Michael caught me.
Good old Michael.
I’ll show you Michael. Oh yeah, Michael.
Here’s Michael.
Michael’s a cool guy.
That’s the first guy that’s caught me taking his photo and actually said something to me in probably six months.
That’s a drastic departure from my old style, where I would basically get confronted on a daily basis.
But yeah, he caught me, and we ended up having a really nice conversation.
Michael’s a cool ass guy.
He was asking me what I was going to do with the photo.
I was like, “Oh yeah, I like putting the photos in this magazine.”
And he asked me, “Hey bro, you’re not going to put me in the magazine, are you?”
I was like, “I mean, I won’t if you don’t want me to, but I like the photo.”
And yeah, he didn’t care.
So I like that photo.
I think Michael’s going in the magazine for sure.
SHOOT YOUR LOCAL NEIGHBORHOOD
I was just talking earlier about how important it is to shoot your local neighborhood.
This is my local neighborhood.
Santa Monica and 17th.
There’s just so much stuff over here to take photos of that nobody ever takes photos of.
I mean, just look.
That’s a nice little photo right there, blacked out on the crosswalk.
It’s not like a masterpiece or anything, but it’s a completely different vibe than what I’m going to get walking down by the pier.
There’s not a lot of people here.
But look up here.
There’s this worker up on his rig doing something on the building.
I could shoot this lady in here.
I could shoot this mannequin.
This is a part of Santa Monica with all the dealerships.
There’s not a lot of foot traffic, but these are the kinds of places I just love walking around and taking photos because I know nobody else is taking photos here.
How many people do you think have taken photos here at Santa Monica and 17th?
Probably not many.
SPICE UP YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY
I’m going to go down this alleyway.
I tell you, anybody who’s searching to spice up their photography, if you’re always going to the same hot spots and doing street photography, you’ve got to change it up.
Go hit that local neighborhood.
Just look at all this stuff.
There’s so much.
There’s just so much to photograph in your local neighborhood.
Oh yeah, I really like this one.
Good fence.
I love a good fence.
Good fence shot with the barbed wire.
Probably not that.
This is the move right here.
This is the move.
Get a little angle.
Yeah, I like the angle a little bit more.
PEOPLE, PEOPLE, PEOPLE
When I’m down by the pier at the hot spot with all the tourists, it’s really hard for me to focus on these types of photographs.
My mind just goes:
People, people, people, people.
Because I’m surrounded by people.
But when I walk down a nice tranquil alleyway like this, look at all this stuff I can photograph.
This is just one alleyway and I’ve already made like 20 photos in here.
Perfect example.
Look, I’ve got a reflection.
Boom.
Tell me that’s not nice.
Shoot your local neighborhood.
I love it.
I can get some fence in there.
I want to get the silhouette of my head in the top.
Love it.
I just love it.
Love it, love it.
LOOK HOW FAR I’VE MADE IT
I mean, just look how far I’ve made it.
Like 50 feet.
That’s it.
And there’s still stuff everywhere.
I can shoot these little lenses on the side of the fence.
The light there is cool.
Old-school Accord, baby.
Let’s go.
This is like my second car.
I had a ’92 Accord that looked just like this, except mine was white.
Yeah.
Love it.
Little Honda.
Old-school Honda.
Now I’ve got some shoes in the gravel.
Look, I can get my feet in there.
There’s so much crap to shoot in Santa Monica.
Dirty shoes with some greenery.
A little greenage.
Maybe I’ll just get this single shoe right here.
It just goes on and on.
I’M NOT EVEN HALFWAY DOWN THE ALLEY
I’m not even halfway down this alleyway yet.
That’s what I’m talking about.
You don’t always have to go somewhere special.
You don’t always have to go where all the people are.
You don’t always have to go to the pier or some other street photography hot spot.
Sometimes just walk out your door.
Hit the local neighborhood.
Walk down an alleyway.
Look at the fences.
Look at the reflections.
Look at the shoes on the ground.
Look at the old cars.
There’s so much to photograph once you slow down and actually start looking.
Anyways, shout out to Michael.
Michael put me on the right path for the rest of this photo walk.
I’m going to keep moving forward with it.
Feeling good.