Here's a sweet little video I made of some dudes I know shredding around Ukiah skatepark. It's a way different experience both shooting video and editing it, so I shot a few stills as well.

I've been back up to Hearst for the last few days. I used to drive these dirt roads every day. It's nice to get out into the country again.

I took some photos today of fellow Echo Park based blogger Delmie Mongee. Her more fashion focused blog is online at tellmedelmie.blogspot.com check it out and show her some love. There's a lot more pictures from this shoot over there.

Sunset, which has turned into Cesar Chaves at this point, crosses the LA river. Back to wide angles, color and polarization. This is the urban landscape.

Went up the coast to Santa Barbara last weekend, taking photos the whole way up. I'm having some fun with this digital black and white stuff.

Riding in the car with Lox

Sunset/Solstice

Santa Monica is always photogenic, and if the light sucks, make it black and white. These things will never change.

More street art from my neighborhood. Been a while since I've broken out the lens for stills. I've been experimenting with the Technicolor Cine-Profile that's been released for the canon HDSLR line. It's a great tool for video, but it's an interesting tool for stills because it forces you to think about what you can make with the photo in post rather then just being happy with whats on the back of the camera.

Pets, low light, and Zeiss glass. This is pretty much all I have the energy to photograph when I get home from work.

I know it's not my usual style, but I'm trying some new things. It's an old hassy lens (150 cf t*) so it's maxed out at f/4. It's a more pictorial style then I like but I think it still captures the moment and the soul of that punk-ass Charlie.

But see? It can take sharp pictures. I wish the focus was a little less stiff (and the adapter wasn't as wobbly) so I could use it for video work easily. This is Buster climbing all over Dakin.

And this is Locksly. He's a dog. Went back to the ZE 50/1.4 for this one. ISO 3200, 1/50th of a second. It was so dark, I can't believe I got one that was both well composed and sharp.

I got to collaborate with a long time friend and shoot a piece of photojournalism that I'm actually proud of. The piece was for the online edition of the Sierra Club magazine Sierra and it has been linked to and featured on several other sites, such as Good Magazine and the home page of the Sierra Club.

The original article can be found here: http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/201107/pesticides-farmworkers.aspx
The "hidden" web gallery I made for the photo editors is here: www.rowanbyersphotography.com/watsonville

It feels good to see your name in a byline.

Did a little bit of street photography while shopping in Santa Monica. Manual focus lens with a .9 ND in front of it so I could shoot wide open. Nailing the focus is a bitch but I love the shallow depth of field it gives you. It's not a look that you generally associate with daylight outdoor photos.

Shots go off down the block and the police chopper starts circling. Still have to go get more beer at the liquor store. Some mook's been wasted in front of the burger joint on Sunset. "You seen anything?" "Nope. Just heard shots." Welcome to LA.

I needed a self portrait for my website, mainly because I don't really like photos that other people take of me. I also wanted to try my hand at digital black and white. In this case it worked out really well. I planned the lighting with black and white and I'm quite pleased with the result even though my shirt and hair look like shit. Here's a picture of the lighting setup, I used almost every piece of gear I own (and all the tricks I'm learning by working movie sets) to get the look right. That a reflector in the bottom right corner, a snoot for the 285 made out of cine-foil for the hard light on my neck/cheek, a Lowell ID Light for the pings in my eyes, and 2 photoflex brollys for the key. Camera is the 5DII with Ziess 50/1.4 with a B+W .9 ND.

Check out this piece I worked on... pretty cool little article, 10 things you didn't know about pressing vinyl.
http://laist.com/2011/05/19/top_10_things_you_didnt_know_about.php

Lighthouse point, Santa Cruz. This was supposed to be an experiment in HDR photography combined with some longer exposures. But I just can't get on board with HDR because you lose my favorite thing about photography, which is that accidental moment. The 1/4 second exposure really made that bottom turn look cool. I'm not gonna ruin it to get the shadow side of that rock in the water out of the blacks.

Downtown LA from Echo Park and Bellevue

Matt at the Mole Stage

Double J

JL10 Dolly with a 23 jib, hotgears and an Arri. Got to operate this, both the jib arm and the wheels. Stoked.

Christina and a really neat light. K5600 Joker bare-bulb in a black dome with an 18in Fresnel front.

Started working at the Mole stage and went to the JL Fisher/ASC/SOC/Local 600 open house over the weekend. Not a bad couple of days.

I went around my neighborhood today taking some photographs of the streets/street art. There's a JR in the first shot, which is at the end of my street, and what I think is a Banksy in the last shot, which was taken in Silverlake. It reads "art saves lives" and looks like it was commissioned by the owners of the hipster furniture store that it's on.

This photo is too good to not make a desktop out of. I still am amazed by the clouds over the desert.
http://www.filedropper.com/rgb-9may2011-namibia-1

These is the view from my back yard. I thought it might make a nice desktop. Here's a link:

http://www.filedropper.com/rgb-4may2011-sunsetpalmtrees-1-2

Enjoy.

This is my new room in LA. Hopefully I'll get a real bed soon. I shot this on the night that I moved in. I think I'm gonna try to do more architectural stuff with the house I'm living in, as well as shoot the neighborhood around it. This is a good start though. 4 flashes were used to light this, can you guess where they are?