Your LA to Z
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Our first featured photo, titled Last Tag on Pico, was sent in by Sylvia Sukop, who took the shot for Boulevard Without Borders, a photo project focused on Pico Boulevard. "I like how the gritty urban reality of a street like Pico Blvd.—covered with graffiti and chain link fencing—meets the wide-open ocean and clear blue sky," she wrote in. "Only in LA."
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Our second featured photo, taken on a hill in Elysian Park overlooking downtown, was sent in by Cynthia Ayala, who married Pablo Artica in an "urban L.A.-inspired" wedding on November 15, 2008. "The orange glow is from the fires that happened in the Simi Valley, Palos Verdes, and Big Bear areas," she explains. "L.A. was surrounded by fire that day."
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Our third featured photo, taken recently in the Portuguese Bend Nature Preserve in Palos Verdes, was sent in by Glenn Callo. "A couple days after celebrating New Year's amongst the concrete and steel that shape this city, I was inspired and reminded that Los Angeles has more than just brick and mortar to offer," he wrote in. "I hopped in my Jeep and fifteen minutes later I found myself in one of L.A.'s hidden gems hiking amidst views of the Pacific Ocean, Catalina, and one of the most beautiful coastlines in Southern California. I love L.A.!"
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The reader who sent in our fourth featured photo, taken at the Belmont Shore in Long Beach, had simply this to add: "Unpredictable, anything can happen on the beach."
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Our fifth featured photo was sent in by Robin Meyers Freed of Agoura Hills and taken at her Sweet 16 at The Luau in Beverly Hills in 1968 (she's in the middle and with her sister and mother). The celebrity hangout closed ten years later.
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Eric Newnam took this photograph before a concert in Glendale last March. "This image was interesting to me, " he wrote in. "I managed to catch a moment in the dressing room where each person was contemplating something, just before they were to appear on stage. "
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Our seventh featured photo was sent in by Nick Madison, who captured the shot in Venice Beach when he was 18 years old. It's "of a seemingly impromptu skate contest I happened to stumble upon right on the boardwalk, " he explained. "A crowd of people, mostly younger kids, was watching these skaters try and do their best moves off a 3-foot high ramp. " What you can't see in the picture: "The crowd was so close to the action that the skaters almost always crashed into the audience after their trick, but no one seemed to care...everyone wanted to be as close as possible."
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Patricia Perez took and sent in our eighth featured photo, a shot of her husband at Clifton's Cafeteria on Broadway. "We visited earlier this year to say good-bye to the old girl and go down memory lane, " she wrote in. In fact, despite the multi-story building that houses the landmark being for sale, Clifton's Cafeteria will continue to operate, as it has for almost 80 years, in the downtown location.
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Our ninth featured photo was sent in by Regina Won, who titled the shot simply "PCH Holidays 2009." And yes, the bulldog is wearing sunglasses.
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Alison Jarvis shot and sent in our tenth featured photo, which she took in her backyard in Silver Lake. "One of my favorite aspects of L.A. is the light and the fairytale effect it often creates, especially in the hills," she wrote in. It has a "magical feel."
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Our eleventh photo was taken by Annette Conlon, who took the picture, which is on her computer's desktop, on New Years Day in Santa Monica Beach. "It was the best New Years Day I've ever had, " she wrote in. "Simply a breakthtaking way to begin a new year and decade. "
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Send us your LA to Z
Send us a picture (along with the who, what, where, when, and why) of something you've done to show your enthusiasm for the city. It could be your L.A.-inspired topiary, Theme Building wedding cake, or collection of local artifacts. For that matter, if you have an old family photo from the last 50 years that captures the city in flux—you on the pony ride where the Beverly Center now stands, for instance, or eating at the Brown Derby on Wilshire. Los Angeles will post reader photos here and print our favorites in an upcoming issue. The person who sends the winning shot will even get a copy of Los Angeles: Portrait of a City, the new tome from Taschen.
