the sweet part of the city

A had a great "just because" portrait session recently with Perla, who beforehand I had only known through Facebook. It was great fun wandering downtown Los Angeles and working with light, lines and textures. There's so much great bounced light in a city if you just look for it. A perfect example is this first image, shot in St. Vincent Court.



Lately, I've been experimenting with freelensing. It's tricky, but when you nail it the image has a wonderful, lo-fi tilt-shift effect.




Like I said, bounced light is all over the place in cities; you simply need to look for it. Look at the great light illuminating Perla, courtesy of a massive mirrored skyscraper a couple blocks away.


There's also no shortage of great, grungy alleys peppering downtown L.A. They smell bad, but look great.