride within the Gorges and some beautiful light past 5pm.

Bonus photo taken at my aunt's house. Everything in her garden is bigger and tastes better, but those organic onions were quite photogenic to me!

Ps: All photos were taken with my small point and shoot camera...

=> View more photos of Spain

From Silver Lake to Echo Park, Los Angeles

noreply@blogger.com (Marilyn) — Mon, 09 May 2011 15:38:00 +0000

Downtown L.A from Silver Lake.

Awesome color for an awesome truck with an awesome goal: legalize Cachaça!

Next time I go to Los Angeles, I will take the time to photograph all the street art you can find in Silver Lake. It's amazing. And this one is the only properly framed one I was able to get from the car. Notice the "prueba de embarazo gratis" (free pregnancy test) at the bottom? What a neighborhood!

Downtown Los Angeles from Echo Park

L.A Downtown: Olvera Street

noreply@blogger.com (Marilyn) — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 08:32:00 +0000

One cannot visit Downtown Los Angeles without going to Olvera Street. Whether tourist attractions are your thing or not, the feel of this place is definitely something to check out to realize how close California is to the Mexican border.

But before checking out Olvera street, which to me could also be called Little Mexico, there is two building close by that are worth seeing. The first one is the Los Angeles Union Station on North Alameda Street.

The second great piece of architecture is the U.S. Post Office - Los Angeles Terminal Annex also on N.Alameda Street.

The particularity of Olvera Street is that it's the oldest part of Los Angeles!

The size of trees can testify of how old this part of L.A is.

Of course, the one attraction on Olvera street is its market full of kitsch and traditional Mexican items. The Lucha Libre (wrestling) masks were for instance in almost every booth which I find both funny and scary.

Downtown Los Angeles from my car

noreply@blogger.com (Marilyn) — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 15:29:00 +0000

My first post about Downtown L.A only features photos taken from the car. Hence, it includes all their little technical imperfections which makes them special to me.

The City Hall of Los Angeles is pretty much visible from everywhere in the car. It's a beautiful piece of architecture that we have all seen in many different TV Shows.

More photos on my FlickR account:

=> The Walt Disney Concert Hall

=> Two other versions of the graffiti: here and here

Shaddows and light in Ojai, California

noreply@blogger.com (Marilyn) — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 22:07:00 +0000

After my blog post on the shooting locations used for the movie EASY A in Ojai, here are the rest of my photos of what is now one of my favorite places on the planet. It might sound strong to say that because after all Ojai is a small town, but I was transcended by the vibe of this place, especially at Meditation Mountain.

Ojai is indeed a place known for its spiritual retreats and it was really powerful to be there

Paris random #2

noreply@blogger.com (Marilyn) — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 14:02:00 +0000

New edition of Paris random since I'm now back in the French capital. Photos from the past week includes Le Louvre and some underground weird but artsy soirée.

=> Previous Paris random

=> All photos from Paris

Shooting location: EASY A [movie]

noreply@blogger.com (Marilyn) — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 20:00:00 +0000

One of my favorite comedies in 2010 was EASY A starring Emma Stone. The movie was surprisingly good. I did not expect liking it so much because I am usually very picky when it comes to movies, especially with comedies.

The whole movie was shot in Ojai, California, so you can imagine my excitement when I spent an afternoon there. As a cinema lover, I always love seeing shooting location. I'll post more photos of Ojai another time; I wanted to do a blog post about the movie first, comparing the location with a screen capture of the movie.

1. Downtown Ojai

Many scenes take place in the cute but pretty downtown of the city.

2. High school

Obviously the main scenes are set in an high school which was renamed especially for the movie. You can view a video that contains behind-the-scene footage and also shows how they changed the high-school sign for the movie.

Photo of where they usually walk while chatting in between classes.

The lockers from far away taken with my point-and-shoot camera. Due to the lens flare the photo turned out to be very funky and vintage-ish.

3. The Chapel.

The sign of the Chapel was changed too because originally, it says Ojai Prebysterian Church.

3. Bart's Books, the outdoor bookstore.

In one of the scenes, Olive, played by Emma Stone, goes to buy the Bible in a book store called Bart's Books in real life. It is one of the coolest book stores ever because it is an outdoor one! How fascinating to see book shelves full of books waiting to be bought and no sealing over your head in the majority of the shop!

I have a very bad video clip of that place, my compact camera over-exposed it, but if you want to get an idea of that store, go watch it here.

Finally, my favorite scene from the movie.

All screen captures are the property of Sony Pictures.

How to get lucky on Twitter [Art - Illustration]

noreply@blogger.com (Marilyn) — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 19:10:00 +0000

Social network can be a beautiful thing. I have always been a fan of Twitter because unlike Facebook it allows you to discover great artists while being up to date with real-time news from all over the world.

(For privacy reasons, my address is modified)

Two weeks ago, I stumbled upon Cory Basil’s Twitter, a polymath/artist/singster/poet (as he puts it) from Nashville, USA. I could not help but fall in love instantly with his illustrations and universe. Of course the similarity to Tim Burton comes to mind right away, but when Burton is dark and revives our childhood fears, Cory is poetic, delicate and recalls the paradox of our childhood, a period that can be both beautiful and hurtful.

A great artist with a beautiful soul and spirit, he was kind enough to send me prints of his work for free (and three of them!!!) by mail this week. My package contained three prints, a few postcards from the place with the world's largest heartshaped dirigible (Corybasil Town) and my very first letter sealed with wax! So chic!

Love Struck ©Cory Basil

The Silent Poet ©Cory Basil

Angel of Blackmore ©Cory Basil

I strongly recommend you to visit his website, go on his Etsy to buy his prints (please, he's awesome and makes the cutest letters), listen to a free song of his on this website and of course follow him on Twitter. For those on Tumblr, he has one too!

Thanks again Cory,

French jungle and its crocodiles

noreply@blogger.com (Marilyn) — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 16:59:00 +0000

My Sunday this week consisted of the visit of "La Ferme aux Crocodiles", a place in the south of France where they raise crocodiles and a few turtles, from all over the world. This place was insane and amazing. But I was as frustrated and as thankful for all the barriers or windows that wouldn't allow me to take the photos I wanted.

Who would have thought crocodiles look cool in photo?

No matter how long a tree lives in the backwater it won't ever be a crocodile - African saying

A pilgrim in Santiago De Compostela

noreply@blogger.com (Marilyn) — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 14:44:00 +0000

The desolated beauty of emptiness in Galicia, Spain

noreply@blogger.com (Marilyn) — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 12:23:00 +0000

The following photos are the closest I could get to expressing the feeling I have whenever I am in Galicia, Spain (where my mother's family is from.) One can only be fascinated by the paradoxical feeling of isolation yet freedom while walking through those pine and eucalyptus forests that are everywhere in this part of the country.

I think you can only enjoy taking long walks in this Kingdom of Emptiness if you are okay with facing who you really are. The silence, smell and ambiance of this place forces you to take a better look at yourself, to breath in and enjoy the moment.

Along with the feeling of isolation, I always felt like everything was old or abandoned there. It's a difficult thing to explain but I think it's because most houses look old to me due to the fact that their architecture is very different from the French one. Also, I used to think as a kid that only old people could be living there, probably because this place was the symbol of my grandmother, and definitely because it does feel like a place full of wisdom and history. Years later, some feelings don't change; Galicia still has this delicious desolated beauty.

Sneak peek on my next post

noreply@blogger.com (Marilyn) — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 22:16:00 +0000

Please please, view this one on black.

My next post will contain some old photos of Galicia, Spain. I don't know when I'll do it, maybe tomorrow, or maybe next week, but in the meantime I wanted to give a small preview!

Snowed in snapshot

noreply@blogger.com (Marilyn) — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 10:54:00 +0000

A quick shot of what I opened my window to this morning. Taken at 8 am. Still snowing. December 1st really is winter in France !

With a black background

For the record, for some reason I take that photo every winter but I'm only sharing it this time because usually snow doesn't start this early and all this much in one night.

Ok, now what?

noreply@blogger.com (Marilyn) — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 17:54:00 +0000

Better viewed with a black background, click here

Nature: a boost to your creativity

noreply@blogger.com (Marilyn) — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 17:49:00 +0000

Whenever I need to sort out my thoughts or boost my inspiration, hiking always help. What helps even more is writing in the middle of nowhere. I needed to do that last week.

My view while writing.

It looks better with a black background, please view it here

=> More posts with hiking photos.

Comparing seasons: one year later

noreply@blogger.com (Marilyn) — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 16:33:00 +0000

It's always hard to make something out of what you see every day. However, we don't necessarily see how much time flies, until we actually see some big change. This is why I've been comparing seasons on this blog photographing the same landscape two minutes away from where I live.

I forgot that I had to post Summer, sorry for being late on this one. But this time I gave it a bit of twist and took a panorama with my cell phone! It is funny to realize how much Summer and Spring looked alike this year.

Summer (August 2010)

Spring (May 2010)

Winter (January 2010)

Autumn (November 2009)

Another photo comparing seasons here.

Art while hiking in the Alps

noreply@blogger.com (Marilyn) — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 14:39:00 +0000

I did various little hikes last week. The particularity of the last one I did is that all along the hike you can discover sculptures out in the open from various artists. It's pretty awesome to see art in the middle of nature. What a lovely idea.

Here are some photos of the new ones they set up lately.

Photography: a philosophy of life

noreply@blogger.com (Marilyn) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 11:55:00 +0000

A few days ago, I went on a hike. After walking for 45 minutes towards my goal (reaching the top of that mountain to get a panorama) some clouds had very much killed my best buddy the sun, dissolving all the autumnal vivid colors into one dull view. Moreover my spot was filled with drunken guys who decided to be creepy and scary. Needless to say, I never took my panorama.

My point with this anecdote is that with photography, you either get patient or move on. There's no Grey areas in this (no pun intended). You have to experiment and you have to keep doing it. But most of all, you have be willing to accept that you are going to be frustrated 90% of the time. Because photography by its essence is trying to freeze what one second later won't exist anymore which implies a lot of missed moments of good imagery. It is about catching a light that is constantly changing on you, most of the time way faster than you can keep up. Hence, it is a constant run against time and the perfect proof that nothing lasts. So if you missed one instant, there's nothing you can do to get it back. It's over and you didn't take a picture of it.
Thus, photography is doing everything you can to grab as much information on your sensor as you can, the best way you can. Just like with life, you have to do with what you have, at the moment you have it. For to be a good photographer, more than patience you need to learn how to remain in the now. However you must be open enough to project your instincts onto the next seconds in order to get that one moment you've been waiting for, longing for. Keeping your eye on the future goal while remaining in the present moment is a life lesson and a photography rule. You can't always have what you want to appear the way you want it on your viewfinder, so you have to constantly adapt yourself to the scene you are trying to immortalize. Therefore, photography is about waiting but not waiting in vain. It is knowing what you want and be prepared to snap it when it comes. IF it comes.

For all those reasons photography is the art of letting go... letting go of what could have been and letting go of what you wanted it to be. The art of accepting what's in front of you and making the best of it because that is all you have and you have no control over it. How many times were you annoyed by someone in the street ruining the one scene you wanted to see happen? How many times were you disappointed when your photos appearing on your computer screen didn't match what you had imagined? Letting go is an art. Patience is a quality. Master both and you’ll be a good photographer. At least, that is what I aim for. After all, it’s not the photos we take that we like, it’s the art of taking them. It’s the art of BEING what we love and loving what we do and therefore are.

Photography is a philosophy of life. The "writing with light" that it is, is the closest I get to feeling fulfilled. It's my own personal life coach to never forget to cherish the present moment.

So yes I might not have had that wonderful panorama I wanted, but instead I managed to take a photo of a horse that I like. Because no matter how much I don't find photographies of horses appealing, this is the moment I wanted to remember during this bad day.

The little girl's tantrum

noreply@blogger.com (Marilyn) — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 18:42:00 +0000

Best viewed with a black background like here.

London part 6: Panorama and randomness

noreply@blogger.com (Marilyn) — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 18:26:00 +0000

Until next time I go visit the pretty capital, these are the last photographies I wanted to share about London. Way more photos have been posted previously, follow the link.

The photo above is the quickest panorama I ever shot - in something like 6 seconds from the Tate Modern Museum. I like that it looks like an old school postal card thanks to the reflections on the window.

Last, but not least, piece of randomness: the first time that I actually saw pelicans!

Ps: I love this short-movie and it was shot in London so I thought I would post it too. Copyright by Paul Mignot.

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Create away and object the rules: what photography is to me.

noreply@blogger.com (Marilyn) — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 14:31:00 +0000

I remember taking this photo. I remember hating that I didn't have the time (nor the desire) to walk closer to make this photo work properly. To make it perfect. You know this lame frustration that comes from the fear of not having done it right, not perfect enough - the one thing not to do if you want to block your creative process. Dali said "Don't fear perfection, you will never reach it" - wise words to live by.

Well, one year later, you know what? I actually love that this photo is not perfect. When I took it, I thought "this is déjà-vu, don't even bother". And I didn't, I mean look at the photo. Later on that day when I saw it on my computer screen, I thought that if there were to be one photo in the whole album I would not share, this would be it. So why am I doing it now? to make a statement about this pressure that comes along in the so-called artist world and to simply say "screw this, it might not original but I don't want to censor myself, at least it's a wink at my dorky personality and my love for books". Because yes, sometimes we tend to forget that it is our blog... of course people will judge, will comment, a few will love, but in the end the harshest judge will forever be yourself.

If you take a look around, there will always be people telling you how to do your thing, and what to do. You must have this, do that, do it this way and not that way. Be less of this and be more of that, and so on. Rules, rules rules. Who are they to say that? Who created all those rules? People judging, or people admiring the "oh-WHAT-a-genius" when all I see is a blurry black and white photography - but he/she must be good if everyone thinks so, right? Am I supposed to do it this way then? Of course my answer to that question is no, but I definitely judged myself a lot through the elite lens of what a photographer should be. Someday I will write a post about my vision of photography and the subjectivity of art because the more I read about photography, the more overwhelming it gets and the more questions I have.

To summarize my opinion, I will say this: I believe that as long as you create, everything is fine. Rules can exist, making your own thing is what matters most to me. That is also why the tagline of my blog "I'm not a photographer, I just take pictures" because I believe anyone can be a photographer, anyone can do art. In other words, anyone IS what they call "an artist". We are all artists in this life, some are just more willing to explore it.

I also believe that honesty is the key to everything in life and this applies to your art. So be true to yourself and people will love it. It doesn't matter if you are an encyclopedia of technical knowledge in photography or if you don't even know what a f-stop is. Shoot away, paint, draw, write, create, it does not matter what people think as long as you are doing something. That is big enough for you to feel proud of yourself.

The Karl Lagerfeld photography exhibition [Paris]

noreply@blogger.com (Marilyn) — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 07:05:00 +0000

(Copyright Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel)

Last Friday, I went to see the Karl Lagerfeld exhibition entitled "Parcours de Travail" at La Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris. The talented Karl was not the only one showing in this museum - I especially enjoyed the intense portraits of Koos Breukel and the amazing self-portraits of Kimiko Yoshida (photos below respectively).

However, don't you hate when you are not allowed to take photos in exhibitions? I do. Nevertheless, the frustration became unbearable, and despite the staff repeatedly telling me not to take photos, I had to snap away a few things. Especially the photo below: the reflection of the neon-like-Karl in his photography, matching perfectly the eye of the model...

I almost thought I was going to get kicked out of the museum twice, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Of course all photos in this post are taken with my compact camera for more discretion.

Two more stolen photos from the museum.

Finally just for fun, here is another version of Karl I played with because a. less quality is lost with black and white files on the Internet and b. I'm bored.

Don't turn your back on me

noreply@blogger.com (Marilyn) — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 13:47:00 +0000

Taking photos of strangers is always tricky. You don't want them to notice you and they don't really want you to take a photo of them - which I understand. Therefore, I always end up taking a lot of photos of people from their back. I already shared many of them in my previous posts (they are all in a new set on my FlickR) but here are a few more.

Paris Random #1

noreply@blogger.com (Marilyn) — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 18:30:00 +0000

Because being organized on this blog has not been my specialty yet, you'll have to put up with regular "Paris Random". I have roughtly two years of photos I could share and don't know how (in an organized way). Except for the last one, those are from September.

Another version of this advertising

=>More photos of Paris