Random Images

Parked

2012-01-29T13:20:00.000-08:00

Industrial Street, downtown Los Angeles. Saturday night, 11 pm.

Incredible

2012-01-25T12:40:00.000-08:00

Parking lot, Santa Monica.

We Deliver

2012-01-19T10:44:00.000-08:00

South of 1st Street, east of Los Angeles.

4

2012-01-13T08:56:00.000-08:00

Parking garage, Music Center.

LA_C

2012-01-06T13:50:00.000-08:00

Downtown Los Angeles, east of City Hall.

New One

2012-01-03T13:14:00.000-08:00

This exercise started with a new smart phone back in late 2005. The Palm Treo had a basic camera that rendered some interesting, flawed images. That experiment led to film, old cameras, toy cameras, and - eventually - a digital SLR, all focused on Los Angeles and its environs.

Now comes the iPhone. Its jpg files rival those of the four-year-old Nikon DSLR's. The camera is so good that I left the Nikon home when I went on vacation and just used the phone. So there may be some more "phone" images popping up here than there have been over the last few years (this one was shot the other day on Selma Avenue near Cahuenga in Hollywood).

I could do hipstamatic and try and replicate the beauty of the Holga, but I won't. It can't.

Elmo

2011-12-29T16:49:00.000-08:00

Through a fence in Baldwin Village, on a late summer afternoon.

Lost

2011-12-13T11:18:00.000-08:00

For the life of me I can't remember where I shot this - likely either Hollywood or Santa Monica. I'll keep an eye out...

Peel

2011-12-08T13:59:00.000-08:00

Garage door, Santa Monica.

Tent

2011-12-05T10:03:00.000-08:00

Tented building, Santa Monica.

Buddah by Two

2011-12-02T10:19:00.000-08:00

The old Spaghetti Factory restaurant on Sunset Boulevard. The poster has since been replaced.

Clicks

2011-11-14T08:42:00.000-08:00

Back on LaBrea.

Love in the Rocks

2011-10-17T13:46:00.000-07:00

Spray

2011-10-10T12:05:00.000-07:00

Off LaBrea, near Melrose.

Old Man, Sea

2011-10-02T12:48:00.000-07:00

Pushing the geographical limits, I suppose, but it's not really that long a drive from Los Angeles.

Central Valley

2011-09-26T12:09:00.000-07:00

Extending the geographic limits a bit, this is one of a series from the Central Valley, just south of Fresno.

LaBrea Wall II

2011-09-22T14:28:00.000-07:00

Paul's a bandit. On LaBrea, south of Santa Monica. I think the scaffolding has since come down.

Rest, Clash

2011-09-19T10:35:00.000-07:00

Wilton North, late afternoon.

2011-09-14T11:03:00.000-07:00

Rooftop, downtown condo building.

Stuck in the Ground

2011-09-09T10:03:00.000-07:00

In the middle of LaBrea Avenue at the intersection with Fourth Street.

LaBrea Wall

2011-09-06T17:11:00.000-07:00

Street art on LaBrea Avenue, just south of Santa Monica Boulevard.

West LA

2011-08-09T10:38:00.000-07:00

Just off Sepulveda.

Civic

2011-08-02T10:20:00.000-07:00

Temple Street, downtown L.A.

1932

2011-07-25T17:20:00.000-07:00

Shot on a small street behind the Sport Chalet on Sepulveda Boulevard.

Lost Wall

2011-06-27T18:52:00.000-07:00

This one has been in the queue for a while, and I've forgotten where it was taken.

Makeover

2011-06-20T15:50:00.000-07:00

On Robertson Boulevard, south of Olympic.

Pinhole

2011-06-17T13:28:00.000-07:00

Got one of those build-it-yourself pinhole cameras a few months ago. Takes a little getting used to - or at least a tripod.

Motel

2011-02-16T12:03:00.000-08:00

Ritz

2010-12-20T17:10:00.000-08:00

Ritz Carlton Hotel, downtown.

Generational Divide

2010-12-03T14:43:00.000-08:00

Just off Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, Darth Vader walking past James Dean. Two weeks after Halloween.

Watts Towers

2010-11-19T12:31:00.000-08:00

Watts Towers, South LA.

Prowl

2010-11-12T06:18:00.000-08:00

A foggy day on a beach north of Santa Barbara.

Taft

2010-11-02T10:40:00.001-07:00

One of the final images from the old Holga. It finally died, and it was a strange thing too. Details and images to come.

TJ

2010-10-25T13:12:00.000-07:00

From the checkout line at the new Trader Joe's in Hollywood. Big windows, good light.

LACMA redux

2010-10-14T16:12:00.000-07:00

Part of the newly opened Resnick wing at the museum.

Wet

2010-10-06T12:31:00.001-07:00

Poolside, Beverly Hilton Hotel.

LACMA

2010-09-23T13:21:00.000-07:00

In the vast expanse of the LACMA courtyard.

On the Wall

2010-09-03T11:12:00.000-07:00

Poster in an alley, just north of Hollywood east of Western.

Lit

2010-08-10T11:09:00.000-07:00

Hollywood Boulevard, just west of Western.

Twilight

2010-08-02T18:03:00.000-07:00

Crossing the Hollywood Boulevard bridge over the 101.

Dive

2010-07-19T10:39:00.000-07:00

Trimming

2010-06-23T09:46:00.000-07:00

Tree trimming at Hollywood and Van Ness.

Up Hill

2010-06-15T10:56:00.000-07:00

West Hollywood, just south of Sunset.

Meeting

2010-05-30T07:32:00.000-07:00

Just off a main street in Santa Barbara, a collection of mannequins stored by the second-story window. A private meeting, oblivious to the world outside and the absent curtain.

Doug and Anna

2010-05-21T19:08:00.001-07:00

I’ve noticed that the intersection of Bronson Avenue and Hollywood, not far from the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard the Hollywood (101) Freeway and the Tommy’s Burgers at the corner, has been a hang out for people living on the street. It’s not far from the Salvation Army’s Weingart Youth Center, and there are generally a half dozen or so kids who look to be in their teens hanging out at all hours. I’d had in mind for some time to talk to the folks who spend their days there, but many of the regulars haven’t been around in the last several weeks. On a recent Thursday afternoon, a middle-aged guy who said his name was Doug was sitting on the sidewalk, leaning back against a wall with his eyes closed, when I walked up to him. He said he was a diver and hadn’t worked in four months and had arrived in L.A. with his girlfriend 10 days earlier. Unable to find steady work up in Seattle, they made the decision to leave because “the economy sucks and the weather sucks, and if you’re going to be miserable you might as well be miserable in the sunshine.”

Top two images from the Nikon, bottom two from the Ikon.

See Through

2010-04-22T12:49:00.000-07:00

The skies cleared yesterday morning, at least for a while.

Heads Up

2010-04-16T10:56:00.000-07:00

Fairfax Boulevard north of Beverly.

Threatening Skies

2010-03-09T22:23:00.000-08:00

Hard Rock

2010-02-17T12:20:00.000-08:00

A little light shining on Hollywood Boulevard in the late afternoon. Shot on TriX 320 film, pulled one stop in processing.

Sort of Had To

2010-02-09T10:36:00.000-08:00

Can't run around LA too long without shooting the Disney Concert Hall downtown. I used the Voigtlander, and since it doesn't have a light meter and I don't carry around an external one, exposures are, for the time being, a bit of a crap shoot. Thankfully, the exposure on this, I think, rendered it a little more interesting than some of the more common images of the building.

Not Today

2010-01-21T12:21:00.000-08:00

Looking up at a cloud-filled sky on the UCLA campus.

Muscle

2010-01-12T09:08:00.000-08:00

Out of the Closet thrift store, Sunset Boulevard.

Sunset, Santa Monica

2009-12-20T21:15:00.000-08:00

Ran a roll of color through the Ikon a week or two ago. I don't shoot it much and forgot it was in there, only remembering when for some reason I looked at the film speed setting. Funny how you have an entirely different way of seeing things when you think in black and white (this one was after I realized what I had).

Hollywood High

2009-12-17T08:40:00.000-08:00

Landing

2009-12-14T11:39:00.000-08:00

Early for a meeting at the airport, hung out in the waiting lot watching the planes land.

Morgan, Take Two

2009-12-08T22:26:00.000-08:00

Another side of the abandoned Morgan Camera Shop, facing the Nickelodeon studio parking lot on Sunset.

Pray for It

2009-12-07T14:39:00.000-08:00

Alleyway, Echo Park off Sunset.

Faded Film

2009-11-28T21:39:00.000-08:00

If the sign was any indication, Morgan Camera was a pretty cool shop. It faded away a long time ago, apparently, and nothing has taken over it's Sunset Boulevard location.

New Tool

2009-11-22T11:43:00.000-08:00

Have upgraded from the Treo to the Pre, which has a higher-resolution camera (and flash) built in, and so more phone images will start to appear here. This was from a kids show by the Silver Sun Pickups a couple weeks ago.

Negotiating with Michael

2009-11-15T23:08:00.000-08:00

Really?

2009-11-11T23:05:00.000-08:00

A Marilyn impersonator and camera-toting tourists in front of the Chinese Theater. Hard way to make a living.

The Stars on Hollywood Boulevard

2009-11-08T17:07:00.000-08:00

I recently got an old Zeiss Ikon rangefinder and found a new interest in shooting people. A stroll on Hollywood Boulevard near the Chinese Theater yielded more than its share of characters, real and fictional. The guy on the right is impersonating Heath Ledger's Joker. I'm pretty sure the guy on the left is supposed to be someone, too. I'll leave it at that.

Guys Never Change

2009-10-25T12:22:00.000-07:00

Return from Hiatus

2009-10-05T21:03:00.001-07:00

Was out of town for a couple months and have been trying to restock the image bank since my return. Added a couple vintage cameras to the mix - a Zeiss Ikon and a Voigtlander Perkeo I, which shot this image on the ferry heading from L.A. to Catalina.

Hollywood Construction

2009-08-16T13:17:00.000-07:00

That little strip of white between the palm trees is the Hollywood sign, seen from a Carlton Way construction site.

Now Leasing

2009-07-31T01:34:00.001-07:00

I drove by this corner almost everyday for months, and always wondered why this creepy woman was there staring out of the window into the early morning sun. I finally looped around to get a closer look - at the mannequin, just above the O in NOW LEASING.

North on Normandie

2009-07-19T12:12:00.000-07:00

Like a...

2009-07-09T03:03:00.000-07:00

...bird on a wire. Flock of pigeons roosting on a wire around the corner from the Pantages Theater in Hollywood. Rarely take the DSLR out, not sure why other than I prefer the textures I get with film. I also think often in black and white, and while the digital can just as easily produce those images I somehow think of it as a color machine.

Metro

2009-07-02T14:23:00.000-07:00

Another from the station at Hollywood and Western, with cheap film.

Mass Transit

2009-06-25T20:16:00.000-07:00

Took a ride on the subway a few days ago with my son to check out downtown and have a little adventure. Brought along a roll of 99 Cents Only Store film, which turned out not too badly. The subway stop at Western and Hollywood.

Love this Building

2009-06-19T12:44:00.000-07:00

They say that wedding photographers and others who shoot groups tend to find favorites, even if unconsciously, and shoot them more than everyone else. I guess I'm the same way with the tower being renovated at Sunset and Vine.

Surplus

2009-06-09T17:47:00.000-07:00

At Santa Monica and Vine.

101

2009-06-01T22:57:00.000-07:00

Mid-morning, overlooking the Hollywood (101) Freeway from Bronson Avenue.

Bus Yard

2009-05-24T16:25:00.000-07:00

School buses, Santa Monica, at sunset.

Bleak

2009-05-06T12:42:00.000-07:00

There are parts of LA that are lush and green and inviting, and then there are those arid, bleak places with threatening architecture - like this place, I believe on Normandie, near Santa Monica Boulevard.

Black-and-White and Lined All Over

2009-04-13T22:05:00.000-07:00

Shot in the parking lot at the corner of Fairfax and Wilshire. Mussed a bit with in in Photoshop, but it needs a real darkroom printing to get it right.

Tinseltown

2009-04-08T15:59:00.000-07:00

The romance of Hollywood. Shot on Vine, looking north toward Sunset.

Funky Color

2009-03-30T22:10:00.000-07:00

The Grove, at Fairfax and Third. More funky color from the 99 Cent store disposable.

Princess on the Road

2009-03-22T10:07:00.000-07:00

I went to the 99 Cents Only store looking for some cheap film and found instead only those disposable cameras. For a buck, why not try it. The color was oddly orange and warm, the focus exactly what I expected. The first one was a test, lots of really bad throwaway images, but now that I have a sense of what to expect I'm going to go out and get some more.

Hollywood Palms

2009-03-06T15:09:00.000-08:00

At Hollywood Boulevard and LaBrea.

Apologies to Gursky

2009-02-22T16:48:00.000-08:00

The party preparation section of the 99 Cents Only store on Wilshire near Fairfax.

All Wet

2009-02-18T12:41:00.000-08:00

One of the pleasures of LA (OK, technically this was shot in West Hollywood) is being able to be in a pool outdoors in February. Shot in the early evening with Ilford Pan F, 50 ISO at I think a shutter speed of 30 and aperture of 1.8. Not a lot of light, and I hoped the submerged lighting would throw off enough to capture something. Luckily, it did.

For the Palm File

2009-02-09T14:05:00.000-08:00

We've had some good clouds here recently, snd they really seem to liven things up visually.

From Griffith, Looking Down

2009-02-02T12:57:00.000-08:00

From just below the Griffith Observatory, looking south toward Koreatown (the tall-ish buildings at the center of the image) and South LA beyond.

Falling

2009-01-27T13:10:00.000-08:00

This one must have been taken a while ago, looks like the price of gas was $3.19, a dollar more than it is now. The Union 76, in Hollywood.

Lots to Hope For

2009-01-18T21:47:00.000-08:00

Lots of inspiration along Hollywood Boulevard, but I couldn't help wondering if the guy sleeping under the Obama posters was feeling the same sense of optimism as the rest of us.

Why?

2009-01-15T22:12:00.000-08:00

I have no answer. But here was a chicken crossing the road. Tamarind Avenue, to be exact, just above Lexington in Hollywood. My first reaction was that it was an escapee from a cock fight somewhere nearby, then I realized it wasn't that kind of bird. It walked off behind a fence, pecking away. There wasn't really anyone on the street (there never really is here) so I can't tell if they'd have given it a second glance.

Wicked Letdown

2009-01-13T11:04:00.000-08:00

Took my daughter to try and get same-day tickets for Wicked in its closing run. Didn't work out, but did give me a chance to shoot a little along Hollywood Boulevard. This in the exterior lobby area of the Pantages Theater, where the show was housed.

Windows

2009-01-10T21:57:00.000-08:00

Caught the clouds reflected in an office building, but it's been a while and I can't remember where it was...

Observatory

2008-12-24T08:59:00.000-08:00

Part of the new facility at the renovated Griffith Observatory in Griffith Park.

Smile

2008-12-19T10:16:00.000-08:00

It's been so long, I can't remember where this was...

More toy camera images coming back today (assuming they turned out).

Three Years

2008-12-17T12:17:00.000-08:00

I realized last night that I've been at this three years. What started as a blog of images from the camera in my phone morphed (after a brief hiatus) into a site of images of Los Angeles taken by a variety of cameras. These are two of the first images posted:

View from the Hill

2008-12-16T21:28:00.000-08:00

Spent part of the weekend walking around Griffith Park, and there were some interesting things that came out of it. One thing was the perspective you have from the top of the hill, where you can see how Los Feliz bumps right up against the park. Lovely, but the cost is deer and coyotes in the backyard (and those canines make an awful noise when they're on the hunt in the middle of the night) and the occasional wildfire.

This was from a roll of Ilford Pan F 50 ISO film, something I'd wanted to shoot for a long while because of its fine grain. I'm having the film processed and the negs scanned onto a disk, which might have something to do with the grain I'm getting, but whatever the cause it's a little surprising.

Bright Lights

2008-12-15T12:41:00.000-08:00

I was looking back at the Treo images and realized I'd never posted this one, shot a couple years ago while I was working downtown. A nighttime view of downtown.

Over the River

2008-11-29T18:26:00.000-08:00

Still a bit overwhelmed with other pursuits, but wanted to take a break and post this image of the bridge over Los Feliz Boulevard, and the confluence of the 5 Freeway and L.A. River.

WeHo at Dusk

2008-10-22T13:39:00.000-07:00

It's been a pretty intense period, not much time to shoot or post, but finally got some color through the system. This was shot from the car with the Holga one night driving through West Hollywood and Sunset Boulevard's billboard valley.

Ballgame

2008-09-17T12:46:00.000-07:00

Night game, Dodger Stadium

Auto Repair

2008-09-11T09:37:00.000-07:00

Not sure how long this graphic has been above the service center at Santa Monica and Gower, but I just noticed it. Seemed appropriately gritty, creepy, urban.

Big and Blank

2008-09-07T08:07:00.000-07:00

I'd driven by this building along Brand Boulevard in Glendale a number of times and loved the unusual window arrangement and the way this south-facing wall took the light. I thought it would be a good Holga candidate, but the Mamiya is back form the shop and so I was happy to have a chance to test it on such a monumental structure. The building is a block from the new Americana "lifestyle mall," and it will be interesting to see how much longer this view lasts.

Left Home Without it

2008-08-23T19:31:00.000-07:00

The camera. but I had the phone...