Friday, July 18, 2008 – Darker Sunshine

Sometimes when you shoot in full sunshine and catch the deep shadows, you unwittingly discover an underlying and somewhat disturbing darkness – a sort of ominous subtext to life in Los Angeles. Things seem bright enough, but a tad alienating.  Los Angeles is like that. Consider the clock tower in Santa Monica – 1930, Stiles O. Clements, all Zigzag Moderne –

And a flower in the shade –

Odd banners in full sunshine, hanging over the Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica –

In a Raymond Chandler's Bay City - in "Farewell My Lovely" - the Central Tower Building on Fourth in Santa Monica, from 1928, stands in for City Hall. In the sunshine it's a bit scary in its brutality.

The final exit – a strange rooftop in the sun –

And you have your saints, isolated under glass –

And to scare the kids, a metal dragonfly on the local water fountain –

Oh yeah, in case you didn't know, this is the end of the road.

Your photographer's self-portrait, as he snaps a shot of the emptiness of it all –

If you wish to use any of these photos for commercial purposes I assume you'll discuss that with me. And should you choose to download any of these images and use them invoking the "fair use" provisions of the Copyright Act of 1976, please provide credit, and, on the web, a link back this site. 

Technical Note:

Photographs after March 3, 2008, were taken with a Nikon D200 – or a Nikon D70 when noted. All previous photographs were taken with the D70. The lenses used are (1) AF-S Nikkor 18-70 mm 1:35-4.5G ED, or (2) AF Nikkor 70-300 mm telephoto, or (3) AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 55-200 mm f/4-5.6G ED. Photography here is modified for web posting using Adobe Photoshop 7.0.  The earliest photography in the archives was done with a Sony Mavica digital still camera (MVC-FD-88) with built-in digital zoom.

All text and photos, unless otherwise noted, Copyright © 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 - Alan M. Pavlik