Costume Characters And Tourists On Sunset Boulevard

Over the weekend, I took a field trip to walk around and observe the costume characters working the streets in front of the Chinese theater in Hollywood.  There are several characters walking around hoping that you will take their photograph for cash and plenty of tourists taking them up on it.  At first, it was exciting to be there since I don't think I've ever toured the area or at least I have no memory of it.  Shortly after arriving, the initial excitement wore off and I started feeling a bit sad for the people in the costumes and the children in the middle of the chaos.

I started snapping away as soon as I arrived and I took a photo of the back of "Darth Vador's" head while he was out of the costume and he immediately walked towards me and confronted me about it.  Being true to his character, he was not the nicest of people and I decided just to walk away and avoid any further contact.  He yelled at me and told me to delete the photo.  It was the back of his head and we are in a public place so I told him I wouldn't delete it and I suppose that wasn't what he wanted to hear.  I did eventually delete it once I uploaded the images. I didn't really have any interest in remembering him anyway.

Most of the other characters were a bit nicer.  I saw a lot of money exchange hands throughout the day and started thinking about what tourists spend their money on.  I'm sure it's fun for people to see the star tiles along the streets and hand prints of famous people in cement but I hope that they are also taking their kids to our National Parks.  Perhaps they are.  I'd like to think that at least.

Here are a few photographs from the couple of hours that I was there.  You be the judge.

International Women's Day

It's wonderful that women have a day to themselves to celebrate being a woman, throughout the world!

Yay!

Um...now what?  I wasn't sure how to celebrate today but since we have this great technology where we can instantly find answers to just about any question we can imagine, I can just search the phrase, "how do you celebrate International Women's Day?" on google and voila!  Everything I ever wanted to know! Well, sort of.  I found other websites asking the same questions but I would recommend going to the source and read all about it on the official International Women's Day website.

On the website, there seems to be a lot of celebrating going on, at least in the virtual world.  The 591 Photography blog decided to dedicate today to female photographers and lucky for me, I was selected among some amazing artists.  I am grateful to be a part of the group.  Now go out and celebrate that special woman in your life!

Las Vegas On My iPhone

Over the weekend, I surprised my best friend Dan and showed up in a limo that his girlfriend rented to take him to the speedway to drive fast cars.  Max and I arrived in the city the night before and I decided to walk around and take some photos with my iphone.  If you like to people watch, this is one of the best cities to do it in, although the highlight of the trip was surprising Dan in the limo.  We both got emotional after the "surprise!" and I was glad I was able to capture that in a photograph.  During the day, I took Max to the dog park and we explored areas off of the strip but I did join the masses on the strip a few nights to soak in the atmosphere.  One evening for kicks, I sat in the lobby of the Bellagio and took pictures of the ceiling and then watched what happened after people watched me.  There is a chain reaction when someone sees you take a photo of something, they MUST do the same!  That was my excitement for the night.  On another night, we went downtown to see another side of Vegas.  All and all, it was a very interesting trip since I haven't been in years.  It's an adult fantasyland with some very sad undertones, in my opinion. Here are some images from the festivities.  Happy Birthday Dan!