West Coast Weekends Pt1 - Venice Beach

Happy Summer! And thanks for checking out the blog! Although today is the "official first day of Summer", I got a head start and made last weekend my un-offical start of Summer. And what better way to start Summer than with a trip to the beach, right? Truthfully, I'm not a big fan of the beach. But I got an invitation to my friend Angela's birthday. And it just so happened to be at Venice Beach...

As expected, Venice was packed! From the freeways to the backstreets, to the boardwalk, traffic was crazy! I got lucky, though... I found a place to park on the street, near Abbot Kinney, and just walked to the beach. I took the camera and shot a few pics, along the way, too. The invite I got just said the party would be "on the beach between the pier and tennis courts." So it took me a while to find the party... After walking from the tennis courts to the pier and back, I couldn't find the party. I actually walked past it twice. But, when I did, I didn't see Angela or anyone I recognized and kept walking. It turned out that I only knew one other person besides Angela at the party, when I finally figured out where the party was. But, I did find it, after getting lost for a bit. I didn't mind being a little lost, since I had my camera, though. I'd been wanting to shoot the skaters at the skate park, for a while, too. So, while I was lost, I took some time to walk over and get some shots of the skaters that were at the park. A few of the guys there were really sick and ripped! But shooting them was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I still got some shots worth sharing. But it took a minute to figure out the settings to use and how to time the shots. Definitely something I want to do a lot more of, though...

After the party, it was time to head back to the Valley to go to the Van Nuys Blvd. cruise night to check out the lowriders...

#TBT With B.T.S.

Thank you for checkin' out Bsombin'! I recently got back to blogging, after a 2 year hiatus away from it. During my break away from blogging, I continued to make a lot of content. Photography became my favorite way to spend time and I began doing work as a photographer. I spent a lot of time shooting over the past few years. So, now, I literally have thousands and thousands of pictures in my archives that I still have to sort and edit. I don't really want to go back and play catch up on all the stuff I shot during the time I wasn't blogging. But I do want to share that work. I decided to make "Throw Back Thursdays" the day to dig in the archives and post the stuff that hasn't been seen. This week, I wanted to share some pictures that I made at a Blaq Tongue Society concert. B.T.S. was kind enough to let me got back stage with them before the show. They even invited me to go out on stage with them to shoot during their performance. It was an awesome night and an unforgettable experience, shooting on stage at a concert for the first time. I'm very thankful to have had the opportunity to shoot B.T.S. Here are some of my favorite shots from the show...

Summer In Cali - part 4: Mural Work