Nov 302008
Nov 282008
Erin Westerman of West Hollywood yawns while waiting in line with a friend after shopping for discounted home appliances at the West Hollywood Target on Friday, Nov. 28, 2008. Unlike many of the early morning shoppers there to buy presents, Westerman took advantage of the deep discounts to stock up on things needed for a house she recently purchased. Store manager Guillermo Escarano says there were more shoppers at the store for Black Friday this year than in years past, which he attributes to the store’s aggressive price cuts. Analysts are concerned that even with large numbers of shoppers retailers will still be in trouble this year due to people buying less and deeper than usual discounts. (AP Photo/David Zentz)
Nov 282008
Lauren came over from Tucson for Thanksgiving. Lucky for the Pelican she brought her own bird. And it was delicious.
Nov 262008
Something that caught my eye as I was walking home today. I was hoping they’d all fly away in unison, but the guy on the lower right wasn’t much of a team player.
Nov 182008
Yesterday evening I went out for a walk along the beach and ended up shooting for an hour or two after being impressed by the colors of the sunset, a side effect from the smoke cloud hovering over the city as a result of the nearby wildfires. The haze over the Venice Pier made it feel like a surreal dream world. Something like the beach scenes in Dark City comes to mind, if that reference rings a bell. As I’ve just moved here I’m unprepared to go cover the fires directly, so I chose to sit this one out. But I may head up there in the coming days to check out the aftermath. One thing I’ll need to do this spring is build up a personal fire kit and possibly go through some training so I can get in there next season. Hopefully there won’t be anything as bad as these have been for quite awhile.
Thousands have been protesting in Los Angeles this week after the passage of Proposition 8, which bans gay marriage in California. Today I attended protests in front of the Church of Latter-day Saints in Los Angeles. The Mormon church was the largest contributor to the campaign to pass the legislation.
Nov 062008
Actress head shot
I’m continuing to expand my headshots business and have added a headshot photography page to my site. My latest client was actress Kristin Vogelsong.
Nov 062008
As I sat stuck in traffic at the corner of Santa Monica Blvd and Avenue of the Stars the announcement came over the radio that the race had been called for Obama. Yeah! But, already!? Dammit! Sitting alone in my car was not where I wanted to be for this moment. I naively thought that I could head out to what was supposed to be the biggest Obama party in LA an hour before it started and still walk right in. Me and 10,000 others. After the announcement, which occurred on my way there, I jumped out of traffic and found a spot about a mile away and decided to hoof it to the Hyatt Regency in Century City, the site of the party. Seeing the line winding out of site behind the building I knew I was never getting in, so I decided to at least walk around the back to see how far it went. On the backside of the building I joined a small crowd that was pressing their faces to the windows of the hotel gym to try to read McCain’s lips as he gave his concession speech. Dammit again. Then the hotel staff came out to say that the fire marshall was closing the party to any newcomers. Screw this, I thought, and after snapping a couple quick frames decided to race home to catch Obama’s speech rather than stand on the curb aimlessly. His speech, of course, began right after I got back to my car, so I listened to most of it on the radio, getting home just in time to see the last few minutes on the tube. I was glad I’d gone out and gotten a taste of the energy that was out there, but I wish I’d gotten to be a bigger part of it. Maybe next time.
Nov 062008
Cam, KC, Matt and I, after heading the wrong way on Mulholland Drive and finding ourselves at the dead end of a dirt road, decided to climb to the top of the nearest hill. And then we started jumping.
Nov 012008
Last night, having no plans of my own, I headed out to West Hollywood to check out their annual Costume Carnival. More than 300,000 people, many in drag, converged on Santa Monica Boulevard to see and be seen. I had read that there would likely be a lot of Sarah Palin impersonators there, but I don’t think I saw one in the three hours I was there. Later I saw a couple interviewed on the 11 o’clock news, so I guess I missed them or left too early. Oh well.
About this gallery: PhotoShelter has recently developed a new widget that allows you to embed a photo gallery from my account. Clicking on the images will take you directly to my archive where the images can be purchased or licensed. So I thought I’d test it out here. For an added bonus you can click on the box with the arrow pointing out of it in the lower right to see the images full screen. – dz
