Fresh Rolls for 2013

I’ve been shooting a bunch of film lately since I’m Mr.Unemployed guy, and with an interest to keep this blog rolling with fresh content, I present you with a couple photos from my first two rolls of 2013.  When I get around to developing the pile of exposed film on my desk, I’ll post some more.  Check out more of my photography work on my now extremely outdated site; photo.benmook.com 

An alleyway in Echo Park

Somewhere in Highland Park

Vasquez Rocks

Total distance: 105.12 mi
Total climbing: 7232 ft
Download file: 20130111.gpx

 

Photos by Marcel M, stolen from Facebook.

PIZZA!

I have a problem.  A pizza problem; I absolutely love everything about pizza. So, what better way to enjoy pizza than to build one DIY style?  With his particular concoction, you don’t need to let the dough rise so you can eat pizza faster.  Let’s start with the basic dough recipe.  In a medium to large mixing bowl add the following and mix very well.  The dough should be slightly sticky and dry.  This should result in 3 12″ thin crust pies.

3 cups flour
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F)

Let’s get into the sauce.  While this is still extremely experimental for me at the moment, so I will show you what I’ve been using recently. If I was in your kitchen I would probably add quite a bit more into the sauce depending on what is in your spice rack.  All of this can be mixed right into the can of tomato sauce; stir well.

1 can tomato sauce
1 tablespoon oregeno
1 teaspoon sugar
1 heavy squirt of Sriracha hot sauce
1 teaspoon garlic salt

Roll out the dough using a generous amount of flower to keeps things from staying sticky.  Top the pizza with a generous amount of sauce and fresh graded mozzarella cheese.  Vegetables that have a lot of water should be cut thin, salted to extract water then dried to keep the crust crispy.  Use a bit of olive oil around the crust to enhance flavor.  Bake on a pizza stone or baking sheet for 20-25 minutes at 375 degrees F.

Enjoy!

 

Motorcycle trip; complete map.

Here we go, all the .gpx files I collected along my motorcycle trip, on one big map.  Unfortunatly, this file is much to large (7.7 MB) for Google Maps to parse, so it’s represented as a static image.  I used the command line tool gpsbabel to merge 35+ tracks together.  Check out my blog post about this tool here. –> https://blog.benmook.com/185/

Download the final .gpx file here

Anna

Every once in a while I am presented with the pleasure to photograph someone truly unique and verbose.  Like many of my subjects, Anna is an aspiring actress, model, and dancer who attends college and majors in theater arts.  Here is my favorite from a series of photos we shot in North Hollywood.

Anna in North Hollywood

 

Porn Star Karaoke

Going to the valley was my first mistake, but I digress.

Firstly, the name of the event is misleading. One would expect from the name “Porn Star Karaoke”, that there would be actual porn stars there as the name suggests. I didn’t find this to be true. While I admit I’m not up to date with the current lineup of industry professionals in the “biz”, it was pretty apparent the patrons of the bar were not porn stars. From what I observed, the few women sporting flashy dresses, bleach blond hair and excessive cleavage were most likely straight off the Greyhound with a one way ticket from Iowa and they probably haven’t even been fucked in front of a production crew yet. I imagine that for them, attending this event was viewed as a networking opportunity; a chance to show leading professionals that they have what it takes to work in such a competitive industry.

Second, the men who attended the event were a mixed bag. While I was delightfully surprised to see a friend there, I was equally disgusted by the old fat guys wearing Ferrari jackets complete with bimbo barbie babes as their flashy accessory. Surely, this must be the pinacle of achieving a high social status! As for everyone else, it seemed that they were just stuck in the valley, and didn’t have much else to do. At least the drinks were not excessively expensive, and the bouncers did their job. I know this because tested the performance of the security staff. I started off by purchasing a small bottle of champagne for my friend Tricia, drank half of it out of the bottle in the most classy way possible, then stuffed it in my pants while proceeding to exit the establishment. While using the automated teller machine adjacent to the bar, a member of the security staff removed the bottle from my pants. Good job boys!

Lastly, I found the songs that were selected by the performers were dubious. Obviously music taste is extremely subjective, but for me the masterpieces from highly regarded international artists such as Papa Roach, System of a Down, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and Limp Bizket were not inspiring enough to get my intoxicated self onto the stage to pour my lonely little heart out. I must admit that one performer really nailed the song “Blind” by the American rock group, Korn. I was impressed by the audio quality of the venues sound system. The ambient noise levels exceeded 100db but yet the bass was tight and solid and the treble was sparkly and clean.

All this being said, I had a great time and I would recommend attending the event. I wanted to stab myself in the neck mainly because I was in Spermbank. You won’t be disappointed.

Photographing Leslie

Leslie is a bubbly redhead, model, and actress living in LA.  Since I love photographing people, I stuck a roll of Tri-X into my beloved camera and shot some photos for her look book.  Below are two of my favorites from the shoot.

Somewhere in Korea Town, Los Angeles

Vermont and 3rd, Los Angeles

Lost/ Random photos

When I mailed my big ass DSLR back to LA, I forgot to take the photos off of the card!  Now that I’m back, here are those images.  Also included are images from my phone, and stuff from Facebook.