Monday, January 18, 2010

Long Beach Skate Park Opening

I was asked yesterday by "We Love Long Beach" to photograph the opening of the Michael K. Green Skate Park. It was a wonderful event! It was great to see all of the kids come together for a great cause in the community.

We Love Long Beach (WLLB) is a non-profit (501c3) community organization founded by Scott and Robin Jones in 2008. As fourth generation residents of the City of Long Beach, the sibling pair started the organization after extending a breakfast invitation to fifty of their neighbors. It was a free breakfast in the park with no other agenda than for neighbors to have the chance to get to know one another.

I've been taking a lot of Long Beach pictures and Scott and Robin reached out to me to photograph their participation in this event. I am so glad they did! I will continue this partnership with them so they can share images with each community in Long Beach with the goal of bringing all communities of the city together.

For the most part, I usually wander around and take pictures of things I find interesting. Like fences, birds, trees, open fields, the road, bird feet, etc. The shots I've taken of people are usually candid and they don't know I am taking their picture. I just capture a moment in time without them knowing.

This is the first time I set out to take action shots of kids and some posing for the camera. The energy at the event was so positive so it was easy for me to snap away, observing the kids anxiously awaiting the opening of the park. I hope I captured that with these photographs.

Thanks to "We Love Long Beach" for including me in the opening. I look forward to more events soon. Here are some pictures from the day. For more, click HERE