I'm a history geek, but not in the typical way. I used to fall asleep in history class when I was in high school.
When I'm in a new place that I like, I need to know everything about it. I immediately go to google to learn more about wherever it is that I am. I often times will buy books about places that I'm drawn to. I'm obsessed with maps. I collect.
I had seen the book "Secret Stairs: A Walking Guide to the Historic Staircases of Los Angeles," by Charles Fleming being displayed for years. I always thought "hmm, I'd love to check these out, but when? The book will probably just end up sitting there and collecting dust."
You see, from the time I moved to LA in 2008 until quite recently, I had worked in television. If you know anything about this, you'll know that it leaves next to zero time for the normal things in life. In the most recent year, I had lost time to exercise, read and do various other things necessary to keep me sane. I also started hating LA. The only part of LA that I was seeing was the long, traffic filled commute to and from the office every day. On weekends, I fled as much as possible so that I could go do something I loved: adventure and photography.
When I finally followed my heart a few months back and decided it was time to do what I loved and what was healthy for me - (full time photography) I found myself coming across this book in another LA bookstore. I bought it. I thought it would be a good way for me to exercise and to start appreciating LA again. I did a few of the routes and decided from then on, I was going to bring my camera with me every time. Charles Fleming writes of 42 secret staircase routes in his book. To keep things exciting for myself, I every time I choose a new route, I choose by using a random number selector. (Like I said earlier, geek.)
Each new route will be posted here with photos. So far, I've done 15/42 routes and I'm still inspired.