Winter is here.
On a recent weekend getaway to Solvang, CA, I was lucky enough to wake up to a lovely morning of fog. A brisk walk to the danish shop for breakfast with my camera and voila, foggy awesomeness.
Showing posts with label Places. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Places. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Santa Monica Sunrise
If you can wake up early enough, the sunrise out here in LA can be just as beautiful as our famous sunsets. On a brisk Sunday morning recently I set out to see what the Santa Monica pier had to offer at 5:30am when the moon gave way to the sun.
A few joggers, fishermen and seagulls were the only ones out to welcome the day.
Simple things become much more photogenic during the solitary morning hours. Having a trusty tripod is the only way to really allow for all the colors and light happening.
Couldn't resist a bokeh gif either! How's that for a double whammy :) It makes me happy- and it's a pretty good representation of my hour on the pier.
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Early morning, big city
To mark my next visit to NY this week, here are some photos from my last trip in the summer. Getting a head start on the hustle and bustle of downtown NYC is a wonderful way to see the beauty in a solitary way. You feel like the last person on earth and it's awesome!
Walking along the highline though, I came across this little girl hangin out in her front window. These apartments are so oddly futuristic- very weird. The view is directly facing the hordes of people walking the path!
See you soon...
Monday, July 15, 2013
The Night Market
From April through May, Thursday nights in Hollywood have an awesome and inexpensive option. The Yamashiro Farmers Market
takes place from 5 til about 9pm each Thursday- bring friends and enjoy
the relaxing night with some delicious treats and a view that can't be
beat.
A nice variety of food trucks are represented up there along with stalls
full of fresh produce and tasty cakes. There are tables and chairs
along with some little nooks you can sneak off into to enjoy the sunset
while sipping on some wine.
This market has been going on for a few years now and always turns out a good crowd. I finally got the chance to get up there a couple of weeks ago and arrived right at 5. The parking just down LaBrea at the Mosaic lot north of Hollywood Blvd was super easy (and free) and the buses (also free) come every few minutes to take you on the 5 minute commute up the hill. 
Nibble on samples from some local food suppliers or just walk around and enjoy the view, you really can't go wrong. It almost feels like you are taking a break on a cloud and watching the city get on with it's night from a quiet and relaxing vantage point. Bonus if you live in the valley like me- there is a wonderful breeze which ALWAYS makes for a good night!
Monday, April 29, 2013
Sunrise at the sea... the Salton Sea
There is a place in the desert, far far down in southern California, where fish go to die.
This mythical oasis of abandonment is The Salton Sea.
I fell in love with the sea in 2009 after hunting down rusty crusty locations in my new SoCal home of Los Angeles. Surprise, there aren't that many. If you're willing to drive though, there are lovely discoveries to be had! And so I set out to explore Mecca, Salton City, Niland and the surrounding areas.
The photos you see here are from my most recent excursion, April 2013. Leaving Los Angeles at 3:30am with a fellow photographer, we made our way south to catch the sunrise over the water. It was a spectacular event. We had the whole day ahead of us. Starting on the south side of the sea, we caught sunrise at the Marina and meandered still more south to the airport and random shacks.
This side of "town" used to be rich with abandoned scenery- what I most love to photograph- but has since been quite cleaned up. Seeing pretty much everything we needed to see on this side, we quickly made our way up and around to the north shore where our first stop was an abandoned house & surrounding overgrown yard.
You can still on occasion run into a surprise here and there. This empty trailer proved to be a sweet photo op with the dust covered office chair rolled into the doorway! Down the road a bit there was then an awesome yellow boat... on land of course. It could have been a scene out of Mad Max, trash strewn about with household objects everywhere. There it was, a scraggly tree, smack dab in the middle of it all with a speedboat resting up on its overgrown roots and fallen branches. Scored another random find.
Continuing along the north shore you come to the appropriately named North Shore Yacht Club that was newly constructed a year or two ago. It sits there sad and empty. Just before it though, you come across a very old school building with a very junior high feel to it- That would be the North Shore Coffee Club. Like a slice of life in the early eighties, it just sat there empty as well.
The marina for the yacht club had some of the stillest water on the sea. The skeletal bait shack sat on the lower level of the marina, sad and empty. Not a soul in sight. Being there made me think of the age old question: "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"
Of course, no trip to the sea is complete without a stop at Bombay Beach. Since we were not staying for sunset, the view was just a bit ordinary. 95% of the trailers and random bits that littered the beach were cleaned away. Nothing but a van of tourists touting cameras and sunscreen was of interest. So from there we continued on to the last stop. The Niland Marina with it's lonely shacks.
This pretty much made the trip worth it for me. The dry lake bed surrounding this little shack which I'm pretty sure was a bathroom, was the highlight for me. Well that and the yellow shipwreck. This little shack was just one of a handful. The others were located much closer to the edge of the sea. This one was left behind, out in the wild. The holes from the toilets could still be seen even though the stalls were full of garbage. From afar though, they could be marvelous decrepit cottages. And I loved them. From there we made our way back north to Palm Springs to spend late afternoon and evening drenched in colorful vistas and cool poolside relaxing.
The best of both worlds.
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