Hot town, summer in the city

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July was the hottest month ever in Southern California, with temps reaching well over 100°F all over the metro area, but especially the areas just to the east of downtown where I live. 

It's not especially easy to fully convey the sense of blistering heat in a photograph; photographers usually resort to implying heat with images of sweating bodies, kids playing in uncapped fire hydrants and such, but I thought I give it a try with a hint of crispyness in post-processing.

Let me know what you think.

Image taken with Nikon D70s w/Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 DX

St. Vincent Court - Pizza, Gyros and Some History

Once upon a time, Broadway was the financial and high-end commercial shopping hub for metro Los Angeles. But in the 1960s and 70s a wave of new commercial development on Figuaroa left the historic core basically deserted. The upside was that many of the best surviving examples of Beaux Art and Art Deco architecture were left unmolested. One such jewel is the alley called St. Vincent Court, about a half block west of Broadway on the north side of 7th Street.

Occupying the site of the old St Vincent's College for boys (founded in 1865 by the Vincentian Fathers, it eventually changed location and grew to become Loyola Marymount University), this charming food court is hidden away in an alley surrounded by Los Angeles' Jewelery District. The District is roughly defined as the area between Broadway, 6th Street, Hill Street, and 7th Street. And just so you know, 7th Street is the downtown section of historic Route 66, which until 1936 terminated at the intersection of 7th and Broadway.

Originally the entrance to the college, which became the Bullock's complex, later the St.Vincent Jewelery Center, in 1956 it was redecorated by a group of city boosters with the decorations, awnings and facades seen today. Small ethnic restaurants moved in, and today we can find a pizza place, a French bistro, Greek gyros sandwiches and Armenian kebab, and should you feel the need, there's a busy barber shop, as well. 


But even with all that history, it wouldn't be LA if there weren't a Marilyn, so she's here, too.

For more info on LA's historic core, see the informative LosAngeles Conservancy pamphlet, Strolling on Seventh Street.

Click on the images for larger versions. Images taken with a Nikon D70s w/Nikkor 18-70G EF f/3.5-4.5

Erleen Nada at Red Zebra

Last night was second Thursday, and you know that means it's Art Walk. It also means Robert Vargas and his infamous Red Zebra art mush-up on South Main.

This month's edition of Red Zebra spotlighted avant guard vocalists. Here's singer Erleen Nada belting it out for the party-goers.

For this next image, we just used a long exposure and let the floor disco strobe provide the multiple flashes.

Picture details: Nikon D70s w/Nikkor 18-70 f/3.5-4.5G ED. Top image: SB28 Speedlight, ISO 400 1/20 sec @ f/8; Bottom image: 3 sec @ f/11

Sana Smirnoff Portrait

Portrait of interior designer and performance artist Sana Smirnoff at Red Zebra. 

I had been asked by local artist and entrepreneur Robert Vargas to do some publicity shots for his monthly Red Zebra event, which is a kind of modern-day mashup of an artists' ball, dance club and  fashion show. The event used to be held in the basement of the Crocker Club in downtown LA, with a former bank vault as the backdrop. A couple of months ago Robert felt he needed more creative space, so he rented an empty storefront as a pop-up space and invited Sana to do the window dressing.

I had dragged some strobes and gels and whatnot along to try some offbeat lighting techniques of the event , but when I saw Sana doing her thing in the storefront window it was obvious that the natural lighting would be more than perfect.

Sana obliged for a series of poses and the results, I think, came out great.

Shot with available light, ISO 800, Nikon D70s w/Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G ED,  f/5.6 @ 1/15 sec.