Encumbered @ Echo Park Lake

I finally finally walked all around Echo Park Lake today! I live on the lake and was heartbroken when I broke my foot a week before the lake reopened in June. All summer, I’ve watched from my window everyone paddle along the new cleaned-up lake…feeling like a kid sequestered in summer school while friends frolic away their summer vacations.

Last month, I did knee-scoot over to the new cafe but the effort was so exhausting, I knee-scooted my way back home shortly after. But walking around the lake on my own two feet was so exciting, even if I’m still using crutches. This explains why many of my Echo Park Lake photos from this morning focus on all the ways the lake and park remain encumbered…because I remain encumbered. 🙂

Still, missing Echo Park Lake’s opening day (and missing many other notable summer events in Los Angeles) forced me to reflect why I placed so much value on attending LA openings. Journalists are familiar with the pressure to document a story first in order to scoop competing journalists. As the number of citizen journalists increases through the access created by social media, the trend for immediacy only multiplies and intensifies. Now even regular people feel the need to get the scoop. Even me.

With my sequestration came lots of time to think. LOTS of time to think. And I’ve thunk. A lot.  As I made my way very slowly around the lake this morning, thinking, I realized that how I document my pocket of Los Angeles is not about being the first lens on the scene. It’s about choosing the right filter — that filter that is unique to me.

And right now, my filter is named -> Encumbered : )