On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether youâre traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
?BillinGlendaleCA
The plan was to get to the park early (I was late to the meetup at Red Rock), shoot a bulb ramped timelapse, and get a couple of extra pictures; only one of these things happened. I arrived with plenty of time to spare, but parking was not to be had anywhere close to the park. I ended up parking about 3/4 of a mile down the hill on Crenshaw.
Once I’d parked and retrieved my camera gear and my lightweight tripod, I noticed the possibility of making some lemonade for my lemon of a parking situation. The view looking north, while obstructed in many places by trees was incredible. I snapped a few photos with my cellphone on my hike to the park. Arriving at the park, I found one other person from the group already there. We waited for about 15 minutes for others to arrive and hiked up the hill to find a few more members waiting up there (I said to meet at the bottom of the hill by the parking lot).
We setup our gear and started shooting. I soon discovered that bulb ramping wouldn’t work with my camera (the fastest exposure on my camera via the cable release turns out to be 1 second), so I switched to the basic timelapse and set my camera to aperture priority. I’d brought a graduated neutral density filter to darken the sky (and Sun) and started shooting the timelapse.
I also brought my Galaxy NX camera so I used that to shoot bracketed photos of the setting sun hand held as well as some of the landmarks around the area. As the Sun set in the west, the Moon rose over the homes to our east providing an added bonus to the shoot. On the way back to my car, I took a few minutes to set up the camera and tripod to get a shot of the city from the same location as I’d shot the daytime shot 3 hours earlier.
Remember any photo you see in one of my On The Road posts is available for purchase at my store: http://www.billinglendaleca.com. They make excellent Christmas gifts. I also have a Patreon if you like my work and want to see it continue: https://www.patreon.com/BillinGlendaleCA.
I’ve been trying to find a good view of downtown LA from the south and there are very few places that have a good view that are accessible (much of Palos Verdes is private), so it was nice to find this vista.
Del Cerro park had a wonderful view of Catalina island.
Much of the shore of the peninsula is dotted with high end residences and golf courses. This one is owned by a very well known politician (hint: rhymes with Dump).
The sun reflects off the water and on to shore.
The Sun sets just north of Santa Barbara island, the day was clear enough to be able to see San Nicholas island another 40 miles further out to sea.
Just after the Sun set the Moon began its rise as a bonus shot.
This is pretty much the same shot as I took as I walked to Del Cerro Park, but after nightfall. the light in the center of the photo are the TV towers on Mount Wilson.
JPL
The sun reflecting over the water is spectacular. Have you ever taken pictures from Catalina or the other channel islands?
Mary G
Love the last shot with the city lights.
raven
Being that my mom, sis and brother all lived in Torrance and Hawthorne PV always loomed large. I had taken Palos Verdes Drive to Long Beach many times. For some reason I had it in my head that it was basically a big uninhabited mountain. When my brother-in-law was buried in the Green Hills Cemetery we drove up Western Ave an I realized how dumb it was to have thought that primo real estate wasn’t occupied!
raven
@JPL: This is a shot of Catalina from the Whale Watching Station.
Baud
?Don’t let the sun go down on me…?
WaterGirl
As I looked at these, I thought this one is my favorite. Â No, this one is my favorite. Â No, this one. Â They are apparently all my favorites.
?BillinGlendaleCA
I was going to get up early today to leave this link: the timelapse that I shot of the sunset.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@JPL: I’ve been to Catalina and taken pictures there, but it was about 25 years ago and no sunset pics.
@Mary G: I have to retake that one, at least I know where the view point is now.
@raven: Yup really high end real estate up there. Interesting bit of trivia, UCLA almost ended up on PV instead of Westwood.
Old School
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Good thing I came in late to this thread. I would have missed that timelapse.
Thanks for sharing!
WaterGirl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: The time-lapse video is stunning!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: We had a really nice sunrise this morning, but “Stay at Home”…
@WaterGirl: Check the link below this one, that’s your favorite.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Old School:
@WaterGirl: The timelapse turned out really well, even with a few challenges. I really wish that the wind didn’t mess up the frames for the last couple of seconds.
UncleEbeneezer
Is this the same park with the little lighthouse and the sunken city remains? Â Walking distance from the huge Korean War temple/bell? Â Visiting that park, climbing around the off-limits sunken city and looking out at Catalina was one of my first Holy Shit, We Really Are In California moments when I first moved here in 1999.
Almost Retired
Wonderful photos! I live nearby, and the hike from Del Cerro Park down to Portuguese Bend (that’s the easy part) and then back up is one my favorite LA hikes.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@UncleEbeneezer: Nope, that more down the hill near San Pedro. This park is at the top of the hill at the end of Crenshaw.
@Almost Retired: Thanks, the hike down looks like it’d be nice, the hike back up… The main feature, the reason I lead the group out there, is that the sun sets right by Santa Barbar island this time of year. One of the folk in the group brought his longer zoom lens and you could see San Nicolas island pretty clearly to the left of Santa Barbara island.
agorabum
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Excellent shimmer of pink at the end of that time lapse!
Martin
Not sure anyone still around here, but we discovered that thanks to the reduced traffic from Covid, if everything goes right with the winds, you can with binoculars or a good telephoto see the Hollywood sign from here in south orange county. From my house, I need to go to a certain overpass or go to work (which is on a hill), look toward the Disneyland fireworks and it’s just off to the side a bit.
It is perhaps the worst possible vantage point to actually photograph it, but it shows what continued air quality improvements might get us.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@agorabum: Thanks, I liked that too. It was too close to the end though.
@Martin: I went up to Mt. Lowe on T-day morning a couple of years ago, it was really stunning…I could see all the Channel Islands and all the way to Palomar Mountain.