while doing the laundry today,

I noticed a few things.

+ I like grey. A LOT. I have 7 grey T-shirts, two of which are the same. I think I wear a grey shirt about 4 days per week.

+ I haven't done my laundry since Christmas. Woops.

+ I like to pair all the grey with a little shocker of a color. Orange works really well, so does lime green.

+ I have about 10 cardigan sweaters. Two are the same color of lime green. Well, it's more of a yellowish muted green, kind of like the "art in everyday life" header.

+ Even my bed goes with the theme: green sheets, grey blanket, orange pillows.

So, the conclusion is this:
life isn't black and white.

A taste of LA

The Grand Central Market: an eclectic mix of culture, an opportunity to interact with new people, and it's only a metro-ride away. I would love to live in the city sometime soon, simply for the opportunity to discover new people and new places like we did this afternoon.


Alex, Justin and Jon .
This is the sweet woman who took our picture

So there was this...minty milk. Advice: you shouldn't buy it.
Jon and Monica, way to be tough.

Yeah, it was REALLY bright.
Denise, thank you for being my model, every day of my life.
The exposures would be off without you.

Papa CEO apparently couldn't quite drive his stick-shift Mercedes...

Shannon Leith

25 cent dry

WHO KNEW?? Right around the corner from my school is a small laundromat. The other day, I went to buy some apples from Stater Bros. and as I was walking in I saw this small gem. It's classic. A long line of washers on one side, dryers on the other. Old silk flowers line the middle, and there are cute signs all over the walls. This is my third year living at Biola, and I have never become aware of this wonderful photography studio until now.

But hey, the timing was perfect:
just in time for our new staff photo!

Here's me, Juli, Alex, Rachel, Heidi, Monica, Denise, Jon, Justin, and Katie.
you can double click to see it larger

We are RA's in Sigma together, one of the dorms on campus, and my-oh-my do we ever have a blast. We've been preparing all week to head into spring semester, and today part of the agenda included this photo shoot to update our wall. On the docket for tomorrow: Grand Central Market in LA! Exploring that city is one of my top five favorite things to do, so tomorrow will be such a blast, especially since I've never been there before.

Get in gear for an debrief of our adventures!

Shannon Leith

Here is an album:

These are photos from a trip I took to Europe in 2005.
Finally after two years, an album!

Along with photography, I really enjoy graphic design.
Designing this book provided hours upon hours of fun :)

If you'd like to see more, here's the whole thing: http://shannonleith.com/europe/
>> The song you'll hear is Jason Morant's 51st,
and is guaranteed to bring delight to the room.




:: News! ::
My new website is coming soon, thanks to my friend Alex,
a wonderful graphic designer. I am so jazzed!
For now, its a slideshow-party.

from McNally82 @ night

Picnic in the hall

Blythe and I wanted to have lunch together, and decided to ditch Panera and embrace...the hall.

On our menu:
Spiral Macaroni and Cheese
Avacado and Tomatoes on Crackers
Raspberry Jello
Water
Mixed Greens with Cranberries
Hawaiian Bread
Peanut Butter
and Apples.

It was a joint effort: we both scoured our cupboards and contributed anything that we had. In my case, I looked all around my 15'x15' dorm room-- on shelves, in my mini-fridge, in drawers, and in the community fridge, and gathered whatever I could.

I love eclectic adventures, especially alongside a dear friend.
Blythe and I will grow old together, guaranteed.

bow to the 4x5

One of my favorite photography ventures has been learning to use the 4x5 large format camera. If you're not a photo fanatic like me, just think: the big accordian cameras on tripods with a black cloth to put over your head. Translated: they're very large, and very wonderful.

I explored the day-to-day lives of some of the girls on my floor by going to their room, setting up the camera, and taking a photograph of them in their real environment. These are all girls who live on my floor, the Max, where I am an RA. There were no outfit changes, no one cleaned up the mess on the floor, and I gave no direction as to how they were supposed to pose. I usually took the picture while we were having a conversation, without them noticing. I love the style of image that the 4x5 camera makes. I didn't do any retouching or adjustments. The authenticity of each person that came through is so beautiful to me.

My inspiration: Alec Soth.

Jen

Annelise

Jesse

Lindsay and Juli

Rosanna and Beth

Melissa

Nova Express

One of my favorite places to be is Nova Express, a space-themed restaurant in LA. The environment is entirely mellow, almost hypnotic, with their spacey music, low lighting, and the dim glow of lava lamps and black lights. A giant alien hangs in the corner of the restaurant, the beauty being that the owner made it himself. Genius. On top of the environment being perfect, their food is outstanding; I highly recommend their pizza because the crust is to die for. It has a hint of honey in it-- it's the most unique, delicious pizza i've ever tasted. It's open from 7pm-2am Monday-Thursday, and 7pm-FOUR A.M.! from Friday-Sunday, making it the most ideal place to go for a night out (or, as I did-- to study astronomy in a conducive atmosphere). They often have live bands playing there, and there are even book clubs that meet there on a regular basis. On top of all that, the staff is great too! They're all so relaxed and nice. And again-- the food. Tonight I had cheesecake with fresh berries, and it was incredible.

Bonus: Nova means new star.

Buy these and you will melt

Since it's only a week and a half until classes start for spring (AHH!), I have all my textbooks coming in the mail right now. I get a package almost every day, which adds excitement to the astronomy-filled days.

Well, yesterday, I got another package slip of course, and when they handed it to me, it was books. Of course.

BUT WAIT! I looked at the return address, and it was from these amazing folks at Ex Libris Anonymous, aka: BOOK JOURNALS! "What? I haven't ordered anything from here in months!"

A little background info on what I'm talking about. This company makes journals out of old books. They put blank pages in between the original pages of old books, and bind it all together to make a completely new, but still vintage journal. What is so great is that each one is so unique. I have a bunch made from old photography books, one called "Enchanted Stories" (every time I open it I feel like I'm writing a kids fantasy novel or something), they have old geometry text books made into journals, and old advice books like "How to Eat Right and Keep Fit". Essentially, they have anything you could ever imagine. Please look at the link, and fall in love. Tell me which one you buy.

Here's where the heart-melting part of the story comes in. Around Christmastime, I was looking on their website, loving everything I saw. I already have about 4 of these, and have already filled them all up. Being in the market for a new journal, I of course fell in love with every single one on their site, and narrowed it down to four. When I went to buy them, something happened and I couldn't find my credit card. I searched everywhere, and it was gone. The next day, I went back to buy them, and decided to just skip it and save the money. I sent them an email to cancel my order, telling them to have-no-fear, I would be a lifelong customer, but that right now it was more important to try and get OUT of debt, not plunge further in.

Feeling quite proud of myself for the decision, I went on with life.

Fast-forward to yesterday! MY JOURNALS ARRIVED IN THE MAIL!! I almost cried I was so happy. They just, mailed them to me for free. Wow-- I am still in shock. Even though I was already a die-hard fan, I have now fallen even harder into a complete fanatic, and everyone I know will be receiving a journal for their birthday, Christmas, etc. (not my free ones. I'm not that cheap, and they are now my symbols of grace.)

So, thank you, Jasmine and Jacob (the owners of Ex). You gave light to my day. I think I will remember my free journal in the mail story for the rest of my life.

*sigh*

Griffith + a Mini Photoshop Tutorial

Rauly, Nate and I went to the Griffith Observatory today-- one of the highlights: stopping at a random Indian food place in LA for lunch! We had no idea what we were eating, but it was pretty good. Well, we probably won't go back ever again, but it was fun in the moment.

Here's some shots from the Observatory. I photoshopped these things to death, and thought I'd show you my process. I usually don't do crazy color things with my images, but felt like going wild with these ones since they were classic touristy i'm at a musem with my friends pictures. Plus- what better way to NOT do homework?

Here's what I did in Photoshop. (Each of these are a new layer)
- My Color Balance numbers were at -57, -68, and -100. I duplicated this layer so that it made them even more yellow-green
- I made the image black and white, and took the opacity down to 26%
- I made about 4 different S curves to make the images more contrasty, and lightened them using levels.
- I made a vignette around the edge. I have Kevin Kubota's Action Pack 1, and it comes in there.
Regarding the size, I decided to crop them like this because each of the images had dead space at either the top or the bottom. Cropping them to a panoramic size helped bring more focus to the subject of each photo.
And finally, sharpened the important parts of each image.
The end result looks like kind of a mix between a cross-processed image and a holga-- and all they needed was a little love.

Without further to do, the first original:

and then...WOW!


from blah

to ZING


at first I looked like an eclipsed sun

and now i dont!


Oh, our field trip was cancelled for yesterday. No night photos...

Also-- thanks to everyone who has been commenting-- if you have thoughts while you're reading entries, write me a small note. It will most likely make my day. :)

Nathan and Rauly-- a fun multicultural day learning about how we're...stardust.