Los Angeles Stars

Los Angeles is one of the few places where the stars come out below you. Both literally and figuratively. Over the course of this trip I am realizing that the best part of being a photographer is you have to be there. A painter can put brush to canvas in a basement but photographers get to go to these locations and experience them first hand.

City of Angles from Carl Stevens on Vimeo.

Hollywood Land

Hollywood Sign from Carl Stevens on Vimeo.

I might be the tourist thing to do but I had to shoot the Hollywood Sign. It's hard to get a good view of the sign because you are not allowed to get close to it. I did manage to find an empty lot deep in the hollywood hills to shoot this time lapse. Los Angeles is a great town full of things to do and see. I will be back in LA in a week but for now it's off to the Grand Canyon.

Leaving Los Angeles

I spent most of the day on the road to Phoenix yesterday, making one stop in an amazing valley. The entire valley is covered with windmills of all types. It is a wonderful sight to be able to see green power being created and behind it the reason for its creation.

Ocean Waves

My journey in the most american of directions has brought me just about as far as I can go. I spent Friday walking the beach in along the city of angles to photograph Santa Monica and Venice Piers. These are the first in my series of wave images taken on the ocean.

Great Show.

Last night my tour of the south west took me to the Rhythm Room in Phoenix to hear Tony Lucca and Keaton Simons. It was the first show of their tour and a great first show at that. The two of them who normally play separately showed true humility by taking the stage together and not stepping into the headliner position individually. Click here and see if this great blues show is coming to a venue near you.

A day @ Liberty Wildlife

I spent the day at Liberty Wildlife getting the tour and taking some photos. I have never seen large birds so close, it was great. They let me release a small bird back into the wild. There will be more wildlife photos in coming weeks for sure.

Falling Water

These are the images of the mountain stream I mentioned in the last post. It was a challenge to climb down to the stream with all my camera equipment but even harder to climb back up. It was more than a 45 degree incline covered with loose rocks. Landscape photography lesson #52 is big rocks on the side of a mountain are not the most steady. Thankfully the large rocks I caused to fall were falling away from me and not on top of me.

Mountain Drive

I took another drive into the mountains this week with my camera. I found a great mountain stream that fell through a series of falls that was great. They will be in my next post.

Watch out for snakes.

I hiked into Lost Dutchman's State Park today. The park is on the west side of the Superstition Mountains and gets it's name from an old myth about a lost gold mine know as the lost dutchman's mine. This most famous of american lost mines is said to be cursed or protected by guardians keeping the gold safe for it's former Apache Tribe owners. Maybe it's the snakes this sign warn about that is keeping the mine hidden.