Los Angeles County

• Lao Tzu.

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Just a break from all the canyon shots, I present to you the Santa Monica pier from Santa Monica, CA. Since we returned from NY after new year’s we both have been quite busy and decided to take a trip to coast which is about 10 miles from where we live and visit all the piers on the pacific ocean. We decided to visit the Santa Monica pier first and got some pretty decent shots. I would have loved some clouds and may be a little less haze but I am happy with the results.

This was my best shot of the evening, hope you all like it. Thanks for visiting and have a happy Monday.

• Henry Morton Stanley.

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When I was about to move to Los Angeles 6 years ago, like anyone else undertaking a cross country move to a city you have only visited once as a child, I googled Los Angeles. The Wikipedia entry for the city had an absolutely stunning image of the Los Angeles skyline with the snowcapped mountains in the background. It took me a year to finally figure out the location from where you can take the photo.

The first time I visited this location, I was introduced to the bane of photography in Socal, the everpresent smog. I couldn’t even see the mountain and the smog also robbed the skyline image of their sharpness. I later learned that rain would take care of the smog for a short period of time and just after a rainstorm is when you take that beautiful image of LA. Now that sounded straightforward to me until we realized that it didn’t rain for the first two years, we were in LA. Another aspect was the traffic, this park is in the busy Culver City area which seems to be always under construction.

Eventually, this image went away from my mind until last week when I was coming home and suddenly remembered about this spot. Traffic was still nasty, but I was on my motorcycle so decided to quickly see if rainy winter of 2019 has any effect on the view. The recent rains we are having meant the mountains were finally visible and they had a decent bit of snow on them, there was very little smog and I was excited to get the image finally. So I returned in the evening for my sunset shot of the beautiful skyline of Los Angeles.

Unfortunately, by the end of the day, the cloud cover became thick and robbed the sky of any color during sunset and a bit of sharpness during the blue hour. I am now thinking of returning on a morning after a rain to see if I’d have any better luck.

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Urban Light is a 2008 large-scale assemblage sculpture by Chris Burden that stands in front of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The installation consists of 202 restored street lamps from the 1920s and 1930s. Most of them once lit the streets of Southern California. The cast iron street lamps are of 17 styles, which vary depending on the municipality that commissioned them. They range from about 20 to 30 feet (6 to 9 meters), are painted a uniform grey and placed, forest-like, in a near grid. The lights are solar powered and switched on at dusk. Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Susan Freudenheim described the restored lamps as displaying "elaborate floral and geometric patterns" at the base, with "fluted shafts and glass globes that cap them...meticulously cleaned, painted and refurbished to create an exuberant glow. (From Wikipedia)

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• Lucy Larcom.

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Alright one more shot from the spectacular Griffith park sunset. This happened just after the sun went behind the mountains and then started to pain the clouds and the haze in different hues of pink orange and yellow. I was stunning to watch this display which lasted about 15 minutes and paint the sky in one spectacular color after another. Thanks for visits and the great comments and faves..

• Charles Horton Cooley.

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The first time I visited Los Angeles, I had the Griffith Park observatory on my list as someone mentioned online it as the best place to watch the Hollywood sign. Unfortunately we chose to be at the park on a Sunday evening and we couldn’t even get close to the park and we ended up missing the Hollywood sign. Two months later I got a job in and moved here with my better half doing the same and we still never been back to the Griffith park observatory which is roughly about 5 miles away from where I live now. Anyways this past Saturday we decided to go to the park and may be spend the whole evening there just enjoying the day and hopefully getting some good shots.

As always the Saturday came along and we headed to the park after brunch and guess what, it was the haziest day in the past two weeks. In fact when we reach there, nothing in the LA basin is visible except the top of some of its tallest buildings. We decided not to spend worrying about photos and just enjoy the observatory, so we went for s short documentary shot at the planetarium and came back 15 minutes before sunset.

The sight we saw when we came back out was truly extra ordinary. The haze has retreated almost completely and the setting sun was painting the clouds in multiple hues of pink, orange and yellow. I had taken a lot of sunset shots and I really was looking for something different and decided to use my 70-300mm Tamron instead of the wide angle I usually go for in these types of situations. What you see here is a carefully stitched panorama of 40 shots which allowed me to capture the LA Basin from downtown to Santa Monica and the stunning sky which resulted in a standing ovation from all the people that were gathered there to watch.

Hope you all like this one, thanks for visiting and have a nice week…

• Alfred Sisley.

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I love shooting cityscapes. A large part of my professional career, I lived in some of the world's largest metropolises, including Los Angeles, NYC, Boston, etc. Each of these cities has some of the best skylines globally, but all have some challenges. I lived in Los Angeles for seven years, and even before I moved to the city, I had plans for photographing some of the city's unique landscapes. One thing I hadn't anticipated was the weather. When I first moved to Los Angeles, I thought it had perfect weather all year, sunny warm weather almost throughout the year except for July and August when it can get scorching.

But soon, I realized that its excellent weather conditions also make it a challenging destination to photograph. You can pretty much rule out the possibility of including the sky in the image as it's often cloudless and flat except for May gloom and June grey when it's just flat overcast. The only time we get an exciting sky is in the winter months after a rain storm, and we all know how common they are. After a couple of years living in the city, I learned to appreciate the weather conditions. I made it a point to carry my camera gear with me on my way to work if there is a chance for rain or cloudy conditions. The morning clouds will often disappear by noon, but they pose some attractive photography options once in a while. Today's post is the result of one such day. The clouds in the sky lingered well past the afternoon, so on my way from work, I headed to a nearby outlook point on Mt Hollywood Dr. I was praying for my luck to hold, and it did, as sunset rolled in, the sky turned cotton candy pink. I was able to construct a stitched panorama of the beautiful scene in front of me. I hope you like it as well.

This is my favourite place for overview of LA's skyline. View from Elysian Park.

Urban Light is a 2008 large-scale assemblage sculpture by Chris Burden that stands in front of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The installation consists of 202 restored street lamps from the 1920s and 1930s. Most of them once lit the streets of Southern California. The cast iron street lamps are of 17 styles, which vary depending on the municipality that commissioned them. They range from about 20 to 30 feet (6 to 9 meters), are painted a uniform grey and placed, forest-like, in a near grid. The lights are solar powered and switched on at dusk. Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Susan Freudenheim described the restored lamps as displaying "elaborate floral and geometric patterns" at the base, with "fluted shafts and glass globes that cap them...meticulously cleaned, painted and refurbished to create an exuberant glow. (From Wikipedia)

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• Benjamin Disraeli.

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Finally, this was the shot for which I went hiking in Griffith park. The original location would have provided a view from a higher elevation but this location had a close enough view for me and I also liked the fact that the view provided the observatory in a similar line with the Los Angeles skyline.

Due to the smog mostly prevalent in LA it's difficult to find days when you get an on obstructed view of the city skyline and get a decent picture. Hopefully next rain storm will hit the area soon enough for me to visit my original location. Thanks again for visiting..

• Dalai Lama.

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Another shot from my hike up to the Hollywood sign. While waiting for the sun to go down completely I noticed the Griffith park observatory on one of the many mountain ridges visible from the our spot and took this shot. I would have preferred a little bit more reach than my 70-200mm but I am satisfied with shot showing LA's urban sprawl and downtown. Hope ya'll like it.

• Abraham Lincoln.

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One word that describe my mother perfectly would be relentless. As a child I was pretty hyper active and she was the person I remember always after me and my sister keeping us in the straight and narrow. My dad had a demanding career and used to travel a lot so she was our primary parent and I guess the quote is more than apt in my life except may be the angel part as far as I know she was a total badass.

Hope you all enjoy my image from Cabrillo beach Los Angeles, CA…

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• Stendhal.

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I have been living in LA for more than two and a half years now and that too very close one of the best outlook points of this amazing city. But since I moved here, I have come to realize how hard is it to photograph Los Angeles. Most of the time you hardly get interesting skies and the thick smog cover make it harder to get a clear shot, compare that with the lack of rainfall and you have some horrific conditions for cityscape photography.

But with all that in mind my best cityscapes have always been of Los Angeles, be it downtown or the view from the stunning Griffiths park observatory. So couple of months ago when it rained and the sky was cloudy I grabbed my gear and went up to the Hollywood bowl overlook which right in my neighborhood. My goal as to get a nice sunset shot from there with some interesting clouds in the sky, but the wind was pretty strong and as usual the clouds disappeared within seconds and I was presented with beautiful clear skies which makes SoCal so famous. So I decided to change plans and get a blue hour shot but soon the winds bought in a layer of haze which was getting thicker by the minute and instead of blue hour we had a purple hour. This is one of the best results for that outing, hope you all like it and have a great July 4th weekend.

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• Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Sorry for posting another shot from the same location but the light was so beautiful in shot that I feel compelled to post this shot from behind the Hollywood sign. I took this shot just before the sun started going down, just before the light dimmed. The whole valley was bathed in golden light. Hope y'all like this shot as much as I did making it.

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• Plutarch

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Recently we had an opportunity to return to the Palos Verdes peninsula and see the beautiful Pointe Vicente Lighthouse. I have been waiting for some time so the path of the setting sun with align well with the northern location of the lighthouse. This shot was taken about an hour before the sunset when the golden light bathed the entire cliff and lighthouse in golden light.

My plan was to race back to the southern part of the lighthouse called pelican cove to set up another shot with the light house and the setting sun. more on that later. Hope you all enjoyed this shot, Thanks for visiting..

• Josh Billings.

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On our last hike to see the Hollywood sign up close I noticed that there was actually a really nice view of the San Fernando valley as you get close to the top. Even though there are some plants in the foreground the view of the hills and the valley were pretty sweet and during sunset we had some awesome colors on display. I was running between both the locations when sunset colors started to appear but managed to stitch a pano shot. Hope everyone like it as much as the last one.

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• Lucius Annaeus Seneca.

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An old shot from a sunset at Getty Museum. I had so much hopes for this day to get a good sunset until the security people told me that my dainty gitzo traveler was classified as a dangerous weapon. So I kept the offensive weapon back in the car and had to witness a beautiful golden sunset limited by composition choices as I had to stay close to railings and perches to stabilize my camera for long exposures.

This little nooks is a pretty popular spot at the museum as the view of the LA skyline pretty beautiful. I had to wait for almost an hour to get a clear shot with no people walking around. Hope you all like it thanks again for visiting.

• Henry Ward Beecher.

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The Palos Verdes Peninsula was a sleeper hit location for me when I lived in southern California. I first learned about the place from my college roommate, who used to live there, and later when I moved to LA, I decided to check it out. The two locations that stood out as candidates for photography was the Korean friendship bell and the Point Vicente lighthouse.

I did not have high hopes for the Point Vicente lighthouse as the compositional possibilities are limited due to the location. Plus, its still an active installation, so access inside the lighthouse is limited. There is a park and picnic area right next to the lighthouse allowing you to enjoy the lighthouse in full golden hour glory during sunset. We visited the lighthouse on a fall day but had no luck with the sky, and it was rather grey. I thought that the warm light on the cliffside and the movement in the water, coupled with the rocky beach, were perfect candidates for a long exposure shot. I did not like my composition at the time, so I didn’t bother with editing the image. But recently, as I was reviewing my old shot and thought I would give it a chance at editing with some cropping. I liked the result enough to post it.

Palos Verdes

• Abraham Lincoln

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Another shot I made from the recent hiking trip to Griffith park. I have had this shot in my mind for a long time and had very little time to make the shot once I had the opportunity. This was definitely a weird day as the light didn’t linger much after sunset which is very unusual for sunny SoCal. The lack of available light made it a pain to nail focus for the last couple of shots but in the end I think it's was well worth the effort. Hope you all like it.

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This was taken at the Korean bell of Friendship just before a beautiful sunset last weekend. Me and my wife recently moved to LA and are actively looking for apartments which will be equal distance from both our office locations. And this is not an easy thing to do when one works at Santa Monica and the other in Burbank. After spending a rather tedious Saturday I persuaded my wife to spend some time at the Point Vicente Lighthouse but unfortunately the lighthouse was closed and it seemed more like a sunrise location to me so we bailed and got to another location on my list which was the Korean Bell of Friendship.

I tried out a couple of 7 image blend HDRs with the setting sun beautifully lighting up the building and the results came out pretty cool. I would have loved to take some shots during the sunset but the guard came out at 7PM and said they were about to close the gates for the parking lot so everybody have to leave unless you walked there. I was tempted to park the car outside and walk back but the sky was pretty cloudless and decided to tackle that one a different day. The building is a stunning example of Asian Architecture and the colors and the location are just magnificent. This is a must visit if you are in the LA area.

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• Alexander Smith.

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This was another shot I made at the Point Vicente lighthouse just after a beautiful sunset. Initially my plan was to take a shot just from the regular view point to get good light on the lighthouse itself, but as the sun was setting I realized that if I could get to a southern location I could frame the lighthouse along with the excellent sunset colors.

So we headed south where there is another viewpoint but the tree growth near the lighthouse building a little less obvious. And the thick fog to the horizon was going to consume any chance of a spectacular sunset. Basically this was what we came back with during the sunset.

Downtown Los Angeles. Taken from the 174 S Beaudry Avenue.

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Down Town Los Angeles

• Andre Breton.

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Took this shot from under the Manhattan Beach Pier just after Sunset. I was thinking of using the big stopper here too but the sun has gone down and there was already out and I was getting slow enough shutter speeds already. I really liked the way it came out. Enjoy!

• Gustave Flaubert.

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As a nature and landscape photographer, its often easy to get lured into magic world of panoramas. I remember initially how the desire to capture the wide perspective used to be so strong every time I visited a grad vista. It took me a lot of time to perfect my panorama technique and included adoption of new shooting techniques and newer camera support hardware to achieve the desired level of quality in my panorama images. So, you can imagine my excitement when I walked to Kenneth Hahn State Park and saw this view. This was a shot I had in mind for a long time and finally I was there with a clear view of the San Gabriel Mountains.

As per my experience to get a decent panorama shot, it is extremely important to get your exposure correct. As wide scenes tend to have dramatically wide gamut of dynamic range, I often practice exposing for the bright points in the scene. This involves pointing my DSLR at the brightest point in the scene and getting an exposure reading and then using exposure compensation to get the histogram correct. Once I am satisfied, I set dial my camera reading to manual mode, this allows consistent settings across the panorama. Second setting that I’d like to settle is the focusing point, I usually try to manually fine tune my focus and leave it there so the that the camera will not try to refocus while trying to shoot the panorama. Once the exposure and focus is nailed down, majority of the work is done, now it’s time to get to the shoot. And for that its absolutely important that you have solid tripod, or a good handheld shooting technique. I love my arca-swiss monoball tripod head for panoramas as it has the panning mechanism at the top (close to the clamp) that allows for a quick set up. The other guidelines I follow is to not use a polarizing filter (if the comp has sky in it), at least allow for 30% overlap between shots, and shoot more that you think you will need for your composition. Now the challenge with panorama landscape shots are the facts that you have to do all this while the light is fading or changing constantly. I can say from experience that it really helps to nail a panorama routine to do this quickly.

Down Town Los Angeles

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• Honore de Balzac.

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In keeping with old photos theme here is a shot of Manhattan beach pier. We were here on a typical clear day and didn’t had much hopes for a great sunset sky. But as the sunset approached some clouds came around and we got lovely pink hues in the sky. I took this shot just before leaving and it’s a stitch pano of three shots.

This surfer just came ashore and she was waiting for her friends to come ashore while enjoying the beautiful sunset colors. Hope you all like it..

• Sigmund Freud.

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Another shot from point Vicente lighthouse. Used the big stopper to slow the surf down smoothly. This was one of my favorite lighthouse locations in Los Angeles and one of the locations I think about every time I see a storm pass through Los Angeles.

Thanks again for visiting..

• William Penn.

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My wife introduced me one day to the Hollywood sign hike. It was a summer day and we decided not to take any camera gear with us as it was searing hot and we were both not very fit at that time. And true to our expectations, the hike was very demanding on our soft fluffy bodies. Fast forward six months, we were much fitter thanks to my wife dragging me to the gym every week and took my heavy camera bag and tripod and completed the whole hike without taking any rest breaks.

I had a plan to stitch a pano shot during sunset. As we were waiting for twilight most of the other hikers left and one of the helicopters that was flying across the hills started to hover around us very close and low as if to check us out or something. It was kicking up dust and I was afraid my tripod was gonna tip over. Thankfully after flying over twice over us the helicopter left and we managed to complete our shoot in peace. Definitely was a strange encounter but I am glad I came back with this beautiful shot.

• Herman Melville.

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Recently had a chance to be at the getty museum and see Los Angeles skyline in glorious sunset light. The security at the museum wont allow tripods so i had to be very careful in selecting locations to make sure that I had a stable platform to take long exposure shots. This is one one of my favorites from the lot. Hope everyone likes it.

• Pablo Picasso.

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Another shot from the Korean bell of Friendship location. This is turning out to be on of my favorite angle to shoot building. I did shot like this of the Lincoln Memorial and the Bell with wonderful light from the setting sun was just a perfect subject. Thanks for visiting.

Downtown Los Angeles. Taken from the 1048 W 3rd Street overpass bridge over Harbor Freeway (CA-110) looking South.

• Unknown.

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Finally I got to try out my brand spanking new d800 and all its 36 mp full frame goodness. unfortunately I only have a 35mm 1.8 and a 70-300 which are actually full frame lenses. So while we visited the Huntington Library I was limited to using only the Nikkor 35mm f1.8 but the unusual combo did give me some great captures. Hopefully I can get a FX wide angle soon get shooting more. Thanks for visiting my photostream and all the encouragement and critiques...