A Change In Scenery

26 April 2013

etsy shop relaunch

It's back!

My etsy.com shop is back open and ready for business.

I'll be adding new photographs rapidly, so please make sure to stop by regularly.

Click here to check it out!

06 April 2013

I love the "off season" at Disneyland. It is a completely different place when it's quiet, empty, and the weather is unusual. It's a quick drive for me which makes even a short visit worth while. The following photographs were taken during two separate visits in March of this year. Enjoy.

06 March 2013

half-frame hoarding

Recently, with the amount of attention downtown's Cecil Hotel has been getting, I went back into my archives to try and find the one picture I had taken of the Cecil a year or two ago. I looked through several rolls and came up empty handed. What I realized while looking is that I had hoarded a surprising number of photographs. Filed them away and didn't think twice about them. I just couldn't believe it! The following photographs are, as my memory serves, only now getting their due. Each taken with my Olympus half-frame camera, all during the fall of 2011. Enjoy.

12 February 2013

Three people waiting on Broadway

All images taken in Los Angeles, CA. February 2, 2013.

26 January 2013

Los Angeles' Broadway Theater District - 2008

In the summer of 2008 I set out to photograph the theaters on Broadway. In the few years since, great steps have been made toward the revitalization of the area and preserving the locations on the street that have seen years of decline and neglect. The following are street views of these theaters, many of which can be seen inside and out by attending tours and events put on by both the Los Angeles Conservancy and the Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation. More information on the revitalization of the theater district can be found at Bringing Back Broadway.

The 1931 Roxie, 1910 Cameo, and 1910 Arcade. All three are still used as retail space.

The 1912 Globe.

The 1921 Orpheum. Lovingly restored and open for concerts and filming.

The 1911 Palace, renovated since this photograph was taken and open for live performances.

The 1931 Los Angeles. Opening for filming and special events.

The 1918 Million Dollar. Open for film and live performances.

The 1921 State. A church has used the State for many years.

The 1917 Rialto. There's rumors that Urban Outfitters may be moving in, but no confirmation yet.

The 1931 Roxie. The last of the theaters built on Broadway.

The 1927 Tower. The Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation did two sell-out tours of the Tower at the end of 2012, as it will be closed soon and undergoing a huge renovation.

The 1927 United Artists. Since this photograph was taken, the church that inhabited the UA for many years has moved, the building was sold, and Ace Hotels has broken ground on turning the floors above the UA into their next location.

09 January 2013

After hours

Canter's Deli... A Los Angeles landmark since 1931.

This, their second location, was the originally the 1937 Esquire Theatre.

Hotel Mark Twain. Wilcox Ave., Hollywood, CA. Built in 1923. While looking up some information on the Mark Twain, I found this story about Pierre Collings' Oscar statuette hidden here and recovered after his death. Quite an interesting piece of Hollywood history.

1936 El Rey Theatre. Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA.

12 November 2012

Veteran's Day

My maternal grandmother, Helen Jane Byers, was born in Wisconsin on December 31, 1916. She passed away in Ohio at age 84, November 3, 2001. Before she met and married my grandfather, a widower with 5 children with whom she'd have two children of her own (including my mother, their youngest), my grandmother served in the US Navy.

I have inherited hundreds of photographs of my grandmother's family -- her siblings and parents and uncles and aunts -- over the years. I have her Navy ring and some of her documents, official photographs and snapshots of her and her friends goofing off around New York while they were in training at the Naval Training School in the Bronx. It's a time of her life I never remember her discussing, and I'm fascinated by it.

In honor of my grandmother's life and service on this Veteran's Day, here are a few photographs and postcards from her time in the Navy.