L.A. Photogathering pics

I hope I'm not out of line here for posting the first post, but I'm already home and have some of my pics processed.

Just wanted to say first of all I had a GREAT time with everyone, and it was a pleasure to meet Photo John, Aaron(?? sorry if I got the name wrong) and his girlfriend (don't ask me to spell her name either, lol), Rick, Eric, Loren and Karen (oh, and Montana...woof!) for the first time. It was also great to see Brian again, as I haven't seen him since our Yosemite meeting a couple of years ago. I enjoyed everyone's company very much, and the only downfall to the whole event for me was that I had to leave the gang around 4:00.

I also wish to thank Eric for doing a great job of organizing the event. He had everything planned out and all we had to do was just follow his lead.

When I got there the first thing I noticed was how much bigger everyone's lenses were than mine!!! And, of course, Rick and Loren had to bring their Mayimas along. "Well," I thought to myself, "this isn't going to be very fair showdown of photographic equipment, now is it?" :frown2: So here's my cheap Sigma lenses' attempt at giving their fancy lenses a run for the money! Can't wait to see everyone else's photos from today and whatever they shoot tomorrow.

I'm going to post 12 photos in all (in the order that I took them), so please bear with me. The rest I will leave up to everyone else to post when they get the chance to post them.

First shot of part of the group at Grand Central Market.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...ng/market1.jpg

Neat reflection off a candy display case in the market. Had to flip the photo in PS so that the sign didn't read backwards.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...reflection.jpg

Some very cool lighting on these Chinese paper balls hanging as a display over a vendor's space.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...paperballs.jpg

Scrumptuous looking apple display. I like the contrast of colors on this one.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...ing/apples.jpg

Dowtown buildings that could be seen from outside the market on the historic Broadway Theatre district.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1.../buildings.jpg

Wait...is that Photo John? Why, I do believe it is. Almost couldn't tell with those shades on. :D
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1.../photoJohn.jpg

You trying to catch a bus, Gene?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...genebowhay.jpg

The Preacher, spreading the Good Word.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...g/preacher.jpg

Getting a little too close for comfort, here.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...hering/bus.jpg

Nice afternoon shadows on the clock at Union Station.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...ring/clock.jpg

How many pcphotoreview photographers does it take to shoot Olivera St.? :p By the way, from left to right: Photo John, Eric, Brian, and Rick.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...g/4photogs.jpg

A symphony of colors in the Olivera St. market section.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...ng/guitars.jpg

And that's where my journey ended. After everyone else posts some photos, I'll probably have a couple more to put up. All in all it was a great photogathering for me! Can't wait to do it again. Hear that, Rick? Better start organizing an Arizona trip when you get back. :)

great stuff Ray very impressive. this is why I like the gatherings because you see different styles of photography from the same location. thanks for making it out and it was nice to meet you.Loren Karen and Montana

wow I love the one with the bus. Being a transit operator myself I can appreciate how close you were in teh shot... good thing you got the plate nice and clear =P Now you can say he ran over your foot or something and have the number as proof =)

Ray-
It was great to meet you. And it was a great day. I agree with Loren about seeing different styles of photography. Your photos are so different from mine! You don't need a big lens because you have a wonderful eye for subtle details. My photos seems so obvious and crass next to yours. But I do have a lot of stuff I like. And I will try to post some later today.

Of the photos you posted I really like the clock, the little ukeleles from Olivera St, and the preacher. I especially like the preacher. I saw you talking to him but didn't realize you'd taken a picture. That's a great one.

It was nice to meet you all yesterday. Dinner was the icing on the cake.

Love the shots Ray. Giving someone a $100,000 race car doesn't mean they are a great race car driver. Your images are proof that good photos come from the mind's eye and not from bigger lenses.

I'll be slowly pouring in the shots. Thanks for starting our thread Ray! :thumbsup:

Here's Photo-John at our Starbuck's meeting point.

Ray helped me get a better understanding of fill in flash with my 430EX. He suggested I shoot these lanterns hanging in Grand Central Market. Turned out to be one of my favorite shots of the day.

As soon as we started to walk through Grand Central Market to get to Broadway Blvd. Everyone scattered and became trigger happy with all the photo opportunities. Personally, I didn't shoot as much as I wanted in there so I'll probably be going back next weekend.

As Rick mentioned, photogatherings produce photos of PR members taking photos.

Here is Schrackman in action as we walked down Broadway Blvd.

Looks like I missed out on some good picture taking and meeting everyone, sorry that i didn't make it, something realy important came up and i couldn't go..
I will make it for sure on the next one.

Here is the reason we all went to LA - Eric/Manacsa.

1) Messing with his camera at Union Station
2) First meeting, at Starbucks, before we all left for Grand Central Market
3) Street dog! A pre-dinner snack on Hollywood Blvd.

I love downtown LA. This was a revisit for me. I did a college photo field trip to the exact same location, almost 20 years ago. I've never forgotten it and it was wonderful to do it again and especially to do it with a bunch of great PhotographyREVIEW.com members.

A couple of Olivera Street souvenir photos. The first is a bunch of Mexican wrestling masks. The second I like especially because of Ray's photo which is co different. One of the best things about a gathering like this is to see how differently we all perceive and photograph the same places and things.

Great shots Eric & John! And I hope you have more to share. Eric, I should have told you to set your flash to +1, that way your shot would have been totally blown out so that your photo of the lanterns wouldn't look better than mine, haha.

John, I love the picture of Eric at Union Station. You caught that motion blur perfectly while keeping Eric in focus. Did anybody get shots of the models that were there? I got one but I'll save it for later after others have posted. As for the preacher, I had a great converstation with this sweet, old fellow, and encouraged him to keep at it! He didn't want his pic taken at first, but I explained to him who I was (a preacher also) and why I was there (taking a break from it all with my pcphotoREVIEW.com friends). After that he seemed quite okay with it.

Jaedon, on that bus shot I set my 550EX flash to multi mode at 1/125th. I don't even think I've read yet in my manual what this mode is for, LOL. (But I will now!) I just wanted to see what would happen. It was an experiment that kind of turned out a real neat effect on the bus.

Can't wait for some of the others to post their pictures!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Photo-John

Here is the reason we all went to LA - Eric/Manacsa.

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It appears that the new Sony DSLR adds 55 lbs to your figure. :blush2: Heheheh...those shots are fun although Loren wasn't suppose to know about the snack!

I just sparked the idear of meeting in Los Angeles....all the PR attendess especially Rick and Brian fueled the fire. We should thank each other for making it happen :thumbsup:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Photo-John

A couple of Olivera Street souvenir photos. The first is a bunch of Mexican wrestling masks.

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This shot got me in trouble with the spouse. She got mad at me for not buying a wrestling mask for my kid! Go figure! :confused:

Cool shots PJ! Glad you liked our Downtown run.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by schrackman

Eric, I should have told you to set your flash to +1, that way your shot would have been totally blown out so that your photo of the lanterns wouldn't look better than mine, haha.

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That's funny. I like your version better. We should trade!

Still on Broadway Blvd...

Following excerpt taken from http://www.gmrnet.com/theaters.html about the theater in the photo:

"The Los Angeles Theater was a latecomer to the Broadway theater district. It's January 30, 1931 opening featured Charlie Chaplin in City Lights. Although the theater was built in the early years of the Great Depression the baroque facade and interiors recall the majesty of the Sun King, Louis XIV. 615 South Broadway. Closed and unoccupied."

I made it!

I rolled back into Phoenix about 1am this morning, after playing in Joshua Tree for half the day!

You guys took some great shots! I will avoid posting mine now to save myself the embarrassment :D Ray, you have a really great eye buddy!

It was nice meeting everybody. Thanks Eric for making such a great schedule, we didn't have to fight at all over what we were doing next :wink: It was great meeting you Eric, Ray, Alan, his gf, and Karen & her friend (I'm so great wth names.) And of course it was great to see Brian, Penny & Gene, Loren, and John again. Dinner Saturday was awesome!

MY journey started somewhere between the California/Arizona border and the outskirts of LA, when I started taking pictures. It was tough driving and shooting, so these all suck. The real photogathering ones are coming up next.

1) The big fans
2) Ford GT40 I raced with (not!)
3) Lake Elsinor
4) Mountains between Lake Elsinor and Brian's house. Beautiful drive!

Rick

Brian shacked me up for the two nights I was in LA. Brian's an awesome guy. His house is full of Kokopellis and Southwest art. And big, energetic dogs :D We had dinner with Penny and Gene Friday night to officially begin the LA Photogathering. Our conversation centered around photography, and travel. And I heard something about an Arizona gathering before 2010? :)

1) More shooting while driving, this coming into LA, to show the early haze/smog
2) We met up at Starbucks, Eric got a jump start on the shooting
3) Back in the car, heading to downtown
4) The Marketplace, where I got yelled at for using a tripod. Twice :)

The market was bustling and full of yummy food. And, this bunch of unsightly photographers running around shooting it all.

1) PJ
2) Yummy things.

Downtown LA is full of people, goods, and lots of music. Of course, as Eric noted, it didn't take as long to start taking pictures of each other taking pictures of each other...

Back to the market for lunch, where I realized I no longer owned the largest camera. That's Loren's 6x7 on the left and my 645 on the right. Photo John gives approval in the background.

Outside the market, they were shooting a commercial for Sony PSP. Eric and I watched for a while. One guy asked what they were doing, I said he could probably get in the commercial if he wanted, so he walked up and asked and they put him in the scene :D The guy at the table is holding a fake PSP. I wonder if he ever got the girl.

On to Union/Grand Central Station, can't remember the name, where we took it easy and shot each other. I call the first one "Evil Santa" LOL

A couple of photo shoots were also taking place in the train station.

On to Hollyweird, where everything was very touristy, and very exciting. We started with coffee and then hit the boulevard. I found this Star Trek Barbie in a store window, along with a Michael Jackson doll. Sweet!

Hey, did anyone ever get me Super Girl's phone number?

Time for dinner. We got there a bit early so we hung out and took pictures of... each other.

I invinted a new photographic technique called "swirling." John will try to tell you he invinted it first. Don't believe him.