Samuel Lippke Studios » Jonnie Russell

Buskerfest + Cold War Kids streets of LB

Samuellippke — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:55:44 +0000

Downtown Long Beach’s art district shut down its streets to vehicles and opened it up to some music craving residents and neighbors.

Buskerfest is a miniature musical festival with a number of bands participating to open for the headlining Cold War Kids.

Each person that attends gets 9 wooden nickles, each nickle is one vote and the band that recieves the most wooden nickles opens for the headlining band.

I put my wooden nickles on “Matt Death and the new intellectuals” They are amazing musicians and Matt Wignall (lead singer) is one of my favorite people in the world. Unfortunately they didn’t have enough votes and a band called “Pawn Shop Kings” ended up opening for the Cold War Kids for a great show. Here are some images from the whole night.

Highlights include: Shooting from the roof,biking with the guys, The Pike afterwards, Seeing E&H Trine,Dave Hill,Scott Henning,David Tosti,Matt Wignall, Colin, Alex Minjares ,Steve Sheldon, Nicoel and Tim, Caitlin Cutt and the rest of the Grace Brethren crew. I hope DTLB and the art district put on another one of these shows. Huge props to CWK’s for playing a free show.

(Matt Death and the New Intellectuals- Keslie and Bek blowing the cazoo’s)

(Evan Trine and his pretty girl – Matt Wignall rocking the megafone)

(Nathan Willet snaps an iPhone picture of the youngest Matt Death Member)

(The montage set: The Willett’s, a pair of legs,Crowd shot from the roof and Lindsey Jaggers along with Colin Dobrin.)

(Nicoel,Tim and the wooden Nickles)

(The faces of Long Beach- (Clockwise) Desiree Giatan, David Maust (& son) Danny Simon, Scott Henning all attended the festival.)

(Cold War Kids from the roof and on stage shot of Drummer Matt Aveiro)

(Crowd shot I think I might blow up huge, since I can see some familiar faces. Nathan Willett in Action, Pedals from the show.)

(LB Hipsters, Nathan Huesmann, Sam & Crystal, Alex at
The Pike)

See my Column on LBpost.com >HERE<

(Can you see Mike and Russell from LB post in the background of that shot? Coincidence!)

Salton Sea: Camping

admin — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:00:55 +0000

(Jonnie Russell and his stew)

Whats better then camping? Camping with a group of friends of course. (There are a few things better then camping with friends, but I’ll get into that in another post… hint copy and paste on the iPhone)

Highlights from this camping trip include but aren’t limited to:

10. Free Hot Showers!

9. “John Daniel’s”

8. Samuel’s Homemade guacamole and jalapenos

7.Shirtless Wood chopping sessions

6. Sleeping under the stars. (I slept above the picnic tables on the roof)

5.Sleeping through the park ranger’s “Put your hands where I can see them” Scare

4.The Scott & Gin night

3.My mummy bag protecting me from the harsh desert nights wind.

2.Counting the amount of 60′s glasses and vans

1. Hobostew making

Pictures as promised.

(Moonlight+Headlights)

(Chopping up ingredients for HoboStew)

(Onions and garlic 2 key ingredients)

(Nicole,Desiree and Heather)

(The men around the fire. Scott Henning,Dave Hill, Vern Moen and Danny Simon)

(Vern Moen)

(Perfect coals and our hobo stew)

(Danny Simon)

(The site)

(Taking it all in. Photo: Evan Trine)

Salton Sea: Salvation Mountain

admin — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 18:13:35 +0000

(Leonard Knight and our crew)

(about 200,000 gallons of paint Leonard estimates)

Salvation mountain is what happens when a man (Leonard Knight) has a vision to bring a message to the whole world. “God is Love” shouts this painted mountain outside of Niland,California. The hillside is covered by hay bails and plywood molded into shapes and letters, then painted over hundreds of times with acrylic paint by Leonard and the occasional volunteer.

Visiting Leonard and his mountain was an amazing experience for myself and our group. So much passion, so much purpose and an extreme amount of clarity when it comes to his relationship with God. Leonard constantly gave thanks to God for the ability to keep doing what he loves. He also expressed amazement with having salvation mountain in a few “Worldwide Movies” one includes “Into the Wild” (which is STILL on my to watch list)

Here are images from Leonard’s impromptu tour.

(Jonnie Russell inside the hay bale and paint igloo)

(Sarah and Allison in front of Salvation Mountain)

(Quyen Trinh climbing the mountain)

(Our crew, with Eric Trine in the lead)

(At the top)

(The view)

(Scott Henning; probably imagining himself doing backflips off the cliff)

(The crew with Leonard Knight at his mountain)

(Desiree got a puzzle from Leonard)

(Jonnie,Noel,Desiree,Dave and Heather getting ready to leave the mountain)

Next post: Camping

Salton Sea: The Knitty Gritty

admin — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 01:49:33 +0000

(Eric Trine out for a stroll)

As you probably saw from my “teaser” post, I spent the weekend with a group of friends out in California’s most romantic dessert, more importantly the most envied spot of the olden days. The Salton Sea.

These pictures are a journey through this abandoned storm battered California Desert.

Shooting at this location was tough for me. I felt extremely cliche photographing something that has been photographed soooo many times before me. Never was it a goal of mine to photograph at this location, but as I began shooting I realized my goal: Not to photograph this desolate zone, but to document the interaction between human’s and this cursed land. And here my story begins.