Not too long ago, I created a photography group called Shootin’ Up Los Angeles (SULA). The idea was to explore different areas of Los Angeles with cameras and a desire to share photography ideas. Anyone with a camera is welcome to join SULA, no matter if they own a top-of-the-line SLR or just a disposable. As the saying goes, It’s not the camera that makes a good shot, it’s the photographer. I find that photographing with other people inspires more creativity and sharing of photographic ideas.
So on Thursday, September 18th, a two friends and I headed to downtown Los Angeles. I was hoping for a larger turn out, but with just three of us, it allowed us to get around much faster than if we had more people. In fact, for SULAII, we had just enough time to explore a few streets in Pasadena and Chinatown. But the amount of terrain covered is not the point of SULA - it’s seeing the world through the perspective of other Angelino photographers, which hopefully leads to creativity and growth.
To see the other photos, check out my SULA flickr group. Here are a few of my photos:
Late Friday night, after a long work week, I realized the endless possibilities of what I could do on Saturday. I could go on a road trip. I could visit a museum. Or maybe go to the Huntington Gardens. I’ve been meaning to visit the Long Beach Aquarium - maybe this was the weekend? There’s also a few LA historical spots I’ve been meaning to visit. The endless options became a moment of indecisiveness. What to do?
Roll the dice!
I wrote down eight actions on a piece of paper and rolled the dice to find out which three I would complete. I made them slightly ambiguous so I could combine them more easily into one Saturday. I don’t think “visit the mountains” and “visit the beach” could be doable in one Saturday morning, for instance. So here’s the list:
1 - Photograph something over 100 years old
2 - Photograph beautiful art
3 - Photograph a fish in its environment
4 - Capture morning fog (on film)
5 - Photograph 15 insects
6 - Visit a place you haven’t been before
7 - Go on a mini road trip
8 - Hike somewhere into the wilderness one mile
The idea was to roll an eight-sided die three times, and whatever action matched the number, I’d do it. This is when the first problem arose: I couldn’t find an eight-sided die! Instead, I used a twelve-sided die.
First roll: Photograph a fish in its environment - This was an ambiguous action to mean: “Go to the Long Beach Aquarium”, but it all depended on the other two.
Second roll: Photograph 15 insects - This is more difficult than it sounds. Capturing fifteen different bugs in one essentially one morning is something I’ve never done before. Even on a weekend Spring trip to Joshua Tree, I only captured about a dozen different insects.
Third roll: Capture morning fog (on film) - My heart sank when I rolled this one. When I wrote it down, it was two hours earlier in the evening. But at midnight, realizing that I had to get up before sunrise some 6 hours away, I didn’t feel as excited anymore.
But where’s the adventure if I were to break my own rules to make this game easier?
Before going to bed (now 1am), I got out my camera and headed outside my apartment. I suspected that the security lights might have attracted some insects. As luck would have it, I wasn’t the only one with that thought: there was a large praying mantis clinging to the wall near the light, waiting for prey to come on by. The long, slender, brown mantis was the first mantis I had seen in years here in Southern California, but previous experiences with them suggested that this one wouldn’t mind me getting close to photograph it. It looked at me with its alien-like eyes as I snapped a photo. Immediately, I realized that I had the aperture set incorrectly. In the two seconds it took me to look down at my camera, change a setting, and look back up, the predator had vanished. I retreated to bed.
Capture morning fog (on film)
At the ungodly hour of five, reserved for most of my life as a time to be unconscious, I reluctantly stumbled out of bed. Twenty minutes later, I was in my car driving around Los Angeles in search of fog. The weather report called for “morning low clouds and fog then becoming mostly sunny.” I first headed into Pasadena, where I had been lucky before in capturing fog. Nothing. I headed south on the 110, then north on the 5, then circled back to the Pasadena Bridge on the 134. Nothing. I headed back on the 134 going west and into Glendale. Nothing. I explored the winding roads of Griffith Park. Although there were many walkers and runners, no fog. Nothing. What was even more frustrating is that there was “low clouds” as was forecasted, but the gamed called for fog.
I headed back to Pasadena just as my favorite cafe, The Corner Bakery, was just opening for the day. The sun had risen and any chance of finding low-lying fog had dissipated, just as I suspect any fog must have done.
After breakfast, I headed home. As I lay down for a short nap, I came up with a game plan for completing the other two challenges.
photograph a fish in its environment
I woke up at 9:30am for the second time today, still earlier than I would on any other Saturday. My journey to complete these two last challenges would not be a long one: I headed to the Los Angeles County Arboretum. This 127-acre botanical garden is less than three miles from my apartment, and yet I had never visited. To make up for this embarrassment, I purchased an annual membership upon arrival.
I was extremely impressed with the Arboretum. Being a member of the Huntington Botanical Gardens for a few years, I was surprised by some of the differences the Arboretum offered. Most noticeably was a friendly gardening staff. The staff here were incredibly gracious and willing to provide interesting details about the gardens. I talked to two of the main gardeners as I explored. The Huntington boasts on their walking tour that they have on average of five gardeners on staff for every acre of land - not one of them I’ve ever seen converse with the guests. Here, the gardeners seem genuinely interested in approaching and talking with the guests. One was working on the new Dream Snake installation, a 1,000-foot long path that snakes its way through the Australian section of the arboretum. He seemed very busy, but took a few minutes to talk with me. When I mentioned this was my first visit, he was happy to list what I should see today, (which I believe was everything). He invited me to follow him into the Begonia & Orchid Green House and proudly pointed out the new watering system. As he went on his way, I noticed a koi pond at the far end of the green house. Mission accomplished!
While exploring near the Garden for All Seasons, I was approached by Darleen, another resident gardener who asked me how I was doing. When most Los Angeles conversations stop there, she continued it by sharing an anecdote of the white rose bush she was about to plant nearby (a Peace Rose). As she explained, this flower was first created in France, moments before the Nazi invasion. In fact, in haste of the invasion, they didn’t have the time to name the flower. The French snuck it out of the country to insure its survival. After the war, they appropriately named it the Peace Rose. A relative of that rose was what sat in front of us.
Photograph 15 insects
I was at the Arboretum for three hours to complete the final task of photographing insects. After noon, the winds picked up just enough to make flowers blow in the breeze. Not noticeable unless you are a photographer with a macro lens trying to photograph them. By 2pm, my patience was running thin, but I was able to capture 15 of the 20 or so different insects I saw at the Arboretum. Here they are:
[1] Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) - One of the easiest insect to capture on film when they have landed, yet one of the hardest while they’re still in flight.
[2] Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus) - Although they are fairly common in the area, they’re hard to sneak up on without them ’skipping’ away.
[3] California Praying Mantis (Stagmomantis californica) - I found this large carniverous predator battling a lizard in the grass. Mantis is from the Greek, a word meaning “prophet, seer.” I wonder if this guy knew his end was near? My presence had the lizard scurry into the nearby bushes (the direction the mantis is looking) but unfortunately, it was mortally wounded by the quick and brutal moves of the lizard.
[4] Parasitic Wasp? - identification is tough on this one. I originally thought it was a queen ant, but ants have elbow-jointed antennae. It is resting on the edge of a rose and probably measures less than 1/3 inch in length (9 mm).
[5] Funereal Duskywing (Erynnis funeralis)
[6] Casebearer Beetle (Cryptocephalus castaneus) - A small leaf beetle, about the same size of a ladybug.
[7] Gulf Fritillary Butterfly (Agraulis vanillae) - I didn’t realize it at the time of photographing this beautiful butterfly, but it was having intercourse! See its mate behind it?
[8] Funnel Web Wolf Spider (Sosippus californicus) - One of the few wolf spiders to build a web.
[9A] Carpenter Ants (Camponotus) - It looks like there are two kinds of ants here. I’m trying to identify them.
[9B] Carpenter Ant (Camponotus) - maybe…?
[10] Flower Fly (Toxomerus marginatus) - Body length is about 5-6mm, or the width of a ball-point pen cap.
[11] Another Skipper, possibly a female (Hylephila phyleus)?
[12] Willow Mining Bee (Andrena salicifloris) - These tiny bees (5/8″ or 15mm) love rolling around in flowers, covering themselves with pollen while gathering nectar. I spent two minutes photographing this one. Later photos (not posted) show it completely yellow with pollen.
[13] California Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa californica) - These large bees are so large and heavy, they have trouble landing in a flower without pulling off the petals. Instead, they land on the outside of the petal (its weight sagging the whole flower closer to the ground) and probe for nectar near the sepal.
[14] Marine Blue Butterfly - (Leptotes marina) - My second photographic encounter with a blue. It has a wingspan measuring less than an inch (26 mm). (Here’s the first encounter)
[15] Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) - The giant of the butterfly family, I was lucky to get this one on film, albeit from a distance. These butterflies take advantage of their 4-5 inch wings and rarely stop to rest for very long.
So, when all said and done, I completed two of the three challenges I set for myself. As it so happens, I completed a few that I didn’t set:
6 - Visit a place you haven’t been before
7 - Go on a mini road trip
I look forward to another “Roll the Dice” weekend adventure!
How often can you say that you do something “once in a blue moon” and really mean it? I was going to start this blog by saying “Once in a blue moon…” but I stopped and went to Wikipedia on a hunch and whatdoyaknow - it really is a blue moon this month (May 5th - June 2nd).
So, once in a blue moon, I organize a photography outing with my friends to share photography techniques and to explore our home turf. I invite anyone and everyone to join me, even if they own just a camera phone. I find that photographing with other people inspires more creativity and sharing of photographic ideas.
This time out (our second), we kept it green: only public transportation and our feet were used to get around. The five of us started in Pasadena and ended in Chinatown. Here’s some of my photos:
A couple of weekends ago while I was studying an old Bingo set I bought on eBay, an idea for an urban challenge popped into my head: how difficult would it be to locate specific terrazzo found on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles by the smallest to clues? I’ve spent many-a-weekend afternoons photographing my favorite street, but only recently started concentrating on the interesting textures found beneath the soles of one’s shoes. I grabbed my camera, a couple bingo chips, and headed downtown. It was just my luck that it was something around 1000 degrees downtown, but after an hour of taking a handful of close-up shots of the Broadway sidewalks, I had what I needed. I posted the following challenge on my blog over at retrotravels.net:
Each BINGO game piece was photographed on Broadway Boulevard in Los Angeles in front of famous landmark buildings from a bygone era. Can you name each location? I also posted it on Flickr and shared it with the blogdowntown photo pool, hoping that the challenge takes hold. Eric Richardson over at blogdowntown.com has picked up on my challenge on his site, helping to gain support. There has been a mixed reaction to the challenge. Some have mentioned that they plan on going downtown with a printout of my collage to try to identify the historic urban terrain. One guy had given up before he had a chance to begin, saying that it is impossible since “the shots are are too tight to identify” and not enough detail is given of the area. Hm. I guess he didn’t see how the texture, the metal lining, and the colors of the marble terrazzo are as unique as the buildings they lie in front of. This challenge wasn’t made to be easy, folks! It won’t be solvable online no matter how well you are at googling. Get out there and take a walk down Broadway! After all, the whole point of this challenge is to hopefully introduce you to the amazing strata of history located downtown. As you pack a water bottle and a camera (I want pics!), I’ll wait patiently for you, wondering if there’s an Angelino out there willing to solve this challenge.UPDATE! ~ June 16th, 2006 - Eric Richardson of blogdowntown.com solved my urban challenge! I would have loved to see him walking around trying to figure it out. He did such a good job, he even identified exactly where I had photographed most of the bingo pieces. Kudos goes out to Eric for his interest in my little game!
Here we go! The first entry in my website’s blog! Exciting, isn’t it?!? Nah, I didn’t think so either. I guess I’ll start this off with the reason why I added yet another blog onto the Internet. It’s simple, really: organization! Right now I’m creating/adding to/helping with a handful of projects that I’d like to share in one area, making it easy for you, the wonderful reader, to explore and hopefully keep track of them. Here’s the short list of the websites I’m currently working on:
kahunna.net - my pride and joy. Created in December 2001, this site is a non-commercial site dedicated to helping budget travelers discover meaningful travel by sharing what I have learned. It mainly showcases my photography.
retrotravels.net - a project I’ve been trying to translate from book to web for a while now. It isn’t too easy taking marginalia and ephemera from old turn-of-the-last-century travel guidebooks and webbifying them. Stay tuned.
eurotrek.net - also a travel-related site. At the time I am writing this, the site is just a forum where travellers from around the world can go to share their experiences or ask for advice on budget travel. I am one of four partners working on this site.
soundsdowntown.com - although it is not yet available, this site will provide downloadable walking tours of my city, Los Angeles. It is a partnership with Melanie Orndorff, a fellow Angelino who shares my passion for the exotic history of the Los Angeles area. This site will be used with…
urban-explorers.com - one of my long-term goals is to create a guided tour company concentrating in the downtown Los Angeles area. This goal is still on the horizon, but when it is ready, you now know where to find it!
All progress on these websites will be featured here on this site.
