Commuter life

Joe Toreno has a distinctive style of making pictures. You can see it in his work as a professional photographer. It’s colorful, it’s clean and it pops.

This found moment isn’t much different. Toreno, from Chino Hills, was with his son, Donovan, on the Metrolink to visit his wife, Brooke, at work in Echo Park when he noticed a fellow commuter dozing off, most likely headed home from work around 6 p.m. Toreno waited for the right moment to frame his composition and created this nicely layered image.

Toreno first set his interest toward photography at age 16, when his mother married photojournalist Flip Schulke. “Flip took me under his wing and taught me everything. He even helped me get into the Rochester Institute of Technology, where I got my photography degree,” said Toreno.

Toreno’s work can be seen in magazines like Wired, People and ESPN as well as the clothing brand RVCA.

He made this picture of life happening around him using his “walk around” camera, the Canon EOS 5D with a EF 50mm f/1.4 USM. Make note that street photography can be an exercise in being stealth; the click of the camera briefly woke up his subject.

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