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Port of Long Beach

May 14, 2012
industrial, photography, photojournalism, travel
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I recently spent part of a day shooting the operations of the Port of Long Beach, something I have long wanted to do. For security and safety reasons, the logistics of photographing a busy port can be complicated. I have driven around both the Port of Long Beach and the neighboring Port of Los Angeles a couple of times to try to figure out vantage points from which I could shoot without either being arrested or hit by a truck.

That problem was solved recently when I discovered that the Port of Long Beach offers weekly boat tours. Instead of shooting from land, I was able to capture my images from the water, out of range of the trucks and with the blessing of law enforcement.

I love shooting big industrial landscapes. What they lack in conventional beauty, they often make up for in aesthetically pleasing geometry and symmetry. I also like being witness to the innovative ways we solve big problems. How do we efficiently transport as many cars as we can from one continent to another? How do we reduce the cost of launching a rocket into space? How do we efficiently load and unload a ship the size of four football fields?

Here, for example, is a group of gantry cranes used to load and unload container ships:

Gantry Cranes – Port of Long Beach, California

Because the Earth is nearest to space at the middle of the planet, rockets are occasionally launched from floating platforms at the equator in order to reduce costs. Long Beach is home to one such  platform, called the Sea Launch, which is towed by a ship called the Sea Launch Commander. Here they are:

The Sea Launch and Sea Launch Commander – Port of Long Beach, California

Electricity is produced at the port by the Harbor Cogeneration Facility, which is a 100 megawatt natural gas-fired electrical generation plant.

Harbor Cogeneration Facility – Port of Long Beach, California

In addition to all of this 21st century technology, the Port also has some throwbacks to the past, including the Queen Mary…

Queen Mary – Long Beach, California

…and some Art Deco warehouse facilities, dating from the mid 1950s:

Pier D – Port of Long Beach

 

Scenes from SFO

March 7, 2012
candids, photography, travel
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I was recently in San Francisco International Airport with a couple of hours to kill, so I grabbed my camera and wandered around Terminal 3 looking for things to shoot. Really, you see everything in an airport: buttoned down businessmen and eyebrow-pierced budding rock stars, people in a hurry and people with too much time on their hands, salesmen dreading another grinding week on the road and young couple thrilled to be off to Maui. I don’t love spending more time in airports than I have to, but I found, by slowing down, there are interesting things to see.

Girl in Cowboy Boots - SFO

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Stetson and Cell Phone - SFO

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Sleeping Soldier - SFO

Premiere of Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game of Shadows

December 7, 2011
celebrities, photography
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Last night’s premiere was a little less unruly than the night before, perhaps because the celeb crowd was smaller. But, Robert Downey Jr. and Rachel McAdams from the movie both attended along with a handful of other glams. The thing that struck me last night was the other-worldliness of some of these people. Rachel McAdams, for instance, looks like she’s lit from within. I particularly like the contrast in the bottom two pictures between Rachel and the folks behind her:

Premiere of New Year’s Eve – Hollywood

December 6, 2011
celebrities, photography
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It’s good to mix things up. A few days of quiet, slow-paced, contemplative, peaceful landscapes, then a few days of combat in the photographers’ pen at movie premieres. There is a lot of pent-up rage in that group of people and things can get a little testy.

Because of the number of celebrities who showed up and the high profile of New Year’s Eve, last night was particularly wild. The insanity notwithstanding, I love shooting these events. It’s absorbing, like rock climbing or hang-gliding. There is a lot of standing around at the beginning, but once the action starts, time disappears. Despite the volatility of the environment, it’s an almost Zen-like experience.

Here are a few of the glamorati who were there:

Premiere of "New Year's Eve"

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