I’ve spent the better part of the past few days indulging in the work of other photographers. That’s two weekends in a row that I’ve managed to set aside some time to appreciate artistic endeavors.
I’m sure that’s a good thing, but it still frustrates me a little. It’s always in the back of my mind that I should be paying closer attention to my own work.
No matter how much I do, I always feel as if I should have done more.
This past week I did accomplish one thing which got me out of the comfy chair and made me feel as if I was at least making an honest attempt to stay out of my comfort zone.
I had to pick up my truck from the station (long story, not important) and instead of making it a two person drive, I voluntarily made use of some of that “public transportation” you sometimes hear about.
This was about 9pm, so it wasn’t without some concern for my safety. That still goes towards the whole “getting out of the comfort zone” thing.
Sanity did prevail in that I decided not to take the big camera and documented the adventure with my much more concealable Nikon P9000.
There are lots of street photographers out there who can engage strangers and form connections with people that lead to honest heartfelt images.
Mostly (and I tweeted about this) I was just hoping to not get stabbed.
The people I photographed looked harmless.
There were people behind me who looked like baby killers. No, I do not have any pictures of them.
And just to clarify, no, they did not look like babies who might kill people.
Anyway, we all got on the train.
All I could think about were all the cool shots I’ve seen that people have taken while on public transportation.
To be fair, you never really see how many bodyguards are backing up the photographer.
Could be half a dozen bodyguards standing behind the person behind the lens.
That’s what I’m going to believe.
I probably could have taken a shot of the street vendor at the Universal City station who walked up to me and started talking to me in Spanish.
Honest mistake on his part.
So, to recap my route, I traveled on the Green Line to Willowbrook Station. From there I took the Blue Line to the 7th Street Station in down town Los Angeles. That’s where I caught the Red Line to North Hollywood and transferred to a bus for the last couple of miles left in my adventure.
The bus transfer is always kind of tricky for me, but I managed to arrive at the station a mere two and a half hours after my journey began.
Not exactly a grand adventure, but it felt good and gave me a chance to clear my mind. This was just after I’d gotten back from vacation, so it gave me a chance to get my head on straight before hitting the mean streets of LA news.
Riding the rails is a lot more fun when there’s a nice meal or beer at the end of the line.
I’ll do it again when I’ve got a few more guys with me. I mean, come on, who wants to be stabbed alone.
