Shutter Mike Photography

The Los Angeles Central Public Library is located in downtown LA on W. 5th St.  Formally called the Richard Riordan Central Library, the library was constructed in 1923 and depending on who is doing the counting the library houses somewhere between the 3rd and 10th largest public library collection in the US.  Anyway you look at it that is a lot of books.

But the books were not what drew me to the library.  I mentioned a few days ago the architectural photography workshop I attended in LA.  The library was the first stop on this two day photography workshop.  Architecturally the library is a blend of the original 1923 ancient Egyptian and Mediterranean Revival architecture and the late 20th century Modernist/Beaux-Arts architecture.  A fire in 1986 destroyed 400,000 volumes of the library collection and forced the modern renovation in the 1990s.  So this combination of styles created some spectacular interior spaces.  The original rotunda and newer atrium are fantastic spaces to photograph.  Part I will focus on the atrium and then come back for part II for the rotunda.

I recently had the opportunity to attend a photography workshop put on by Doug Hill of Douglas Hill Photography and Martin Cox of Martin Cox Photography in Los Angeles.  The workshop focused around the specialty of these two photographers, architecture.  So not only did we get access to four great historical buildings in downtown LA that you can never get as a tourist or  photographer off the street, but we also got hands on tips, advice and tutorials from two respected architectural photographers.

Over the course of a weekend we photographed 2 downtown Los Angeles historic buildings each day.  On day one it was the Los Angeles Central Public Library in the morning and One Bunker Hill in the afternoon.  Then the next day was the Million Dollar Theater for the morning session and the Bradbury building in the afternoon.  Nine hours a day of photography is a lot of work.  You are on your feet, climbing stairs, crouching and squatting to get the right angle.  But it was well worth it.  Almost 800 photographs later, I have a lot of editing to do.

I will be doing a post (or a few posts depending on how many images I end up with) for each of the buildings over the next few weeks starting with the Los Angeles Central Public Library.  So be sure to check back.

The building in this post is the Bradbury Building.  The interior of the building is an  beautiful example of late 1800’s Victorian design with detailed wrought iron work, rich wood and marble.

There is a office/retail complex plaza in Pasadena, California just behind the City Hall on E. Union St. and N. Los Robles Ave. that has walls of these art tiles on display.  Plaza las Fuentes is very nicely laid out to blend old Episcopal church and city hall with new office, hotel and retail space.  But the photo opportunity here are these tile walls.  I did not have my tripod with me when I came across them and would have preferred to have used one to have captured the various tiled wall sections straight on and more level.  But regardless this is a great Pasadena photography spot to capture some beautiful colors and shapes.

Arizona Falls is one spot in Phoenix I keep coming back to for photography.  It is such a simple and often over looked dot on the Phoenix map for photography yet it has so much to offer a photographer.  The falls are a spot in the Phoenix canal system where the elevation changes, hence a waterfall.  But SRP, one of the electric power companies in Phoenix, has turned this otherwise mundane spot into a work of public art.  And it generates electricity.  So why go back and photograph the same thing over and over again?  Because it is never the same place twice.  Arizona Falls has two elements that make this structure constantly changing; light and water.  The flow of water is different throughout the year just as the light changes with the seasons and the time of day.  So you will always get something new even if you return again and again as I have.