Reader Photo: The jazz musician
The pinstripe suit, the watch, the gleaming trumpet. Down to every detail, Billy Coates looks the part of a seasoned street musician as he fills a downtown L.A. block with jazz music. Seemingly lost in time, this image captures the entire scene of downtown in a single frame, says photographer Michael Jaffe.
The woman running for the bus, the murals, the street musician.
“The trumpet was shining in the sunlight. It was pretty late in the day so it just caught a perfect reflection,” Jaffe says. “I just thought it was a beautiful scene.”
Jaffe recently moved to Los Angeles, where he’s continuing a street photography project he’s carried on as a hobby. He’s looking for the wildest characters possible.
He used an off-camera flash lit from the right to capture Coates’ performance on South Broadway, later burning and dodging the monochrome image for a grittier effect. He used a Canon 5d Mark iii with a 24-70mm lens to make the image.
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Each week, we’re featuring photos of Southern California submitted by readers. Share your photos on our Flickr page or tag your photos with #socalmoments on Instagram and Twitter. Follow us on Twitter or visit latimes.com/socalmoments for more on this photo series.
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