Let's Catch The Bus

January 23, 2012

Let's Catch The Bus

Blog by: Russo Mutuc

I'm in a new photo-essay project. I got off the train, per say, and now about to catch the bus.

I was inspired to keep documenting public transportation when I first originally shot my train series, 'Dramatizing Union Station'. It had a good reaction from my social friends, who really appreciated the work behind it. So I move forward with the theme of public transportation.

It took me a while to finally get out on the streets and start photoshooting buses. My first initial thought, a few weeks back was, wow, buses can be really boring to look at. With the weeks I was thinking about the project, I start looking at my strengths. Little by little I would see possible compositions for the bus, with the help from our good old friend, the sun.

Last week, I set fort to hunt for photos of the bus, and having the environment support the images. Buses that I envision would be in metropolitan streets. Downtown L.A. was perfect for me to capture the story of the buses, mixed in with the historic feel of the architecture. On this day, I started around 6 a.m. Its such a different feeling when you're in the city, and life around DTLA starts to move forward for the work day. I scouted my locations for several blocks, until, I ended up around 5th Street and Main. The light was just creeping from the East, as it starts to blanket the side walk trees, and the buildings. The nice warm and soft light made it ideal for me to camp out on the curve and wait for subjects connect with the light.

Sitting down in the curve, I had few trial and errors, shooting hand-held and trying various effects to create a mood. Then when the right settings was found, the composition, light, and subject was coming into the frame.