Has anyone reading this heard of the website “meet up.com”? Is anyone reading this? Hello? I hadn’t heard of meet up dot com until recently. I found a couple groups that organize photo meet ups. My initial thoughts were, “I’m uncomfortable in a group of people when I don’t know any of them. I’m not a dick, but I can be a little quiet which can be taken as aloof.” Especially in a group of photographers … Some are such gear-geeks, they know every model of every camera and have encyclopedic knowledge of what each one can do. I feel like an idiot when these people talk to me. They’ll ask me about my camera and end up knowing more about it than I do. I have to be honest though, I usually get a good tip from these gear-geeks and I wish I had half the knowledge that they do. Anyway, at great personal risk of being seen as an aloof douche-bag or a gear-dunce, I signed up for a street photography “meet-up.”

I love the idea of this meet up. “Along The Red Line” was just that, ride the LA Metro Red Line, get off on stops along the red line, shoot for about an hour, get back on and do it again. Great idea.

I started on the blue line at about 8:00, took it to the end, 7th street station, to transfer to the red line and took that to the last stop in North Hollywood. I arrived in NoHo at 9:30. I love the metro, sure it travels through some dicey areas, but it’s a great way to get to LA for cheap and without having to deal with parking.

At the NoHo station I met up with the group and was happy to see some familiar faces along with my friend and fellow past-workshop attendee, Jason. I’d guess there were about 20 of us though the meet up website claims 39 attended … We all piled on the south bound red line en route to our first stop … Hollywood. We emerged at the Kodak (now Dolby Theatre), right on the walk of fame. It was only 10:30am and insanely crowded. Perfect for a street photography outing. The group decided to meet back in the metro station in an hour and from there we split up. I don’t think Jason and I walked more than a block in that hour, but that was all we needed. Tons of people, tourists, locals, workers, Spidermen, Darth Vaders, a Chewbacca and a zone-focus-experiment … Seriously insane, plus I might have seen Michael Jackson near his star …

Next stop, Downtown LA. I am familiar and comfortable with this area. I’ve taken 3 workshops here, met up with people to shoot, been to art walk … I love shooting in DTLA. We walked Broadway and adjoining streets, shot and ate and Grand Central Market, went to MOCA, neared the Disney Concert Hall then back over to Pershing square and the Biltmore Hotel … I got my best shot of the day on this stop. I was walking up some stairs to reach street level, which gave me a great point of view of the sidewalk. I really like the vertical lines in this one along with the girl’s stride and head turn and I find the “Road Work Ahead” sign to be funny … is it referring to plastic surgery in her future? This is LA…

This stop was also a slight source of frustration as I saw a very interesting gentleman on the street, I knew I needed to get his picture. I rarely ask permission, almost never. I always say thank you (if they see me), but never ask first. Well this guy I felt like I had to ask. So call it a street PORTRAIT instead of a Street Photograph, I don’t care, I just needed to get this guy’s picture. So I approach the guy, he’s very friendly and accommodating. I ask if he minds if I take his picture, he doesn’t. So I fire off one shot. Just one, and his FREEKING EYES ARE CLOSED! I still like the image, but its not what it could have been …

This was my last stop on the “Along The Red Line” meet-up as it was approaching 4:00 and I needed to get home. But this was a great meet-up, a great group of photographers and I look forward to many more … And maybe this time I’ll open my mouth and introduce myself to a few people …