On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether youāre traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Two years ago I visited the Mulholland Dam at the Hollywood Reservoir to photograph the Hollywood Sign. While I was pleased with the visual photos, the IR photos were flat. I shot them using a 720nm filter, processed them for white vegetation and added a visual overlay. While the visual overlay helped to provide some contrast, the Hollywood Sign still didn’t stand out enough. Being that I’ve been toying with Aerochrome emulation, I though I’d wait for a day with some clouds in the sky and try shooting the lake and the sign with a 590nm filter (they let in more visible light). I also took my Galaxy NX camera, since it’s so cool, for visual shots.
I’ve been trying to get madame and the kid to join me for a walk from the north end of the lake down to the dam for several years with little success, so I decided to do it myself. This is not really a hike, it’s more of a walk down a street. There are no hills once you reach the trailhead and it’s just a flat road along the west side of the lake. The only problem from a photographer’s point of view is there is a chain link fence around the lake so any shots of the lake need to be shot though the fence (I’ve had to crop a few photos to remove pieces of fence).
The hike reports on this “hike” noted that to keep an eye out on the ground in the Spring and Summer since rattlesnakes like to come out of the hills to sun themselves on the asphalt. Being that I made the “hike” in early January this wildlife encounter wasn’t an issue, but I did run into a pleasant wildlife surprise. Rounding one of the bends in the “trail”, there were bunch of folk along the fence, looking closer, I notice a deer on the other side of the fence, less than a foot from the folk. I moved to the fence a ways from the people at the fence and noticed 2 more deer eating some of the leaves and stuff a few feet away.
The fence.
Oh Deer.
The back of Mulholland Dam through the pine trees that surround the lake.
Visual shot of the Hollywood Sign and it’s surroundings reflected in Lake Hollywood.
Infrared shot, processed in Aerochrome style to highlight the sign.
Infrared shot with normal processing.
Closer visual shot of the Sign reflected in the lake, Ektachrome emulation applied.
At the beginning of the trail there is an upper portion of the lake separated by a dam, this is some kind of water intake device, i guess, that made for an interesting shot.
Partial year contracts and declining effective actuarial value
WaterGirl
oops, sorry. Ā I goofed up on scheduling Bill’s post. Ā One of my favorites from Bill, too, darnit
Belatedly publishing now that I’m up!
Tdjr
Cool pictures! What are the white dots on the water?
CaseyL
Deer can’t be too rare in them thar hills, because mountain lions live up there, too, and they gotta eat something (besides luckless household pets left in back yards).
LA is so huge, dense and sprawling at the same time, it’s always a bit disconcerting (to me) to be reminded it has its pockets of Wild still thriving. Disconcerting in a happy-making way.
TheOtherHank
@Tdjr: Birbs!
donnah
Didn’t anyone see that 9-1-1 tv show this week? That dam broke, created a massive rock and mud slide, and part of the Hollywood sign fell down the hill. The paramedics all had to run in and save countless lives!
It’s a good thing Bill has photos before the terrible disaster.
Benw
Nice pics! The hollywood hills are really pretty and the Griffith Observatory is a fun visit too.
cope
I love seeing very familiar things like the Hollywood sign from different perspectives. I had no idea there was a reservoir below it. Does Noah Cross figure into its construction in any way? Thanks.
I’m gonna guess the tower structure is the top of a water intake system and the white dots are buoys marking the “no go” zone to avoid being sucked in.
Origuy
The Ektachrome emulation really does give that picture a classic look. Did you do that for the dam pictures, too?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Tdjr: Thanks.Ā The larger ones are buoys and the smaller ones birds.
@CaseyL: There’s only one mountain lion in Griffith Park, but I’ve seen deer there before.Ā I was a bit surprised since the lake is fenced in.
@TheOtherHank: Yup and buoys.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@donnah: That’s not entirely a fantasy, the Mulholland Dam had a twin up above what is now Santa Clarita in the San Francisquito Canyon.Ā The St. Francis Dam failed, sending a flood of water down the Santa Clara River to the sea and killed about 600 people.Ā You can see in the picture of the back of the dam, that the water level is pretty low.Ā After the St. Francis dam failure, they reduced the water behind the Mulholland Dam and but earthen fill on the other side of the dam which is now cover with trees.Ā There was another dam failure in the early 1960’s in the Baldwin Hills, but that only killed 5 people.
@Benw: Thanks, you’ll like the next set.Ā Though, right now the Observatory is closed due to the pandemic.
@cope: It’s an interesting perspective and I think one of the best views of the Sign(and one most people don’t see).Ā Hollis Mulwray(William Mulholland) probably had more to do with the dam.
@Origuy:Ā I think I only did the Ektachrome emulation on that one at least in this group.Ā I processed the water intake shot with Ektachrome emulation as well, but decided to go with the regular shot.
JustRuss
@?BillinGlendaleCA:Ā I’d never heard of the St. Francis flood until last year, I was listening to an old song on the radio and it started mentioning all these small towns I grew up near, which were in the path of the flood. Very interesting and sad tale. Ended William Mulholland’s career, the brilliant engineer who designed most of LA’s water infrastructure.
The remains of the dam were a popular destination for day-trippers, until a kid was killed falling from them. They were pretty much levelled soon after that.
J R in WV
Nice work, Bill!
Thanks..
ETA, I think the thing referred to as an intake is actually an outfall to control the depth of the water behind the dam. It keeps the water off the spillway, except for heavy rainfall events.
randy khan
Humans have become really good at building ideal deer habitat – basically areas of grass or other low edible plants near trees – so they pop up all over the place. Ā In a lot of places they are now a nuisance because they eat things people like to have in their yards.
AnthroBabe
For those of you interested in the story of St. Francis Dam, check out Caitlin Doughty’s Ask A Mortician episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8OSHlGfoL8&t=941s
?BillinGlendaleCA
@JustRuss: I think I first heard about the St. Francis dam a few years ago, I stopped by there on the way to shoot the poppies near Lancaster in 2019(almost wrote last year…).Ā I didn’t get all the way down to the site of the dam since there was water running across the trail and I wasn’t wearing footwear to do that and was running a bit late.
@J R in WV: There’s the large spillway at the bottom of the photo, so that’s why I think it may be an intake.
@randy khan: When I first got my IR camera, I went to one of the local gardens and the rose garden was covered in a high fence and the sign indicated it was to prevent the deer from eating the plants.Ā The next time I went there, I saw the deer.
@AnthroBabe: Thanks.