#MBsociallydriven: Exploring My Los Angeles, Part 1

SPONSORED, UNPAID 

I’m partnering with Mercedes-Benz to share my version of Los Angeles.
I used a special MB provided App to create this slide show culled from my Instagram feed.

THAT went fast, right?
Hey, kids, slow it down for us OLD PEOPLE!!!!!

Here are the individual photos, which you can linger over at your leisure:

The obligatory cliche Venice Beach shot. 

Chasing a giant spool on the I-105 for my #dailytruck project.
Pay no attention to my hazardous driving skillz.
The App didn't "recognize" any of my Waterlogue images, so I gamed my IG and added a source image.

Dave and Phil Alvin sketched at the Ruth B Shannon in Whittier.
I got their autographs on the sketch after the show!
This image may disallow my entry, are the Alvin brothers "celebrities"? Is a sketch of celebrities OK?
Shoot, I was thinking of doing a "My Oscars" one today...

Food. Had to include a food shot.
These Kranse Cakes are awesome and I want one NOW!
Copenhagen Pastry, Culver City. Read a detailed review on my Dessert blog.

The Mobile Studio in the back seat of my car.
I haven't been #lunchbreakfashionsketching all that much lately. I'm needing a rest period.

Wow, these photos are like a tour of my various blogs!
That's My Instagram for you, EVERYTHING in one place.

[Nerd alert]
My Inspector SpyGirl study of what the App liked on my IG.
Did not like the new multi-image album nor the Waterlogues, among other things. Why didn't it like "BOOM!"? So sad! It liked Severo a lot, that's for sure. And my #COTDstyle shots. And all the "Good morning"s.
[I made screenshots of my IG feed. The App goes back only one month. It also loads the images in reverse chronological order. Unable to rearrange images for the slideshow].

You're welcome to click on image to see bigger.
Orange √ = top App picks
Red √ = all other picks
There is some overlap at the top from gaming IG after I first tried the App.

So, what's YOUR version of [insert city name]?
If you live in or plan on visiting NYC, LA, Chicago, Austin, Miami, or Denver, Mercedes-Benz is inviting you to share your city in a simple and artistic way on Instagram. It's easy—you create a quick (but beautiful) animated album of 5 of your best geotagged photos and upload it to Instagram. [Once I get the green light, I'll add the link to the App. You have to connect through your smart device]. Then, you share your album on your feed with the hashtag #MBsociallydriven—and your photos might be featured on the Mercedes-Benz website! Get busy, the deadline is March 5.
MB suggests these guidelines:
Because this is a Mercedes-Benz brand initiative, please avoid posting the following types of photos (as much as we love them): competing car brands, celebrities, outdoor murals and graffiti, images that primarily focus on tattoos, advertising, and profanity.


[Nerd Alert part 2]
Check out the City Colorways on the MB site --
ALL THE NYC VIDEO COVERS ARE BLACK AND WHITE! And Miami is all blue! SO WEIRD!
Also, it looks like every city got its own font. Pattern Recognition, people. Pattern Recognition.

Ready to rediscover your city?

If you DON'T live in one of those 6 cities, share your local 5-image slideshow here!
If you can think of an existing App to make the slideshow, please mention it in the comments.
HAVE FUN! LOOKING FORWARD TO YOUR EFFORTS!

Olowu Shirt, Act I: Sleep With the Fishes

LINKS/ PURLOINED/ PURCHASED/ GIFTED

I finally took The Shirt out on the town. I wore this on Friday to see The Great Gatsby. I went with Ruth and we ran into Heather. For such a large metropolis, LA can be a village! I'll discuss Gatsby later. I'm still cogitating on it.

Now fasten your seatbelt, I'm introducing you to my favorite new app: Tiny Planets [for iPhone, 99¢, for Android, $2.99].
It takes a photo and bends it into a sphere.
I'm using it for my #ootd shots now because it is so stellar!

Inside the net of fishes lies the Planet Olowu!

If your head is spinning, jet on over to Patti's Visible Planet.
She'll cure what ails ya.

IG Photo a Day May

Here's a photo-a-day project hosted by Katy of Modly Chic:
Instagram photos, themed for fashion and beauty. You can see the topics below and you can participate as much or as little as you want. Have some fun!
Here’s how it works. Find the theme for the day… So, if it is May 9th you need to photograph something that is green. From there, post the photo to Instagram and tag it with the #FBPhotoADayMay hashtag. Publish and with that you are done.

image from Modly Chic

 Here are my first two:

May 1: mirror

May 2: accessory

Find me on Instagram as @annembray
Or, they'll feed on Webstagram and my Tumblr

365 project update

link to Pose post

If you're my contact on Facebook (personal, not SpyGirl page), Instagram, Twitter (@annembray) or Pose, you have been getting the daily feed of my 365 project: "365 Days of Jewelry" If not, and you were hoping to see it on Flickr, um, sorry about that -- I'm WAY behind on my Flickr uploading.

I just took a bunch of screenshots from Pose, thinking I'd do a big recap for the however many days [I'm not counting] I've been at it. I changed my mind -- it would make this post gigantic. Here are the most recent five days:

Some thoughts I have about Pose and my process on this project:

Pose:
The app is still very clunky. HATE that I can't delete misfires (see upper earring shot that I accidentally tagged as a "romper" and then accidentally hit the done button. I ran into a room with no phone coverage - not difficult at my house! - so that it wouldn't upload but it uploaded at work anyway. Grrrrr). Tagging items is difficult with my fat fingers and slow 3G phone service. Wish it was available for iPad. Uploads are not all in chronological order. I will carry on using it, despite all this. Maybe it'll improve during the course of the year...

iPhone photography:

I got a macro lens that I absolutely adore and that's very helpful for capturing tiny items and details on rings. I wish there was a lens for close-but-not-macro (and if you know of one, please share!). A lot of the bracelets and larger pins + earrings are out of focus. On work days, it's still dark in the morning, so the images have suffered from low contrast. Sometimes I process the images in the PS Express app though that sometimes backfires, making things too pixellated.

Aesthetics + process:
My jewelry styling is improving, it's been a good learning process. The best part of this, BY FAR, is going through my piles of jewelry and scarves! I've been cruising down memory lane big time -- I'm on the memory interstate! Most of my backgrounds are scarves, textiles or objects from the shops, locations or era of the jewelry piece. I see a whole bunch of blog posts fomenting. With the ethnic pieces, I've been trying to research their origins. I recently shot a necklace on a mudcloth textile, thinking they were both from Mali and then discovered that the necklace is from a tribe in northern Kenya. Oops! Scrap that one... here's the shot I won't use:

In summery, so far, so good.
I'll update you again in a month or so...