Fight for $15 Protest and Arrests

A couple weeks ago, I was out photographing a Fight for $15 strike at the start of their National Day of Disruption, where workers from the Fight for $15 union, along with SEIU, protested across the country with groups being arrested in multiple cities, often for failure to disperse.

I was there photographing a subject's story. Things were a little slow on that part and once things escalated, I switched to the other story at hand as the person I was photographing stood still watching the police arrest protestors seated in the street.

My goal is always to inform, and as such, I tweeted and Instagrammed pictures as the event happened. As I was working on someone's story, I didn't actually pack my laptop on me, something I regretted after - might have been handy to send the photos off.

Nothing worse than photographs you like never seeing the light of day, so here's the story of the morning protest in Los Angeles:

@justnlstewart

November Protest at Los Angeles City Hall

November was a busy month, covering election related things. A lot of my work since moving here has been covering breaking news - with video. It's pretty uninteresting stuff and doesn't allow for much creative freedom. After having done a few of these videos, I've figured out what is wanted of me and feel more comfortable knowing what' needed, meaning that my coverage is more flexible.

I can take photographs too.

So, when the news is more interesting, like a protest, I'm also working on taking photographs. Usually multitasking is a quality depriving option; shooting a good video and making good photographs is a hard task. A protest is a little easier because it's a fairly predictable thing and unmoving. Sometimes something is going to be lit on fire or the crowd is going to start marching, but for the most part, it's a static thing. You can set up your video shot, take it, and then get almost the same shot in stills (except for moments where things are being torched - you gotta pick then). 

Anyways, this opportunity came up and I wanted to shoot some stills that allowed me more creative freedom than the video I was hired to shoot, so I made some on the side.

I was interested in the vendor out, finding work in the midst of a protest and seeing the opportunity to earn some money. I like playing with using my phone to shoot photos and video and thought I'd try to make a little video highlighting the vendor with my phone, just to experiment:

An Afternoon at the Venice Beach Skate Park

This past weekend, seeking some respite from my home office and laptop, I rode my bike down to Venice to photograph people at the skate park. There can be too much time spent inside and at a certain point, you're just ricocheting around the internet without accomplishing much. I needed fresh air and some pressureless, fun photography.

I've never actually photographed skateboarding before, which I find kind of funny. Two of my first three magazines I subscribed to as a kid were Snowboarder and Skateboarder magazine (the other was the free Lego magazine). I got them just to look at the pictures and dream of being a professional skateboarder and snowboarder myself, though I always faced a severe lack of concrete in Wyoming.

The park was full of boarders taking advantage of a nice day, but one in particular kept trying a big trick out of the pool. He was a fun kid with a lot of energy, and the concrete was pretty packed with spectators and boarders, so I found my opening and pretty much stayed there, playing with different ways to photograph the action. I tried not to concern myself with getting all the angles or doing anything that I'd usually push myself to do on an assignment. I was there to relax and have fun, and acting like that takes some of the fun out of it.

I came out of there with a couple pictures I liked, feeling refreshed by a relaxing excursion outside of the house to a place I hadn't been before.

Hope you enjoy the photos.

October Portraits for Leafly

I had the opportunity in October to take portraits for Leafly magazine and interview various public officials around the Los Angeles area who were supporting Proposition 64 to legalize recreational marijuana use.

It was an great opportunity that I was so grateful to have. Thanks to Patrick Fallon, a great photographer and awesome person, for passing my name along.

One of the best parts about this, besides being able to work on portraiture (something I consider a weakness), was being paid to travel around my new home out here in California and see places I'd yet to stumble across. So much of my passion for photojournalism rests with its ability to take you places you wouldn't otherwise be and forced interactions with people you may otherwise have never known. 

I was also under tight time constraints with each shoot, which upped the ante for me and was great growing experience. I was pretty pleased when I didn't fall flat on my face.

It was also one of my first actual journalism related pieces I've had published since moving here. Being able to interview the people I photographed on an interesting topic was another great opportunity that I loved. Reporting is cool and I wish I got to do more extended versions of it more often than just captioning photos.

Anyways, blah, blah, blah. Here's a couple frames from each of the shoots. Thanks for giving it my work a peek!