captured thoughts

This weekend I tried something completely new. I took part in the first ever World Wide PhotoWalk. What is a photowalk you say? Well its where photographers meet and walk a predetermined route and, right, take pictures. Photowalks have been going on for quite a while but this is the first time it was coordinated wold wide. Our group met at Union Station in Los Angeles where we met the other photographers, got a map and a quick overview of the route. We had three main targets, Union Station, Olvera Street and Chinatown. Since Olvera St. is across the street from Union Station, most of us headed there first. We did get a few odd looks as we crossed Alameda, cameras, bags and even some tripods in tow. I’ve been to Olvera St. before but I couldnt honestly say when except that its been close 25 years. Once at Olvera St. the group thinned out and started shooting. We spent about an hour at Overa Street before a handfull of us decided to head to Chinatown. We went back into Union Station with a quick detour to the back, East Portal, to shoot a very cool and very large mosaic glass ceiling. Chinatown was just one stop on the Metro Gold line. When we got there, there was a street performance going on in the plaza, just our good luck because no one knew it was planned. At about 6, most of the people headed to Felipes and I headed home.

For me the best thing about a photowalk is that you do not have a specific subject to shoot. It forced me to think creatively about the photos I took. Think about your neighborhood. What would you take pictures of if someone dropped you off on a corner and said, “now go take some great pictures”? What would make my pictures stand out from 50 other people shooting the exact same things?

In this photowalk the leader of each cities walk will select a photo of the day, the winner receiving a copy of Scott Kelby’s new Lightroom book. Then each cities winner will go on and could win a bunch of other really cool prizes. The prizes are unique to this event and are a great marketing plan for Scott’s book.

Here are my entries for the World Wide PhotoWalk: LA historic Downtown

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29659210@N08/

and a picture of your’s truely leaving the Chinatown Metro Station

getting a shot over the crowd

UPDATE:

You can see everyone’s pics from the walk here
http://www.flickr.com/groups/scott-kelbys-worldwide-photowalk-los-angeles/

Last week we got out first call to photograph an Angel for NILMDTS. Our frist call was for an adorable baby boy named Sevastian. He was at home in hospice care and he was just a few days from being two months old. I suppose it was somewhat easier for us since this baby had not passed yet but it was still very very sad . Please watch the slideshow and say a prayer for Sevastian’s parents. You can see more of the images here

Over a month ago I discovered an organization called Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep (NILMDTS) completely by accident. NILMDTS is an organization that provided free photography services to parents that are experiencing the death of an infant.  After reading all of the touching testimonials, we immediately applied to be one of their photographers and was told that our application would be reviewed along with samples of our work and we would hear back in a few weeks.

So today I’m sitting here brooding over our family’s string of really bad luck wondering why me when an email shows up in my inbox; we’ve been accepted as NILMDTS photographers.  Now I’m thinking while our family’s run of bad luck is definitely bad, really bad, it could be so much worse. I am so blessed to have four beautiful healthy children and a wonderful wife that watches of them day and night.

Anyway, please grab some tissues and head over to their website and take a look. We’re very proud to be a part of this organization.

I had an opportunity over the Memorial Day weekend to do a shoot for my niece. Its fun to work with friends and family because everyone is comfortable, no strangers telling you to get into odd poses. This was also an opportunity for me to discover a few local locations to shoot in. One would think there are endless places to shoot in the LA area and there are, but as I’m finding out if they’re also very expensive.  One of my top choices was Descanso Gardens. You can take all the pictures you want there for free until you break out a tripod, light modifiers etc.  A photography permit at Descanso is actually on the cheap side at $250 for 2 hours. My second choice proved even more expensive. Mentryville, the longest running oil well in the country was there, is managed by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. They want $1000 per day plus $70/hour for a Park Ranger and large insurance policy. So what do we do? We use two city parks and a city bus stop. I would have liked the rustic look of Mentryville but I think it was out of my clients budget.

You can see the rest of the shoot here

Tags: Photo Shoot

This weekend our family had the privilege to participate in the SCV Relay for Life. This was a great event and not at all what I expected. I had been to one of these over 10 years ago in Tennessee and it was small and it was just people walking around the track at a local school. Here in Santa Clarita the American Cancer Society has done an excellent job of organizing a really fun event that, from what we could tell, raised a TON of money. The campsites were setup like two concentric rings around Central Park and the “track” was between the rings. Each campsite had a booth of some sort with a theme and most had a raffle or educational materials. The very scientific “ton of money” estimate was largely due to all the raffles and the sheer number of people. We saw XBox 360′s, Nintendo Wii’s, Computers, and all sorts of gift certificates from local businesses. According to The Signal, that “ton” equals about $500,000 for cancer research and prevention.

For me, the best part was having the kids there. Jennifer bought two Luminaria bags for Austin and Amanda to decorate and dedicate to Great Grandpa. Early in the day the kids, even Emilee, helped fill the Luminaria bags and load them into wagons to be placed around the site. I don’t think the kids understood until the evening the magnitude of what they were participating in. Once the candles and Luminaria bags were lit (4000 bags according to The Signal) they realized that every one of these was someone that lost the fight or someone that was currently fighting.

I also decided to join ACS’s Cancer Prevention Study which hopes to enroll 500,000 adults between the age of 30 and 65. This is a historic study to better understand Cancer causes and prevention.

The ultimate goal is to enroll 500,000 adults from various racial/ethnic backgrounds from across the U.S. The purpose of CPS-3 is to better understand the lifestyle, behavioral, environmental and genetic factors that cause or prevent cancer and to ultimately eliminate cancer as a major health problem for this and future generations.

I think was well worth our time to not only raise money but to involve the kids. They know we lost Grandpa to cancer but I don’t think they really understood what cancer was, maybe they still don’t, but I think they learned something either way.

So, the reason I Relay . .

1. for Grandpa – we miss you!
2. for my kids – so they wont loose anyone else they love to cancer
3. for a young man named Evan, who has become family to thousands of Scouts in Santa Clarita.

You can see all of the pictures HERE