A Losers Guide to Photography: Los Angeles Beaches Photo Essay

Background 

I've been thinking about a photo essay I want to continually work on to create a relatively large body of work of candid documentary photographs. Each beach in SoCal seems to have it's own identity. The sand is different at each beach. The people are different. The life is different. I want to capture the identity of the beach.

Goal

The goal is to take candid photos of the local beaches on SoCal. I want to create a geographical timeline journaling beach life in SoCal. I want to start in the northern beaches of SoCal and work my way south towards Long Beach. 

At the end, I want to create a book that chapters out the story of each beach.

Overall Look

Shoot film and/or film simulation with Kentmere 400 BnW and Ilford HP5 400 on 35mm/APS-C/MF. No specific aspect ratio is required. These should be consistent and provide a consistent flow of informational content. 

Get creative with perspective and angles. 

Tell the story of the beach and what makes it unique, what separates it from every other surrounding beach. Why would a tourist want to visit that specific beach?

Fuji Color Profile Setup

Film Simulation: Monochrome
Dynamic Range: DR400
Highlight: -1
Shadow: +1
Noise Reduction: -4
Sharpening: -2
Clarity: 0
Grain Effect: Strong Large
Color Chrome Effect: Off
Color Chrome Effect Blue: Off
White Balance: Daylight, +1 Red, -8 Blue
ISO: <6400

Beaches to Shoot in Order 
  • Santa Monica Beach
    • Pier
    • Grassy knoll activities
    • Football
  • Venice Beach
    • Skatepark
    • Boardwalk
    • Pier
  • Playa Del Rey Beach
    • Marina Del Rey 
    • Volleyball
  • Dockweiler Beach
    • LAX
    • Beach Events
  • Manhattan Beach
    • Rich Houses
    • Round House Aquarium
    • Volleyball
  • Hermosa Beach
    • Pride Lifeguard Tower
    • Southern Section Lifeguard (compass area)
  • Redondo Beach
    • Knob Hill Area
    • Redondo Beach Marina
    • Redondo Beach Pier
    • Volleyball
    • Cliffs


Examples

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Losers Guide to Photography: Perspective Compression

Image
Perspective Compression, the New Way Background I had a conversation at work with a coworker about the benefits of Medium Format cameras. One of the main talking points was what he called "compression" or "lens compression", or what I think is a better fitting term Perspective Compression. I wanted to know what would justify the cost expense of upgrading from an APS-C or Full Frame camera to a Medium Format camera, other than professionalism. I wanted tangible evidence to prove Medium Format was worth an extra 100%+ dollars. We had a long conversation about "compression" and the confusion surrounding that term because of it's interchangeability with other components of photography, like JPEG or PNG. I spent some time thinking about a better term to define 'the background appearing closer to the foreground'. I came up with Perspective Compression because it can be measured in terms of high and low and the words describe what is actually happenin...
Read more

A Losers Guide to Photography: Life is Purpose

This post is a bit off topic. I've been having a bout of depression that's self-induced. I've been pontificating what's the purpose of life  once you have accomplished everything you desired? I've been having this thought for a few months now and I have tried to create obstacles to keep the depression held at bay. I was scrolling Facebook when I saw a post regarding a South Korean actress Yoo Joo Eun. I don't follow anything Korean, but I found this particularly interesting. She was a young girl, about my age. She was in a similar position where she was doing what she wanted to do, act, but wasn't really successful at it. Her suicide letter was interesting because it wasn't from a position of self-loathing, hatred, remorse or anything. It was almost like her brain said, "this is enough". Her sense of purpose in life was left unfulfilled - or maybe it was fulfilled in some masochistic way. There was another lady I watched on YouTube talking abou...
Read more

A Losers Guide to Photography: Additive and Subtractive Negative Space

Image
Defining Negative Space Wikipedia's definition of negative space is, " Negative space , in art , is the empty space around and between the subject(s) of an image.  Negative space may be most evident when the space around a subject, not the subject itself, forms an interesting or artistically relevant shape, and such space occasionally is used to artistic effect as the "real" subject of an image." Negative space is in nearly every piece of art. The major difference between art pieces [photos] is the amount of negative space and the intent of negative space. My personal definition of negative space is - a separate element of space within a photo that compliments the main subject or detracts from the main subject.  I believe negative space can be broken down into two components: additive and subtractive . I think instinctively we, the photographer and observer, know the feeling of good negative space. It's a calming feeling where the space around the subject c...
Read more