Today is Black Friday, and that means that most stores are having big sales to try to draw in customers. The Occupy Orange County Irvine and Santa Ana groups both decided to hold a protest march at South Coast Plaza, a large high-end mall in Costa Mesa. Since many stores were opening their doors at midnight this year, the march started at around 10:30pm in front of the Best Buy, and continued until after 1:30 am.
The lines were, predictably, very long:
The line for the Old Navy at South Coast Plaza Metro Pointe at midnight extends out onto the sidewalk of Bear street.
The Best Buy line was gigantic, and the dozen or so Occupy Orange County protestors who were there walked up and down the line, chanting and handing out fliers.
Occupy Orange County protestors hand out fliers to people lined up at the Best Buy at South Coast Plaza at 1:25 am on the morning of Black Friday. Emahn is the man in the black suit jacket and jeans in front, while Joese is in the brown jacket and white pants further along the line.
Most of the protestors who weren’t handing out fliers were tied together by a rope:
About a dozen Occupy Orange County protestors were in front of the Best Buy in South Coast Plaza at 12:30am on Black Friday. Here the protestors stand tied together with rope in a line holding the "Occupy Orange County in Unity with Occupy Wall Street sign".
The rope was a part of a human art project by Occupy Orange County, Irvine. At the front of the rope line was Web, dressed in a suit and holding the end, happily leading the rest of the protestors. The goal was to illustrate how the 1% lead the 99%.
Web (Andrew) leads the Occupy Orange County, Irvine Black Friday march at South Coast Plaza. Web is dressed in a suit, and is posing like a smiling banker who is holding the end of the rope that ties the 99% to him.
Wednesday marked my last day of work before Thanksgiving break. Shortly after finishing my final lecture, Michelle and I enjoyed a late lunch out and then zipped down to Little Corona Beach for the sunset. I just happened to have my full set of camera gear with me, so I was able to snap a fewlarge number of frames.
I’ve previously posted about my long exposure work at Little Corona, and yesterday I continued in the same style. But this time instead of either a crystal clear sky or a marine layer, I had patchy clouds to work with:
Clouds over the intertidal at sunset.
The arch rock was particularly photogenic, especially with soft clouds washing overhead:
Vertical arch rock and clouds in black and white.Arch rock and soft clouds in black and white.
And while the sunset wasn’t spectacularly colorful, the gorgeous deep blue of dusk was out in full force at the end of the evening:
The sun sets over a cloud-shrouded Catalina Island, as seen from Little Corona Beach. A single star (planet?) is visible on the left side of the sky.
Visiting Little Corona was a great way to start our Thanksgiving. I hope you and yours have a most excellent day, and a great start to the holiday season.
More pictures
To see more pictures from my long exposure work at Little Corona, head to my Little Corona Beach Gallery. Here’s a thumbnail of one more from the last night:
Getting There
Little Corona Beach (Robert E Badham Marine Life Refuge): Located at the intersection of Poppy Ave. and Ocean Blvd. in Corona Del Mar (Newport Beach), CA. From Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1) turn onto Poppy Ave, and park on the street once you get to Ocean Blvd (a few blocks from PCH). Street parking may be difficult to find at peak times, but was easy to get on weekday evenings. From the street you’ll walk down a moderately steep paved ramp to the beach, just at the intersection of Ocean and Poppy. The park is open from 6am – 10pm.
Occupy Wall Street is a people’s movement. It is party-less, leaderless, by the people and for the people. It is not a business, a political party, an advertising campaign or a brand. It is not for sale.
While I was photographing the November 5 march of the Occupy Orange County, Irvine camp (see my highlight pictures here) I tried to get closeup portraits of a representative sample of the people present. The movement isn’t about any one of these people; it’s about all of them together, and together they represent the diversity of the 99%.
I’m calling this project “The Faces of Occupy Irvine.” I don’t normally showcase my work as a slideshow in posts, but for this I think it’s appropriate (see the gallery for all of the images separately):
Not seeing a slideshow or want to look at the individual images? Click on the image above or head to my Faces of Occupy Irvine gallery; the slideshow on that page works on iPads and iPhones.
These are raw street portraits: all but one of these were taken as a single exposure with natural lighting, no reflectors, no flash, and no posing instructions from me1. All of the people pictured here gave their permission to have their images captured.
After taking some pictures of the Occupy Orange County, Irvine camp a week and a half ago during some calm hours (see this post), I wanted to try my hand at photographing the camp at its busiest: during their Saturday march. The theme of the Occupy movement this Saturday was encouraging people to move money from large banks to local credit unions, and their march was scheduled to take them on a two and a half mile loop that would pass by branches of Bank of America, Citibank and Chase.
I ended up staying more than 6 hours, photographing the entire march as well as the speeches and sign-holding that went on before and after. The protesters were universally welcoming, and were great fun to photograph; their cheerful, expressive mood was infectious, and led me to feel extremely creative.
In this post I’ll highlight a few of my favorite pictures from the day; if you want to see more pictures from the day, head to the galleries linked to in my November 5: the pictures post.
The event was attended by a wide range of attendees: everything from children with their parents to college students, working adults, and retirees.
Anastasia, a young woman just out of school who wants to be a web designer but is stuck working at Taco Bell, at the Occupy Orange County, Irvine camp on November 5.Cov (left) and Virginia (right) sit in lawn chairs while holding signs at the Occupy Orange County, Irvine camp on November 5.
After a brief speech on marching safety and laws, the march got underway with a swell of enthusiasm. This picture, of Cov in the middle of a pack of marchers crossing the street leaving the camp, is probably my favorite from the day:
Cov starts marching from the Occupy Orange County, Irvine camp on Saturday November 5 while a number of protesters hold signs in the background. Her sign reads "Jobs not cuts".
While the media loves to cast the Occupy protesters are destructive hooligans, these people were as kind and non-destructive as can be; practically the only people even doing something as minor as walking on lawns during the march were photographers and reporters. The mood was euphoric, hopeful, and friendly. In fact, I almost didn’t publish this picture because it can so easily be mis-construed to represent aggressive yelling instead of hopeful chanting:
Dew-b Outlaw takes part in a chant during the Occupy Orange County, Irvine march on Saturday November 5.
What is Dew-b Outlaw holding so high in the air? A flute, which he played beautifully during the march:
Dew-b Outlaw brought a flute on the march, and played it during the Occupy Orange County, Irvine march on November 5.
The marchers were generally led by a small group of Occupiers, chief among them being Dew-B and “Web”:
"Web" (Andrew), one of the leaders of the march, talks into a megaphone during the Occupy Orange County, Irvine march on November 5. His orange arm band signifies that he's part of the Occupy Orange County safety brigade, responsible for managing traffic around the march and ensuring that all marchers follow laws."Web" (Andrew) leads a chant at a Bank of America in Irvine, CA during the Occupy Orange County, Irvine march on Saturday November 5.
At the banks the protesters proudly displayed their signs and chanted, but never blocked the entrances or sidewalks. When non-protesters came walking along, Occupiers would repeatedly call out “clear the way” or “coming through” to ensure that nobody was obstructed. No-one entering or exiting a bank was harassed at all. But that didn’t stop there from being great displays of emotion on both sides of the bank walls:
Anastasia (right) and Adele (left front) hold signs and chant in front of a Bank of America in Irvine, CA during the Occupy Orange County, Irvine march on Saturday November 5. Signs read "Think about my future", "Get corporate money out of politics" and "Move your money to a community bank or credit union" Charlie (foreground) takes part in a chant while sitting in front of a Bank of America as a portion of the Occupy Orange County, Irvine's march on Saturday November 5. The chant is "I am the 99%, you are the 99%, we are the 99%", and she's currently illustrating the "I am the 99%" portion.Charles, a security guard at a Citibank in Irvine, CA, warily watches through a locked door as protesters from the Occupy Orange County, Irvine camp march in front of his bank.
The marchers were well organized and energetic, even at the end of the march, which made for great lines and emotions when crossing a bridge on the way back to the camp:
I’ve been working on my pictures from the November 5 Occupy Orange County, Irvine march; it’s been a fun day of processing, and I’ve got a lot to share. There are a few images that I love artistically, and many more that aren’t so artistic, but that I want to post for documentation or so people in the march can see themselves.
I’ll be dividing the pictures up into themed galleries, which are linked to below. If you’re not sure where to start, just check out the highlights gallery, my highly edited collection from the day.
This page will get updated as I add more pictures and blog posts, so if you want to link to my pictures from the event this is probably the best post to use.
[Updated Nov. 8 to add a gallery of people with their signs, and Nov. 10 to add a gallery of the afternoon’s speakers.]
Cov starts marching from the Occupy Orange County, Irvine camp on Saturday November 5 while a number of protesters hold signs in the background. Her sign reads "Jobs not cuts".
Many thanks to everyone who let me photograph them!
A man holds a "Jobs not cuts" sign and flashes the peace sign behind the "Occupy Orange County in Unity with Occupy Wall St." sign at the Occupy Orange County encampment at Irvine, CA.
The Occupy Wall Street movement began about a month and a half ago, and since then has spread a cities worldwide, including Irvine and Santa Ana right here in Orange County. Regular readers of this blog will know that my photographic genre can best be described as cat pictures biological macro photography: I take pictures of spiders, mice, plants, and other such things.
Tom walks in front of the bright orange "Occupy Orange County - in unity with Occupy Wall Street" banner while holding a sign with a newspaper boy holding a paper with a graphical "No greed" written on it.
Over the weekend I decided to try my hand at some documentary street photography, and headed down to the Occupy Orange County – Irvine camp to see what was going on.
On Sunday evening at Occupy Orange County there weren't many folks holding signs; the tents were taking care of the task for them.
The camp was fairly quiet on Sunday around sunset, so I focused on documenting the environment, including the sea of tents that has popped up.
It’s Halloween, and that means it’s time for some dark, moody pictures. I’ll start with one of my favorite sinister shots of Little Corona Beach in Corona Del Mar:
Who just came ashore in that lone boat? Why do so many of the houses have no lights on? And is that a thin layer of mist creeping in over the oddly-still water?
And, of course, what would Halloween be without spiderwebs?
This spider web was covered in dew on a foggy morning at Crystal Cove State Park. It looks creepy to me, especially since the droplets look like they have little eyes in them.
Or a misty trail, heading off into the unknown?
A trail winds off in the distance behind scraggly foliage into a fog shrouded unknown up a hill. Taken in Crystal Cove State Park on a foggy afternoon, just before sunset. I love the creepy feel of this.
Or a giant spider?
A large orb weaver spider sits in the center of her web, just waiting for some prey (you, perhaps?) to come along and get stuck in her web. And if you say "Squee!" to this instead of "Eeek!", you're my kind of person 🙂
And, as a special Halloween addition, I saw a ghost while photographing the Occupy Orange County camp last night (gallery here). He was just a wisp of a man in a hat, holding a sign:
A long exposure shot taken at dusk shows just the outline of a man in a hat holding a sign next to an empty lawn chair at Occupy Orange County - Irvine. Is this a ghost of protesters past?
Do you have any scary, creepy, or sinister pictures to share?
Have a spooky day!
[Updated to add the ghost picture on Oct. 31, 2011, with thanks to Alpenglow Images for the inspiration.]
It’s fall here in coastal Orange County, CA1, but determining that it’s fall can be difficult since we don’t have trees filled with yellow and red leaves. Around here I find that there’s no better indicator of fall than seeing one of these hanging around outside2:
A large orb weaver spider (genus _Araneus_) sits in the center of her web, just waiting for some prey (you, perhaps?) to come along and get stuck in her web.
These orb weaver spiders come out every year in late summer and early fall, building webs at dusk that are frequently more than a foot across and can have individual lines of silk running more than 10 feet from attachment point to attachment point. They’re amazing animals, and I love to see them every year3.
This year a few took up residence close enough for me to try out my new macro lens. And, since it’s almost Halloween, it’s a perfect time to post up some spider pictures. Here’s one of the spiders just hangin’ out:
An orb weaver spider (genus _Araneus_) hangs upside down from a portion of its web.
In this profile shot you can see how the spider has a small strand of silk attaching herself to the web as a safety-strap:
A large tan orb weaver spider (genus _Araneus_) hangs down from her web in this side-view (profile) of her. She's hanging from intact strands of her web, but the strands above those (that are all coiled up) are from a portion of the web that was damaged.
The attachment points of all eight legs onto the bottom of the cephalothorax is a fun feature to focus on (and probably the last view of many a doomed insect):
One of the things I love about photography is how seemingly small technical details can dramatically change the feel of an image. A few months ago, as I was taking sunset pictures at Newport Back Bay, I stayed until nearly the end of dusk, trying to capture the feel of the warmly-lit houses surrounding the cool bay. I ended up having to use exposures of more than a minute, eventually capturing the feel of the evening in this image:
Taken well after sunset, this 70 second exposure of the western bluffs as clouds roll in at Newport Back Bay (in Newport Beach, CA) has an ethereal glow to it.
While I’d always known that long shutter speeds allow you to blur motion, in that evening I discovered just how much they change the look of large bodies of water: the water changed from a choppy, dynamic fluid into a silky smooth, calm body 1.
I was hooked. I quickly added a 3-stop (8x) neutral density filter to my wishlist, and was lucky enough to get one as a present recently (thanks mom!). To experiment with using long shutter speeds and bodies of water, I headed to Little Corona Beach (Robert E Badham Marine Life Refuge) in Corona Del Mar three times over the last month.
With the sun still out, the neutral density filter stacked with my polarizer let me extend exposures to a few seconds, allowing me to capture the feel of the water crashing over the rocks, with waves diluted to mist in the air:
A long-exposure shot taken just before sunset at Little Corona beach in Corona Del Mar (Newport Beach), CA. The water almost looks like fog, and I like how you can see the water cascading over the middle rock.
And water in the somewhat protected rocky areas smoothed out to be a shimmering, reflective surface:
Water turns into a silky smooth sheen in a long-exposure shot of the rocky intertidal at Little Corona Beach in Corona Del Mar.
But the real fun came after the sun went down, and I could use exposure times of a minute or longer while capturing the ethereal, post-sunset glow:
Faces of Occupy Irvine
