I skated down there starting in 1985, and still go down there to shoot into the 2020s so the change has been interesting to watch. Yes it has fully transformed in my lifetime. Has the gentrification in HB made it harder for you to find the types of subjects that appeal photographically? It’s harder to park there too, so the beaches are typically not as packed, and the water is much nicer. They actually have taken steps to keep their charm and restrict some of the rampant gentrification. Laguna Beach is way nicer, that's where we go when we want to enjoy the beach. I've never actually been to HB but I've been to Laguna Beach if it's anything like that? I've shot photos of the drum circle, but never joined in! There's a drum circle on Sundays and it's a total freakshow. The easy access to parking and food bring crowds on summer weekends, and therefore the religious zealots come to preach to those crowds. People come here to be seen, to parade and peacock around.
The photos of mine you see from HB are mostly shot in that downtown area, Main street and the beach and pier. There's also a lot of flat-billed baseball cap wearing dudes with sketchy vaguely racist tattoos, and suddenly everyone is a trained MMA fighter or trying to look like one. There's still a mild locals only vibe, but it's mostly young wealthy suburbanites. Huntington Beach’s downtown was a summer beach destination for wealthy Angelinos in the 1920s and '30s and now a lot of those old single story beach cottages are being torn down and massive 3 story homes are being wedged into the skinny lots. It's all micro breweries, bars, restaurants. But since then it has become fully "Starbucks and Jamba Juiced" out. I had friends that wore rubber mouthpieces around their necks because they would fight the local skinheads so often. A very surf / local boy culture, lots of fistfights. (Although Hillary just barely won in the 2016 election, so gaining in Democrat voters) The main street used to be gritty and cool in the 80s. An endless sprawl of tract housing, mostly conservative people, lots of Trumptards. Oh yeah, HB is a fully functioning suburb, born of white flight in the 50s and 60s. So where you live is more of a typical suburb with lawns and sidewalks and shit? How far is it from there to say, the pier where many of your photos were taken? But that might've been just the side of Huntington Beach I was seeing in your pictures. You say you live in a suburban tract, which runs contrary to my mental image of Huntington Beach. Having said that, I should bring my camera out every time no matter what. I usually keep a flash in my bag just in case, but my tract is so commonplace. Yeah! I like shooting at night in cities, or when I'm out and about. Wow, maybe the pandemic will turn you on to a new direction. But yes, there's no excuse to not be ready for a photo at all times. Some Trump propaganda has appeared on people’s lawns, and I thought maybe I should shoot those, even though it makes my blood boil. It never rains here, so it stays there for weeks. Some kids have done sidewalk chalk I’ve been meaning to shoot. I did shoot some cats, and a rat and took a photo of Deanna the other night. Normally it's a routine thing, but since we are in our own tract, the last thing I want to do is freak out my neighbors with a flash photo at night of their house! They can find out where I live. Yeah, I normally never go out without a camera! But on these night walks we literally see nobody, and there's been scant times I wanted to shoot a night photo of someone's house. Is that a big shift for you, to go out without a camera? I'm one of those people, I just take my camera everywhere as a routine thing. I'm starting to get itchy to shoot, so I have gone out a few times just to drive or walk in the daytime recently. We take a night walk in our suburban tract every night, but I have barely brought my camera out on them. Fortunately, I do a lot of things, so I just shifted to painting, and working on upcoming books. So those daytime walks and the travel have been stopped. We used to go for a photo walk almost every day, and we normally travel quite often for things, and shoot photos on those trips. The pandemic has definitely kneecapped my shooting so far. How has the pandemic affected your shooting? Are you still going out most days? Or stuck mostly at home?
But after 7 months in I'm starting to go stir-crazy. I'm personally doing fine, feeling very lucky to have been able to work seamlessly from home through all of this. Yeah, tough to worry about the pandemic when your countryside is on fire spewing toxic smoke. Maybe one good thing about the wildfires is that it has kind of pushed that to the back burner, at least for a little while.