The Grove, nestled between Hollywood and Beverly Hills, has got to be one of my favorite shopping areas in L.A. What’s not to like. Great movie theaters… check! Apple Store across from movie theaters… check! And… wait for it… The Cheesecake Factory right next to the theater… CHECK!! Oh, but there’s so much more there. We also dig the übercool Los Angeles Farmer’s Market there. And for those of you out there with a girlie-girl in the family… there’s even a huge two-level American Girl doll store. It’s ALL good, so check it out if you’re ever in that neck of the woods.
SoCal
One of the things I really love about photography is that it opens the door to meeting so many people and their stories. I met this gentleman at the Café Collage on Venice Beach and spent several minutes just chatting to him about his life and my life. I loved the way he looked, dressed as he was, pouring over the movie & entertainment section of a local paper and sipping his java. After photographing him with my iPhone, I processed this photo right away and showed it to him. He like it quite a bit so I e-mailed it to him on the spot. I love social interactions like this and look forward to more and more as I venture more into people and street photography.
I’m always meeting cool and interesting people, like this surfer dude I met yesterday morning down at Venice Beach (name withheld, just in case he’d rather not be named).  He’s been surfing here, pretty much everyday, since 1982, and he had some great stories about sharks and dolphins, as you might imagine.  You could tell from talking to him, and from the gleam in his eyes, that he he was really passionate about the surfing lifestyle and that he would not likely trade that for anything.  Talking to him kind of reminded me of Patrick Swayze’s surfer/philosopher character, Bohdi, in the very cool “surfer movie” from way back in 1991, Point Break.  If you have not seen it, it’s worth seeing.
