Family Portraits at the Getty Center, Los Angeles

Josh and Erika and I all met in 2001 when we started film school together. After moving to Los Angeles, they started dating and got married in 2007, just a few months before Matt and I did. And then last year they had their adorable son Oliver. I haven't spent too much time around babies, but I really like this one. He's very alert and happy and smart, and he recently started walking. It was really cute how excited he got just walking around and having mobility. 

Now, Josh is an amazing cinematographer and Erika seems naturally talented at every imaginable thing, so they both take great pictures of Oliver all the time. But since one of them is inevitably behind the camera for these, I thought it would be fun to take some photos that had the whole family in them. We headed over to the Getty Center on an overcast Sunday and got a bunch of cute family portraits and candids. These photos were taken two days after Oliver's first birthday, so I was really happy we got to commemorate that milestone with them all.

Fall Crafts Challenge

I'm participating in an online monthly challenge where a small group of crafters and artists submit a piece of their work for the month's theme. Anyone can vote on which item they like best. The winner and two runners up will receive small prizes from everyone else who submitted. This month's theme is autumn, and I submitted a picture I took over the summer at the Getty Center. The photo is of a single orange leaf in a shallow brown stream.


To check out the other wonderful entries, go here. If you'd like to vote, all the items are listed in a column on the right.

Water works

Let me start off by saying that I really love my new digital SLR camera. It's wonderful all around, even if I still have a lot to learn about it. It's also the first camera I've owned with a fast enough shutter speed to catch things like water drops falling from a fountain. Pretty cool. So these are some recent shots of various pools, streams, and fountains from a trip to the Getty Center. Next I'll have to work on practicing with longer exposures and see what comes out.

Getty with anticipation

The Getty Center is one of my favorite places to take people visiting Los Angeles. It's like a little oasis from the noise, smog, and traffic of the rest of the city, but with amazing views of all the bustling below. They have some good artwork in the galleries, and often really cool visiting exhibits. But my favorite thing about it is definitely the architecture. I love the stone curves and how crisp the white buildings look against the sky. So that's what I ended up taking the most pictures of.