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
View Gallery
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.
So for the last month or so, I’ve been trying to make it a part of my routine to go out and shoot a new place every week. Mostly this is to get me away from editing photos every day, but I’m also to add to my ever growing stock photo library. With this, I’m going to try and get everyone caught up on the last few places I’ve been which have been pretty cool I think.
About: Venice Beach, California
View Gallery
Venice is a district in west Los Angeles, California, United States. It is best known for its canals and beaches, but it also has a somewhat Bohemian residential area as well as a colorful boardwalk. Venice is today one of the most vibrant and eclectic areas of Southern California and it continues a tradition of progressive social change involving prominent Westsiders.
I’ve been trying to continue my little Los Angeles project whenever I can, and the most recent shoot I did was over in the Venice Beach Canals which is a great little side away from the crazy beach scene over there.
About: Venice Beach, California
View Gallery
Venice is a district in west Los Angeles, California, United States. It is best known for its canals and beaches, but it also has a somewhat Bohemian residential area as well as a colorful boardwalk. Venice is today one of the most vibrant and eclectic areas of Southern California and it continues a tradition of progressive social change involving prominent Westsiders.
On our little ‘Central-Coast’ California trip to find a Wedding B+B, we stopped over in Carmel and looked at a few places that we could stay in August. In the past I’ve only been to the Point Lobos area of Carmel, so it was nice to see more of the town [though it’s not exactly reflected in the images below]. On the day we we arrived there were some amazingly huge waves, this man was out on the rocks and I was pretty sure he was going to get washed out at any second. He seemed pretty content listening to his iPod while counting the seconds till the tide came in more…
About: Carmel-by-the-Sea, California
View Gallery
Carmel-by-the-Sea, usually called simply Carmel, is a small town endowed with a rich artistic history situated on the Monterey Peninsula in Monterey County, California. In 1906, the San Francisco Call devoted a full page to the “artists, poets and writers of Carmel-by-the-Sea” and in 1910 it reported that 60 percent of Carmel’s houses were built by citizens who were “devoting their lives to work connected to the aesthetic arts.”
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
View Gallery
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.
One of the more random places we stayed in Ireland was in Malin Beg. It is a small quaint little area up in picturesque Donegal Ireland. Also in the general area are the ‘Largest Sea Cliffs’ in Europe, the Slieve League.
Alamy never ceases to amaze me. Today I was checking my stats and it turns out I had sold a Royalty-Free stock photo copy of the photo above. Yes, your eyes aren’t deceiving you, it is a giant pig and he is peeing. Someone paid $220 for the rights to use it. Seriously. What bugs me is people always pay lots of money for my random photos and never my good ones. Aye…
On the second day on the Dingle Peninsula small rain storms were passing over the area which made for some gorgeous clouds and lighting. Here is the second set of the Dingle Peninsula.
Some More on the Dingle Peninsula via Wikipedia.org:
The Dingle Peninsula is the smaller and northernmost of the two peninsulas that make up County Kerry, in Southwest Ireland. The landscape is wild and beautiful from the eastern spine of the peninsula in the steep Slieve Mish (mountain of phantoms) to the western end where the land breaks into a scattering of uninhabited and dramatic islands and cliffs and beaches alternate around the coast. Dingle town (An Daingean) is small enough to walk and big enough to be lively.
Once described by the National Geographic Traveler as “the most beautiful place on earth�, the Dingle Peninsula is a place of intense allure, with a plethora of green landscapes, rocky hills, long sandy beaches and staggering cliff edges. The warm Gulf Stream reaches the peninsula, giving has a wonderful mixture of sometimes rare and unusual flora and fauna.
See the rest of the Dingle Peninsula Series. The second day’s images are at the end.
In continuing with my week of crazy photo editing, here is some of the Killarney National Park set. We hit up the park on the way down from the Dingle Peninsula to the Ring of Kerry.
Some More on Killarney National Park via Wikipedia.org:
Killarney National Park is located beside the town of Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland. It was the first national park established in Ireland, created when Muckross Estate was donated to the Irish state in 1932. The park has since been substantially expanded and encompasses over 25,425 acres of diverse ecology, including the Lakes of Killarney, Oak and Yew woodlands of international importance, and mountain peaks. It has Ireland’s only native herd of Red Deer and the most extensive covering of native forest remaining in Ireland.
So I finally got some of the Ireland photos up and going, it feels like it’s going to take forever to get through all of these but they’re turning out quite nice. First up is the Dingle Peninsula, specifically Slea Head where we ended up staying for the night. The youth hostel was in Dun Chaoin, which had a gorgeous view over the Great Blasket Islands. In the morning when we left we got some gorgeous morning light which made getting up that early pretty easy.
Some More on the Dingle Peninsula via Wikipedia.org:
The Dingle Peninsula is the smaller and northernmost of the two peninsulas that make up County Kerry, in Southwest Ireland. The landscape is wild and beautiful from the eastern spine of the peninsula in the steep Slieve Mish (mountain of phantoms) to the western end where the land breaks into a scattering of uninhabited and dramatic islands and cliffs and beaches alternate around the coast. Dingle town (An Daingean) is small enough to walk and big enough to be lively.
The Great Blasket island to the west, which was evacuated in the 1950s produced at least three well-regarded Irish writers, the most well-known being Peig Sayers. Until recently the western end of the peninsula, including Dingle was very cut off from the rest of Ireland by sheer distance and poor roads.
Once described by the National Geographic Traveler as “the most beautiful place on earth�, the Dingle Peninsula is a place of intense allure, with a plethora of green landscapes, rocky hills, long sandy beaches and staggering cliff edges. The warm Gulf Stream reaches the peninsula, giving has a wonderful mixture of sometimes rare and unusual flora and fauna.
I’m trying to get caught up with all these entries I’ve had on backlog! Two weeks ago Tanya’s folks came out to visit and we all went down to Hermosa Beach to go check out the sights. Ever since I moved down to the beach communities [I live in Playa del Rey] I’ve really fallen in love with Los Angeles, well more of a tolerance, but nevertheless it’s made me a happier person. One of the more interesting towns in Hermosa Beach which is kind of a less refined college town than it’s sister town Manhattan Beach. It’s great through, tons of surfers, it’s own pier and a Boston pub that I’m still yet to go to!
Hermosa (”beautiful” in Spanish) is an accurate description of this city’s beach, which is also flat, sandy, and long; ideal for sunbathing, beach volleyball, surfing and paddleboarding. The city itself is only about 15 blocks from east to west and 40 blocks from north to south, with the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH to the locals) running down the middle. Situated right on the Pacific Ocean, Hermosa’s average temperature is 70 degrees in the summer and 55 degrees in the winter. Gentle westerly sea breezes take the edge off what can be high summertime temperatures in Los Angeles and elsewhere in the county. The same breezes help keep the smog away 360 days of the year.
I might have mentioned awhile back that I’ve been spending a lot of time getting my entire library up on my UK Stock Photography Agent’s site, Alamy.com. I got accepted with them back in 2005 and until now haven’t put a whole lot of effort into getting all my stuff up on there. For the last week or two I’ve been keywording down my list of 1900 images which takes a very long time- but to my surprise, the other day I sold my first image on there- an old-school Point Lobos image from my first time there. For get this, $297.00 [royalty-free]. After commissions, I see about $200 of it, so for minimal amount of work, the payoff is pretty substantial. Pretty cool, I’d say.
I’m not much for rides. In fact I hate carnival rides. One time I went on like the teacup ride [after forceful pushing] and came off with bloody blisters on my hand. True story. Where I’m going with this is, I almost regret not going on the Zombie ride. I mean, it has a lot to live up to with a massive skull creature with laser eyes, but how bad could it really be? Have any of you been on the Zombie ride and I can live vicariously through you?
UPDATE! Apparently others have survived the Zombie ride and lived to tell the tale! FLICKR
I used to literally beg my parents for money to play these games and would never win. On the off chance that I did win like a light stick or something, we would try to preserve it by sticking it in the freezer and it wouldn’t be found for another two years.
I like night time long exposures. When I first started in photography some time ago I used to do tons of night time photo experiments and create ghost like creatures from :30 second exposures. This was lots of fun until I got in trouble for sneaking out the window in the middle of the night.
