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.
?BillinGlendaleCA
The waning days of 2020 saw a cold Pacific storm roll though southern California bring thunder, lightning(a rarity here) and heavy rain. It also brought snow to lower elevations(though not a low as 2019), so the first thing to do once the storm clouds passed was to head to the Baldwin Hills to get some photos of Los Angeles with a snowy backdrop. I took both my NX1 for visual shots and the modified NX300 for IR shots. With the exception of the panorama at the end of this set, all the photos were processed in RAW Therapee(as opposed to Lightroom) to emulate different film types(Ektachrome 100, Kodachrome 64, and Aerocrhrome for IR).
I was intending to park close to the ridge at the northern portion of the park that is a favorite for photographers, but the parking was a nightmare there so I headed over to La Brea and parked on a side street east of the park and hiked up from the south side of the park.
On the first ridge after you climb up from La Brea you find this concrete sculpture of a diamondback rattlesnake. This was shot with a wide aperture for a bokeh effect and processed with Ektachrome emulation.
Each successive ridge moving north is a bit higher so that the foreground houses block the view less and less. This photo was processed without any film emulation.
Why do the greens a bit more “green” in this shot? Kodachrome, of course.
Looking in the other direction towards Santa Monica, the land mass extending out from the coast is Point Dume in Malibu.
Looking north to the ridge that extends furthest to the east(you can see the trees at the far right), the Hollywood Sign sits under the snow capped peaks.
I like how the view if framed by these two shrubs.
This is as far north as I traveled in the park, it is behind the “I Have A Dream” monument to Dr. King. The view has Mt. San Antonio directly over the skyscrapers of downtown LA.
The panorama shows how big the LA basin is, from Josephine Peak on the left to the Chino Hills on the right.
rikyrah
Gorgeous, as always?
SiubhanDuinne
Not only did you offer up a wonderful set of photos, you also introduced me to a new word — “bokeh.”
Baud
You make LA look pretty.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@rikyrah: Thanks.
@SiubhanDuinne: Bokeh’s a big thing with photographers, especially portrait photographers.
@Baud: What do you mean, LA is pretty.
JPL
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I could do without the snake picture. I love how the shrubs frame the clouds.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@JPL: I’m not a fan of snakes either, but it’s not real. I’ve only run into a few snakes on my hikes, unfortunately both were rattlers.
Van Buren
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I can’t tell if the snake is life size or as big as a car.
raven
I’m going to post a couple of pictures of what we call “the snake house”. My buddy built this house for a very wealthy guy near Monroe,,GA. This is a shot for scale, you can see how big it is when compared to the car.
raven
Here’s the head
raven
Here’s the handrail for the stairway built from a huge tree.
raven
Here’s a picture of the house.
My buddy took a Japanese and Norwegian carpenter to Vancouver, picked out the trees, rough built the house there and then trucked them to Georgia.
JPL
@raven: Why?
How’s your arm? If I stretch I can feel some stiffness, but that’s about it.
raven
@JPL: Same, I’d say I feel a little goofy from time to time but I AM a little bit goofy!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Van Buren: Maybe half a car, I think it’s about 5 feet across.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: Biger than a car.
raven
@?BillinGlendaleCA: It’s probably 50 yards long
raven
It’s a rattler and you can just see the rattle here.
Just One More Canuck
Kodachrome? All the world’s a sunny day
great pictures
JustRuss
Lovely. There is nothing like LA after a winter storm, it’s amazing. Haven’t experienced that in long time, thanks.
J R in WV
@raven:
I think you linked to these great photos of fabulous woodwork at least once before. Thanks, this is great stuff!
ETA: There’s a foot bridge across a big downtown roadway in Tucson, near the UAz campus, that is painted like a diamondback, with rattles on the south end and an open mouth on the north end. It’s a tube of mesh painted quite well. Lots of highway art in the town. Wish I had a photo, but always see it driving underneath. Will stop someday to snap some images, if I get out west again.
Oops — ETA: Bill, great work, Bokeh well done, not easy to do, either.
Don’t see much up close snow, tho! ;~)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Just One More Canuck: Mama, don’t take my Kodachrome away. Thanks.
@JustRuss: Yup, you get the snow on the mountains and it cleans up the air.
@J R in WV: The NX1 came with a top of the line(for Samsung) kit lens, a 15-60mm, f/2-f/2.8. The lens is heavier than the camera.
Wouldn’t be able to see downtown if I got closer to the snow…also most of the roads in the mountains are still closed from the fires.