The hippo pond was interesting. I liked this shot from the top of the surface. I appreciate the strange structures interwoven with "natural" forms that you find at a zoo.

I remember the first time I saw a display like this. The experience stayed with me. Every time I saw a pond I wondered what it would be like to see underneath the surface.

A couple of ducklings swim over the back of and then under the watchful eye of the resident hippo.

The boars roaming around for food were about the only animal active in the heat of midday.

Unfortunately a couple of the aviaries were closed.

A bear contemplates his surroundings.

Hyenas take a break from the heat and lift their heads up as a passerby whistles.

I had to wait on some renders at work so I went out and explored around Venice to pass the time. I ended up catching the sunset.

Some more shots from wandering down to the beach. Birds wander up and down as the waves come in, searching for anything the water might have uncovered or brought.

I found myself interested in the textures that presented themselves as the wave went in and out. The sand changed so drastically over the course of the wave coming up and retreating that I could have taken an image every 60th of a second and each would have looked like a completely different surface.

Its weird to go down at the beach and see these signs up all over the place inbetween the crowds and crowds of people swimming.

Its the case all down the beach. Orange flags dot the landscape into the distance.

This boat was resting along the shore in one of the canals in Venice, CA. I liked the bounced light on the interior of the boat.

A duck wading through the Venice Canals.

Photographically speaking, I have been having a hard time finding my feet out here in LA. I tend to want to take pictures of rural type areas since that is what I grew up in. I miss the driving out into the boonies and seeing the most unexpected stuff. I went out to the beach yesterday to think about it, camera in hand of course. I ended up along the shore line by LAX airport... I was lured by the smoke stacks on the horizon.

Taking pictures on the beach is hard. Been trying not to inundate this website with a bunch of blue pictures. It is hard because in a lot of shots the main composition is the same. Always three horizontal elements... sky, water, sand. It is hard not to catch that in every shot.

You can thin them out or make them immense depending on your angle, but they are almost always there. And being where I am, I can't wait for winter to give a different feel to any particular place, its blue skys and sun year round.

I try and get myself out of always taking the same shot, force myself to look around and explain the experience smaller. I was kind of happy with the airplane and highway cone shots in this regard. I managed to escape the beach's horizontal restraints.