Snapshots of a city

Young Chang

A reader recently told Melanie Aves that the pictures in her new book,

“Newport Beach: A Photographic Portrait,” looked so beautiful she barely

recognized the city she was looking at.

“Funny,” Aves mused. “To me, that’s what I see.”

A Newport Beach resident for just three years (to the day almost --

she moved in on Halloween and remembers unpacking while giving out

candy), Aves notices how the waves at Crystal Cove attack rocks and then

teasingly retreat. How the setting sun brushes the sky a shade of citrus.

How the cartoon red Crab Cooker restaurant playfully accents Newport

Boulevard.

Eye candy, to say the least, for this former Michigan resident who has

published numerous volumes on using color to decorate one’s home. So Aves

assembled a group of photographers -- who supplied 128 pages of photos --

and then bound their images between the covers of a book so everyone else

can see what she sees.

Twin Lights Publishing of Rockport, Mass., and the Macatawa Bay

Associates, a local company, published the book this summer. Aves wrote

all the captions and short, historical summaries.

Area bookstores, including chains such as Barnes & Noble Booksellers,

plan to carry the title. On Nov. 17, Aves will sign copies at Borders

Books, Music & Cafe in Costa Mesa.

“Anybody who lives around here is so privileged,” said her husband,

John Aves, who also shot photos for the collection. “There’s so much to

view, places to go.”

It might have been Melanie Aves’ views as an outsider that brought

fresh attention to the sights most of us usually drive right past,

fixated on the river of brake lights ahead.

Or it might have been the time she spent looking at Newport Beach from

afar.

A sailor, Aves and her husband escape into the big blue whenever they

can. Their out-of-town guests each get a ride on the Balboa Ferry and the

Harbor Cruise. Noticing Newport Beach from a distance -- not to mention

the snowcapped San Gabriel Mountains that curtain the city from afar --

helped Aves zoom in on everything from the suede-like petal of a flower

at Sherman Library & Gardens to the retro-inspired look of Ruby’s Diner

that renders the tip of Balboa Pier a rather trendy place to be.

The city “looks prettier from the water,” agreed John Aves. “You don’t

see the crowds, the congestion.”

Melanie Aves held a photo contest last year to determine the content

of her book. Contestants from as far as the United Kingdom entered. Three

photographers from Southern California -- John Blom, co-owner of John

Blom Custom Photography Ltd. in Corona del Mar; William Valentine, a

Newport Beach photographer who has served on the Newport Beach City Arts

Commission; and Marc Martin, a photo assignment editor at the Orange

County edition of the Los Angeles Times -- juried the contest.

Three winners were chosen, and 26 photographers’ works -- including a

few that were solicited from the judges -- made it into Aves’ book.

There’s a pyrotechnician in the mix, an accountant, a truck driver, a

police captain, a detective and a children’s book writer.

“The life in the book -- the spark -- is much more visible,” Aves said

of her variety of picture-takers.

For the written portion of “Newport Beach,” Aves shared stories about

everything from the Dory fisherman to the Beek family, owners of the

Balboa Ferry.

The pictures capture Newport Beach from all angles. Newport Pier

stretching into fog. A Christmas tree at Fashion Island. Lifeguards in

red, the backs of Ferraris, sailboats, ferry boats, the Balboa Peninsula,

a Balboa garden, sea lions lazing around on a buoy and two harbor

royalties -- swans Rupert and Pearl.

“We needed to portray Newport accurately,” Aves said.

Valentine, who spent summers from his childhood on the peninsula

because his grandparents had a home there, said shooting photos for Aves’

book gave him a chance to look again at the sights he sees every day.

“Sometimes it’s harder to work closer to home than away from home,” he

said. “You see the same things every day.”

His shot of a sunset, Valentine explains, was taken after a winter

rain. It was February and he noticed clouds moving above the water from

his Dover Shores home.

“I took off to West Newport,” Valentine said. “I walked out, and it

was perfect.”

The Aves, both 59, are also always on the lookout for new backyard

pleasures. They walk along the Back Bay, on Newport’s beaches and on

hiking trails at Crystal Cove, where they always stop at the Shake Shack.

Melanie Aves orders a mango or peach shake. John goes for vanilla.

The shack appears on Page 121 in Aves’ book.

“It’s an artistic spark that makes people see what’s around them and

record them,” she said.

FYI

* WHAT: Melanie Aves signs “Newport Beach: A Photographic Portrait”

* WHEN: 1 to 3 p.m. Nov. 17

* WHERE: Borders Books, Music & Cafe, 1890 Newport Blvd., Costa Mesa

* COST: Free

* CALL: (949) 631-8661