just got back from LA

Just got back from a trip to LA, which was fantastic! I love that city, in fact I like it so much I'm going to move out there in a couple weeks. While I was out there I stayed a couple nights with my good friend and fantastic photographer Evan Saunders and I stayed the rest of the time with my friend Katie whos an actress out there! I made my rounds to all the photo studios in town to check them out and make some contacts. I got a chance to meet with Art Streibers studio manager and made some new friends over at 5th and sunset studios. 5th and sunset is a huge studio space with a full kitchen and cappacino bar as well as an awesome ping pong table! One of my favorite studios I visited was Tripod, a small portrait studio near the ocean. The owner Peter was really pleased to have visitors and told me all about the studio. He has some amazing landscape photography decorating the walls of his studio. I wasnt sure who shot the images, probably Peter himself but they were really nice.

While in LA I had to find a good English pub, being from England this is a necessity in any new city! I met with some friends at Ye Olde Kings Head in Santa Monica. Nothing like Boddingtons on tap and a spot of Shepard pie. I'm usually skeptical of fish and chips outside of England but my friend Hillary got them and I polished them off when she had enough and they were really tasty. Well worth the visit.

Another two of my highlights from my week in LA were treking up to the observatory and hiking up Runyon Canyon. The observatory was really cool, they shot a few movies up there most recently they shot transformers up there. They have a bust of James Dean up at the top b/c they shot Rebal Without a Cause up there. Pretty neat! From the top you can see for miles and miles and see the expanse of the city and the smog, gross. If you turn away from the city you can see the hollwood sign clearly up on the side of the valley. Heres the city along with a sweet spot of dust on my lens :( and here is the hollywood sign. I did manage to spend an afternoon on the beach and it just so happened to be the only semi cool day in LA that week hence the jeans and long sleeves! I even got a chance to experience Pinks, I got a Bacon chili cheese dog. This thing was a beast check it out. It was really hard to eat!