Foggy Los Angeles

I've been trying to get a few shots of Los Angeles recently. One being from Kenneth Hahn park with the San Gabriel's in the background. I went after a night of light rain for sunrise but the whole city was fogged over. It burned off a little bit after the sun came up to where just the tops of the skyline buildings were showing but never got any better. I took a portrait shot to show the clouds, skyline, and some of the city below for scale.



I'll go back next time we have a storm.

I've also been trying to get one from the Hollywood hills behind the Griffith Observatory. Using a telephoto lens, it gives the perspective that the city skyline is close, which is really a few miles away. I'll have to go back here too on the next storm.

Brandon Yoshizawa

B.A.Y | photography

www.bay-photography.com

Santa Barbara weekend

We headed to Santa Barbara for our now annual February tradition to visit UCSB and eat at all of our favorite places in Isla Vista. We invited my bro and his family as they also graduated from UCSB but rarely go back to visit. We left Saturday am and met in town to eat a small breakfast at Rosaritos. The bfast burrito is still pretty good, but nothing like what it used to be before they changed it years back.


After bfast we walked around campus a bit, stopping by the arbor, Ucen, and we walked out to campus point.

They open up a sealife viewing area on Saturday's where the biology stuff is right before you get to campus point.


Evan liked looking at all the animals.

Campus Point


J&J's dorm


Near Storke Tower

We picked up Freebirds for lunch and headed to the SB zoo for a few hours.


Can't beat the original SB nachos



We headed back into town and I headed back to campus point to take sunset pics. Clouds ended up being pretty nice.



We had dinner reservations at Bouchon for Jaime's bday dinner. We had high expectations due to the good reviews. A ton of the appetizers on the menu looked good so we had to try them all.
French Onion soup


Pork belly with duck egg


Crab cakes

Scallop Trio

All the appetizers were amazing. Our waiter accommodated us too and asked if we still wanted to order the duck as our last appetizer came out. We were pretty full so we didn't order it and ended dinner with the lava cake.

We'll definitely be back and will have to try the duck and lamb entrée next time.

The next morning I picked up some Cantina bfast burritos and we ate them by the pond at the hotel.




Still the best bfast burrito!

We headed back towards home. The girls stopped by the outlet and Justin and I took the kids to the park to play.





J&J treated us to lunch for Jaime's bday at Lure fishhouse by the outlets.



Ceviche


Fish n chips


Fish tacos



Everything was fresh and real good. Thanks J&J for lunch!

All in all, a good trip with the purpose to eat everything in sight (which was accomplished). Hopefully all the food pics made you hungry!

Brandon Yoshizawa

B.A.Y | photography

www.bay-photography.com

Los Angeles Panoramas

Been looking to get out and get a wide view of Los Angeles. So I headed out last week after the light rain we got in hopes of getting some shots without smog.

The first is from a hike in the Hollywood hills behind the Griffith Observatory. Los Angeles is on the left and I believe Century City is on the right. Sunset wasn't great but the visibility was pretty good.



The second is from behind the Hollywood sign. Its about a 40 min hike up and the sign is guarded by a 7 foot fence. So I lugged a stepstool up with me, and both myself and my tripod were balanced on the stool (and leaned against the fence) to take this. Couldn't quite get the entire shot with my Tokina 11-16mm so I had to stitch some together. Being as nothing was level, stitching wasn't great. I figure a gorillapod would work good here, just attaching it to the chain fence.



They have camera's all over the place here. Some people actually tried to climb over and the police told them to hop back over from a loud intercom haha.

Another shot I have been trying to get is from Kenneth Hahn park with the San Gabriel's behind the city skyline. Almost need perfect conditions from here to get this shot. Need rain to clear the smog, clouds for a colorful sunrise, and snow on the mountains. Kenneth Hahn park is pretty close so I'll keep trying.

Brandon Yoshizawa

B.A.Y | photography

www.bay-photography.com

More around Los Angeles

J and I took Georgie to do the Hollywood sign hike for some exercise and I wanted to scope it out to come back and take a picture from behind the sign on a day after a storm when there is a good view of the city.

There are multiple paths, but if parking on Beachwood, the hike isn't too bad.





The sign at the top is blocked by a fence. You could either hop the fence, which is illegal, or shoot above the fence.



By the time we got to the top, we were facing the sun. It was foggy and smoggy anyway so the visibility wasn't good. When I go back for sunset, I'll bring a step stool so I could see above the fence and setup my tripod. For the shot above I just held my camera over the fence and snapped a few.

Last night, I went back to the DWP building to get a shot I took previously but at blue hour. I've been wanting to re-take a few of my photos at this hour rather than when the sky turns black as there's a greater separation between the dark buildings and the sky.



I'll probably re-take a few of the ones looking over the 3rd - 5th street overpasses as well in the coming weeks.

Heading up to SB in a few weeks. If there are clouds, I'll head back out to campus point for some seascape photography.

Brandon Yoshizawa

B.A.Y | photography

www.bay-photography.com

Golden Point, Palos Verdes

Winter brings around the clouds so I have to take advantage while I can. I'm definitively not heading into LA on a weekday so my options are limited to the beaches. Sky looked promising so I headed back to PV last night to Golden Point. Tide wasn't too low so I had to search for a while before I came upon a decent composition with some sea life.

Only problem was that the area would get soaked when the sets came rolling in. So I waited until the sun dipped behind the horizon and then hoped out there and took a few and hopped back in before getting wet. I did manage to mistime a few and got a little wet but nothing to worry about.



Was this shot worth taking?? Haha I don't know. Guess I'll only be back to the tide pools during lower tide when its around 2 feet or lower.

I guess we were suppose to get a little rain on Thursday but now the news says it will pass through. I was looking forward to getting some smog cleared so I could go shoot some skyline shots in LA. Guess that will have to wait.

Brandon Yoshizawa

B.A.Y | photography

www.bay-photography.com

Weekend shooting

With the Manhattan Beach Pier lights still up I was constantly going to try to get that perfect shot I wanted, but the sunset never cooperated with me. Here are a few that I got around to processing from past trips. Looks like I will have to wait until this coming Christmas to try again.





Friday after work I headed out to Santa Monica. Woke up to some weird fog and thought there may be a chance that it breaks up and provides some nice colors.....wrong! Pretty much stayed thick through sunset.



I hung around until blue hour and snapped a few regardless. I still have this shot on my list to come back when there is a nice sunset and low tide. Until then, there will have to do.



Saturday, Jaime and I took Georgie hiking in Palos Verdes. there's a nice trail that hugs the bluffs near the Trump golf course. We went later in the day so there were quite a few people walking.






Georgie will always walk towards the shade, and sometimes she will just plop down when there is a big enough shaded area, lay down and drink her water.



We stopped for lunch at Pavich's pizza, a Croatian brick oven spot. We used to come here all the time when we were living in San Pedro. Thin, crispy, and always fresh. Still one of the best pizza joints in the south bay. Tried the pizza at Tin Roof Bistro the other night and it wasn't that good. Might have to go back and try one of their specials tho, the place got some good reviews. We already ate 2 slices before snapping the picture....we were hungry!



The fog was still around so I headed back out to Golden point in Palos Verdes for sunset. You can park right at the point, but have to make a pretty steep trek down the cliffs. The fog cleared nicely and provided some nice colors. This is a 3 shot exposure blend, with a polarizer used to cut through the water to reveal the sealife underneath. I had to move a few times as the waves were crashing close.



We'll be back up to Santa Barbara in Feb, and in Anza Borrego in March. Here's to hoping for some good pictures. But I'll be out in LA in the coming weeks. been wanting to get some more skyline shots, but I'll have to wait for the rain to clear up the smog.

Brandon Yoshizawa

B.A.Y | photography

www.bay-photography.com

2013 photo year in review

2013 was a great year for my photography. I feel like I learned a lot; from shooting techniques all the way down to processing techniques. We were fortunate enough to be able to visit a lot of new places, and head back to some familiar places that we love.  It was a year that we pretty much stayed around the west coast, only traveling outside of Cali to head up to the Pacific Northwest again. I also forced myself to get out more and explore the local areas for some good spots. Here is a recap:

1.  February: Up to Santa Barbara to visit the old stomping grounds....and mainly just to go eat at all of our favorite college joints. The picture is from campus point, where I used to bodyboard/surf throughout the years living there.



2. March: Mammoth Lakes. The lakes were still frozen which provided a different perspective from what I normally see. This was when I also first tried my hand at night photography. The Milky Way is best visible pre-dawn in March, so I pretty much woke up at 4am every day to head out to Convict lake and Alkali lake to get some shots. The shot below is a 3-image vertical stitched pano of the Milky Way over Alkali lake.



3. April: Camping in Red Rock Canyon state park. We ALWAYS pass by this place on the way to Mammoth so we finally decided to camp here. Hiked a bit, but it was hot so mostly just relaxed. Since its a bit inland, and the closest town is Mojave, the light pollution is minimal and good for viewing the Milky Way. I took the below picture pre-dawn when J was still sleeping in the tent.



4. May: Camping in Anza Borrego. Always wanted to check this place out as it is part of the dark sky community. We went on a weekend with a new moon, but for some reason it never really got that dark and the Milky Way wasn't that visible. It was also way too hot to hike so we visited the town and the sculptures. We'll be back in March 2014 for a second try at some night shots. The shot below was from the Culp Valley trail where we camped.



5. June: Camping at Wheeler Gorge. This was the first time we brought Georgie camping. She did well, and Nixon had someone to play with. Didn't take many pictures here so here is a random.



6. July: Olympic National Park. This was an awesome park, very diverse with mountains, beaches, rivers, and rain forests all in 1 park. Still, I think if we had a choice, I'd go back to Mt. Rainier instead.

Two of my favorites from Olympic:

Hurricane Ridge



Second Beach



7. August: Some local shooting around the area:

Los Angeles



Palos Verdes



8. October: Solo trip up to Mammoth to capture the fall colors. Love this place in the fall and it's not too far of a drive. I try to make it out here every year. The two below are from Silver lake in the June Loop.





Even had a chance to get back out for some night shots:



9. November: More local shooting

San Pedro tidepools



Manhattan Beach pier



10. November: Camping trip to Montana De Oro. We only stopped by this place previously on the way up to Big Sur. Such a beautiful place along the coast with some crazy rock formations and huge crashing waves. Bit far out but well worth it. The picture below is from the Bluff Trail which is right next to the campground.



That pretty much sums up the year in pictures. hopefully 2014 will allow for some more memorable trips and great photos to look back on.

Brandon Yoshizawa

B.A.Y | photography

www.bay-photography.com