On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Good Morning All,
As always, you’re encouraged to submit pictures for this feature via the form
Have a wonderful day, and enjoy the pictures!
Today, pictures from valued commenter ?BillinGlendaleCA.
…back on Planet Earth.
Actually these pictures were shot the day before my journey to ZZyzx and 2 days before my trip to Joshua Tree. My colleague who I went to Joshua Tree with and organizes the local meetups has asked me to go to the #streetmeetla meetups before and I’d looked at the pictures and many were just a bit too far out there for me. In early June he’d asked again and I said I’d go and promptly forgotten. He reminded me again a few days before the event and so on a sunny Sunday afternoon we headed down to Pt. Fermin Park(just below the Korean Friendship Bell). I also had received my (new to me) Galaxy Camera NX. It looks a bit like a cellphone and runs Android, but has a APS-C sensor(larger than a cellphone) and produces RAW images. The way things worked is photographers and models would show up and the models would position themselves in places where they thought the background would be nice(quite a few of the models had been photographers) and the photographers would shoot. There were also performers(a couple of stilts and fire breathers). I enjoyed the afternoon and got some practice at shooting models. Afterwards we headed up the coast stopping at Point Vicente for some shots of the lighthouse and then further up the coast to Redondo Beach and Hermosa Beach for the sunset.
Taken on 2019-06-30 00:00:00
Pt. Fermin Park
This young lady was at the meetup when I got there and was talking to photographers but wasn’t walking though the park for modeling until about half way though the meetup. She posed up against the wall with the ocean and Catalina in the background(you can see a bit of Catalina at the right). I had to do quite a bit of work to get the ocean and the sky dark enough to contrast with her white outfit. One thing I did in this picture that I don’t normally do is I added vignetting.
Taken on 2019-06-30 00:00:00
Pt. Fermin Park
This model showed up with another model(they may have been sisters) about half way though the meetup. They had a person with them who had a reflector so you could get some interesting lighting in the shade.
Taken on 2019-06-30 00:00:00
Pt. Fermin Park
I’m not sure she came intending to model, but she was over by the seawall mugging for the photographers with one of the models and decided to smoke a joint. Her friend cleared out and so I got a few pics of her.
Taken on 2019-06-30 00:00:00
Pt. Vicente Lighthouse.
Having finished with the models, we headed west along Palos Verdes peninsula, past Fat Bastard’s shitty golf course to Point Vicente and it’s lighthouse. I thought that this would be a nice place to shoot the Milky Way, but I learned that it was closed at night when I parked and started to setup and the sheriff said it was closed. It’s still a nice place to shoot and you could see Catalina right behind the lighthouse. This was shot using exposure bracketing and the three exposures were combined in HDR software. At this point my Galaxy NX battery was low so I had to revert back to mainstay, the NX1.
Taken on 2019-06-30 00:00:00
Hermosa Beach Pier.
We got to Redondo Beach just at the sun set and looked at locations along the harbor, but didn’t find any really great shots. So we headed a bit up the coast to Hermosa Beach and stopped by the pier. It was pretty dark by then and I wasn’t sure that I really get any pictures. I set up my tripod and shot some pretty long exposures. Here’s a lifeguard station and the Hermosa Beach pier with the sky still lit up by the set sun. Even though it was about hour after the sun had set you can still see quite a bit of sunlight.
Thank you so much ?BillinGlendaleCA, do send us more when you can.
Travel safely everybody, and do share some stories in the comments, even if you’re joining the conversation late. Many folks confide that they go back and read old threads, one reason these are available on the Quick Links menu.
One again, to submit pictures: Use the Form
Raven
When my mom was alive and living in Torrance we would drive to the Manhattan Beach Pier, walk north to El Porto and then south to the Hermosa Pier. When I was a kid I live in Chicago but spent the summers out there. The old Hermosa Biltmore was closed but they had a teen club in the basement with bands and free popcorn during the day!
Mary G
That last one is killer.
Mel
The model in the second photo gives off a very cool, retro 1940s pinup vibe. She’s channeling her inner Rita Hayworth!
The colors in the lighthouse photo are wonderful. The intensity of the blue juxtaposed against the rust and russet of the cliff face is exquisite.
Maybe it’s partially sleep deprivation (helping to care for an elderly relative who has dementia, and tends to get up several times during the night, needing reassurance and comforting conversation to center her and help her feel secure so that she can get back to sleep), but that photo makes my imagination take flights of fancy to 18th century pirate ships.
Raven
@Mary G: I have, not one, but two John Post framed posters of the Manhattan Beach Pier in my living room. One is a sunset shot during the Malibu Fires and the other of a winter day when the south swell had waves breaking at the top of the pier. South Bay Surfers Rule!
Raven
I caught this one December morning when the surf really pumped!
Raven
This thread shows up on my iPad but not on my laptop?
HinTN
@Mel:
You got that right. Also, the non-model has it going on! And the sunset shot is a killer.
Thanks ?BillinGlendaleCA
Mary G
@Raven: I love the beach most after sunset when everyone else has gone home, or in the winter.
arrieve
@Mary G: Me too. I always think it’s because I grew up in San Francisco — a hot, sunny beach just seems wrong to me — and walking on a nearly empty beach in the early morning or late evening is the best.
I really like the model pictures. I’d love to do more portraits but most people I know very sensibly hate to be photographed. I love the vignetting.
JPL
Wonderful pictures.
debbie
@Raven:
I love when Nature puts me back in my insignificant place. From a safe distance, of course.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
Great pics as always, BillinG! The sunset makes me swoon.
@Raven: Very cool.
Thanks to both of you.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Raven: The Manhattan Beach Pier is on my list of places to shoot sunsets. You should check out the Noirish LA thread over at Skyscraper.com lots of old pics of LA over there.
@Mary G: It turned out well, but it required a bit of work in post.
@Mel: Thanks, the lighthouse is a great location.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@HinTN: Thanks.
@arrieve: Thanks, I wasn’t sure whether to do this set.
@JPL: Thanks.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: I’ve shot some more beach sunsets, my colleague and I shot at Venice Beach about a week after these were shot.