It’s not the group I normally shoot with (JLOP shout out), but the opportunity to participate in a “street photography”  workshop was too good to pass up.

A part of the 2014 photo la event, “Venice Beach Noir” was a workshop that promised to take you to the parts of Venice, Californis less traveled by tourists and photographers less adventurous.

I’m not sure how many people would like the chance to stroll down a dark alley at night where homeless people (and I’m pretty sure a few drug addicts, criminals and knife murdering psychopaths) wander around.

Shucks, it actually sounded like something I might enjoy.  Sure.  Sign me up.

Helen K. Garber and David “Dingo” Healey were the tour guides for the trip.  That’s David Healey in the shot above.

I’d spent most of the day at the main photo la event and was running late getting there.  Weekends at the beach during the unusually warm SoCal Winter made it tough to find parking.

It seems like I had to park miles away, but I managed to join the group just as they were heading out.

I’ve done a fair bit of street photography, but there’s always been something nagging at me about the way I’ve approached it.

Most of my street photography has been about just getting out of my comfort zone.  Simply going out at times and visiting places where most people with common sense would not consider has always been a big part of my work.

I think seeing David Healey at work made me realize how detached I actually am from people when I’m out taking pictures.

It was pretty clear that he spent a good amount of time greeting people and forming relationships that might not pay off immediately, but maybe would at some point in the future.

That probably makes David Healey sound like he was only interested in getting shots.  Not the case as far as I could see.  I think he’s got a natural affinity for finding and making human connections.  He probably does that whether or not his camera is involved.

Man, I really admire that quality.

I’ve always been satisfied with the work I’ve done, but in places as vibrant and diverse as the ones where I have access, I can see as a person (and a photographer) I’ve got a lot of room for improvement.

Life has been very busy for me and mostly in a good way.  Even though I’m feeling a constant pull to get other things accomplished, I’m glad I can still find some time to work at photography.

Maybe not so much as in recent years, these days I’m really being forced to consider on which projects I can and should spend time.

The still photographer part of my journey isn’t ever going to end.  This is one of the aspects of my life where I want to continue to learn new things and that gets more difficult.  All the low hanging fruit is gone and it takes more work at it to get better.

Time is precious.

I’m glad I had some to spare that day, because in this workshop I met some nice people and got some valuable experience.

I’m thankful for that and I’m really REALLY glad nobody got knife murdered in the process.