On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Good morning everyone,
We’re once again blessed, thanks as always to Bill!
This was supposed to run last month and now finally is here. I’ve got more great stuff lined up, but please consider submitting. It runs out quick!
Most folk don’t associate Los Angeles with snow, but Southern California does get snow in the high elevations of it’s mountains during winter. Boxing Day in 2019 brought a wet and cold storm from the Gulf of Alaska to the southland with snow reaching the 2500 foot level. What made a mess of the mountain passes for travelers between LA and the Central Valley and the high desert afforded amazing views of the city with a backdrop of snow covered mountains. So after taking sunrise pictures from Griffith Observatory, I fired up the Prius again and headed to Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area in the Baldwin Hills for some picture of the city and the mountains.
Interesting bit of trivia…it snows in Los Angeles every year. While the average elevation of the City of Los Angeles is under 1000 feet, the elevation in the city ranges from Sea Level to just over 5,000 feet at the summit of Mt. Lukens north of Glendale.
The skyscrapers of downtown LA in the foreground of the snowy San Gabriel Mountians. Mt. Wilson is on the left, Mt. San Antonio is just to the right of downtown and Cucamunga Peak is to the right.
This is something you don’t often see the Hollywood Sign with the western San Gabriel mountains covered in snow.
Snowy Mt. Lukens towers over Griffith Observatory, Mt. Lukins’ summit is within the city limits of Los Angeles and gets snow every year. So it really does snow in Los Angeles every year.
The freshly fallen snow on Mt. San Antonio provides a backdrop to the gleeming skyscrapers of downtown Los Angeles.
The snow of Mt. San Antonio(10,000 ft.) provided a contrast to the skycrapers of downtown LA and the palm trees in the foreground.
Where did the clouds come from?
I got some new software that does sky replacements, so I had to give it a try on one of these shots, adding some billowy clouds.
IR view of downtown LA and snowy San Gabriels.
rikyrah
These are beautiful ??
?BillinGlendaleCA
@rikyrah: Thanks, the sad thing is that we’ve really not had any substantial rain here since then.
Baud
These are very nice.
Instead of clouds, next time add in dragons.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Easy to do, it will take custom “skies”.
Mary G
I always love that view. We are so lucky to live here where you can go surfing at the beach, snowboarding in the mountains, and hiking in the desert all in the same day.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mary G: Well, you’re in luck, the next one I sent in were the full moon shots from early January that I also took there.
JPL
Bill, You are so talented and thank you for the beautiful pictures.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@JPL: Thanks.
satby
Love the clouds and IR ones especially!
Edit: after last night’s results should we ask for a wellness check on AL?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@satby: Thanks, somebody like my IR stuff :).
AL just put up a new thread, though it could be a previously scheduled thing.
J R in WV
I like much of yer IR photography, all of these are pretty swell. Even those color ones. ;-)
I wonder if you can get a converter plugin to turn any RAW file into infrared? hmmm //
arrieve
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I love your IR Bill, but all of these pictures are beautiful.
Betty
Very pretty and not at all how we usually think of LA.
Dupe1970
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I will send you some. We have had non-stop rain (it feels like) in DFW for the last two to three weeks.
Origuy
Beautiful pictures, Bill, but I’m not sure the direction of the sun on the clouds matches the shadows on the ground.
I’d never heard of Kenneth Hahn SRA, so I looked it up in Google Maps. It’s right next the the Inglewood Oil Field. If you switch to satellite view, you can see what a scar on the land that is. A glaring contrast to the pretty park.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@J R in WV: There is some stuff(Photoshop actions, etc) that can turn a visual shot into faux IR, but a real IR camera catches things a visual photo doesn’t.
@arrieve: Thanks.
@Betty: Thanks, I’ve heard some folk say LA looks more like Denver when we’ve got snow on the mountains.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Dupe1970: We’d love it!
@Origuy: The sky replacement does have an option to relight the scene, but I don’t really think it puts shadows in. It’ just seems to give the whole picture a bluish tint. It’s pretty new and does a good job masking out the “not sky” portion of the image.
If you look at the “earth view” in Google Maps of the area, you’ll see a big grassy bowl. That used to be a reservoir and the dam at the north broke and killed a few folk in 1962.