Porsche Carrera 964 on GMR

GMR is a pretty famous mountain road out here is SoCal. It used to be a place a lot of young enthusiastic mountain drivers would go to test their driving ability at night.  

In recent times, the road has been getting a lot of attention from the media in which gives a lot of attention to the police. So police have been a bit more proactive about monitoring it for extra curricular activity. 

Last week we had a day with very heavy rain and the next morning, Phil with @handsomeandphilthy called me up to go take photos on GMR. Figuring rain photos would be cool, I agreed and met him up there.  

But the whole time, it never rained although we had very ominous rain clouds hanging right over our heads.  

For this shoot, I kept the editing styles more loose to show some variety in style. I'm happy with the way they turned out.

Hopefully next time around, I can actually get some rain photos and maybe getting someone to drift in the rain would be sweet.

Andrew Manley​
Automotive Photographer​

Conquer_LA, grub Little Tokyo and a walk along 6th Street Bridge in Downtown Los Angeles

A bunch of us at IE Photo Rentals decided to check out the latest meet up with the @conquer_la guys this past weekend. Leonard Holland (http://www.leonardholland.com), who is one our interns at IE Photo Rentals has been a part of these social media meet ups for some time. 

It was a great way for me to get out there and test shoot a new lens. Today I chose to shoot the newest Tamron 15-30mm 2.8 VC on the Canon 1dx body. All of the images below were shot on it, check it out at IE Photo Rentals Website.

Tamron 15-30mm 2.8 VC

This recent photo meet up was not a photo walk, but more of a gather and shoot event. Since most of us haven't attended an event like this prior, it would of been nice to been apart of a moving group to get a real feel for these type of events but I guess there is always next time. 

We all met up at the Echo Park Lake, which I remember to be a very sketchy area back back back in the day but apparently it has gone thru some serious gentrification probably from the help of some very hard working hipsters. 

The park summed up Los Angeles really well. You had all types of ethnic backgrounds, people of all ages, people hustlin' toys and food, hipsters and families. Although I didn't get any shots of them, the elote (corn man) and churro lady made the day at the park so much more memorable. The fact you can enjoy a day out and experience other cultures is always a win in my book. Look at how beautiful the sun was shiny between the trees....  yea it was a glorious day. 

You can see how happy Leonard is at these type of events. His whole face just lights up! My son Calvin was just happy to have gotten a Batman ice cream which he scarfed down in a few quick minutes. Left me none :(

Here is a shot of Pro with the Sony A7s and the Sigma 50mm 1.4 Art. That lens is no joke, probably the sharpest lens I have ever used. The crowd started to grow as it got darker. 

As the sun went down, the blues in the sky were glowing beautifully. All of these were snapped hand held at 2.8. With the help of the people in the crowd, light was abundant with the help of a few different handheld light sources. 

We hung out for a good 40 mins and decided to head out to Little Tokyo for dinner. We ended up at Spitz, which has amazing fries with gyro meat but I didn't snap any inside. My bad. 

Leonard had never been to Little Tokyo so we did a little tour of the area after dinner. Instead of taking photos of all the cool Japanese decor, we all stood there taking photos of each other. In this photo everyone is photographing me cause I might have flexed my guns or something awesome. lol

Last time I photographed this building, I had my older Canon 1ds Mark II and it's low light struggles quite a bit. With the Canon 1dx, it did a much nicer job picking up the shadow details. The images did have perspective adjusted in post due to the lens having very strong distortion at 15mm. 

The image below is a shot of a popular Japanese gift store. Just thought it was interesting with all of the Marilyn Monroe decor.

Chase bank had crazy blue neon lights going so we ran inside just to snap a quick portrait. 
Across the street, stairs led into an underground parking area. I loved the color and texture of it so I snapped for you guys to enjoy. 

A week prior to my boy's 6th birthday, he contemplates the journey of his life or perhaps he was thinking of ice cream again. :)

We ended up at the 6th St bridge shortly after walking around DTLA. Some of the guys we met at the meet up were meeting up here as well. Some guys climbed up the structure to get the higher perspective but it was a bit too nerve wracking for the most of us. Got some light streaks flowing thru...

Above is a landscape of the tracks that lead to the San Bernardino and Riverside lines. I think OC/SD lines are shown as well. 

We then decided to hike down to the LA River and under the 6th St bridge. It was a bit sketchy at 12am going into a pitch black tunnel but with 8 other friends and a flashlight, it was exciting. I didn't shoot inside the tunnel cause I was probably distracted. SMH

Below you can see the landscapes I took of under the bridge. It was so vast down there and we felt so small under these huge pillars. 

I wanted to check out California Donuts after but since it was close to 1am, most of the group was exhausted and we started to head home. 

Thanks to Leonard for inviting us out. We had a great time!

Til the next
Andrew Manley
Wandering Photographer

Happy 4th Birthday Princess Addy

Nothing makes you feel older than watching a person go from birth to a child in no time. Where did all the time go... right? So our niece Addyson celebrated her 4th birthday yesterday with a nice small gathering of first cousins at Chuck E Cheese in Diamond Bar. 

I brought out the Canon 1dx and 24-70mm 2.8 Mark II.... which typically I don't do since indoor evenings would bring out L primes but I wanted to shoot at various focal lengths so I went with my gut. The 1dx held up well since it's low light is terrific and the image quality from the Mark II was sharp as it usually is. 

Shooting candids/documentary/journalistic style takes some effort because at the end of the day, it comes down to timing... you have to do everything right and then wait for the perfect moment. Typically I am directing at my shoots.... "Stand there, move this, park here, fix your hair...." but documentary style requires patience and being on the sidelines. 

Now I tried my best to do what I could to capture the moments yesterday but I felt like I struggled in capturing the essence. Could be all sorts of reason but I feel like I really need to change my mindset when I am shooting different styles... but it was also my niece's party so I wanted to enjoy it. Ah... the struggles.

Would love to hear who you guys love in documentary styled photography. What are some of your secrets in capturing special moments? Share below in the comments. Would love to hear you guys.

Happy birthday Addy! Love you babes

Til the next
Andrew Manley