On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
?BillinGlendaleCA
It’s a good line for pictures of LA’s Chinatown, but he wasn’t referring to the Chinatown you’ll see in the photos here, he was talking about Old Chinatown that was razed to construct LA’s Union Station in the late 1930’s. What we now call Chinatown used to be known as Sonoratown and was an old Latino neighborhood as well as LA’s Little Italy.
I watch quite a few YouTube videos produced by other photographers, some on astrophotography and others on landscape photography. I mainly watch for techniques I might not know, both shooting and processing, as well as gear ideas. A few days ago I was looking for videos on processing 720nm IR portraits and ran across a Latino photographer based in Seoul Korea. He had some good tips on IR photography and even video. But one of the things that he shoots is Seoul at night.
For most photographers, shooting at night involves hauling out the tripod so that you can shoot at the camera’s base ISO and avoid noise and capture the darkest detail. He doesn’t do this, he shoots handheld at a higher ISO and the lets the darks be dark and concentrate on not blowing out the highlights. The results are a bit dark and many would consider the shots to be underexposed, but the results are pleasing.
I decided to try this approach myself and headed down to Chinatown and Little Tokyo. Chinatown didn’t have many businesses that were open (during a pandemic and on Superb Owl Sunday, who would have thunk) so most of the signs on the buildings were not lit. I’ve tried to bring out a bit of a hint of the structure of buildings that are in the darkness, but have left the details to the darkness in most cases.
From the portion of Chinatown west of Hill Street looking north.
Walking further north you see this view.
Same shot, but narrower and more focused on the buildings at the left.
Looking south towards downtown LA.
Crossing Hill Street, you enter the main portion of Chinatown Plaza. This is looking east towards Broadway.
Walking further towards Broadway and looking back towards Hill Street.
Moving a “block” south we’re again looking back towards Hill Street.
Now walking north again back to the Hill Street gate we find the Hop Louie pagoda.
J R in WV
Frist?
This si easy — all you have to do is wake up around 4 am, spend some time reading, other time petting the puppies and elderly kittens, and then lift the laptop screen, just after five…
Great stuff, Bill.
In the long ago I used to take film photos late it night during a snowstorm… B&W mostly with Tri-X that I then pushed in the developer. All that early educational work was lost a couple of moves ago, in the mid-70s.
ETA: Isn’t it great that digital cameras means you go through the learning experience without spending a ton of money on film and chemistry.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@J R in WV: Thanks, it’s a lot less messy and smelly than the old way.
p.a.
Really nice. Ethereal. Weird connection: reminded me of inside Winona Ryder’s house in Stranger Things.
Baud
The dark almost makes the scene look like a Hollywood film set.
Mary G
I love, love, love these. They are very painterly. Edward Hopper-ish. Lot of good memories, too, one of my many alternate routes home to Alhambra and South Pasadena from working south of downtown LA went through Chinatown, and one of the restaurants made a killer osso buco (yes, not Chinese food, though they had a lot of it too). I would stop to splurge on it once in a while when it was raining and driving was hell.
There go two miscreants
Yep, Edward Hopper was my first thought also. Very cool!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@p.a.: Thanks, I think the lack of people helped.
@Baud: I didn’t mention it in the text above, but they did bring in set designers when they built the New Chinatown in the late 1930’s.
@Mary G: When I worked in downtown had lived in the Crescenta Valley, I’d take the route though Chinatown and up San Fernando up to the 2.
@There go two miscreants: Thanks.
Laura Too
Wow, these are all really cool! Thanks for sharing your talent.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Laura Too: Thanks, I want to shoot it again when there are more signs lit. New Chinatown has two gates, one on Broadway and the other on Hill that have neon lighting, I’d like to shoot them, but I’ve not seen them lit up in recent years.
Amir Khalid
Seeing those festive lanterns hanging over deserted streets that should have throngs of people makes me kind of sad.
JPL
I’m hungry.
Great pictures!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid: In fairness it was the night of the Superb Owl, so there weren’t many folk out. I’ve shot there before in the normal times and there weren’t that many more folk out.
@JPL: Heh, didn’t see to many places that were open. Thanks.
randy khan
Those are great. So evocative.
rikyrah
Pictures are gorgeous ?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@randy khan: Thanks, it’s good to be not afraid of the dark.
@rikyrah: Thanks.
SkyBluePink
Magnificent!
arrieve
I love these. I’ve done some handheld night pictures in my neighborhood in Manhattan, but they were disappointing. I’ll try again when things open up a little more.
Benw
Awesome! The colors in the first and last images are so crisp – almost unreal.
opiejeanne
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Very cool effect, and eerie with nothing open, no lights on.
Hop Louie’s used to be called the Golden Pagoda, and it’s where we ate when I was a kid and we visited Chinatown. The food was very good. Then we’d walk around the antique shops and throw some pennies into the pond with all the Buddhas, for luck.
I still have a little lacquered doll dresser that I bought there when I was about 8. It has a little scene painted on the front of the drawers.
Desargues
I love them! I used to check out the little antique stores on those streets a lot, some ten years ago. There used to be a great one, started in the Fifties by a true expert. Just across the street from what is now Alex Cheung. But, he got really old and handed it over to his son, who didn’t have the passion for it. So, it closed down around 2013 or so. The store had a million things in it, an afternoon would pass before I knew it. I got some wonderful antiques in there. Then, around the corner from Happy Lion a couple of artsy kids had set up a little gallery, and they sold Pigeon Toe ceramics. What a great place it was. Sadly, they didn’t last into this decade either. Forget it, Jake.
JustRuss
Very cool pics, thanks.
laura
Very beautiful – these lovely lanterns remind me of jellyfish. BillinGlendale your hobby what with all the time and effort are just a delight always.
BigJimSlade
WHAT DID YOU DO WITH ALL THE PEOPLE??!!!
Lol, yes, I read the intro. Lovely shots ?BillinGlendaleCA!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@SkyBluePink: Thanks.
@arrieve: Give it a try, the key is to underexpose just a tad. It’s probably better if you’re working with a camera with a larger sensor as is the case with any low light situations.
@Benw: I added a bit a saturation.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@opiejeanne: Glad you like the effect, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of foot traffic there after dark.
@Desargues: Thanks. I’d never been to the area on that side of Hill Street before.
@JustRuss: Gland you like’m.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@laura: Thanks, there wouldn’t be much light at all without the lanterns.
@BigJimSlade: The Superb Owl swooped down and took the people away and ATE THEM! Thanks.