Last weekend I went and visited the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve as everything has been blooming over here in SoCal. I’ve actually been following their website for the last couple months waiting for the right time to go visit, and now it looks like it’s finally hit a peak for the season. As for the reserve, it’s a pretty amazing place- quite literally the entire hillsides of the area become an bright orange glob of color. You can probably still catch it for the next couple weeks, you should try to get over there as it’s really a remarkable experience.
About: Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve
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The Antelope Valley California Poppy State Reserve is a state-protected reserve land located in the rural westside of the Antelope Valley in northern Los Angeles County, 15 miles west of Lancaster. The reserve is at an elevation ranging from 2600 to 3000 feet above sea level in the Mojave Desert climate zone. The reserve is administered by California State Parks. The reserve’s namesake and protection is based on the state flower, the California poppy. The area is one of the state’s most consistent poppy-bearing lands. Other wildflowers within the reserve include the owl’s clover, lupine, goldfields, cream cups and coreopsis.
I was very pleased to finally pick up the ‘Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea‘ documentary this past weekend- which I must say is completely fantastic. If you know me, you know one of my favorite trips is my once a year trip to the sea where I think I’ve taken some of my best photos. If you’ve never been, or you’ve been and want to learn more/relive the amazingness you should really pick up this disc. You can get it on Amazon, or support the filmmaker and buy it direct.
Somehow the Salton Sea has put itself on my list of places to visit at least once every year, and every time I come by I think I take better pictures as well as appreciate it’s uniqueness more. I even broke down and bought the ‘Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea‘ documentary that I’ve always been wanting last week. It’s a seriously cool place, and if you’re anywhere near the SoCal area you really need to go check it out. Here are a few great areas to see when you go down there.
Bombay Beach
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Bombay Beach is located on the east shore of the Salton Sea and, like many communities along its shores, has had to contend with rising and falling water levels. A berm now protects the west end of the town but a portion of the town beyond the berm is either sunken under water or is half-buried in mud.
We just got back from the little photo trip up north- I got a total of 3 hours of sleep over Fri/Sat and we drove a bit over 900 miles in total. Because of time constraints [and me *cough* placing our campgrounds 3 hours away from where we were exploring] we ended up not getting to hit up Big Basin. On Sat but we did spend a decent amount of time at Año Nuevo State Park and the Pigeon Point Lighthouse and Sun. we spent it mostly at San Simeon State Park and Morro Bay. It was a pretty tiring trip for everyone, so we’re happy to be home and have lots of great photos to share hopefully within the next week or so!
This weekend we’re off to Big Sur again, as Tanya and I have been seriously needing a little get out of LA time [that and our lungs have filled to capacity with air pollution]. We’re going to be camping at San Simeon State Park but probably going up north around the Monterey / Santa Cruz areas. I think we’re going to stop by Big Basin Redwoods State Park as well as a quick stop at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse [which is a hostel I want to stay at]. We’ll see…plenty to be explored!
Tanya and I made our yearly [and sometimes multi-year] trip up north to Big Sur, a coastline region of big cliffs and small roads. It turned out to be a great time to go up there as everything was in bloom and it wasn’t too overly packed with tourists. We went camping up in Limekiln State Park which is a beach and redwood area right off one of the cliff bridges. We had a beach campground which was fantastic and saw a nice fog sunset complete with gulls and roaring waves. If you’re yet to go to Big Sur, its a fantastic drive and always a great time.
via wikipedia.org;
Big Sur is a thinly-settled region of the central California coast where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean. This geology produces stunning views and has become a magnet for global tourism. Big Sur’s Cone Peak is the highest coastal mountain in the lower 48 states, ascending nearly a mile (5,155 feet/1.6km) above sea level, only 3 miles (4.8 km) from the ocean.[1] Although Big Sur has no specific boundaries, many definitions of the area include the 90 miles (145km) of coastline between the Carmel River and San Carpoforo Creek, and extend about 20 miles (32km) inland to the eastern foothills of the Santa Lucias, while other sources limit the eastern border to the coastal flanks of these mountains, only 3 to 12 miles (4.8-19km) inland. The northern end of Big Sur is about 120 miles (193km) south of San Francisco, and the southern end is approximately 245 miles (394km) north of Los Angeles.
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One of my favorite drives from LA is up to Point Lobos Reserve above Big Sur and below Monterey and Carmel. Its a small but amazing little piece of land where there are tons of tidal pools, beautiful Monterey cypress groves, otters, seals, etc. all in one place. I usually go up there a few times a year and every time I love it just as much. If you’re ever in the area, it’s a definete must of a stop. Good friend Edward Weston used to hang out in the area.
Edward Weston - Point Lobos, 1940
Edward Weston - Cypress Point Lobos, 1939
via wikipedia.org;
Point Lobos State Reserve commonly referred to as simply Point Lobos is a sea side state reserve south of Monterey, California. The very precipitous drop in the ocean floor off Point Lobos (reaching levels characteristic of the mid Pacific within a few kilometres of shore) gives rise to strange tidal effects, with unusual levels of oxygen being injected into the ocean water. This in turn has attracted an unusual collection of plant and animal life, ranging from high plankton concentrations, moving up the food chain to large mammals.
Point Lobos contains a large number of hiking trails, many next to the ocean, and a smaller number of beaches. The reserve also contains a small museum in the historic Whalers Cabin. Point Lobos is one of only two places were wild Monterey Cypress can be found. The waters around Point Lobos contain extensive kelp forests. About half the reserve is under water, and can only be explored by SCUBA diving.
Landscape artist Francis McComas described Point Lobos as “the greatest meeting of land and water in the world.”
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I’ve somehow found some time [granted this is delirious time aka 4-5am] to edit up the Point Lobos photos and got a good start on the 150 or so Big Sur images. So far they’re looking amazing, far better than anything I’ve got from the last 4 trips up there. Hopefully I’ll be able to post them up in the next few days.
Tanya and I are trying to get back on our old ‘at least once a month’ roadtrip schedule, and last week we went to the Salton Sea, which was a huge tourist destination but because of tons of pollution it’s now pretty much abandoned. Some really interesting photos came out of it, make sure to take a look at the rest of the series!
via wikipedia.org;
The creation of the Salton Sea of today started in 1905, when heavy rainfall and snowmelt caused the Colorado River to swell and breach an Imperial Valley dike. It took nearly two years to control the Colorado River’s flow into the formerly dry Salton Sink and stop the flooding. Once part of the vast inland sea which covered the area, the endorheic Salton Sink was the site of a major salt mining operation. As the basin filled, the town of Salton, a Southern Pacific Railroad siding and Torres-Martinez Indian land were submerged. The sudden influx of water and the lack of any drainage from the basin resulted in the formation of the Salton Sea.
The lack of an outlet means that the Salton Sea is increasingly becoming an unstable system: variations in agricultural runoff cause fluctuations in water level (and flooding of surrounding communities in the 1950s and 1960s), and the relatively high salinity of the agricultural runoff feeding the Sea has resulting in an ever increasing level of salinity. By the 1960s, it was becoming apparent that the salinity of the Salton Sea was continuing to rise, jeopardizing some of the species living in it. The Salton Sea currently has a salinity exceeding 40‰ (parts per thousand), making it saltier than ocean water, and many species of fish are no longer able to survive in the Salton. It is believed that once the salinity surpasses 44‰, only the tilapia will be able to survive. Fertilizer runoff combined with the increasing salinity and inflow of highly polluted water from the northward-flowing New River have resulted in large algal blooms and elevated bacteria levels. The New River is considered to be the single most polluted river in America.
The high level of bacteria resulting from fish die-offs are a major threat to the avian population. In 1992 and 1996 large scale die-offs of grebes and pelicans occurred, demonstrating the unstable nature of the ecosystem. The increasing salinity, algae, and bacteria levels have taken their toll on tourism, and many of the Salton Sea resorts are now closed and abandoned. Before recent water control measures were implemented, the Salton Sea’s surface tended to rise and fall severely, causing flooding problems in some of the surrounding communities.
For those of you interested, I have one of my favorite photographs of the year up for sale on my ebay site. $45 buys you a 8×10 / $85 an 11×14 / handcrafted Ian Grant original, complete with artist signature + numbered out of a limited edition of 85. It looks pretty spectacular huge!
after the wedding ceremony, tom, chrissy, tanya and i piled into a truck and went on down the dirt road to the vast calabasas hills to shoot some photos amongst the fields. here are a few uncolorcorrected ones:
just finished up another wedding photography shoot up in calabasas, ca which is just north of los angeles in the santa monica mountains. the service/reception was at a tiny ranch in the upper las virgenes canyon open space preserve [formally ahmanson ranch] which basically is this amazing old style ranch surrounded by nothing but grass and hills. the couple knew and were fond of my landscape work so they thought bringing the landscape together with their wedding would be a great idea and brought me onboard. to be honest i could not have thought of a better location for me to shoot a wedding, so for the next few days/weeks i’ll be bringing you wonderful photographs of their wedding. enjoy!
for you photo experts, one of the lenses i brought to the scene is canon’s new 85mm 1.2 lens, which gives you super short depths of field- much like you’ll see in food photography books like william sonoma’s. it’s really a gem especially on my canon 5d, the overall color and contrast is outstanding:
