My year in photography really began over the summer. It’s not that I wasn’t taking pictures during the first half the year, but my effort wasn’t consistent and my output was far from prodigious. I was coming off a creative slump following what felt like a big project, work was crazy, the stars just weren’t aligned, so my attention to photography was sporadic.
So it was at this point that I found myself in Downtown Los Angeles over the fourth of July weekend with the expressed purpose of shooting photographs. My wife had work obligations in LA that weekend, and as I have no qualms whatsoever about riding her professional coattails for a free hotel room, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to get some dedicated solo time with my camera in the subject rich streets of DTLA.
But it was kind of a rough go, a rocky start to what’s shaped up to be a reasonably productive second half of the year. The rough patch I experienced that weekend in LA was not necessarily a collection of pronounced individual issues. Rather, the vibe was weird and things just didn’t click.
I never really felt like I found a flow state while shooting over those three days. I only shot four rolls of film in that time, and I remember thinking that I botched more shots than I hit. I was frustrated with my lens choice and decided that I prefer a 50mm over a 28mm lens for street photography…but I hadn’t brought the 50mm with me. The weather was hot as hell, the air was swampy and smelly. Anime Expo was happening at Staples Center and there were costumed nerds everywhere, but they were uninteresting to me and I barely photographed any of them. An off duty jewelry store security guard threatened to shoot me.
More than once I stepped into a local bar and knocked back a drink or three in search of my mojo, to no avail. But I put in the work, and photos were taken. And that’s what matters.
I burned one roll of Portra 400 color film and got one decent shot out of it, so it got top billing, and three rolls of Tri-X 400 black & white, selects from which fill the gallery.
