Laughing it up with Kangster on a photowalk. He’s a great friend…and an awesome photographer, too!

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This is one of several photos that I took of Carol [yesterday].

I think this was the best out of all of them.[1. Still, neither her or her sisters ever truly like any of their photos.]

We had a tasty dinner at Regent China Inn, across the street from Philippe’s.

Los Angeles, CA

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Silas Perez, who recently bought a Canon EOS 40D last week.

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I’m taking $1 portraits as long as money permits. (See Thomas Hawk with his $2 portrait project and Justin Korn with his $1 portrait project.)

What’s the premise? I’ll offer $1 to anyone who asks me for money in exchange for their portrait. I’m a shy person, but I’ll do my best to find out a little about the person. You never know if it’ll make someone’s day for at least talking to them a little bit.

Fourteen months ago, Wayne flew to Los Angeles from Hawaii. He held a tall can in a brown paper bag, sipping beer – I can’t remember which brand.

I wished him well and continued on my photowalk.

View more $1 portraits here or at Flickr

My coworker found this cool dog. In her email:

I found him on the street the day before Christmas and I would keep him because he is so sweet and friendly with people, but I have 8 cats.

He’s a fairly large yellow neutered male. Apparently, he is part Chow, part Akita, maybe part Shepherd and part other things. He is great with children and adults. He is healthy, housebroken, and has all his shots. He doesn’t seem to like other dogs or cats, however, so he should probably be an only pet.

If you’re interested and close to Laurel Canyon (Los Angeles), send an email with your contact information and I’ll forward that to my coworker.

Danny, my next door neighbor, is almost gone[1. I won't go into specifics because I'm not sure his wife would want that.]. We’ve been neighbors for at least 10 years. In all this time, I’ve only taken one photo of him. Actually, I invited him to grandparents’ day from when I was in high school[2. All my grandparents passed away before 5th grade.], so we had our photo taken then, but those are hidden somewhere in the clutter.

I have a fondness for portraits, especially capturing people in their normal, everyday life. They deserve memories with photos.

The problem is that we remember the bad stuff more than the good – I hate that. Don’t ignore the bad. Try to see the awesome in people. “Check out this photo – those were some great times!”

What does that have to do with Danny? Well, seeing this photo just floods my mind with great memories of him. I can see visions from the past, not just a glob of text. I could probably spend an entire post about him.

I’m sure you can go to your archives or photo albums, pick a photo, and just watch the memories come back.

I guess I love creating memory floods. I carry my camera everywhere for that purpose. When you see me with camera in hands, please don’t shy away. Talk to me, smile, wave, do something wacky, or keep doing whatever you’re doing – they’re all the right answer.