L.A. Photogathering pics

[poker]

In post #26 you do a "drag" technique. how did you do that? this is my first post by the way.

Use shutter speed priority with flash. Set your shutter to like 0"8 give or take a notch. Take the picture and after the flash captures your subject, wiggle the camera a little bit. Practice makes perfect. So remember slow shutter with flash.

Welcome by the way

[poker]

None of us made it all the way to Olympic. It was a long walk anyway. The last two theaters to come by would have been the Orpheum and the United Artist Theater. Here's a far shot of the Orpheum. They've held an America Idol finale here.

I added contrast and saturation to this shot just for fun.

http://www.laorpheum.com/

[schrackman]

haha, I remember this. I guess he just wanted to get a bird's eye view of Broadway. Maybe we should have done the same.

All right...I'm getting ready to post some more of my shots. I hope Brian gets some in tonight before I do. I've gotta make spaghetti first so that will give him some time.

Oh, by the way, ALL PARTICIPANTS of the Los Angeles photogathering, please PM me your mailing addresses. I've got a little surprise to send to you all for making it out. Probably will take a couple weeks to get it to you, but I think it's something that you will find kinda neat.

Ray,

Remember I pointed out this guy when we were at the intersection? I thought he was sleeping in the shot but I guess not

I still have more to share but I'm doing the trickle-down approach

Love the pics Loren! That P&S Yashica averages $100 on Ebay...wow! So much for getting one.

[Kokopeli]

I looked through my shots tonight and a few came out OK. I was screwing around quite a bit and did a lot of shooting from the hip, literally.

I'll post 8 tonight and there will be more to follow. A couple of these will look familiar since some have been posted already. Hopefully, mine are a little different...

1) The Roxie
2) A jewelry store that caught my eye.
3) A shot of the flag (same flag that was posted by Gene and Eric, I think).
4) One of my personal favorites.. A cool mural on a building..

[Kokopeli]

And here's my last 4 for tonight.. Ok, make that 3.. I sized one of the shots incorrectly and the site won't let me upload it..

1) My first shot "from the hip".
2) Booty Call. (Also posted by Rick)
3) I thought it was funny that the PotC (Pirates of the Carribean) was playing at the El Capitan theater...

[schrackman]

Well, here are some more pics from the schrackman. So glad everyone is enjoying all the photos from all the participants.

Rick gave me this idea. Unfortunately I didn't quite get the effect I wanted but close. I rushed through this because everyone had already headed outside to Broadway and I didn't want to lose them. Shot at f/22 at 3.2 seconds. I think I should have given it a tad faster shutter speed to trail the people better.



Back out on the boulevard I met these three fine looking ladies. But no matter how hard I tried, they just wouldn't talk to me.



So I tried to shoot a few buildings. Not sure if these went by any particular names, but I found the textures and lighting to be interesting. Oh wait...I just noticed the second building is name the Preckels Bldg., lol.





This remined me of the recent UFO thread. I think some of "prophet" Yahweh's disciples have made their way to L.A. :yikes:



Typical L.A. "wears" for sale (that's a play on the word "wares" for anyone who might not have got it). :wink5:



Alan and Taish take aim.



Just call me Mr. Canon! Eric making his way back up the boulevard.



A few more coming in my next post.

[schrackman]

I saw Rick taking a photo of these cameras I keep calling Mayimas and just had to get a shot. You can actually see the two cameras in his viewfinder.



Back to Union Station, which was a much smaller place than I had expected. I think their parking fees were bigger than the station itself! Nevertheless, here's an interior shot of an area they had closed off. I darkened the levels a bit to emphasize the light coming through the windows.



And here is one of two girls we saw modeling in the station. We all kind of agreed that the lighting seemed a bit harsh to be shooting these girls in the windowlight during mid-day.



I'm surprised I have yet to see any photos of inside the Bradbury building. We were all shooting up a storm in there. This was such a neat building! A lot of intricate iron work in black up against wood and brick. Unfortunately they had cordoned off from the second level on up and we couldn't get any shots looking down. But here's looking up the elevator shaft.



Oops, I forgot to insert this portrait of Taish. When Alan introduced her to us, I said hi and then *SNAP* went the shutter. Nice to meet you, Taish.



Ah, an Olivera St. wedding! Or is it a quienciñera? How quaint. Although I have no idea why the priest is peeking under his stole? I guess we'll never know.



Another view of the bride/quienciñeress (yes, I made that last word up). I'm still trying to figure out how I didn't blow the highlights on her dress. It was around 3:30 in the afternoon when I shot it.



And that's about all I have time for tonight.

Great shots, Brian!! Post more when you can. BTW, I went to see the first Pirates move at the El Capitan. Prices were high, sound was bad, crowd was noisy, but the experience was great! It's worth it to go at least one time.

[poker]

Love them shots Brian and Ray.

Ray, your DREBEL adds 55 lbs to your subject doesn't it? That explains why my picture.....never mind :idea:

Here is a shot of a guy shooting stills of the Sony PSP commercial. Now why can't I get a job like that. People actually get paid for being photographers...whoah. What a concept.

They had Canon 20Ds and I noticed one 60mm EF-S Prime and a Tokina lens.

[poker]

Bradbury Building

After eating at Grand Central Market, we went to the Bradbury Building Across the street. It is photog friendly and a must see if you are in the area.

Here's a few of my shots in there.

[poker]

Bradbury Building

Here are a couple more. One of the shots has Rick setting up his Mamiyaya 645 for a shot I totally look forward to seeing.

By the way, have we broken the record for the most posted photos for a Photogathering Thread? I know we beat that 3 person mini photog pizza gathering in Cisco....btw the best pizza is at a place in Venice off the Grand Canal in Italy :thumbsup:

[walterick]

All these pictures are great guys. I look forward to more!

ps. Oh, Eric, the Colorado Gathering in '01 had several pages of pictures. I think we have yet to beat that one

[poker]

Everyone took beautiful pictures! Your pictures have totally captured all that is downtown L.A.

As Eric said, in addition to the color and flavor of downtown Los Angeles, there are tall buildings, but, even in addition to that, if you drive over to the coast, we've also got the Pacific Ocean. I shot this one out the window of Gene's truck with my little Olympus Digital Stylus that I carry in my purse.

Please keep posting more!!!

Penny, where was this sunset shot and what time of year? I've been desperately chasing the sunset over the ocean but it always sets over land for me. Getting a shot like that is currently my Moby Dick.

Thanks.

[walterick]

Nice shot Pen!

You remind me, I took a shot of the beach with my camera phone Sunday morning. Not quite up to the quality of yours, I'm afriad

[racingpinarello]

Great stuff Ray..I really like your journalistic style and your people shots are top class....

Loren

[zrfraser]

Love all of these photos but the camera phone sticks out to me. Very holga-esque.

Z

[Photo-John]

I had some other business to attend to in the days after our Gathering. Here are a few photos taken in a very different setting from downtown LA. The photo of me was taken in near Valenica. And the other ones were taken on Mt. Pinos, off the Grapevine. Mt. Pinos is awesome. It's a very quick trip from the Gorman exit and the top is 8300 feet. I didn't realize there was terrain like this so close to the Grapevine. I think it's going to become a regular stop for me when I visit LA.

I have tons more photos to post. I have just been playing catchup at work today. The photos I've seen from the rest of you are great. I am very excited about this Gathering. I think it went very, very well and I hope it gets other people excited and motivated. Gatherings are great social events and they're a great reason to get out and shoot something different. I wouldn't have gone to downtown LA without this Gathering. But I sure am happy I went.

[walterick]

Hey! Gene, Alan, and his gf made the cover of the newsletter! Great shot too, PJ.

[Photo-John]

Here are some more pictures of our friends.

1) Karen and Montana
2) Gene
3) tRicky
4) Brian "Kokopeli"

[Photo-John]

Here are some more food-related photos. The first two are from the market. And the last is of Brian, Eric, and their Monsters of Meat dinner.

[schrackman]

I think that has to be best camera phone photo I've ever seen. It looks like you could have been wading in the water to get the shot!

You remind me, I took a shot of the beach with my camera phone Sunday morning. Not quite up to the quality of yours, I'm afriad

[schrackman]

Thanks Loren! But truth be told, if I've learned anything it has mostly come from the experienced members of this site, by reading what they've wrote and studying the techniques used in their photography. Right now I'm trying to absorb what you said in the other post about ND filters, light meters (got to get me one of those!) and such. Grasshopper still has a lot to learn.

Great stuff Ray..I really like your journalistic style and your people shots are top class....

Loren

[schrackman]

John,

I don't normally comment on MTB shots (just not my thing, kinda like Holgas), but these are superb. You've also captured some good poses of our group as well, and I especially like the chili shot! And now I can see what a fantastic dinner I missed! Yum!

[schrackman]

Ray, your DREBEL adds 55 lbs to your subject doesn't it? That explains why my picture.....never mind :idea:

lol, Eric we are all self-conscious of ourselves when it comes to seeing our own mugs. I looked at John's photo of me at Starbucks and thought how awful I looked. While we are quick to notice these things in ourselves we don't necessarily notice it in others. So not to worry. You look fine to us.

[schrackman]

This is the last set of images that I plan on posting. I didn't realize that I had actually taken so many pictures till I started processing them, but isn't that how it usually goes?

This first image is actually a composite of pictures I took through the windshield while driving to L.A. From upper left to right, then lower left to right: making the exchange from the 60 to the 10 freeway with the early morning marine layer still hanging around; headed north up the 110 and downtown highrisers comes into plain view; somewhere on the 110 I either missed the exit to Wilshire or there isn't one, and ended up trying to loop around back on to the 110 but wound up on the 101 north!!! Finally got back on the 110 south where I knew precisely to turn off. Whew!



One thing is for sure in L.A....with all the sidewalk stores carrying every perfume and cologne imaginable, no one should ever have to walk the streets with B.O.! Can you tell I love to angle my photos?



Another angle of the commercial they were shooting next to the market.





Eric explained to me that this fella here, and others like him, are running a street scam on people, letting them think they win at first and then they get 'em for their money. Apparently, he is not working alone either. In the second photo the guy on the right noticed I was taking pictures and intentionally blocked my shot several times. See him eyeing me? Not only that, three very tall fellas (and if I am not mistaken, the tall guy in red in the first shot is one of them) that I am sure were in on it as well, confronted me about taking pictures after the first two shots. Lessee, three very tall street guys against little 'ol 5' 7" schrackman....been there, done that, didn't want to do it again!! LOL Of course, I'm sure if they tried anything Eric would have had my back, right Eric? Eric?





Finally, one last shot of Olivera St.

[Photo-John]

There's a newsletter signup box in the right-hand column here, and there's one on the Home page of the site. I'll forward you a copy. And I'm including the photo here, since I haven't posted it yet.