Downtown Los Angeles

With the holidays unleashing its wrath, I had little to none when it came to photography projects. My hands were itching to handle a camera. So, on a chilly Los Angeles night, I braved the cold and drove around to take photos of the Downtown L.A. skyline. It always looks nice and clean on the day after it rains. I guess the rain washes the smog away? Interestingly and appropriately, LA by Milky Soul was the first song that came on the iPod when I headed out.

First stop was the top of the hill in my neighborhood. This is located on top of White Knoll Street (I might be wrong).





With the above photo (as well as the header photo), I used the Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L tilt-shift lens. I figured I would practice on my selective focusing and didn't take it off for the rest of my expedition that night.

Then, I drove down the hill to Beaudry where it crosses 3rd to 6th. You can walk to 3rd, 4th, and 6th on the freeway overpasses. This overlooks the 110 Freeway. With these photos, I played around with the white balance and took advantage of the mixed ambient light to produce funky colors.







Thank you for looking, I hope you appreciate my work. You can find more of my stuff on Flickr!

Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L

I found the Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L tilt-shift lens on craigslist for $500. It retails around $1200, so even though I didn't have a need for it, or even have an idea how to use it, I bought it. Worse case scenario, I can always flog it back on eBay.

I was pretty excited to use it and play around with its unique features. Even though I've lived in Los Angeles for 13 years now, I had no idea where to go to be able to play with it. Yeah, I know - rarely get out.

After 15 minutes of driving around in Downtown LA, I thought my safest bet was the Walt Disney Concert Hall. When I say safe, i meant "pretty safe". Its dowtown, after all.

Can't go wrong with Frank Gehry's work. First thing I wanted to try was why this is the lens of choice of architectural photographers. Unfortunately, I had no idea how to do it. I just wanted to tilt and shift, if you know what I mean. Here is the best I can come up with:


I played around with it a little more to test the selective focus:




Quite fun, I must say. But unless I can learn more about architectural photography, I have no reason to hold on to the lens. I might as well sell it and and buy the new Lensbaby and pocket the rest if its just going to end up as that sort of toy. I'll take it out a couple of more times and decide. I'm still not sure if I like it.