A Walk in L.A.

Hello!
Last weekend I traveled to Los Angeles to be a bridesmaid in my oldest friend, Aleetas wedding. I love California! As much as I enjoy living in Florida I do wish the land was not so flat here! And then of course there is the humidity. California has beautiful mountains and hills everywhere and just so much to see! The energy there is just different and there seem to be flowers everywhere.
On this visit I stayed in a hotel in Downtown just next to the Times building and LAPD. While I was pretty busy most of the time with wedding activities I did have a few hours to myself one morning to take a long walk around the area where I was staying.

I really like this shot of the times building. I used the new HDR toning feature in Photoshop CS5 for some of these shots and using this on one exposure looks better than my some of my attempts at real HDR!


I walked to Grand Avenue with features the Disney Concert Hall and Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. It is so fun exploring here you never know what you will find around the next corner.



This is another favorite of mine of a tree in front of the Disney Concert Hall I am not sure why it struck me from across the street but it did. Perhaps it is the contrast between the green tree and the silver metal, and the way the light was reflected.

Here is a photo of the entire concert hall this is not an easy thing to photograph!
The sun was strong making the silver all kinds of bright!



One of my favorite things to find in cities are wall murals and paintings like this I especially like to use them as backdrops for portraits. I was all on my own this time though. I could probably spend a few years exploring various sections of the city before moving on to San Diego, San Francisco etc.... looking forward to my next trip!
Stephanie