Malibu foggy full moonrise and cartrails

Foggy cartrails and moonrise over Malibu

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Malibu foggy sunset afterburn

This is one of my favorite spots to view the fog roll over the mountain as you are up close and personal. Problem is that this area is usually fogged out so coming here is a gamble as you could be shooting good one minute and engulfed the next and end up missing some killer conditions. I’m loving how green all the hills are from this past winter.

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Sunset lupines on the Palos Verdes coast

My wildflower hunt this season led me to this sweet gnarled tree just starting to sprout new leaves. There wasn’t a ton of lupine surrounding it but I found a nice patch and framed it as the sun went down. The golden hour clouds seemed to frame the tree perfectly. Shot is both focus stacked and exposure blended which seems to be the norm with most of my spring wildflower shots.

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May Gray in Malibu above the fog

When you literally don’t know where the sea of clouds starts and ends. It’s May Gray and therefore fog season but this season started mid-april and I already made a good 5-6 trips out to Malibu before May rolled around. 

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California poppy superbloom, Walker Canyon

The moment of the trip where I climbed to the top of the hill, looked out and said this isn’t even real. This is THE most poppies I’ve ever seen blanketing any location. It looked like a river of poppies flowing down the mountain. I spent quite a bit of time up here just taking it all in.

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Foggy redwood lookup, Muir Woods

Enjoyed a hike amongst the redwoods during our last visit to SF. I was hoping that we would be engulfed in fog while we were here to get some nice misty shots but it was a bit higher than anticipated so I shot straight up into it. The late morning sun lit the fog giving this a high key effect. Nikon D750, Nikkor 14-24, f/4, 1/50 sec, ISO-1000

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Los Angeles and snow capped Baldy at twilight

Don’t forget that the reason we are having such a crazy spring bloom is because we had such an epic winter. The rate things are going I suspect summer is gonna be hot AF.

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Mt. Tam fog flow at twilight

Fog season is around the corner. Looks like the bay area is already getting a taste of it. Here’s one from my last outing up there shooting above the fog on Tam at twilight.

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Walker Canyon poppy hills

Hard to believe that all the orange splashed along the hills are poppies. Going on a super warm day was brutal having to hike in the heat, but having all the poppies open along the hills makes a huge difference. It honestly doesn't look like much when they are all closed, but once they open and you get the right light on the scene the hills explode with color.

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Firefall finale close up, Yosemite National Park

If you are lucky enough to see the Firefall finale, this is when the color really intensifies to almost look like a stream of lava flowing down El Cap. I shot this one at 300mm to frame out everything but the falls to show some of the intricate details.

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Spring lupine at sunset

This year seems to be all about the lupine and I’m glad as it is one of my favorite wildflowers. I went hunting to find some close to home and stumbled upon this perfect coastal patch overlooking the ocean. I framed this lone tree and waited for the backlit setting sun to cast some warm light on the flowers, giving them that nice glow. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a nice coastal patch. Shot is focus blended for optimal sharpness and exposure blended for maximum dynamic range. This is my favorite spring shot to date.

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Palos Verdes winter sunsets

Hard to beat the PV winter coastal sunsets but the low fog will be here soon enough.

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Giant Coreopsis on the Malibu coast at sunset

Stunning display along the Malibu coast.

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Poppy super bloom in Walker Canyon

The poppies around Lake Elsinore right now are AMAZING.

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Snow capped Strawberry peak from Palos Verdes

Beach, Los Angeles, and snow capped mountains all in one shot.

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Pali lookout over Oahu Hawaii

Light and shadows from the Pali lookout on Oahu Hawaii

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Super Snow moon over Los Angeles

Here is the sequence of the super snow moon rising over Los Angeles.

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2019 Firefall - Yosemite National Park

The last time I witnessed Firefall in 2016 I hiked above the valley floor to get a different perspective from the masses. This year, I wanted the classic location but with the reflection in the Merced. Since most end up shooting telephoto (myself included) you don’t see too many of these because there is only so much space along the bend of the river where it isn’t flowing and spots here fill up FAST. There was still quite a bit of movement so I had to use an ND filter to smooth things out a bit. Not the picture perfect reflection but all in all it’s what I wanted this year.

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Full moonrise over Los Angeles

The super snow moon is coming...are you ready?

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Record snow dump on San Gabriels - Los Angeles at twilight

2016 was a great year but 2019 set the new bar for snow on the an Gabriel mountains. Here's a twilight version of Baldy behind Los Angeles.

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Los Angeles pano with record snow levels on the San Gabriel mountains

Epic snow levels on the San Gabriel mountains behind Los Angeles

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Massive snow hits the San Gabriel mountains in Los Angeles

Well I didn’t think we’d see a storm that dumped more snow than the 2016 one but this one set the new bar. Snow dropped down to a super low elevation and Baldy was caked in. Saw these low clouds as I left the South Bay and knew I needed to get there before they disappeared. Been racking up plenty of LA shots from PV and Hahn from this storm so will get around to showing them all. This is a quick single from last night at 420mm to zoom in on all that white goodness. Is it weird that three of my favorite shots from here are all afternoon/golden hour shots? Nikon D750, Nikkor 300mm + 1.4tc, f/11, 1/100 sec, ISO-50, under about 1.5 stops.

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Last light and car trails from Palos Verdes

Took the opportunity to catch the clean air and fresh dump last Thursday in between storms before this big one hit. One of the great things about living in LA is that you can drive from the beach to the mountains and everywhere in between. So here’s a shot of a little bit of everything; a little bit of beach, a little fresh powder on Baldy, and some car trails on a perfectly aligned road. This is a combination of multiple shots; one for the last light on Baldy and 1 for each car trail.

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Winter sunsets in Los Angeles

Here are some deep colors from Hahn right as the sun’s last light was hitting the skyline and Baldy. I usually do a couple of things to help ensure the colors come through nicely; one is using a CPL to help colors become more saturated with better contrast and the second is to always underexpose the sky 1-2 stops depending on how bright the clouds are. If I am shooting with a low ISO, bringing back any shadow detail in the foreground won’t really introduce much noise. If I am shooting at a higher ISO, I’ll usually blend exposures to get a cleaner shot all around but in this case a single shot worked just fine. I also tend to use a warmer white balance for a shot like this to help bring out the yellow/oranges with less blues and then any final processing can enhance it as much as you wish from there. Got a few shots last night after the rain and hopefully some more this weekend after the second storm hits. Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200, f/14, ½ sec, ISO-50

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Golden Gate Bridge framed through the Cypress trees

I’ve always loved how these cypress frame the gate so I took the opportunity to snap this during my last trip. I wanted the glow of the bridge to shine through so I snapped this at the early stages of twilight to get that nice color and car trails. The semi-silhouetted trees keep the attention on the bridge. Hard to get more classic SF than this. Single shot with the Nikon D750, Nikkor 24-120, f/11, 20 sec, ISO-50

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Supermoon rise over Los Angeles

The night after the eclipse moonrise, I went out to Baldwin Hills to catch the moonrise. The wind pretty much cleared the air and the visibility was excellent but the wind played a huge factor as the gusts were super strong up on the hill. I fired off tons of shots as usually about 1 in 4 shots are sharp. I wasn’t able to get to the exact spot I lined up the rise due to an area being closed so this one rose a bit more to the left than I wanted/anticipated. I had this shot punched in at 420mm so I used the opportunity to pano it. This shot consists of 2 shots for the foreground for the pano and then a separate exposure for the moon just as it almost fully rose from behind the mountains. This one rose an hour after sunset so the exposure blend was necessary due to the dynamic range but the positioning of everything is accurate. 

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Moonrise over Los Angeles with snow capped Mt. Baldy

I've always wanted a full moonrise over LA with a good amount of snow on Mt. Baldy. While conditions weren't ideal, I made the best of it.

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Mammatus clouds over Los Angeles

Last night’s ominous mammatus clouds which I like to call jellyfish clouds. There’s always a good chance of seeing these things before an incoming storm. These clouds drifted nicely from west to east but they were still a bit high in the sky so I took 2 shots, one for the foreground and partially covered snow capped Baldy, and one higher in the sky for the mammatus clouds and combined them. I could have probably caught these with my wide but I only had my 70-200 on me last night. We don’t get these formations around here a ton so always nice to see. Would have been cool if they were actually hanging this low over the city. At one point the entire sky above me was full of them…was amazing to just look up and watch them float by.

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San Diego sunset over Point Loma

One of my fav views of SD overlooking the Point Loma harbor. I came up here to catch the sunset before snapping the full moon rise from a different spot. The majority of the burn was behind me facing sunset but the clouds put on a pretty good show facing east towards the city. 

Single shot: Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200, f/11, 0.8 sec, ISO-50

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Los Angeles and Mt. Baldy with snow and low clouds

One of my fav shots from this winter’s sesh at Hahn. Right when we got there at the beginning of golden hour there were some sweet low clouds hanging around near the skyline tips. It was also an incredibly clear day with probably the most snowpack of the year. I packed on the zoom for this one to get in there tight to show the building details. That compression brought the mountains right up to highlight them because that’s the focus of this shot. Was hoping the cloud formation would stay around through sunset but they ended up getting thick and covering most of the mountain. So I’m glad we got there early enough to catch these conditions. Nikon D750, Nikkor 300mm + 1.4tc, f/14, 1/80 sec, ISO-50

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