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 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:
But, in looking at the traffic coming to my blog, a lot of folks are searching for information on camping at Crystal Cove State Park. So, as a final Crystal Cove wrap-up post I’ll share some pictures of the trail and our campsite.
My REI Quarterdome T2 tent set up with rainfly at Crystal Cove State Park's Lower Moro campground.
While I loved my short trip to Crystal Cove’s inland campground, there are a couple of things you need to keep in mind:
There is no water available in the park except at the parking lot. So, you’ll need to carry in enough water to last for your entire trip.
The campgrounds are a couple of miles away from the parking lot, and there’s a few hundred feet elevation gain, so you’ll need to be backpacking and give yourself enough time to get there before sunset.
The park is centrally located in Orange County, and may get crowded during peak periods. While we were the only people at the entire campground when we went, friends have reported finding the Lower Moro campground entirely full, and having to hike on to the campgrounds further inland. You’ll also be sharing the trail with day hikers and mountain bikers, so don’t expect a lonely wilderness hike.
You’ll start out your trip at the new Crystal Cove State Park day use area, which comes complete with lots of parking, bathrooms, water fountains, a path to the ocean, and numerous picnic tables.
The new day use area at Crystal Cove State Park.
The trail leaves from the end of the parking lot, and after climbing all the way to the top of the coastal hills, you can look back on Crystal Cove State Park:
I fell asleep and awoke to fog while camping in Crystal Cove State Park a few weeks ago. The flowers became beautifully covered in dew, so I spent most of my free time photographing them.
But what struck me as I was doing my closeup work was how much the fog changed the feel of the park. When the fog rolled in a few hours before sunset, the landscape changed from a dusty, hot California hillside covered in dry grass to something moodier, almost creepy.
A trail winds off in the distance behind scraggly foliage into a fog shrouded unknown at Crystal Cove State Park.
As the wisps of fog blew by, trails that used to be perfectly visible became shrouded in mist. The plants transformed from water-starved sticks to haunting menaces, stalking trails that led into nothing by grayness.
Mist on a foggy morning shrouds the trail as it passes through bushes in Crystal Cove State Park.
And the spiderwebs seemed perfect for Halloween, the little droplets of water sometimes looking like a thousand little eyes peering out at you.
The droplets of water on this spiderweb are especially creepy to me, as they almost look like they have eyes in them.A spider web covered in varying sizes of dew droplets.A spider web covered in dew on a foggy morning at Crystal Cove.
Photographers: How do you work in fog to capture the feel of it, without just ending up with pictures that look under-contrasty and bland?
Hopefully these images will please Greg, as he’s ribbed me about my lack of grayscale work.
Crystal Cove State Park: Located along Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1) between Corona Del Mar and Laguna Beach in Orange County, California. I camped at the Lower Moro Campsite, which is about a 2 mile hike in from the parking lot. Parking is plentiful at a new parking lot and picnic area past the Moro Campground (for RV’s), but you must pay either a day use fee for the state park or an overnight fee. The park is currently open from 6am – sunset; their website has lots of good information on it.
I’ve already posted a few pictures from my recent backpacking trip to Crystal Cove State Park (flowers, self-portrait, rattlesnake mating). But as I was photographing dew-covered flowers on the foggy morning, I couldn’t help but notice the spiders in their spiderwebs.
An orb weaving spider in a dew covered web standing so that it appears to have only four legs. My best guess is that this is in genus _Argiope_.
I had to get up closer, of course:
Up close and personal, this spider (probably in _Argiope_) is just gorgeous on a foggy morning.
And, you know me, I’m not satisfied unless the subject is spilling out of the frame, but I’ll spare you from a third picture of the same spider in the same post.
Since I know spiders are everyone’s favorite critter, here’s another one I saw that morning:
A brown and tan orb weaver spider stands on its dew covered web in front of an orange background.
But I saw more than just spiders that morning. After the fog burned off, the day warmed up and a ton of insects came out to go about their business. Chief among them were dozens of bees buzzing around this plant:
A honeybee (_Apis mellifera_) forager samples the wares at an all-you-can-eat buffet of white and purple/yellow spike-inflorescence flowers in Crystal Cove State Park.
While most of the spider and flower shots I’ve already posted used my new macro lens on a tripod, the rest of theses shots tested out how the lens performed hand-held with fast-moving subjects. It worked very well, auto-focusing quickly and allowing me to get decent depth of field with shutter speeds fast enough to freeze motion:
A honeybee (_Apis mellifera_) forager sticks her antennae and forelegs into a small purple and white flower at Crystal Cove State Park. The bee's pollen basket (corbicula) on her hind legs is stuffed full with tan pollen.
Of course there were more than just bees and spiders out. My hiking partners spotted this cabbage butterfly flitting around on the trail, and the macro exceeded my expectations by allowing me to capture this image in the few seconds I had before the butterfly flitted away 1:
Faces of Occupy Irvine
