I spent a fun Saturday afternoon photographing Aussie-via-London, pop-rock duo Lovers Electric (David Turley and Eden Boucher) in my “studio” apartment. Erinn and I met the husband and wife collaboration between catchy sets at an event at Venice’s Equator Books the night before. I’m always looking for fun people to photograph, and I liked their vibe. So with a bit of encouragement (3 parts Erinn and 1 part Shiraz), I approached David and asked if the two would mind meeting up sometime during their visit to L.A. to do some photos. They both turned out to be great sports and agreed to come over the next day when they had some free time. And here are the results. The two were in town signing a new record deal and will be coming out with a new CD sometime in May, I believe. More on that can be learned by clicking on their band name above to check out their site. They’re also on Myspace at http://www.myspace.com/loverselectric.
Just a scene I came across the other day while walking around Venice with Erinn and her college friend Mark. I didn’t have a frame where at least one of them wasn’t looking at me, so I settled on one where all of them were.
In the four full days my dad was here we had only one day of sunshine. Unusual for Southern Calif. Fortunately he lives in Florida and isn’t impressed by such things as sunny weather. On Saturday the two of us went for a hike at Griffith Park, pretty much taking the same path Erinn and I took just a couple weeks ago. I had read that the wildflowers were out in various parks across the city and was pleased to find Griffith was no exception. The color missing from the sky was more than made up for by that which was coming from the ground. Like the world had been flipped on its head for the day. I also liked the growth around the scraggly remains of recent wildfires, which caused so much destruction around this city only months ago. Nature is moving on.
My dad and sister were visiting this week, and Erinn and I decided to take them up to the Getty, a must-see for anyone visiting L.A. Thanks to a poor planning job on my part, we failed to realize that they close at 5:30 and arrived to a fairly empty campus with only 40 minutes to go. Despite the short time we had, and thanks to the parking attendant letting us park for free, we decided to check it out anyway and enjoyed a walk around the always beautiful, sometimes surreally perfect grounds and even found time for an interesting exhibit on the book art of the Russian Avant-Garde. Every time I go to the Getty I want to just sit in this spot and shoot people walking in front of the wall. I didn’t have a lot of time, but kind of like the results of this one. Perhaps I’ll try to top it next time. I also enjoyed the wispy cirrus clouds juxtaposed against the hard lines of one of the overhangs in the central plaza.
Didn’t shoot much over the weekend, but I picked up some new backdrops and had fun using them with Erinn and her new hair color. Here are a couple I liked.
Hundreds turned out for Eve of Justice: Lighting the way for the Supreme Court, in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, March 4, 2009. The event started at El Pueblo De Los Angeles Historic Park, where a mass re-commitment ceremony of married couples was held, and ended with a march past City Hall. The gathering precedes oral arguments on the validity of California’s Proposition 8, which are set to take place Thursday.
Jerry Johnson, left, and Wesley Gann, a recently married couple from Los Angeles, join the hundreds of attendees. They were two of several couples to renew their vows in a ceremony conducted by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
Lilly and Allison Varner, a legally married couple from Los Angeles, join the hundreds turned out, despite the rain.
One couple brought their dog.
Jay Mendez, left, and his husband, Vantha Sao, hold candles while joining the hundreds who turned out for Eve of Justice.
Richard Alegre of Orange County holds a sign in support of gay marriage over highway 101 while taking part in a march down Main St. in downtown Los Angeles.
Last week, through the ASMP, I had the opportunity to volunteer for a charity called Flashes of Hope at the Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA. The charity provides families with free photographs of children suffering from cancer or other life-threatening illnesses. While a studio had been set up for many of the children, my job, along with another photographer, was to go around to visit the dozen or so children who were unable to leave their rooms. It was a tough assignment in a lot of ways, but was very fun and rewarding in the end. Something I would definitely do again if asked. The final product each family receives is 2 8×10 prints and a set of about 10 proofs. These are a few of my favorites. Also, I have just received a link to some behind-the-scenes photos taken by another volunteer photographer. They can be seen here.
A random Obama sighting in Marina Del Rey, Calif.
Last night we made the trek down to Huntington Beach to check out the annual Huntington Beach Kite Party. I was hoping to catch the final moments of the event, which was slated to go until dark, at sunset, but when we arrived only a couple kite flyers remained and most were packing it in. I like the way the light was coming through this kite. It was sort of what I had imagined I’d see, but I was hoping for a sky full of them. Oh well. The trip wasn’t a total waste though. Besides getting to check out a new beach, we took advantage of Huntington’s proximity to Little Saigon, a Vietnamese community in Garden Grove, which, oddly, has a large number of restaurants that serve up pound after pound of delicious Cajun-style crawdads. The Boiling Crab, which Erinn and I visited in October after reading about it in the L.A. Times, is supposedly the originator of this phenomenon. Apparently the owners are from the Gulf Coast of Texas, or lived there for awhile, and decided it would be a great idea to start importing the suckers to the west coast. Now there are lines out the door every weekend and a number of imitators that have sprung up in the area as well. Rather than eat in this time we called in an order for 3 pounds and brought them home where we feasted for more than an hour along with several margaritas and a few episodes of Arrested Development. A pretty great evening in the end.
Venice, Calif.
