The first workshop of 2025 is in the books! It was so nice to head to warm and sunny Los Angeles for a few days during Chicago’s deep freeze last week.

Once again, I had an incredible group of attendees. Can’t wait to share their images with you in a couple of weeks.

Let’s jump into some/most of the locations we visited.

Day 1

We started in downtown LA for our first day, with our first stop being the Bradbury Building. Unfortunately, they’ve gotten strict with only phone cameras in here 🙁 And, despite many attempts at getting in touch with someone to get us access they just never respond. Oh well, we got what we could. I pretty made this one shot of the elevator gates. Just liked the patterns and shadows.

Off to Caltrans 7 – California Department of Transportation District 7 Los Angeles designed by Morphosis. I only got a couple of shots in here and prefer the one that is just a tiny piece layerd in front of the neighboring buildings.

Across the street, the LAPD Headquarters. This visit’s focus was on the reflections. Again, prefer the second shot reflecting City Hall.

After lunch, we had a few more stops downtown before switching up areas of the city. First, the LA Federal Courthouse designed by SOM. Nice geometry here. The warm sun reflecting on the metallic mosaic overhang initially grabbed my attention.

Another shot reflecting City Hall. Then, onto some geometric, symmetrical interpretations.

More geometry + framing at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels.

Our last Friday stop downtown – the wacky Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts designed by Coop Himmelb(l)au. Always good for contrasts between curves and angles, shadow and light.

Now, off to my favorite stop of the day – The Petersen Auto Museum, designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox. Meant to draw inspiration from racetracks and, probably, the traffic of LA.

A mix of some ICM’s coming…

Day 2

Our second day had us visiting 2 of my favorite LA locations – The Walt Disney Concert Hall and The Broad.

My shots will feel slightly different than my usual because one of the attendees was kind enough to loan me her Lensbaby Velvet 85mm. I’ve long been wanting to try shooting architecture with a Lensbaby so I spent the whole day with just this lens. It’s usually used as a macro lens for flowers, but why not try it on architecture, right?!

The lens gives your subjects a soft, glowy effect. It works better on some images than others and, honestly, it’s hard to tell which will be best while shooting. So, kind of like ICM, it’s a matter of trial and error. It was a fun change. I’m not convinced I want to do more shooting like this, but maybe…

Let’s start with Frank Gehry’s Disney.

I started with some Lensbaby ICM in The Broad’s Infinity Room. Not sure this is advisable but why not?! I most prefer the first shot.

Now, the actual architecture of The Broad. All involve “the veil” of the building. Which was designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

After lunch, we headed to Hayden Tract of Culver City with every building designed by Eric Owen Moss. All have a pretty dystopian feeling to me.

The first stop was The Wrapper. The newest addition to the area and tallest. It’s still unoccupied and security gave us a hard time photographing this but ultimately walked us around for a short period of time. Apparently, it’s most often used as a backdrop for commercials, tv shows, and movies.

The only other building, of about 7, that I got anything I liked from was The Waffle building, which is home to super fancy restaurant Vespertine. Oh, and apparently Eric Owen Moss briefly asked a few participants what we were doing and told them he was the architect. Still kicking myself for not running over to say hi and introduce myself!

Day 3

Alright, our final day! And back to the usual lenses. We began and ended the day at the Alexander Liberman sculpture titled “Ulysses”. My favorite sculpute in LA. So many twists and turns and ways to create images!

Then, we were off to The Getty for 4 hours. Really love this place – the architecture, the gardens, the galleries. Such an oasis from the busy city. Well done, Richard Meier Architects!

We wrapped up the day and workshop back downtown. We ran into some bad luck with security guards that decided we shouldn’t be photographing both Herbert Bayer’s “Double Ascension” sculpture and inside the Westin Bonaventure (John Portman). Apparently new rules in the plaza of the sculpture though I did sneak in this photo for a client a few days earlier….

Not at all the style of photography we focus on in the workshops, but you see what we missed. Hopefully, some of the attendees managed some shots before we got kicked out or from the sidewalk. I just didn’t even try.

Then, the Westin. The issue here was they were filming a music video, so we couldn’t be in the space. I, and I’m pretty sure most of the attendees, at least managed a few shots. The area I like most are the four spiral staircases; very brutalist vibes in here.

Two more sculptures on the way back to the hotel – “Mind, Body, Spirit”, which I did not photograph this trip. And, another round with “Ulysses” – because, different light! Always revisit locations under different lighting!

Thanks for sticking around for this long post. Stay tuned for the attendees images and some BTS shots in a couple of weeks!