Analog Love Letter: Salt In Her Veins

I don't think I've met someone so drawn to the ocean as my friend Genna. Before meeting her, I rarely went to the beach. It just wasn't my sort of thing but after meeting her, I found myself being at the beach more since she would invite me to come. It's a good place to spend the day to escape the scorching summer temperatures of the valley which is when we would always go.

There is this rock on a beach (that will be unnamed because it's her favorite "secret" beach and I swore not to give out) and we both climbed it when I took this photo of her as she was looking out towards the ocean. 

It's a lovely beach and it's quite secluded which is what I enjoy about it. I apologize for not divulging its whereabouts.

"Genna's rock" / 35mm Cinestill 800t / June 2014

Analog Love Letter: Los Angeles Living

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

Analog Love Letter: Awake

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

Analog Love Letter: Legal Brew

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

Analog Love Letter: Turn On The Bright Lights

Interpol is one of my favorite bands of all times (probably second to The Smiths) and their first full length album, Turn On The Bright Lights, had a huge impact in my life. The comparison to Joy Division was there when they first came out but they had a much different sound in my opinion.

I wanted to do start a project that is inspired by TOTBL which is what you see here. I used a Holga CFN to shoot this photo during one of my birthdays many moons ago. A Holga CFN is essentially a Holga but with a flash that had 4 filters built in, the other colors being yellow, blue and clear.

This photo has a strong red cast due to the slide film I used. You wouldn't get this strong of a color cast if you used color negative film. My guess being because slide film is "positive," it'll take the strongest light source more easily and blow out the shadows if you can't control the amount of light being produced. Holga's are simple toy cameras so there's no control over anything on it really which is what I love about lomography.

As with all my other photo projects, this series will be released when I feel like I've finished it so who knows when that'll be.

"Michael pours Guinness" / 6x6 medium format Fuji Astia 100F / December 2011

Analog Love Letter: One Of Many

Every now and then I find myself in front of a mirror and I'm compelled to take a self portrait. I make the distinction of using the term self portrait instead of a "selfie" because I'm used to taking photos with an actual camera instead of a camera phone or any other small handheld digital camera such as a point and shoot and also grew up in a time where the only way to take a self portrait is using a film camera such as the one in this photo and attaching it to a tripod, compose my photo and then clicking the shutter button. Either with a (D)SLR or camera phone, the objective is the same.

Just me in a moment of time in my life. This particular moment was during the first look through at a venue for a wedding. I dug the ambient lighting.

"Untitled self portrait" / 35mm Fuji Pro400H / August 2014

Analog Love Letter: First Taste of Journalism

First: This is a crap photo. Second: This was my first taste of photojournalism.

I documented my first protest in 2009 during the time Israel was performing, at the time, one of the greatest offensive show of force against Palestinians using a campaign of airstrikes. The protest took place at the Los Angeles Federal Building in Westwood, Calif. Many of the major protests that occur here in Los Angeles either happen here, or in downtown.

I remember getting there and felt a rush of excitement at the amount of people there. There were a lot more people who were there to support the Palestinian "cause" (probably because the organizers were pro-Palestinian) than there were people who showed support for the Israeli "cause" (probably because the day before, a big protest of pro-Israel supporters occurred in the same location). 

At some point in day, I found myself in the middle of a small...skirmish, if you will, where one small area was filled with people from both sides of the argument. Most of the day, one side kept to one area of the corner while the other side were, well, on the other side of the street. I tried to photograph this moment with the best of my green and ignorant knowledge of photojournalism and this is what I got. It's crap.

Knowing what I know now, I can tell you so many things wrong with this photo. It's filled with the back sides of people. There are far too many straight lines by way of the light poles and the sides of corporate offices/buildings. Just composed horribly. I was afraid to really get into the thick of it, to go on the street with little regard to my safety so I can get close and get the emotions on the faces of these two sides. If the me of today were to shoot this photo again, it would be TOTALLY different. Night and day as they say.

But from all the excitement in the emotions that were in the air, and the newness of the experience, I wanted more and I felt like this is what I finally wanted to do with my photography. So in the years to follow, I covered more protests and news type events. I sought to take journalism classes, which I did at Los Angeles Pierce College and I've grown and learned SO much since this photo. With the tutelage of some of the best journalism advisers, I've become a much better photographer and reporter. With that being said, my writing needs a bit more refining.

"Brand new world" / 35mm Fuji Pro 160S / January 2009

Analog Love Letter: I Get No Respect

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

Analog Love Letter: First Steps

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

Analog Love Letter: Unguarded

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