Instagram Friends

Thanks for checkin' out Bsombin'! Over the years, I've met a lot of amazing people and made some good friends through Instagram. From the models and photographers that I have collaborated with to the entrepreneurs and businesses that have hired me, Instagram has helped me to connect to a lot of people who I probably wouldn't have met otherwise.

A few years ago I started following a photographer from Arkansa named Luke, after he followed me. Luke would share his favorite accounts with his followers, on his IG story. One of the accounts that he shares on his story belonged to a guy named Aaron. I think Aaron was living in Colorado at the time. But, Aaron and I also started following one another, thanks to Luke. After following him for a bit, I noticed Aaron was shooting in LA and around California. Mean while, Luke decided to take some time off of Instagram and went missing in action.

It had been a while since I had heard from Luke. But last week I got a message from him asking if I was still in LA and if I wanted to meet up with him and Aaron to shoot? He said they were going shooting the next day and then he was leaving back to Arkansa the following day. Fortunately, I was able to meet up with them. I had some stuff to take care of during the day. But I was able to meet up with them at night. I had asked them what they wanted to shoot, so I could plan a little tour for them. When I gave him some options, Luke was quick to answer rooftops and steel wool. So I wanted to take them on a tour of a couple of easy to access rooftops before heading into the LA river to spin wool. We started with a helipad on an rooftop close to the 110 freeway. We had good luck there. We all got shots we were really happy with and were able to get in and out without any problems. After that, I took them to another helipad on a rooftop that's just outside of Skid Row. That spot was a little more challenging due to a gate that had just been installed around the helipad. But we managed to get on the helipad and get some cool pics anyways. The next (and final) stop on the tour was the LA river. I wanted to take them to a spot on the train tracks where I had shot at about a year ago. The thing to keep in mind when showing people around downtown, though, is that things are always changing and they change pretty fast. So, the spot I took them to was gated off and we couldn't get in. I can be very persistent, when I make up my mind to do something, however. And I wasn't about to let Luke and Aaron go home without some steel wool shoots. So I started looking for another way in and was able to get us onto the train tracks after a walk around the block. The next problem we encountered were the newly installed flood lights that made the spot too bright for steel wool shots. I suggested going down into the river, to get out of the light, and shooting by the water so we could get a little bit of a reflection off the water's surface. We found a good spot and were able to shoot for a little bit before we got chased out of the river by some guy with a flashlight. Still, it was a successful mission. We got out safe and everyone got at least a few good steel wool shots before we had to call it a wrap. By the time we got back to the cars, it was a little past midnight. Luke and Aaron had a long drive back to Aaron's, and I had to be up early the next day, so we called it a night. After saying goodbye to the guys, I headed home to go through my pics. Not sure when I will see Luke again, since he's back in Arkansa. But, now that I know Aaron lives out here in Cali, we'll be shooting again soon. I didn't shoot a lot, that night, since I had already been to all of those spots several times. But I still managed to get some pictures worth sharing...

I feel very fortunate to have had all the great experiences and to have met all the amazing people that I have found through Instagram. I think it's important that we try to use our social media to connect with others in order to help one another grow and build. But I also want to remind everyone to be very careful when meeting people that you've met online. Not all the people who I've met have been as cool as Luke and Aaron. But that's another story for another time... I hope you enjoyed the pics, Thanks for checkin' out the blog. Please check back soon for more Bsombin'!

Dragons In Chinatown

Thanks for checkin' out Bsombin'! It's amazing how fast time passes. Especially when it comes to watching kids grow up. It's funny how time gets compressed in our minds and how years can feel like weeks (or even days) sometimes. It doesn't feel like it's been more than a couple of months since I used to drop my little girl off at pre-school. I have a hard time processing the fact that my kid is getting ready to go off to college next year!

A couple of weeks ago the kid went to prom. One of the other kids' parents drove them to prom. So I offered to pick them up after prom. I decided to get some shooting in, while I waited to pick the kids up, and headed over to Chinatown to get some light trail shots. I am working on collecting shots of light trails around the city's landmarks and monuments. So I set up by the Gates to Chinatown. The structure stretches over Broadway and has two dragons facing off above the street . The Dragons are lit up at night and their eyes glow as they stare one another down. They also release a mist from their mouths that looks like smoke, periodically through out the night. I wanted to get some bus light trails traveling under the sign and worked my way up and down the street to get shots of light trails coming in and out from both sides. I wanted to hit s few spots before picking up the kids. But I lost track of time while chasing buses to get as many angles of the light trails as I could. Before I knew it, it was time to pick the kids up. I actually managed to control myself, though, and not over shoot, for a change. So picking some favorites to share was easy this time...

I hope you enjoyed the light trails, thanks for checkin' out Bsombin'. Please check back soon for more stories, pics, poems, and more!

LAX Bomb Squad

Thanks for checkin' out Bsombin'! I might have said it before. But, for someone who doesn't travel much, I spend a lot of time at LAX. With most of my family living in other states and countries, there's always someone flying in to visit or going to visit the family elsewhere. On my most recent trip to the airport, it was my youngest sister who needed to be dropped off. My mom also wanted to go. When we got there, mom decided to go in with my sister to make sure her luggage wasn't over the weight limit. It was late at night (on a week day) when we got there, so the airport was empty. While they were inside checking in my sister's luggage, I waited outside in the car, since the loading zone was empty. I had my camera with me and it was taking a while for my sister to check in. So, I decided to get out of the car and take a few pictures while I waited. I walked about 20 yards away from the car, to get a better shot of the Bradley terminal, while I was shooting. To my surprise, that set off alarms with the airport police and the bomb squad. To them, it looked like I abandoned a car in front of a terminal, since they couldn't see me shooting in the shadows. Within minutes, I had a squad car pull up behind our car. Before I could turn to address the cops in the squad car, a bomb squad truck with a K9 office pulled up. The bomb squad office quickly got out and asked me what I was doing as he let the K9 officer out of the back. I told him that I was just taking some pics while I waited for my mom. He laughed and said, "You can't just leave your car unmanned like that." He explained why it looked suspicious and politely asked me to wait by the car. The other officers walked up behind me, while the bomb squad spoke to me, and surrounded me. Once the bomb squad officer said it was okay, the other officers walked me into the terminal to find my mom. They saw that my mom is handicapped and were nice enough to let me stay parked in the loading zone while my sister finished checking in. They even let me keep shooting and stayed to talk to me about photography. They also let me play with Bailey (the K9 officer) and take his picture. I thought it was funny how they called the bomb squad on Bsomb. Fortunately, all the officers were very cool and it was a fun encounter with the LAPD and the bomb squad.  ...Can't say I've had too many of those. But you can't let one bad apple (or cop) spoil the bunch. And that experience goes to show why you shouldn't. I was able to get some shots worth sharing, before I had to leave. And, on the way home, I also shot some moving long exposure shots...

I hope you liked the pics! Thanks again for checkin' out Bsombin'! Check back soon for more photos, art, poems, stories, and more!

Contact High at the Annenberg

Thanks for checkin' out Bsombin'! I'll never forget the first time I heard Hip-hop music. I was in 3rd grade and I was playing on the playground one day after school. My friend Justin brought his boom box and a couple of his big brother's cassette tapes and told my other friends and I that we had to listen to these tapes his brother let him borrow! He put in a tape from a group called Run DMC that was titled "Raising Hell" and started playing a song called "You Be Illin'". ...As soon as it started, my friends and I were blown away! We had never heard anything like it. But we all agreed that it was awesome! We asked Justin what kind of music it was and he told us it was something called "Rap" music. It was something new that wasn't being played on the radio yet. But we wanted to hear more. He played a few more songs off "Raising Hell" before he ejected it and pulled out another tape from a group called The Beastie Boys. It was titled "Licensed To Ill" and the first song he played for us was "Brass Monkey". Again, we all agreed that it was awesome, as we circled around the boom box dancing. We didn't even know how to dance to this strange new sound, but we didn't care and couldn't hold still while the music played. I fell in love with Hip-hop that day and I've loved her ever since. I went home that day and asked my parents for money to buy one of the tapes. A few days later, my step dad took me to The Warehouse music store and I bought "Raising Hell". That was the first album I bought and the start of my journey into the world of Hip-hop. When I got home I opened up the cassette and took out the sleeve to read and look at the pictures as I listened to the music. I was fascinated by the men who made the music and seeing their pictures made it feel like I could actually relate to them on some level. The images on the sleeve made almost as much of an impact on me as the music itself did. It was then that I started falling in love with the Hip-hop culture. The pictures on that sleeve showed me a world I would have otherwise never seen. A world I wanted to explore and learn more about. They peaked my curiosity and inspired me. Those images were powerful and icon, even then...

Last month, the Annenberg Space for Photography opened a new exhibition called Contact High. Contact High is a visual history of Hip-hop music. It is centered around the contact sheets that the industry photographers used as proofs and shows many of the out takes from shoots that had never been seen before. Contact High also showcases some of the most icon Hip-hop images from over the years and the photographers who took them. When I heard it was opening, I couldn't wait to go check it out. I invited my good friend Jeff (The guy who got me into photography) and headed out to Century City to go geek out on the pictures we fell in love with as kids. As a photographer, I found so much inspiration and motivation to keep working on my craft. As a lover of Hip-hip I went on a magical trip through time reliving some of my own experiences while seeing the images I grew up admiring. It was very nostalgic. Seeing some of the images made me remember the things that were going on in my life when I saw them for the first time. It was also surreal seeing some of the pictures that I hadn't seen. Almost like seeing old friends in a new light.

The exhibition will be on display at the Annenberg until August 19th, for those who would like to see it first hand. And the images from the exhibition are also available as a book which is also titled "Contact High". For those who can't get to the Annenberg, I took some pictures to share with you all. They won't do justice to the original's but at least you can get a feel for what the exhibition is like. Again, I took too many pictures to share all of them. But here are my favorites...