Visiting the Los Angeles Flower District was quite an experience. Especially early in the morning, the place has a remarkable vibe and atmosphere to it. One moment you’re overwhelmed with thousands of colors, smells, and forms around you and saddened the next with the sight of homeless looking for food in the trash bins. The beauty of the flowers contrasts with the inhabitants of the neighboring streets.
Shops and flower vendors are usually done with their wholesale before the sunrise and they are open to the general public starting at 6 am. You have to be there early enough to get the freshest flowers since most shops and vendors close around 11am. We met with our instructor Julia Dean at 6:30 in the morning and she separated us into groups of two send us down San Julian and San Pedro streets between 7th and 8th.
For this workshop, I was very thrilled to use my brand new Nikon D7100. I have to say using the Nikon D7100 with a 24.1 megapixel APS-C DX sized sensor enabling high speed shooting at 6fpsis like driving a Porsche if you are used to getting around in a Nissan (my previous camera was Nikon D3100). You touch the shutter button and the camera flies. Even though the Nikon D7100 is bigger and heavier than the Nikon D3100, it feels very compact and comfortable to hold and carry around. Since you have to be very fast and on the spot to capture those “the decisive moments” for street shooting, it was very easy to shoot and use Nikon D7100 with the 35mm lens on.
This was my first photo walk after having the camera for two days; therefore, I did not have the chance to learn all the dials and buttons. However, using the camera in its simplest form and mostly in the aperture mode, I was very happy with the images I took. First, I could not believe the clear and sharp images I was seeing on the 3.2-inch back-screen. Second, the colors were spectacular. Nikon D7100 has a lot more to offer which I am excited to discover along the way. More to come…