Cafe Opera & Bakery
Roadside Americana
Nikon D7000 18-200mm @ 40mm ISO 200 1/125 F/11 Lr4, TpzSim; PsCS6
On Myrtle Avenue in the pedestrian friendly Old Town, Monrovia, California. There are quite a few restaurants and retauraunt/bars in this neighborhood.
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Urban Study #70; Old Town Traffic
Nikon D7000 10-24mm @ 16mm ISO 320 1/400, 1/100, 1/30 f/16 Lr3, HEP1, TpzSim; PSCs5
Colorado Boulevard in Old Town, Pasadena, California during a late afternoon in January. I really enjoy capturing images of the Pasadena urban scene, the variety of architecture and what I can produce using the lines, shapes and colors and textures that I find.
The Corner Pizzeria
Nikon D7000 18-135mm @ 31mm ISO 400 1/400 f/11 Lr3, TpzSim; PsCS5
Located at corner of Yale Avenue and 2nd Street in Claremont Village (Claremont, California) is a staple of any college town, the pizzeria. Where it is likely local merchants and farmers were once conducting monetary transactions with their banker in another time, dough of another kind is being tossed and baked.
Del Mar Building Trio
Interpretive Digital Imaging
Nikon D7000 18-135mm @ 35mm ISO 2000 3-bkts f/13 Lr3, TpzSim; PsCS5
These buildings stand on the north side of Del Mar Boulevard between South Raymond Avenue in the foreground and South Arroyo Parkway in Pasadena, California. Coming up Raymond from where we parked I was attracted by the bold colors of the buildings which reflect the re-urbanization of Pasadena, they were constructed after the beginning of the new millenium and are primarily housing units with maybe some business activity on portions of the first floors; there is an interurban rail line that passes through the red building in the center. This block of buildings is situated on the southern edge of Old Town Pasadena, adjacent to many Pasadena historic structures.
I started with an HDR processed image, used Lightroom to flatten some of the detail, then went further with Topaz Simplify. Then masked back in some of the detail at varying opacity; then hand painted in all of the white building in order to get the color and texture where I wanted it.
Box Jewelers Street Clock
Nikon D7000 10-24mm @ 14mm ISO 200 3-bkts f/16 Lr3; HEP1
Sometime between 1913 and 1914 Dr. William G. Barks opened a combined optometry and jewelry business at 507 South Myrtle Avenue in Monrovia, California and erected the street clock manufactured by the Brown Street Clock Company. The clock was originally powered by a spring-wound clock mechanism that was subsequently converted to an electrical powered mechanism. In 1921 Glen L. Box (FKA Glen L. DeBoxx) bought the jewelry business and the street clock from Dr. Barks. In 1931 Box moved the business and the clock across the street to 518 South Myrtle Avenue; Glen L. Box died in 1951 and his widow, Ivah Box sold the store and clock to Shields Krutzsch, who then sold the store to Sam and Jeaneane Silverman in 1969. In 2002 the clock was declared Monrovia Landmark #32 and in 2003 the Silvermans transferred ownership of the clock to the Monrovia Historic Preservation Group.
The clock and various businesses on Myrtle Avenue have been a location of television and motion picture filming at various times due to it’s proximity to Hollywood and the overall small town period look of the businesses on the street. The city of Monrovia has done a great job rejuvenating the street-scape of its original town center which has attracted viable businesses such as merchandisers, service providers, and the food and beverage sector; attracting residents of the extended local area as a pleasant place to spend their time.
We had a great time capturing this image and the others to come in the blog this week while doing our photo walk on Myrtle Avenue in Monrovia on an early June evening.
A hat tip to the Monrovia Patch which was one of my sources for this post.
Chill’n At The Equator
Street Life
Nikon D7000 18-135mm @ 26mm ISO 2500 1/6 f/3.8 Lr3; SEP2
The Equator was originally a stable in the 19th century, and since the revitalization of Old Town, Pasadena, California that began in the late 20th century the building has hosted various hospitality based businesses. They bill themselves from what I can gather from their web site as a restaurant/club featuring Asian fusion food and of course a full bar. Equator is located on Mills Place which is nearly just an alley in Old Town, adjacent to Mills Alley, which is a real alley. This short street is much more typical of the North End in Boston, than of some Disneyfied entertainment venue typical of the greater Los Angeles area.
No special post processing here, just some selective tone adjustments to bring out more clarity of all the human images, particularly of the fellow actually inside the building. I was intrigued by the elaborate chandeliers that are visible through the windows and I like the image of the hairless guy leaning against the wall.
The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf
Shop Windows
Nikon D7000 18-135mm @ 18mm ISO 2500 3-bkts f/3.5 Lr3, HEP1; CEP3
The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf at the corner of Mercantile Place and Fair Oaks Avenue in Old Town, Pasadena, California is our bivouac for hot and cold coffee drinks when we are doing a photo walk in Old Town. This shot was captured just after closing time on a recent weekday evening.
Place Vendome: Attraction To Shiny Objects
Shop Windows
Nikon D7000 18-135 mm @ 26mm ISO 2500 1/80 f/7.1 Lr3
This is the window at the rear of the Place Vendome shop on the alley way between Miller’s Alley and Smith Alley in Old Town, Pasadena, California. Just a straight forward image, no application of post processing filters, just minimal exposure and contrast adjustments.
Guns, Ammo & Gifts
Nikon D80 10-24mm @ 24mm ISO 200 3-bkts f/22 Lr3 HDR Efex Pro
After capturing some images in Piru, Judy and I headed down the road to Fillmore, California and spent some time wandering around the area surrounding Central and Main. Fillmore is roughly 50 miles northwest from Los Angeles and at least 30 years behind the greater Los Angeles area in terms of population density and land development; a significant amount of developed land in the Fillmore area is still given over to agriculture. As evoked by this image, the pace of life, personal priorities and values are reminiscent of an earlier, some might say, simpler time in our history.
As I stated in my “Storm Over City Hall” posting one of the subjects I want to explore with my photography is of images that convey a sense of life in an earlier time in our history and when we strolled around Fillmore this was one of the images that was presented to me. So rather than a dramatic visual image expressing artistry that dazzles the eye, I give you a much more subtle, documentary image, that might convey your mind back to Another Time, which is the latest category I have added to the blog’s image inventory.
I initially rendered this image in sepia toned black and white, but the lettering in the shop windows got lost in that image, so the final image was rendered with a mono-toned color palette, with a bit of emphasis on the warm color tones. The goal was to capture a contemporary image and make it look like it was captured long before today.
