I woke up at 3:00AM this morning. It happens. I open my eyes and all of my ideas go like “Oh! You’re up! Hi!”
By 6:00 I was done with breakfast, I was washed and dressed. What to do know? We often joke about it, but the best photography happens “out there”. My best camera is not only the one I have with me, it’s also the one I have with me when I’m out there.
Yesterday night the South Bay was swept by a strong west wind, so I figured the view would have been amazing if I got high enough. Long story short, I got in my car and drove to the top of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. And there it was. Down Town Los Angeles ready to become golden in the first rays of the rising sun.
As the light changed, a delightful image of Santa Monica almost composed by itself. The Ocean was so calm that it reflected the white buildings laying on the waterfront between California and Colorado Avenue. The view was so quiet, on this warm January morning, that I almost felt back home, in Europe, looking over some Mediterranean city, in Spain or in Greece.
Last but not least, I was offered a beautiful glimpse of Century City, with the Fox Pla… excuse me! the Nakatomi Plaza shining like a bar of gold, and to the west Los Angeles International Airport, with it’s characteristic architecture.
You never know, sometimes those photo hunts are golden, sometimes they are a bust. Sometimes it’s really clear by the coast, but the inland is covered in fog. Sometimes the fog is magical, sometimes it’s just too much. This morning, it was perfect.