Scott Kelby, our fearless leader at NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) and founder of Kelby Training, put this together last year and it was a success from the start. This year, there were 32,600 walkers in over 900 photo walks worldwide.

This was my first year as a participant. The walk I joined was in the historic section of downtown LA which is filled with a lot of really great buildings, some with incredible architecture with wonderful facades and some of most unusual and eclectic collections of architectural sculpture I have ever seen on a singular building. Many are clearly in need of renovation and some have had, or are in the process of being renovated. However you look at it, there is a lot of history and art in this section of Los Angeles in an approximate 5×8 block area. This area also includes Los Angeles’ historic theater district which just narrowly escaped the wrecking ball in recent history.

Here is a little blurb from the USC Geography site: “To the surprise of many urban experts and millions of suburban residents of Los Angeles — who view sprawling Los Angeles as “100 suburbs in search of a city” — there always has been a significant downtown Los Angeles, even before the new skyscrapers began sprouting in the 1960s. Ironically, much of the built environment of the old commercial downtown was not destroyed by new development, mainly because most new projects were located to the west and northwest of the old “historic core.” Today, dozens of blocks and hundreds of buildings (most of which are exactly 150 feet tall) in this subregion look essentially the same as they did in the 1930s. The human occupance and use of this subregion, however, is very different than it was 60 years ago.”

I have been meaning to do my own photo exploring in this area for many years but have never gotten around to it, so this was a great way for me to do this and it also was a chance to meet a few people. It also has given me a fresh perspective on downtown LA. This area is truly worth saving.

Here are a few of my images…

This first one was one of the first images I took that day. It’s a perspective in black and white, of a view in Pershing Square.

This next image is actually a collection of images. This is (obviously) the former Clark Hotel which be all appearances seems to be abandoned.

This next image is an interior shot from the Bradley Building.

This next image is in reality, two images blended together. I loved the detail of the façade, but the actual glass was dulled with what looked like at least 4 decades of dust on them. So, this being the digital world, I replaced the glass with some other glass like substance… This image is titled “Reflections of Retro Past”.

This next image, which I call “Sentinels” is about this wonderful architectural sculpture on this otherwise, nondescript brick building. BTW, can anyone out there tell me is this style Egyptian, European or something else?

And this last image, while not technically in historic downtown LA, is next to it. And in fact, had I panned my camera down you would see Pershing Square. I call this image “Mixed Influences” due to the obvious mix of architectural styles. This image is another example of a collection of images and in this case I am using the High Dynamic Range-technique (HDR). Simply put, high dynamic range (HDR) images enable photographers to record a greater range of tonal detail than a given camera could capture in a single photo. The intention is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes, ranging from direct sunlight to the deepest shadows. You achieve this by taking multiple exposures of the same scene and them combining them together.

OK, that’s it for now. I may add more images later but first, I’ve got paid gigs I need to attend to.

(All images are copyright David DeRemus Photography and may not be used without prior express written consent.)