A Smörgåsbord of Editorialography

We returned late last night from our too-brief, two-day, camping trip. It was a blast! It was our first time camping at Pancho Park, officially known as Leo Carrillo State Park. As Southern California's beach-side campgrounds go, Leo Carrillo *is* all that and a bag of chips! (I call Leo Carrillo SP "Pancho Park" because it's named for the actor who played Pancho in The Cisco Kid TV series of yore. Hmmm... Guess I just dated myself.) What I think makes Leo Carrillo so cool is this: Although you camp in a large, densely-wooded ravine, a short, 5-minute stroll delivers you onto a beautiful, Malibu beach!

I would give Leo Carrillo the #2 rating for SoCal beachside campgrounds. For me, though, Refugio State Beach remains Numero Uno. And a lot of people probably agree with me on that one. For the summer months, Refugio is the second-toughest campground in California to secure a reservation. Only Yosemite National Park is tougher to book. In Refugio's defense, it never had the likes of Ansel Adams snapping pictures on its grounds. Had Ansel shot some Refugio pics, well, who knows?

Anyway, the weather was picture-postcard-perfect. Even at 5:00 A.M., the temperature didn't dip below 70-something. The daytime highs were in the high-80s and it might have even moved into the low-90s. I kept my skin armored with SPF 30 so I'm in no pain as a result of some excessive exposure to the sun. Funniest thing heard at the campground was a man's voice, from a few campsites over, at about midnight: "Come back!" He yelled. "I have a condom!" I don't want to give anyone the wrong impression of the campground. It's totally family-friendly. We were sitting around the campfire when we heard that and we laughed our asses off.

Back to photography:

Over on Ron Haggart's A Photo Editor blog, the APE Man has put together a slide show showcasing the work of 297 photographers. Not long ago, Haggart put out a call for shooters to submit and, while I'm not sure how many of them did so, the APE dude gleaned 297 images for his final cut.

It's quite interesting perusing the images APE put together. It held my attention for however long it took me to go through them. And it's quite an eclectic mix of photos: Everything from whimsical snapshotery to carefully produced imagery and all stops in between. If you've thought about jumping into the editorial photography game, APE's slide show just might be a good intro; giving you a decent idea of the kind of work photo editors and art buyers might be interested in purchasing and/or commissioning.

The pretty girl at the top is Mia. The pic, another from last week's location shoot, is one of those images where I try to sneak some (lame?) artsy-ish stuff--when no one's looking--while they're paying me to capture T&A. I lit Mia with two lights: A bare bulb for my key, modified with a silk scrim, and a bare bulb boomed high and behind her, modified with a 30-degree honeycomb grid.

Oh! And before I forget, Leesa has a request. It seems she entered some contest where she had to write a short version of a personal horror story she's had dealing with a cell phone provider. Well, she's in the semi-finals! If you're anything like me and you spend a fair amount of time mindlessly wandering the web, maybe you could allocate a bit of that time and mindlessly wander over to the site I'm about to give you and vote for Leesa's cell-phone horror story? Unfortunately, they ask you to register. And they're probly gonna send you some cell-phone-related junk but, Hey! It's not like you're not already getting junk in your email, right?

Leesa says: "Okay, i'm in the semi-finals of this contest....ultimate prize is $10,000....PULLLLEAZZZZZE vote for me."

Here's the link: No-Evil.net Contest. Leesa is one of the two players in the Match 1, semi-finals. Click on "Match 1" under the semi-finals and you'll be able to read Leesa's and her opponent's tale of cell-phone evilness. BTW, it seems Leesa has arrived at the semi-finals without previously asking anyone to vote for her. She entered this contest some time ago ago and, just today, received and email informing her she's made it to the semi-finals. Cool, huh? Voting for the semi-finals round ends 4-18-08. So what are you waiting for? Register and VOTE FOR LEESA!!!!! (Please?)

Here's another shot of Mia in front of that sculpture on the wall. (Is it me? Or does this stuff of Mia look, I dunno, very 50s Germanic art nude-ish?)