03/25/2020 - Pandemic In The City Of Angels (Pt.2 - The Sunset Strip & Hollywood)

Thanks for stoppin' by and checkin' out the Bsombin' blog! In my last post, I started sharing pictures from a tour of the City of Angels that I took last week. I wanted to document how Los Angeles is reacting to the "Stay at home" order that was put into place to help slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus. So I drove around the city and took my camera with me. I went by myself, mostly stayed in my truck, and didn't get near anyone, to be safe and follow the social distancing guide lines. And, I took extra precautions and cleaned and disinfected everything that I took with me, when I got home. I started off in Van Nuys and made my way over to Studio City.

After driving through parts of the Valley, I took Laurel Canyon to the Sunset and headed west towards Beverly Hills. When I got to Beverly Hills, I turned around and headed down to Santa Monica Blvd. I cut through West Hollywood on my way to Fairfax and Melrose, before driving back up to Hollywood and Vine...

 Sunset Blvd, west of Crescent Heights Blvd

 Sunset Blvd & Sunset Plaza Dr

 Sunset Blvd & San Vicente Blvd / Clark St

 Sunset Blvd & Cory Ave / Doheny Rd

 Santa Monica Blvd & Almont Dr

 Santa Monica Blvd & San Vicente Blvd

 Fairfax Ave & Rosewood Ave

 Fairfax Ave & Oakwood Ave

 Melrose Ave & Stanley Ave

 La Brae Ave & Melrose Ave

 Hollywood Blvd & Orange Dr

 Hollywood Blvd & Highland Ave

 Hollywood Blvd & Highland Ave

 Hollywood Blvd & Highland Ave

 Hollywood Blvd & Highland Ave

Hollywood Blvd & Vine St

After driving through most of Hollywood, I wanted to make my way towards downtown.

The Wisdom Tree

Thanks for checkin' out Bsombin'! Hope your 2019 is off to a good start. The kid and I started this year off by hiking up to the Wisdom Tree. The Wisdow Tree is a lone tree that sits up on a view point in the Hollywood hills overlooking Downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, West L.A. & the San Fernando Valley. It's along the same ridge as the Hollywood sign, closer to Studio City. The hike isn't too bad. But the view will take your breath away! On a clear day, you can see the buildings in downtown; the boats in the San Pedro harbor; and planes taking off out of LAX, on one side. On the other side, you can see past the Valley and out to Santa Clarita. The wind provided a nice clear view of most of the city, that day. Clear enough to be able to see the Goodyear blimp flying over downtown. I didn't want to shoot a lot, since I already had a lot of pictures from the top. But, despite making an effort to keep from clicking the shutter too often, I still brought home a lot of captures. Here are some of my favorites...

Revisiting old spots with an old friend

Hi and thanks for checkin' out my blog. Over the years, in going out on my photo-adventures, I have found a lot of spots to shoot through out southern California. From running around on freeways to climbing up on to rooftops, these photo adventures have taken me high and low. From her beautiful sunny beaches to her grimy dark ghettos, I've been all over Los Angeles county and many of her surrounding counties shooting. My partner on many of these missions has been, my brotha-from-anotha-motha, Jefroe. He's actually been my partner on many other missions too...

We met through mutual friends, as teens, and got to know each other because of our mutual love for skateboarding. Later in life, we grew out of skating and got into graffiti together. We spent our twenties bombin' L.A. and raving all over the southland. We even started a crew, together, that made a lot of noise in the Los Angeles graff world. And, now, through out our thirties, we have found a mutual love for photography. I guess you could say we are birds of a feather. Lol. My doot and I have see one another through the good and bad, through the highs and the lows, and through so many of life's trials and tribulations. From my wedding to his grandma's funeral, we've shared a lot of good and bad times. I got a lot of love for my homie!

Last December, Jefroe hit me up and asked me if I wanted to get one more mission in before the end of 2014. My reply was, "I got a lot of new spots to show you dog!" So I geared up and headed over to Froe's. It was the first time in a good minute that we had gone out to shoot, and I wanted to take him back to some of the rooftops that I had found in previous months. The plan was to hit a rooftop spot in Hollywood then head out to downtown to shot off of a helipad I found my way up onto. After a quick dab session at the homie's pad, we hoped in the truck and rolled out for a night of lurking...

Thanks for checkin' out the blog, check back soon for more Los Angeles street photography and more Bsombin'!

Hollywood sign fail

Hi & thanks for checkin' out my blog! I share a lot of my adventures and images, here on the blog. One thing I don't do too often, though, is tell the tales of the fails... As with everything in life, my adventures are a mix of highs & low and successes and failures. the highs and successes are what I usually write about & share. But, I wanted to bring to light that mine is still a labor, all be it a labor of love. A lot of time, energy, & hard work go into this blog. And sometimes the work doesn't yield the results I'm after. There have been occasions that yield little to nothing worth sharing, and then there are times where I don't get the shots I am after but I find others that I didn't think to go after. This story is just that...

My buddy Erika hit me up one day to see if I wanted to shoot. She didn't know what she wanted to shoot and asked me to take the lead on a photo mission. I offered up 2 suggestions. ...the old L.A. zoo & a hike to the Hollywood sign. Her response was, "yes!" So we headed on our way to the old zoo, and decided we'll play it by ear with the Hollywood sign. We hit the old zoo and explored all the old cages, hiking trails, & picnic areas collecting images. That half of the mission was a success. We both left the zoo with smiles on our faces, knowing we had some good shots to take home. With daylight running out, we decided to take our chances with the Hollywood sign. The first task was finding the right street to take up into the hills. Fortunately, I had done my research and knew exactly where to go. The next hurdle was finding a place to park. We got lucky there, a car was leaving right as we reached the top of the street. By this time, the sun was setting, so it became a race against time. We started up the hill as fast as we could walk and made it up to the trail entrance just as the sun started to disappear. I was moving pretty fast up the hill and my buddy was having a hard time keepin' up with me. When we got to the trails, I asked Erika if she wanted to keep going? From the look on her face and her heavy breathing, I could tell she wasn't as enthusiastic about reaching the top as I was. She paused, looked up at the sign, and then looked at me as she signaled a thumbs down to the idea. So we took a break and got a few shots of each other in front of the sign before starting our way back down the mountain. I was disappointed, having come so close and stopping with just a little left to go. But, I didn't want to push my buddy to hike up a mountain in the dark, with her looking so tired. We failed in getting to the top, but we had fun on our adventure and got a great workout along the way. She probably saved me from getting myself lost in the mountains at night anyway. Lol. ....I still have yet to get to the top of the Hollywood sign, but I think I'll try my luck again soon. Hopefully, I'll have some good weather, when I do, so I can get some good shots of the city from up on the mountain top. Stay tuned to see if I make it or not. Till then, here are some shots from my failed attempt...

The Hollywood reservoir

Thanks for checkin' out my blog! I was driving home from Burbank one morning, when I found myself steering off course and on to Barham Boulevard. Having the camera in the car, I wanted to take the opportunity to shoot DTLA from the Hollywood reservoir. I drove up into the Hollywood hills till I reached a sign that said "Road closed to the public." I surveyed the area, found a spot to park, grabbed my camera bag, and started making my way further up into the hills on foot. I was hoping that the clouds wouldn't make the view too hazy, as I was hiking up to the top of a hill that looks down over the reservoir and out onto DTLA. When I reached the top, however, I was greeted by a skyline that was barely visible through the clouds and smog. I did get some good shots of the LAPD helicopter, as I was encouraged to head back to my truck, though. Lol. I'm planning on going back, since I didn't get the shot I wanted. But, for now, I'll share the few shots worth showing, from that morning. Thanks for stoppin' by and please check back again soon for more Bsombin'!

Tour of L.A. Part 4

Thanks for checkin' out the blog! I've been sharing pictures from a tour of L.A. that I took my friend Erika on. After shooting in Hollywood for a while, we stopped to get a bite to eat at Zankou Chicken, before continuing the tour. With food in gut and drink in bladder, we drove out to DTLA, after finishing a good late night meal. We decided to park in the heart of downtown and walk around to look for shots while we burned of some of the kabob that we ate. First order of business, once we landed, was to find a ladies room, though. This proved to be a bigger task than expected, since we got there around 12A.M. But, we found a little Cafe off Grand that was in the middle of closing, after about 10 minutes of looking. Once focus was regained, we hit the streets and "lurked" till a little past 2A.M.. That's when Erika reminded me that we had to work the next day, so we called it quits for the night. We had a lot of fun that night, found some cool new spots, and both came home with some pretty pictures. These are some of my favorites...

This was the last stop that night, but I have a lot more of the city of angels to share. Check back soon for more images of Los Angeles & more Bsombin'!