Saturday morning after leaving the gym I passed the Canoga Park camera supply store on my way to the bank. For a long time now I’ve secretly wanted a Gorillapod, and whined to myself in every situation where I wish I had one (which is basically any night-time photo taking opportunity). So, I dipped into the store and picked one up. I didn’t really have plans for the night (although I would later turn down invitations to go to a comedy club and a showing of Rear Window at the Hollywood Cemetary) so I made up my mind to make Saturday the night that I take the subway to downtown Los Angeles with my camera and shoot as many night shots as possible.

I ended up starting on the purple line – which for some reason features human figures hanging from the ceiling. I heard they used to have skateboards until the Metro decided that was the wrong message to send (boards aren’t allowed in the terminals).

I got off at Civic Center to an empty terminal, which let me take this cool shot of the exit.

Before the sun set I saw a BMW tester car with body cladding on Wilshire Boulevard. The 2010 5 series?

I headed up to Disney Hall and then walked west until I stumbled upon another KCRW “grand” concert series. Saturday’s action was the daKAH Hip Hop Orchestra.

I walked all the way around California plaza while an orchestra played Gin & Juice and other early 90s rap “favorites.”

I ambled towards Bunker Hill.

Then I walked northwest up to my old office on the corner of Beaudry and Wilshire to take some overhead shots of the 110 freeway.

It was then that I realized I’d forgotten to take shots of the Westin Bonaventure, so I doubled back along Figueroa. I went into the Bonaventure and went up to the lounge at the top, but pursued window shots on guest floors because the lounge was packed (it was about 10:30 by then) and getting decent shots (not to mention not looking weird) would have been tough. I quickly discovered that due to the design of the towers there really weren’t any good shots on the guest floors without being in an actual room. I abandoned the Bonaventure and headed west again towards staples center.

Walking along Flower past the library I noticed that the courtyard had been rented out for what must have been a quinceanera (where else do you see a hundred 15 year old hispanic girls in dresses dancing to Selena?). Who knew you could rent out the library courtyard?

I found the perfect parking garage on Flower to shoot the 777 Tower. However, when I walked in I was quickly stopped by a valet driver and told I couldn’t enter the garage. He referred me to his “boss” who was sitting down the block. When I talked to the “boss” he said he was just another valet driver and that the whole garage was valet and I wouldn’t be allowed inside. This was quite disappointing.

By now it was past midnight so I decided my adventure was over and started my long subway ride back to the valley.

At the Wilshire and Western stop I decided to get off (I had a day pass) and see if the Wiltern looked good. It was too late and the lights were turned off. However, I did get some shots of a curious fellow dancing about in the shadows of the Wiltern (while waiting for the bus?).