DOT

Department of Transportation, downtown Los Angeles.

Convergence

I'm walking in downtown LA at 7pm, making my way through Pershing Square. The light is soft. I see an elderly Asian man stopped, hunched over a couple of bags. I snap a picture. I wait a moment and snap another picture, He seems to be stooped over there for an unusually long time, time enough for me to walk closer and snap another frame. Finally he straightens and he motions to passersby. Some slow but don’t seem to understand what he wants. I approach him and ask. He stretches his hand out to me and shows me that in his palm is some change: a couple quarters, a nickel, dimes maybe a few pennies. He motions to a figure lying at the edge of the sidewalk, at the corner of the square, in a fetal position. “You want me to give him this money?” I ask. “Yes, yes, give him this money” he says. I take the change from the old man and take it to the man lying on the sidewalk. For some reason I’m anxious. I start to place the money next to the sleeping man and despite my efforts to be quiet and not wake him, he stirs. “what do you want?” he asks. “The man over there wants to give you this money,” I reply, “I’ll just put it here next to you”. “Okay," he says. I turn to the Asian man and start to walk toward him, he smiles broadly. He picks up his bags and begins to shuffle off down Olive street and I stand at the corner waiting to walk up 5th. As I glance back at the figure, I see him in one sweep of his arm scattering the change across the sidewalk and into the street. I look toward the the old Asian man, he is too far away to hear or notice. I start toward him looking as the money rolls into the street but then I turn back to 5th and continue on my way.

Cafe Portrait

One of my favorite activities is hanging out in a cafe having a coffee and maybe a smackerel of something. Well there are some great smackerels at Sumi Chang's Europane here in Pasadena. I was waiting for my egg salad sandwich (not your usual egg salad sandwich) when next to me sits this little girl with this fantastic little cap. Since I always have a camera with me, I asked mom if I could shoot a quick portrait. And there you have it: Little Girl in a Cafe. By the way that's the remains of a buttery croissant on Shara's cheeks.

Tear

I did this portrait session few years back. Actually so far back that I was still using one of my favorite cameras, a mamiya RZ 67 which is a medium format film camera suited to studio work. Compared to a 35mm camera it’s big and clunky but it really produced some nice images. We wanted to do some classic images and decided to shoot in a portable studio with a classic gray background. We got so many great pictures and so many expressions that we laid them out as a sequence and printed it as one large wall portrait and the final expression is shown enlarged on its own. The subject grew weary of the photographer by the end of the session. And of course the details.

Clean Windshield

Mid-city area of Los Angeles, California.

I had the opportunity to listen to Jim Brandenburg speak when I was in college. Brandenburg is a photographer for the National Geographic and has produced some amazing work in his career. This may seem strange but the one thing I remember him saying was he convinced the powers that be to let him fly first-class because the windows were cleaner and clearer, the better to shoot the aerials that the Geographic is so fond of. As a 20-something college student I assumed that I would always fly first-class where ever I went, at the same time I did realize that I probably would never work for the Geographic....for one thing I don't really like shooting landscapes or wildlife. All this to say that it's worth keeping the windshield clean.

Colburn Dance

Here is a slideshow of images that were taken of the Professional Dance Training program at the Colburn School of Performing Arts in downtown Los Angeles. These photos were taken through the year 2007-2008 and gives a behind the scenes glimpse of of the hard work these dancers put in as they work toward their dreams of becoming professional dancers. A higher-rez version can be seen here. Original music is provided by Michael Roberts.

Archers 2

A few more from the Roving Archers.

Roving Archers

Near the Rose Bowl in Pasadena gathers a group of men and women who are part of the Roving Archers. They are not of the compound bow set. They use bows, arrows, quivers, arm guards and finger tabs that are made by hand. There are no sights mounted on their bows. In fluid motion they load their arrows into their bows, pull and release. It's straight forward, true and honest.