Continuting with my Santa Ana project, I have a few more pictures to show you. All of these were shot with a Canon 5D mk1 with a 24mm lens mounted to a tripod. Just thought I'd get that out of the way.

One Broadway Plaza. The goal is to build the tallest building in Orange County, the drawing of it is nice and all, but when you climb the fence to see what is on the other side, it is just an empty lot. A lot of dirt, a tractor, and a temporary building set up as what I am guessing, an office. The plan is for it to be almost 40 floors of office space, and if I am not mistaken, apartments too. It is too bad its been a vacant lot since about 2005.

This is a great example of what Cartier-Bresson would dub "the Decisive Moment", or in my case, the accidental decisive moment. The woman peering through the windows open hours sign as I snapped the picture made it that much better for me. The size is a little too small to read, but the sign that hangs in the window reads "please use other door" and points to the left. Two "open" signs a faded American flag and a ratty welcome mat round it out. The woman came out and talked to me a moment later. She invited me to come back and take more pictures once she had cleaned up a bit.

This is the Lacy Neighborhood. Just a few blocks East of the civic center. When I was there, it seemed like at least half of the houses within the neighborhood were boarded up and abandoned. The houses are all small, one and two bedroom things. Probably dating to the 30s and 40s for many of them. I asked around as to why so many buildings were boarded up and I received a variety of answers. It was the city buying them out, they lost their jobs and the banks bought them, but many simply couldn't answer as to why this was happening in their neighborhood. As it turns out, the city is buying them. The city is attempting to re-make the neighborhood into what is being called the Station District. Gentrification marches on. Or at least it tries to. I love the little girl in this photo. Children in general do not display the same fears and paranoia that adults display. She is more curious about it, and looks directly into my lens, her head held high as she is lead past by her father, who displays completely opposite body language. He is simply walking past and ignores me, his head hangs low as he watches the street.