Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll

Posted on | July 21, 2009 | 9 Comments

Young Women Dancing in Drum Circle, Venice Beach, California

Young Women Dancing Together in Drum Circle, Venice Beach, California

This past Sunday was pretty crazy at the Venice Beach drum circle. Almost as soon as I got there, I was offered a pipe with some weed in there presumably. After declining, an amazing photo composition happened right there in front of me with the people lighting up. It would have been portfolio-worthy I kid you not. I had it pre-visualized and all the stars happened to align at that moment. I ultimately decided not to take the picture because I wasn’t comfortable with the subject matter but since then I have been wondering “what if?” That’s kind of been the story of my life so far but you can’t kick yourself too much and just have to move forward.

I do know that I got some pretty bad stomach cramps almost immediately after they lit up… So later on while the dancers were bumping and grinding the afternoon away, a gang fight broke out. I didn’t see what caused it but judging from who was involved it appeared to be racially-motivated. When I got over there it had pretty much been broken up but a lot of cussing and restraining was happening. As much as I wanted to take some pictures I decided it wouldn’t be a smart idea. No regrets this time!

I did get some footage of the drum circle and hope to create a multimedia video from it in the future with the photos and sound gathering I did last year. With these videos, it’s important to have a strong concept. You can have all the raw footage you want but without an idea there is no story to tell. I have a couple ideas at the moment but haven’t quite figured it out yet.

See my website for more of my Venice Beach photos.

Comments

9 Responses to “Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll”

Sherri Meyer
July 21st, 2009 @ 1:48 pm

Richard – great story! I think you made the right decision by not photographing the illegal stuff!
Richard Wong
July 21st, 2009 @ 9:59 pm

Thanks Sherri. I guess you have a bit more common sense than I do.
bernie kasper
July 22nd, 2009 @ 9:23 am

I never got stomach cramps
Just kidding Richard, but I would have loved to witness such an event, not many drum circles here in southern Indiana
Richard Wong
July 22nd, 2009 @ 10:59 am

I probably have less immunity to it than you did Bernie.
Leann Greene
July 23rd, 2009 @ 12:31 pm

You never know if a US swimmer or future leader is in a group and it may bite them in the butt later maybe unfairly so I think you made the right choice.
In your photo the male age to female age “looks” like the fellas can’t let go of their youth. Is this just coincidental in this photo or a fair representation of the crowd?
Richard Wong
July 23rd, 2009 @ 10:39 pm

Hey Leann. If anyone turns out to be famous that might turn into a pot of gold in editorial licensing fees.

The guy closest to me on the right is around my age, while the guy behind the girls appeared to be late 30 ish – 40. Overall I would say it is an equal mix of 20’s – 40’s crowd regardless of gender.
dick wang
July 26th, 2009 @ 4:24 pm

nice try with the stomach cramps….we all know it was the munchies. Great photographs!
gerry menezes
July 27th, 2009 @ 2:54 pm

Interesting dilemma: to shoot or not to shoot. In the field, the news photographer does his job and gets the image. In the office. the editor chooses which pictures to keep or which ones to put into the round file. In your case, you are both editor and photographer, you have the option of editing in the field. Perhaps, you could assume the mind set of photographer only while in the field and worry about editing later. Take the picture and no regrets. The second situation requires a cost/benefit analysis: you definitely made the right call. Especially since the most valuable images had already evaporated. Here’s to safe and sane shooting.
Richard
July 27th, 2009 @ 4:04 pm

Thanks for ideas Gerry. I think those are some great ideas and probably worth adopting. Since I was offered the drugs, the odds of getting punched in the face for shooting photos wasn’t likely. In the gang fight instance, it would have been dumb to risk further aggravating the participants.