Lights

Traffic in downtown LA

January 2012

Yours Truly

(But not taken by yours truly)

LA Cloudscapes

Some shots from a very bright Sunday morning.

All Aboard!

Union Station is really beautiful.

I saw it for the first time last week.

Fiesta de las Flores

I spent last Saturday morning at the Fiesta de las Flores in LA (on Olvera Street to be exact). I read about the fiesta on a photography website a few months ago as a great place for amateur and professional photographers to go shoot, so I was really excited when Saturday finally came around. I was a little put off by the fact that there were no flowers in sight, but there was still an overwhelming amount of scenes to photograph. A lot of dancers, musical groups, and street vendors. My anticipation for street photography was satisfied, which is apparent in the slide show I put together below (too many photos to post individually). For some reason, blogger never uploads my videos so I had to embed it through youtube.

________________________________________________________________

I just watched the video with the sound on and noticed there is background music. Weird, I didn't sync any music to the slideshow when I created it. This was the first time I've used iphoto to make a slideshow...I guess it automatically adds music?

Lights

I rarely go to shows. Despite how good or bad the music may be, the one thing that always keeps my interest is the potential for cool shots. I'm amazed and awe-inspired by the combination of silhouettes and stage lighting at intimate venues. These pictures are from last night at the Troubadour. Most of the photos were somewhat similar and I didn't have the patience to sift through them, hence the massive upload.

Band: The Besnard Lakes

Venue: the Troubadour in West Hollywood

**a little bit of color-suck, so I posted a few of my favorites on flickr

Mitsymoto

RAW: Natural Born Artists is a showcase that displays different musicians, designers, artists, directors, etc. every Thursday night in Southern California. This past week, my friend Lauren's jewelry line Mitsymoto Designs was shown at the Hotel Angeleno in Los Angeles. Lauren has been creatively driven for as long as I can remember, so it's no surprise how professional and neat her line was. With that said, I was still really impressed by the variety and uniqueness of her work. Here are some pictures from the event, but if you'd like to know more, check out the website for Mitsymoto.

I loved this rocking chair necklace

My friend Ashley modeling the iPod knuckle ring...

...and also a cuff

The artiste herself, Lauren Matsumoto

Photographing Photographers...and other strangers

I like photographing strangers, especially catching them in candid moments:

The lead singer's little brother

Manager, I assume

Moon Duo

Gamble House

We went here for some live music on Saturday evening. I don't know much about either band other than I enjoyed photographing them, but you can find more on them here and here.

Downtown

1 Scene, 3 ways

Too much noise in the photos, so I'm not sure I like any of them...except perhaps the black & white shot (cityscapes always look better in b&w to me).

Taken from the roof of the car while overlooking the 101.

Same As It Ever Was

Angelinos have witnessed some serious rain in the last several weeks, leaving many streets flooded and freeways clogged. While the sudden burst of rain may seem like just a peculiarity in our otherwise sunny climate, we've experienced heavy rains for several decades now, but the streets of Los Angeles remain underfunded and ill-prepared.

Jefferson Boulevard, 1951

(courtesy of Los Angeles Public Library)

San Fernando Road, 2010

(courtesy of Los Angeles Times)

A few cities have taken the lead in solving the perennial crisis. Sun Valley, a small industrial town north of Los Angeles, sits at the base of the Verdugo mountains. The city has taken proactive steps to combat the dangerous trio of flash flooding, droughts, and forest fires that plague many L.A. communities every year. It has devised strategies that capture excessive rainwater and prevent both urban runoff and street flooding. TreePeople, a non-profit environmental organization, was instrumental in the Sun Valley watershed project. Their proposed plan, which was completed in 2006, is detailed here.

In addition to a comprehensive watershed management plan, the city has redesigned streetscapes to better handle flash floods, like the Tuxford Green Multiuse Project. As TreePeople explains:

The project redesigned the intersection with a flood control system that conveys most stormwater under, instead of into, the busy intersection. Some of the water is stored in a 45,000-gallon cistern to be used for irrigating the landscaping at the new pocket park, which is planted with native and drought-tolerant species.

Water is an extremely precious resource in California. When the rain comes in waves, you might as well capture it.

*By the way, I'm Best Friend, and I'll occasionally fill up Sara's shoebox while she's away in Pakistan.