Last night we were downtown at the Music Center, which is all gussied up for the holidays.

One of the things that the views and lights brought to mind, which is not an entirely new concept, is that I’ve never gone around downtown as a tourist or photographer and just been there to take pictures.

Sure, I’m down at the Music Center eight or ten times a year and I always take a few pictures. I’ve run past a lot of the primary landmarks (City Hall, the LA Catherdral, the Music Center, Hollywood, Century City, etc) because they’re on the LA Marathon course – but I haven’t taken pictures because I’m pretty focused on breathing and not dying.

But when I visit a new city, I love to simply wander around, look at the sights, and take a metric shit-ton of pictures. Look back through the nearly ten years of posts here and you’ll see a dozen or more examples. New York, San Francisco, Kansas City, London, Prague, Chicago, Brussels, Shanghai, Washington, Seoul, Kyoto, Seattle, Mazatlan, Cabo San Lucas, Denver, Puerto Vallarta, Winnipeg, Montreal, Toronto… I’m sure I’ve forgotten some.

But Los Angeles? Sure, I’ve got a gazillion photos as I wander here and there. But a day or two just wandering around downtown, getting on the Metro, taking pictures of all of the tourist traps that I would see in the first day or two if I was just visiting for a week? I may have a picture, I may not.

Sounds like something to do for a day once I get out of Deadline Hell.