A Little Rain in L.A.

Rain in Los Angeles is always a treat. Photographers love it, of course. Lots of sparkling droplets, puddle reflections and splashes. Unfortunately, in order to make the most of it, you have to be out in it.

That means an umbrella or poncho and something to protect your equipment, like a plastic bag. But then you end up trying to balance the umbrella while aiming the camera, or hiding the camera under your coat and then there's a struggle to whip that puppy out for anything, and that's not very spontaneous. Also takes the fun out of it.

So when it rained like crazy last week, I headed for cover and peeked out the door every once in awhile to see what was what. This may not always be the best plan, but sometimes you can get a neat snap.

Not everything you shoot needs to be a masterpiece; sometimes it's just for the memories of the rain.

Nikon D70s w/Nikkor 18-70mm f3.5-4.5 ED

Darth Vader Food Truck

The monthly Downtown Art Walk features art, obviously, and it's popularity has grown from a handful of visitors at the first Art Walk in 2004 to an estimated 15,000 more recently, and the food trucks have moved in.

The trucks are pretty scarce in the downtown core most of the time, but they arrive in the dozens during Art Walk. There was an explosion in the numbers of them about a year ago and the City Council and the Art Walk Board put together a plan to shunt them off the main streets and onto parking lots, which quite frankly makes them now hard to find.

I spotted this unit hiding in a corner of a lot in an undisclosed location. I had never seen it before and I was taken with it's stealth appearance, appropriate given the strict regulations on where to set up one of these beasts nowadays.

As for the food itself, I couldn't tell you, since I prefer to sit down when I eat.

Nikon D70s w/Nikkor DX 55-200mm f4-5.6 ED VR

Mural on South Spring, Night Shoot

It's 4:30 in the morning after a really long night. Suddenly you see something that you've passed every day for years in the daylight, but with the late night, the fatigue, the odd light mix, it becomes hallucinatory, no longer everyday "ordinary." Did it always look this way? Is that awning red or is it orange? And that mural, surely it's black and white?

The IS0 is set at 640, shutter is, whoa, 1/3 of a second? Really. Well, whatever - we take a breath, hold, breathe out slowly and squeeze. Click. Whatever the hell it is, it's in the can now.

Nikon D70s w/Nikkor 20mm f2.8D AF, 1/3 sec @ f2.8 

Metro Gold

The other day I went to pick up a package from the Post Office Annex, which is located in a rather sketchy area north of LA proper; a sort of no-man's-land between Chinatown and the LA River. While I waited in the parking lot (no inside service!) for an actually very nice lady while she tried to locate my misplaced package, I watched the trains pull into Union Station.

This is an example of what photographer's are talking about when they talk about the "magic hour." The sun is setting so the light is a muted gold, shadows are long and deep and the sky and clouds were perfect. The trains co-operated by arriving on time every ten minutes or so. Thanks, Metro.

Nikon D70s w/f3.5 18-55mm DX AF Zoom