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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