Venice Beach | YOUR MOMENT OF ZEN-tz

Welcome to Venice

Feb 232011

Welcome to Venice, Lindsay Lohan

What with yet another round of courtroom proceedings occurring today that very well may put Lindsay Lohan back in jail, I thought it would be timely to post this shot, which I took last week while walking the neighborhood. The colorful mural, which I quite like, is painted on the exterior fence of a home across the street from where we live. I regularly see people stopping to take a picture of her and one day decided to do the same. I just noticed this, but I wonder if that necklace is the one she stole? Could this be admissible evidence? Probably not, since this was painted weeks ago, just after news spread that Lohan was moving to Dogtown. Still though, she obviously likes her neckwear.

Lindsay has been the inspiration for a lot of art around here lately, in fact. During the recent Venice Art Crawl, local photographer Rick Duncan teamed up with The Ave., a local custom shoe and t-shirt designing company, to create Lohan and other troubled celeb-inspired (Charlie Sheen, for one) mug shots. Below is one of me. Looks like it was a rough night! You can see more on The Ave.’s Facebook page.

Oh, the joys of life in LA.

Photo by Rick Duncan and The Ave.

Venice Art Crawl

events, venice No Responses »

Feb 182011

Venice Art Crawl at Santino's Venice Beach

Graham Gilmore's photos at Santino's

Jay Brockman paintings at Bondi BBQ

Last night we had a great time at the Venice Art Crawl, the 7th installation of the monthly Venice Beach arts event. As always, there were numerous events throughout Venice, with shows at numerous venues throughout the boardwalk area. Artist’s included everything from first-time exhibiters like photographer Matt Branham, to Venice heavyweights Rip Cronk and William Attaway. We didn’t hit everything, but managed to take in a good majority of the shows. There are a couple more pics after the jump, and a larger gallery posted on my Facebook page. If you’ve never checked out the VAC, be sure to hit it up. It’s every third Thursday. More info at www.veniceartcrawl.com. I didn’t show this month, but plan on doing so next month. Stay tuned!

Venice Art Crawl

events, uncategorized, venice 3 Responses »

Dec 202010

Venice Art Crawl - December 2010

Video projection art installation Market Street, Venice California

Video projection by Jesse Nikette on Market Street

Live poetry reading by James Berkowitz at the Venice Art Crawl

Live poetry readings by James Berkowitz

The December Venice Art Crawl appeared to be a success, with solid crowds braving the (relative) cold and darkness (no argument there) to come down to the beach and enjoy some local art. This month had numerous exhibitions, including a cluster of video installations on Market Street, collectively called December Lights. The street was illuminated with numerous video projections lighting up buildings from rooftops across the street, including an interactive projection of the Nintendo classic, Donkey Kong, which participants could play by holding up a cutout of Mario and running his shadow up the wall. Pretty fun! The evening flew by, and we eventually found ourselves at an afterparty before suddenly waking up the next morning with a dull throbbing in our heads. A reminder that a good time was had. Looking forward to next month!

Venice Reconstituted, again

random, uncategorized, venice No Responses »

Nov 172010

Rip Cronk repaints Venice Reconstituted on Speedway Ave. in Venice, California

Venice Skatepark at sunset

$5 massage?

I went out for an aimless stroll along the boardwalk and beach as the sun was going down a couple nights ago. Along the way I stopped by to watch Venice artist Rip Cronk work on the latest incarnation of his famed Venice Reconstituted (1989), which is a large-scale mural on the side of the building that is currently home to Danny’s Deli and the Venice Beach Cotel (no Mom, that’s not a typo). Prior to being reconstituted, it was known as Venice on the Half Shell (1980), an obvious mix of Venus on the Half Shell and scenes from Venice culture, most notably local boardwalk legend Harry Perry. Unlike the previous two versions, this one has been raised above the first floor level to cover the entire three story building. This not only makes it much more visible, but will help protect the majority of it from the relentless taggers that over time destroyed Reconstituted. While Venus on the Half Shell was Cronk’s first mural, he completed the majority of the murals that have become icons of Venice Beach during the late 80′s and 90′s, including the Jim Morrison mural on Speedway and the Homage to a Starry Knight (again not a typo) along Ocean Front Walk. Cool to be able to catch him in action! Check out his work at http://www.rcronk.com/.

Polly wants lunch

humor, random, venice No Responses »

Nov 122010

A parrot eyes plates of food at the Venice Ale House

Just a quick shot of a visitor that joined us while lunching at the Venice Ale House last week. The owner set him down on the railing before coming in for lunch. It hung out for awhile before scooching over our way to see what was on the menu.

Lance and Sarah's Los Angeles Arboretum wedding

events, weddings 4 Responses »

Aug 232010

Lance & Sarah’s Los Angeles County Arboretum wedding – Images by David Zentz Weddings

Last weekend I had the pleasure of photographing the wedding of Lance and Sarah in the Rose Garden at the Los Angeles County Arboretum. The couple, who live in San Francisco, were one of the first to book me after I moved to Los Angeles, well in advance of the big day. It was wonderful to finally witness their wedding after such a long time planning.

The couple started the day at the luxurious Langham Hotel in Pasadena where they each prepared for the day with their families. Then we all moved down the road to the equally beautiful grounds of the L.A. Arboretum for the ceremony and reception. Both were held in the Arboretum’s Rose Garden, which was the perfect setting for a small wedding such as theirs. The ceremony was held just at as the sun was setting, providing a beautiful warm glow to the scene. During the ceremony they had a unique ceremony called a ‘ring warming,’ in which the rings are passed from guest to guest before being exchanged by the couple. Following the reception I went off with the couple to take some portraits in the nearby herb garden while the guests enjoyed cocktails as the ceremonial space was converted to a reception space. A delicious dinner was then was prepared and presented by Contemporary Catering of Encino. After the reception wound down the couple then stayed behind to share a quiet and touching moment alone before exiting to a grand a sparkler send off. Following the affair everyone moved back to the Langham for a fun afterparty in the couple’s bungalow suite.

Overall it was a great day and I wish the couple much success in the future!

Venice Art Crawl

events, news, venice 2 Responses »

Aug 202010

Hanging art on Market St.

Venice Art Crawl After Party at Video Army

The inaugural Venice Art Crawl launched with a bang last night with a solid crowd showing up to check out the numerous local artists who were showing at pop-up galleries mostly located between the Boardwalk and Pacific Ave. I was showing my own work at Nikki’s alongside artist Scott Simon (check out his work here) and was also working the event as a volunteer, so I didn’t have much time to get out to all the venues, but I did manage a quick lap and took a few photos along the way. It was great seeing so many artists participating in the first event. A good sign that the event will continue to grow in the coming months. After the crawl wrapped up we made our way over to the official afterparty at Video Army, a new production company located on Pacific Ave. It was a fun environment with lots of people dancing and great light for shooting. After the party wound down we hit up a nearby taco truck and made our way home. Really a successful night if you ask me. Looking forward to next month!

Incognito

random, venice No Responses »

Apr 222010

Incognito on Abbot Kinney, Venice, Calif.

Henry Hopper on Abbot Kinney, Venice, Calif.

A random encounter with Henry Hopper and friends who were sitting in front of Abbot’s Habit coffee shop on Abbot Kinney today. Reason for the mask? I didn’t ask.

Red, white and blue

random, venice No Responses »

Apr 082010

Fake horses in a pickup truck, Venice, Calif.

When taking this picture a guy passed by me and said that he’s always wondered when seeing quirky photos if the scenes pictured were set up or found. I can’t speak for anyone else, but with the exception of asking my girlfriend to lay in a field of mosquito-ridden ivy, I prefer to wait for the quirky situations to unfold naturally rather than make them up. And living in Venice there are plenty of opportunities if you keep your camera close at hand. I have no idea what the large plastic horses were for, and in this case I think I prefer not to know. It’s more fun to imagine, no?

This is also the first post on using this new blog template. How better to celebrate than with a blue horse?! I was looking for a new template for awhile and finally came across this one that allows a perfect combination of big photos, widgets (those things in the right column) that aren’t buried at the bottom of the page, and super-easy customization. I’ve spent hours with previous blog templates customizing the css code and much prefer the built in customization tools this theme has on the back end. Anyway, that’s probably too much information for most of you, but I hope you like it!

Fisheye

random No Responses »

Feb 032010

For the assignment from my previous post I decided to rent a fisheye lens to emphasize the spherical shape of the light stage. I picked up the lens the night before and decided to go out and play with it on Venice Beach in the waning evening light. There wasn’t much time but these are a couple frames I liked.

Older Entries Newer Entries

Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha

YOUR MOMENT OF ZEN-tz

Welcome to Venice

Venice Art Crawl

Venice Art Crawl

Venice Reconstituted, again

Polly wants lunch

Lance and Sarah's Los Angeles Arboretum wedding

Venice Art Crawl

Incognito

Red, white and blue

Fisheye

Receive YOUR Moment of Zentz via email!

Follow me on Facebook!

Recent tweets

Suggested reads

My other sites

Inspiration

About