Venice Beach Street photos

Don't know if its kosher to refer to one of my P.net folders, and

some of these have been up a while, others new. But Jeff's NYC photos

inspired me to put these forward.

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=270321

<center><a href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=270321">Learn how to use HTML. Your link's here</a></center>

Great photos Barry.

 

Peter, maybe an introduction into the language Barry needs, or a cut and paste for him to save in a word document for future use would be helpful? Besides, posting as a link isn�t a necessary protocol that you jumped on him for.

With the exception of maybe one or two pictures (the first one in the presentation is the nicest), my general feeling is that you need to get closer. The compositions of the farther-away pictures (of which there are many) don't really come together.

Lighten up, Peter. The only time I expect folks to use hyperlinks in the B&W Photo forums is when the URL runs so long it forces sidescrolling.<p>

 

Barry, there's a quickie lesson in making a hyperlink on the <a href=http://www.photo.net/frequent-questions#links>Photo.net FAQ</a> page. Click on "How do I place hyperlinks in my posts?"<p>

 

The easiest way to use it if you can't remember the format is to copy and paste it into the reply box, replacing the generic stuff with the specific link and whatever title you want to call it. Then just follow the rest of the instructions on that page.<p>

 

Regarding the photos in your folder, you seem most comfortable with shooting architecture, where you show a good sense for dynamics. But your people photos are a bit tentative. Most could stand some cropping. Or you could move in closer. Or use a longer lens.<p>

 

"Family and Tattoo Parlor" is pretty good, tho' maybe it could stand some tighter cropping even if it means sacrificing some of your favorite elements of the image. Generally it's considered taboo to have someone moving out of frame but I'd be tempted to crop it at left so the kidlet is riding out of frame. But then it'd be a square and someone might think you'd used a TLR instead of a Leica. ;>

Thanx guys, and sorry Peter, err I guess. I will try to do the link next time. About the photos, I do believe I do not get close enough much of the time, though sometimes I do, its something to work on as a personal issue. I have another folder which I've been working on for some time (a couple of years) on the Irish music scene or more accurately about the circle of musicians that make it up. I'll link it some other time, so people won't have to look at all my stuff after looking at this one. But in the folder, I know pretty much all the people and as you can see, its much more comfortable and close. More portrait than street though pretty much all candid so its a hybrid. Also a randomized documentary on the San Francisco Peace March in Feb 2002. They're all on Photo.net.

 

Thanx for looking and commenting.

Ahh yes Venice Beach. Not quite the same since they ran out the street vendors but still a good place to photograph. I've been meaning to go their myself. I recently did some street photography on the 3rd St. in Santa Monica. Strange, on a beautiful Sat. there seemed to be hardly any street entertainers; these were the subjects I most wanted to photograph.

Anyways some good examples Barry. My favorite is the middle pic, third row down. I agree that you may want to get in closer for people shots, or crop as desired. Personally I go for tightly framed people shots that show a relationship and attitude to what is happening around that person (aside from the sneaky photographer snapping away).

I would have also liked some comments from yourself about these. Some questions I had while looking at these were things like "What camera did you use", "Where these taken all on the same day or different days", "What is your favorite and least favorite image and why", you know general stuff like that.

Some day I'll hit Venice too, maybe you'll see me. Can't miss me, I'll be the idiot lugging around a Mamiya RZ67!

PS - I can't believe you didn't get a shot of the dude in the turbin on skates playing his electric guitar. When I go, he's going to be my first target:)

Yup, huge difference between your photos of musicians and carousers in the pub and the Venice Beach folder. When you're comfortable with the folks or in a location it's easier to get closer and capture the right moment. It's a challenge to do the same in unfamiliar places with people we don't know.

Marc, the first 10 were taken winter 2003, the rest were taken in the last month or so. Favorites are 1, 2, 5, 7,11 (Cafe Venicia),14 and the last one. I like the 2nd one, because I like to juxtapose blurred motion next to in focus surroundings, I like the last one because even though its blurred, I like the colors of the place and especially the line of the knitted shaw looks very sensual to me, with some detail in it on the back of the close subject and the gesture of her arrainging her hair, plus the background creates (for me) an impressionistic feeling of that place on a typical weekend. Also the one with the bike, in focus, but again some action, some color and a sense of place. I also like the woman stepping into the shadow at the tattoo parlor. All were shot with Leica Ms either the M7 or M3 and the last bunch were with the M7 and Velvia 100. Venice is one of the few places in L.A. where there is actually interesting color. Most of So Cal to me is very drab. I saw your man on the skates, and I don't know, just didn't feel like taking his pic at the moment. If your down there on a Sunday afternoon, try going up the block to Finn McCools. Were there on Sundays playing Irish music and that's where many though not all of the music are from. Email me sometime if you want to get toghether and shoot down there on a Sunday. Maybe I'll feel bolder to get closer to people if there's someone else doing it too.

Cheers

Barry.

Hi Barry,

Yes, you're right about Venice offering more color then most other places. LA is really one giant cluster of ugly strip malls. One can of course go to more ethnicly heavy areas, but personal safety then becomes a great concern. I have just recently started using my Mamiya, so I've only shot B&W. Color will be a good thing to try soon.

I usually work Sundays, but occasionally I have some off so I'll email you the next time I see one open.

Thanks for the additional info. It's always facinating to learn how other photographers end up with the results they have.

Regards,

Marc

<i>"ethnicly heavy areas, but personal safety then becomes a great concern"</i>

<p>

I grew up in "ethnicly heavy areas" in LA (Oakwood/Venice) and San Diego (Logan Heights/Encanto) and never had a problem I didn't make for myself.

<p>

"ethnic" people (whatever that means) are just trying to get by like everyone else. They shop in grocery stores, take their kids to the park and go to crappy LA strip malls like everyone else.

<p>

use your head and your chances of trouble are very, very slim. If your in LA check out Echo Park, or the Market area in downtown by Angels Flight (that tram deal) - they're "ethnic" areas but full of great things and people to shoot.

Lucas, thanx, I've been wanting to get up to Angel Flight for the longest time. I also like Boyle heights but have never had a chance to stop there and shoot photos. Did you know that Boyle heights was once highly populated by, obviously Irish, but in the I believe 30's and 40s was a fairly Jewish section of town and was known for its labor union and socialist political action groups. Indeed, L.A. has a fascinating and rich ethnic, social and political history, not all of it shining, but definately intersting.

Barry,

Yeah LA has some great areas. Anyone who slags it obviously doesn't get off the beaten track. Your right, Boyle Heights did at one point used to be a primarily Jewish section of town. When I was up that way last (10 years ago) there still was an old house or two with a Star of David over the front door - probably from that era.

 

I used to spend a lot of time in Echo Park and what's that area - oh yeah Silver Park. Used to be some fun clubs up there - live bands and fun little out of the way bars. Who knows maybe it's all rather gentrified by now - but the area was good and funky. Akbar, Spaceland(?) and some others were great places to hangout. There was always the Derby (formerly The Brown Derby) that's been up there in Hollywood forever. Swing was big when I was living there and you'd get a great mix of hipsters, rockabilly types and a whole mix of people.

 

Further south - Downtown Long Beach used to be good and a bit rough - though I heard they put up a promenade and malls and Starbucks and it got cleaned up quite a bit. Further south (I can't remember the name) there is one of the refinery/fishery/industrial areas that had an interesting mix of Portugese people and eateries. A lot of rough Mexican bars.. ha ha... never a dull moment. Greart areas to shoot - in some of those refineries you'd get massive high piles of yellow sulfur - I guess a byproduct from oil/gas refining. Never did get around to shooting down there as much as I would have liked. May be tougher now with all the Patriot Act laws and that jazz.

 

One of these years I've got to get back there. If you're living there get out to Taco King for me and pick up some gorditas - it's like 3 for 2 bucks. It's down off the 110 frwy(?) Going towards Montebello.

Well violent crime in LA overall has seen a decline although I read recently that the numbers have taken a slight increase. However, let's not kid ourselves. There are some areas that have higher crime then others. These tend to be areas that are oh how to put this in p.c. terms, let's say culturaly diverse. This is simply a fact. These are neighborhoods in depressed areas where many inhabitants live below the poverty level, hence the higher crime which is true for major cities around the world. Maybe such areas are fairly safe in the daytime. Still how can one be sure? Can you imagine walking around with a camera, where a drug deal or some other gang activity is going down? These guys see you with a camera they are likely to think you may have got a shot of them. Then what? I once drove a co-worker home. He lived in Pacoima. Even on a weekday evening there was police helicopters flying around.

I'd much rather have my car break down in Westlake Village then in Pacoima. You can read into this anyway you want, but sometimes outsiders just aren't welcome in some parts of LA, especially with a expensive camera.

Regards,

Marc

Lucas, Downtown LB is all re-developed and trendy. I have to agree with Marc to some extent, the realities are that in certain areas you could have problems flashing around a camera, I mean I get hastled in Orange County. I know some of the young photo students where I go, were telling me, even near the Garmint District, in skid row area as well guys were getting rolled for their cameras and I'm a bit older than they. Its just a reality one needs to be aware of. That doesn't mean if you're cool about what your doing and keep your nose up, that you'll neccesarily have problems. I"m sure places like Silverlake, and Angel's flight are cool, but then, the interesting photos are where its not gentrified and "safe" in terms of people.

About East LA, It's funny, I went to a funeral in East LA at a Jewish cemetary right in the middle of what some would call the barrio. It turns out its the oldest Jewish cemetary in LA and has all these famous movie interened there. A photo project in itself. If anyone wants to get together some time to explore LA photographically, if we could arrange it, I would be up for it. Sometimes its always good to be by yourself, but it can be fun, encouraging and maybe even provide some security to get a couple of people out there. If you drive around almost any area in LA, its true, most people are just working and living their life but I think it pays to be aware of what's going around you, of course as photographers, we should be anyway right?

You're right Barry...there are more opportunities in the more diverse parts of town, especially during parades and festivals unique to whatever particular culture happens to be celebrated. The trade off of course is the increased risk to ones person and/or property that being in a certain area carries.

Be that as it may, I think that the first four months of the year offered tremendous opportunities for street/documentary photography in LA. Three that come right to my mind are as follows:

 

1)The supermarket strikes

2)The lines of gay couples outside city halls waiting to get marriage

licences

3)The one year anniversary of the Iraq invasion with the large peace protest/march in Hollywood

 

I would have loved to have gotten shots of these events, but alas, I either ran into time problems, or was not quite familiar enough with my gear to attempt hitting the streets. Nevertheless, any city as large as LA is going to always have rallys, marches, protests, ect going on. It just takes a careful ear to find out about these. I sometimes listen to AM talk radio; many such events and newsworthy happenings are often mentioned and if you're quick, you and your camera can be part of the action.

Cheers,

Marc

Remember "Skateboard moma" at Venice Beach?

It pays to keep in contact with many of the 'rights' groups. You can get them to keep you informed on when an a demonstration or protest is going to happen. That's a great way shoot some interesting situations. Also keep your eye on the up coming events section in the paper and you'll find plenty of stuff to shoot. If you call before hand and explain who you are and what your shooting generally you can get a good free run of an event and usually get backstage/behind the scenes. Many times you can then work these into being clients. This is exactly how I started shooting events. At the time I didn't have any event stuff in my book to show. In the end I ended up packed out with event shoots. Good fun and the pay wasn't too bad on most of the jobs.

 

Barry-

I'd love to get back and shoot LA but I rarely get to that side of the world these days. Though if you ever make it out to Asia look me up.. you'll never run out of things to shoot in Asia. : )