the bu blog

Orange November

2009-11-20T15:06:00.000-08:00

Pleasure boaters enjoy a pumpkin-colored sunset off Malibu Lagoon, courtesy of a mild Santa Ana wind condition. Transplanted Easterners may long for autumn leaves and the season’s first snow, but longtime locals anticipate Thanksgiving Malibu-style—with sunny days, dramatic sunset and sunrise skies, clear starry nights and miles of quiet and solitude on near-empty beaches. MSN

Misty Malibu Morning

2009-10-25T15:34:00.000-07:00

This morning was a beautiful Malibu morning; fresh misty marine layer receding inland, gentle morning light, and crisp clean air.

Before the Storm

2009-10-13T16:58:00.001-07:00

Finally! Our first rain of the season. The dramatically beautiful sunset sky last night foreshadows the desperately needed storm's arrival.

In the water at Broad Beach

2009-06-29T13:14:00.000-07:00

The June gloom is relentless, but the sun never completely relinquishes it's thrown and by early afternoon it is back in power. Seeing that blue sky finally peep through the misty marine layer is always quite magical, especially when seen from the water.

And with the sun comes this amazing color...

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Cross Creek Egret Nest

2009-06-18T23:02:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I discovered a Snowy Egret nest down at Cross Creek. I would estimate that there are at least 20 birds inhabiting the large Ficus. The overcast skies kept me from getting a good shot for over a week, but finally the blue sky came through.

Birds in a nest must agree...

Beautiful Light

2009-06-17T19:40:00.000-07:00

In between the spurts of June gloom we've had some beautiful summer weather. The afternoon "magic hour" light is especially beautiful when it follows a morning of ominous thunder clouds and misty showers.

Gold Rush

2009-05-28T01:07:00.000-07:00

Wave-washed rock outcroppings at Little Dume Cove glisten like giant nuggets of the yellow precious metal, the element with the atomic number 79, that played such an important role in the early history of California. Hues of sunlit gold flash everywhere from the temporarily inviolate sand to the jagged overhangs that immerse the visitor into the forces of creation that reflect the oneness of the land and the sea.

another angle:

Windy Day Reconnoiter - Coreopsis

2009-04-03T20:48:00.000-07:00

As featured in this weeks Malibu Surfside News:

Nature's Spring Bounty and a Malibu Pioneer's Artwork Converge * Generations Are Bonded by the Desire to Share Their Love of the Area's Special Beauty

Grandpa was a spring child. His love of gardens, flowers, and landscape was powerful, and evident in his passion for painting them. Sidney Arnold Franklin, Sr. was born in San Francisco on the 21st of March 1891. However, he spent most of his adult life in West Los Angeles and Malibu.

Grandpa’s painting of the coreopsis was done in Malibu after he retired here after a 50-year career directing and producing in Hollywood. He had been vacationing in the area since the early 1920s.

My mother, also an accomplished artist, Victoria Franklin-Dillon, said about his career, “His early films are in the Library of Congress and museum collections. He worked for D.W. Griffith on “Intolerance” and made his first features under Griffith’s guidance.”

She added, “[Grandpa] had a career in the movie industry that spanned from its inception in Hollywood to his retirement, due to his wife Ruth’s illness in the early 1960s. It was then that he backed off the preparation of the production of “Ben Hur” and his friend William Wyler took over. This is when he seriously took up painting in oil.”

Franklin considered oil painting the activity of real artists. Moviemaking was more of a career and a business he served with pride and dedication. When he painted, that to him was real art, and the coreopsis painting was one of his favorites. It always hung in a place of honor in his home, and now does the same in our Carbon Mesa home.

“Coreopsis” is his rendition of flowers growing along Pacific Coast Highway, north of the county line. It was a mid-career work created from many photographs taken on his commutes to Oxnard.

Painting was an avocation that Franklin took very seriously. He studied with William Shulgold and, later, with Harry Carmean from the Art Center College of Art and Design. He studied portrait, still life, landscape and the impressionist masters Degas and Manet by copying them.

Franklin painted nearly every afternoon in his specially built north-light studio on his Trancas ranch home property. It was there that he pursued his passions for landscape design and painting for over 20 years.

From the house and studio, he had a stunning view of the Pacific Ocean that looked over his personally designed putting green and rock walls later featured in the painting of his wife, Ruth. He was continuously building rock walls around the property and also had a chrysanthemum and cymbidium growing operation, both with the help of his foreman Johnny Ysorda. This love of horticulture has continued through generations as my aunt, Roxanne Franklin-White, tends to her orchids in our Malibu home.

Grandpa’s “Coreopsis” is perhaps the loosest and most lively painting he ever did. His training was formal and classically tight, which suited his very detail oriented personality. We all have loved this painting for its light brush-strokes and attitude.

My mother said, “He was so serious so much of the time that this was a wonderful moment recorded that showed his lighter more gentle side.”
The painting is truly is a family treasure, and we are glad to share it, as I continue his tradition of making art about Malibu by photographing the spring coreopsis on Point Dume.

By Jessica Louise Dillon

As featured in this weeks Malibu Surfside News:
(Click to view issue)

Windy Day Reconnoiter - Gulls

2009-03-30T09:41:00.000-07:00

Last week we had an extremely windy day in Malibu. I thought it was a perfect opportunity for a photo reconnoiter. I began up at Leo Carillo State Beach just south of County Line and moseyed my way down to the Point Dume Headlands, one of my favorite photographic spots in Malibu.

A flock of seagulls over Leo Carillo with windblown sand entering the tide pools. I have several in this series, I just love the random patterns nature creates, here the gulls circling in the sky.

This is my favorite shot of the gulls. The patterns here are created from the different motions of their flight, rather than the differing directions as in the first photo. Both create an amazing sense of motion.

Dramatic Vantage Points

2009-03-19T21:39:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite techniques is doing extreme close ups from low vantage points. What looks like some otherworldly terrain is actually just a sand formation formed by the rise and fall of the tides on Carbon Beach.

Ocean and Sky Abstracts

2009-03-13T19:41:00.000-07:00

Recently I've been exploring a more simple subject matter: Ocean and sky abstracts. It is amazing to see the kind of beauty that can be produced by varying combinations of light, air, and water. I often use a telephoto lense to zoom in creating interesting and suprising abstractions. Here are a few of my recent favorites. All shot in Malibu of course.

The Pier and Point Dume

2009-03-11T13:19:00.000-07:00

The silhouettes of The Pier and Point Dume create a very interesting juxtaposition as seen through the sunset warmth. View from Carbon Mesa. 23 February 2009. My apologies for the late posts, still catching up.

Malibu's Hockney

2009-03-10T19:54:00.000-07:00

Malibu's Hockney. Digital Collage. 2007.

Western Ireland on Point Dume

2009-03-10T19:05:00.000-07:00

Rocked Reverie-Beautiful algae covered rock formations are exposed during low tide on Big Dume Beach. It is interesting to see how the interaction of land and water can create similar phenomena in different parts of the world. These formations are amazingly reminiscent of the dramatic landscape found on the cost of Western Ireland and an obvious reminder of the unity of all life on the planet, something that is often forgotten by its inhabitants. Volume 36 Number 17. 26 February 2009.

More images from the shoot:

The Demming House Foundation

2009-03-10T18:53:00.001-07:00

When my grandfather built our house in the early 1950's a sister house was also constructed on the adjacent hillslide. It was lost in a landslide years later. The remains of the Demming House foundation are seen here framed by the beautiful afternoon light on the Carbon Mesa hillside. 13 February 2009.

Spring Showers

2009-03-10T18:48:00.000-07:00

Amazing dramatic sunset light through the passing storm clouds looking out at The Malibu Pier,Surfrider Beach, and Point Dume from Carbon Mesa. 13 February 2009.

Puerco Canyon Burnout

2009-03-09T20:16:00.000-07:00

Cartier-Bresson's Calidris mauri

2009-03-09T19:48:00.000-07:00

A beautiful pair of Western Sandpipers (Calidris mauri) sifting through the tide pools in the early morning on Big Dume beach. The use of pairs in the composition is inspired by the photographic mastery of Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Henri Cartier-Bresson. Athens, Greece, 1953. www.henricartierbresson.org