Port of Los Angeles
15 Sep
Continuing the industrial theme, I went out last night to the Port of Los Angeles with Mike and Harrison.
Every time I make my way down that way, I discover something new, or explore further down a direction I’d been before. Failing either of those, I at least shoot somewhere I’ve already in a completely new way, noticing details or angles I’d never noticed before.
This abandoned oil terminal (above) was completely covered with no-tresspassing signs, but the main gate was also unlocked and ajar, allowing me to get this shot. Some lights were still on, leading us to believe that venturing inside would be poor logic, so we moved on to other locations.
I spent a chunk of time exploring the idea of these un-light cranes being silhouetted by brightly light cranes in the background, glowing in the fog and melting into pastel colors in the black water below.
At the next location, I explored these concrete posts, sticking out of filthy brackish water near the foot of the Vincent-Thomas bridge. They seemed to be waiting for a pier to be built on them, or perhaps they were the last remaining evidence that there ever had been a pier in that location.
Finally, we wound up at the old stalwart location, the Valero Refinery on the far eastern edge of the Port of LA, just as it becomes Long Beach.
Unlike previous explorations to this location, I climbed down under the steel truss bridge to try a new angle of something otherwise very difficult to shoot.
And discovered a new angle of a bridge I’d never paid much attention to before:
Well after midnight, chilled by the cold humid air and tired of the dull low sounds of rumbling trucks and locomotives, we left for a more hospitable location and headed back into the city.
