Some people say that Los Angeles has no distinct weather pattern. No real winter or fall. Just sun and more sun. Contrary to popular belief, it does rain sometimes. It hasn't in a while which is sad because we need it. Having said that, I love sun. Warm is good. So are palm trees.
"Two sticks and a clear sky" / 35mm Kodak Portra 160VC / April 2011
Sometimes all it takes is good timing.
I used to frequent my friend's house quite often. Most of the time I come unannounced. I'm almost like the Kimmie Gibbler (from Full House fame) of my group of friends.
My friend Flor was babysitting while the parents worked and this photo was taken just as my friend's son was waking up from a nap and his mother had just come from work to pick him up. As she was feeding him, he looked towards me and gave this curious look.
Me and kids are weird. I love kids but sometimes kids are stranger danger with me which is fine. Some take to me well from the start while others I just need more time so I can grow on them.
"Wrong side of a nap" / 35mm Kodak Portra 160VC / April 2011
I remember when I first turned 21. It was great being able to drink alcohol legally. Not that I drank before turning 21. I was never really a drinker. I've seen friends drink before and seeing them turned me off a bit because they drank to get drunk but as I grew into legal age, I imbibe to enjoy and rarely do I get drunk.
I took this photo of my friend Genna at Outside Lands last year and while she has been to previous Outside Lands, this was the time when she was able to finally buy her own beer legally. I'm sure it felt great to walk into Beer Lands, order her drink and show her wristband to the bartender. My first alcoholic drink was a wine cooler so it wasn't much, but it was great.
"Finally legal" / 35mm Adox CHS 100 / August 2014
This is Juan. He works at a restaurant that I'm currently doing a photo story/series on. Every time I lift my camera up to my eye, he always points the finger at me. All. The. Time. Ok, maybe not all the time but most of the time. It's gone to the point where whenever he does this, I just bide my time and wait until he's done amusing himself and then I take the photo. This wasn't one of those moments.
"The finger" / Fuji Instax Wide Format instant film / Circa 2014
Baby's first steps will always be an important moment for every parent. I don't have kids myself but one day I would like a brood (at least 2) of my own. I remember my little sister's first steps in the 90s and it was interesting and fun to watch her go from crawling like an insect out of hell to holding on to various railings to get herself up and finally to taking those first few steps.
I took this photograph of my friend's daughter Mikayla at the park during a birthday celebration for another friend. She's probably a year old in this photo, give or take a couple of months. Her father Alex is behind her with his hand holding hers as she tries to walk over to her mother. A moment like this reminds me of my little sister.
"Mikayla's first steps" / 6x6 medium format Rollei Retro 80s / July 2012
Posed or candid? I've always debated which I like more. With posed shots, you have direct control over not only your subject, but how your photograph plays out. With candid photos, you're at the mercy of whatever happens right before your eyes. Most of my photographs are documentary/photojournalistic in style so I have an affinity for the element of chaos with candid photos/portraits. I suppose I prefer that my subjects be unguarded when I photograph them. It's cliche but there's truth when a person let's their guard down.
It's probably why this is one of my favorite photos in my archive of my friend Genna. We were waiting in line to watch the Cinespia screening of Jaws at Hollywood Forever Cemetery and I saw her laying there on the grass, drinking her Stella beer and she was talking, I forget about what, but as she was talking, she was slowly peeling the label off the bottle. I was curious about that action and I wanted to document it so I tried my best to sneak my camera and prep it for a shot and once she looked at up at me, I fired the shutter. There's a light leak in the photo but it's at a place in the photo where it works.
"In the waiting line" / 35mm Cinestill 800T / June 2014
Fun under the sun takes a whole new meaning when you're at a beach party. That was always the case whenever Distant Beat organized their beach parties a couple of years back.
During one beach party in August, the beach in Sea Cliff, Calif. was oddly overcast through much of the day. Other DB beach parties were normally sunny and warm. I was over by the DJ tent and the sky was already starting to clear up to let Sol's rays shine down on us when I noticed my friend Becky from afar dancing and making her way towards us. She's always been a bright soul to me and every time I'm in her presence, she brightens my mood and the setting.
"Sun is shining" / 6x6 medium format Fuji Velvia 50 / August 2009
Editorial fashion shoots was still a new experience for me in 2012. I've studied (read: flipped through fashion magazines) and a lot of the photos I saw back then had this washed out look to them which were obviously edited to look like an old film stock look (most but not all of them...) and I thought it would be fun to actually bring one of my film toy cameras and shoot a couple of frames and see what happens.
This was taken during another DeLacy Collection shoot after we had gone through multiple pieces for their look book. I had the model lounge on one of the patio chairs some time after noon to get a bit harsher light. Normally you don't want to do that but I figured the toy camera's plastic lens would soften the light a little bit so it doesn't look too harsh. I liked the resulting photo with the light leak to the right which is what I love about toy cameras. Their unpredictability almost always works.
"Toy camera fashion" / 6x6 medium format Fuji Astia 100F / December 2012
I had my first experience doing a fashion photoshoot in 2011. It was for a friend of a friend and she owned a boutique label called DeLacy Collection. She needed a new photographer and asked my friend if she knew anyone and recommended me for the job. I had just purchased a new set of studio lights so I was well equipped for the job not just skill wise but technically.
This was a BTS (Behind The Scene) photo that I decided to shoot on the Mamiya C330. Just prior to this photo, an assistant helped out by prepping her hair and some other of the finer details on the model and when she turned her head and saw me with the camera ready to shoot, she probably thought I was ready to run the next set of photos with my digital camera so she quickly jumped out of my frame so I could take the photo. That was awfully nice of her but all I wanted to do was to document on film, her prepping the model.
"Hopping out" / 6x6 medium format Lomography 100 / May 2011
My friend Genna and I took our first break of the day during Outside Lands in 2014 when we ran into these two guys and they had asked me if I was willing to sell them two cigarettes after seeing I had lit one myself. I don't ever charge money in exchange for something like cigarettes that can potentially kill you and I offered them at no charge but they wouldn't have it. Some sort of guilt I suppose so they gave me $5 for two smokes.
We chatted with these two for a good amount of time and they became our "festival friends" where we would exchange salutations if we were to every run into each other. We ran into them one other time during the 3 day festival but it was always cordial and friendly. We briefly talked about our opinions on whatever act we saw for the day and what our recommendations of other acts we each need to see.
Before going our separate ways in this instance, they asked again for two additional cigarettes, to which I offered for free but again, they wouldn't take. So they gave me another $5 for another two cigarettes.
"Festival friends" / 35mm Adox CHS 100 / August 2014