A very first time for photography
I have been to California many times since I was a small boy. Most of those trips have been to the southern city of Los Angeles. I reckon I have visited all the popular spots for visitors from Disneyland to the outlets. At least when it comes to mainstream tourist attractions, not much of Los Angeles impresses me anymore.
However, after many travels focusing on photography, I pledged myself to visit LA with different eyes next time. Not that I don’t love theme parks and eating hamburgers, I just know that this city offers amazing opportunities for photography. I decided to make Los Angeles more than just a point of transfer whenever I want to go back to El Salvador from Taiwan, and spend as much time as possible exploring with a camera in hand hoping to renew that “novelty factor” that traveling to a new place usually brings.
With just a couple of days of total time for freedom to wander around, I chose Hollywood Boulevard, Griffith Observatory, and Downtown Los Angeles. The galleries below are segmented accordingly.
Hollywood Boulevard heatwave
I took a walk from the intersection of Vine Street and Hollywood Boulevard all the way to TCL Chinese Theater. Southern California is famous for its high temperatures during the summer, but at the time of my visit, Los Angeles was going through a very severe heatwave. However, scorching temperatures above 40°C did not stop tourists from visiting. It certainly stopped me. After just a couple of hours of walking down the Walk Of Fame, I had to take shelter from the unforgiving midday sun and wait for it to set to go out again.
Griffith Observatory at sunset
As the heatwave eased by the late afternoon, I headed to Griffith Observatory, located north of Los Angeles, in the Hollywood Hills. The silver lining of the extreme weather is that skies are mostly clear. These are ideal conditions for me and another thousand people to photograph the sunset from this privileged vantage point. There was no shortage of dreamy-looking scenes during this golden hour, with the Griffith Observatory bathed in golden tones of sunlight, and the distant Los Angeles City skyscrapers rising up from the horizon, and the Pacific Ocean sinking in the blue hour.
Downtown Los Angeles photowalk
Another day of scorching temperatures in southern California, and it was time for another outdoor exploring in Downtown Los Angeles. My photographic expedition started late in the morning, from the iconic Walt Disney Concert Hall towards the west of downtown. Eventually, I moved southwest up to Broadway Street and came across some iconic places such as Los Angeles Theatre, Apple Tower Theatre, Eastern Columbia Lofts. From there, I took a turn to the north across West 9th Street, where I took the last few shots of this short but sweet stay in Los Angeles.
Plane spotting in LAX
My brother and I are aircraft enthusiasts. And there is hardly a better airport to spot all kinds of aircraft in the West Coast of the US than LAX. In our search for a good place to do some planespotting, my brother came across an awesome little venue dedicated precisely to “avgeeks”. The Proud Bird Food Bazaar is located right behind the southernmost runway of LAX. From there, I was able to photograph several aircrafts during the golden hour. Here is an extra gallery of my best shots of these birds landing in LAX.
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