BEST BETS: Thursday 9/9 : All day: Photography

The ocean never ceases to surprise and delight those lucky enough to experience its many tides and currents, clouds and waves, colors and moods. Photographer John Humble focuses on Santa Monica’s always-changing seascape in an exhibition of new photographs opening today at Jan Kesner Gallery. Known for his keen sense of the L.A. landscape, from its architecture to its urban sprawl, Humble chose to focus on the ocean for this series, taking each photograph from the same locale--Santa Monica’s lifeguard station No. 26. Each image, while taken from the same spot, is completely different and demonstrates the abstract beauty created when sky meets water.

* “John Humble: Lifeguard Station 26.” Jan Kesner Gallery, 164 N. La Brea Ave., West Hollywood. A reception for the artist will be held from 7 to 9 tonight. Ends Oct. 16. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Admission, free. (323) 938-6834.

8 pm: Pop Music

When Dwight Yoakam takes a break from acting, directing and making records to play a Southland concert, the country-music maverick usually plays the 6,000-seat Universal Amphitheatre. Little more than a month after his latest show there, Yoakam pops up in a much more intimate setting, the new Sun Theatre in Anaheim, which has a 1,200 capacity for this show. Country fans have another option tonight as well: Randy Travis is the featured performer at the L.A. County Fair.

* Dwight Yoakam, Sun Theatre, 2200 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim. 8 p.m. $52.50. (714) 712-2700. Randy Travis at the Grandstand, Fairplex, 1101 W. McKinley Ave., Pomona. 8 p.m. $11 to $31 plus fair admission, (909) 865-4590.

8 pm: Theater

Dominic Hoffman performs “Uncle Jacques’ Symphony,” his solo, seriocomic show about a series of characters seen through the eyes of a young African American man, with accompanying music by Billy Mitchell.

* “Uncle Jacques’ Symphony,” Stages Theatre Center, 1540 N. McCadden Place, Hollywood. Thursdays-Sundays, 8 p.m. Ends Oct. 17. $15. (323) 465-1010.

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Freebie: Storyteller Fred Rochlin performs his memoir “Old Man in a Baseball Cap,” L.A. Central Library, Mark Taper Auditorium, 630 W. 5th St., downtown L.A., 7 p.m. Reservations recommended. (213) 228-7025.