Crazy Weather Recently
First of all, happy holidays everyone! I hope you all enjoyed Christmas and New Years is on the way as well, so be sure to relax accordingly, but also keep doing what got you here. A good balance is always important.
Recently, the weather has been everywhere, you name it: sunny, cloudy, rainy, hazy. It’s honestly been a great change to what I consider a very boring typical sunny weather that LA always exhibits throughout the year. From a photography standpoint, I really couldn’t ask for much more (besides asking for more off days from work to actually photograph more during the week, but that’s another complaint for another day).
VICTORIA BEACH
The first location is from Victoria’s Beach with the “Pirate Tower” that I believe is pretty well known in the Laguna Beach area. I went there for sunrise to try and capture the light hitting the tower. I expected the waves to be hectic, but I really didn’t expect what I saw. The waves were extremely powerful and the sun was coming from an unexpected angle so I had to adjust accordingly. I captured a couple of pictures and thought they were good from what I was given and what I had expected. I definitely wish there were more clouds to add more character in the sky, but again, I’m pretty satisfied! I loved the slices of light that came due to the area being near a mountain.
The area itself is actually a bit complicated to get to. There are many blogs that cover the directions and ways to get there. But to make it very simple, you want to part on the main highway (highway 1) on the sides and walk your way through the neighborhoods and go down Dunmond Drive down to the beach and the Pirate Tower is on your right. Just a warning though. If you come during around Sunset, you will not get any clean pictures of the Pirate Tower due to a swarm of people being there. If that’s not a problem, then sunset is a good time as well! The light is beautiful.
THE HAZE! THE RAIN! THE… NORMAL WEATHER…
As mentioned in the introduction, the weather has been pretty everywhere. I think I may have found my main place to photograph when I can’t think of a location to go to. That place is Downtown LA. It checks most of the things off the list of things I like in doing street photography: many locations at a reasonable walking distance, a good number of people (but not crowded), not too far from where I live, beautiful buildings (when the place is empty), etc. My second favorite place is actually just across the street: Chinatown. Though that’s just because it’s a pretty close drive from my workplace. That’s where the next couple of pictures are taken place. As much as I preach that no photo will ever be the same due to many reasons that I can go on and on, I sometimes find it difficult to go out to locations to shoot because of the drive, the parking cost, etc. But that’s just a part of photography. You’re not always going to get good pictures and you have to be okay with that. But when you do get “that” picture, it feels amazing and the experiences you get while doing photography will be with you forever. That’s why I love taking pictures. Those feelings you get is like no other.