Portrait | Jon T. Howard

I was hired by a record company to shoot the album cover for Jon T. Howard in Los Angeles and we started the day off with some portraits in a friend’s house in Reseda. Never one for the studio or set up shots even though that’s where you earn bigger money, the shots with the strobes and my assistant were flat and dead and lifeless.

It was only at the end of the day when we moved to the street and I shot on the street with natural light that things began to groove. Being on my feet, moving fast with little gear is my comfort zone. It was a good time and shooting that luscious Fuji NPZ 800 pulled a stop and a half is always a joy.

That alley is the last great urban alley in downtown Los Angeles and it has been featured in hundreds of shows and films. I’ve shot there numerous times but this day, there was literally shit on the brick walls. Who takes time to smear their shit on a wall? The stench was powerful. Jon T. was a trooper for taking it as my assistant refused to even step off the sidewalk to enter the alley.