≡ Menu

Just toolin’ around

I was feeling a little house-bound the other day… and my shutter finger was badly in need of exercise. But I couldn’t decide where I wanted to go or what I wanted to shoot. I ended up a couple miles from home—just north of here, in fact—at a city park I’ve passed by many times, twice daily for some long stretches of my life, but where I’d never bothered to stop.

Holmby Park is so seemingly inconsequential that the city’s Recreation & Parks website doesn’t even post a picture of it. That’s odd, since the full city block set in the midst of what is arguably LA’s most exclusive neighborhood is a gem. Besides having a lawn bowling area, a playground, some impressive shade trees, and vast expanses of lawn, Holmby Park actually contains an 18-hole, 3-par, pitch-and-putt golf course.

The golf course is tiny. And there, amid homes whose prices are often in eight digits, it costs three bucks to play a round. (Weekends and holidays, it’s much more expensive—$4.)

My interest in the place was not at that moment chasing a white ball around the grass, but rather in challenging myself to take more and better pictures. The park didn’t disappoint in that regard, either.

I’ve recently been trying to understand some of the aesthetic underpinnnings of photography—things like composition and exposure—and to work at mastering some of the software that helps make photos more expressive.

Holmby Park offered ample opportunities to practice both.

I know I made a lot of strides around Holmby Park—I circled the place once for exercise and at least once more looking for good shots—and I think I also made some strides toward improving my craft.

It’s impossible to go the entire distance in a day, but since discovering this gem so close to home, I expect it to be a frequent laboratory.

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • Kitty September 11, 2012, 8:56 pm

    Brilliant pictures. The layers of texture are beautiful especially the green ferns against the green grass.
    You’re right there’s beauty in unexpected places … we just have to stop.