Category: nature

California is one of the most amazing geographic locations in the world. Almost every climate, every lifestyle and every land topography can be found in the state which is the reason that it is one of the first places that people come to visit when they come to the United States.  Many famous places can be found in California but more importantly for photography – some of the most beautiful places in the world.  I put this blog together of photographs that I have taken all over the state so you can see what the locations look like and even where to take the best pictures.

Photography Tour California in 7 to 10 days or a month

I think to really capture the beauty of California you need at least 1 week in the state but quite honestly I feel that you would need 2 weeks to adequately capture most of the best places in a comfortable manner.  My recommendation for touring the state if you are coming from out of the state or the country would be to fly to Los Angeles, rent a car and then hit up all of the locations that I outline in this blog and then fly out of San Francisco to minimize your cost.  Actually flying in or out of San Diego is an option too but it it is harder to find direct flights internationally.

My recommended itinerary is about 1,700 miles of driving to some of the most beautiful places in the world.  I have driven all of those roads and I have to tell you I have seen some amazing things in the process.  You can eliminate 10 hours of the driving time of this itiniarary by not going to Redwood National Park but if you are headed up to Oregon anyway it will be well worth the trip.

Tour from Southern California to Northern California

For purposes of this, I will show the most interesting places to go and photograph in California from Southern California to Northern California.  There is no reason however that you could not develop your own itinerary to make it work for your schedule.

Spot #1 – San Diego California – America’s Finest City  (google map it)

If you want to find the most beautiful locations to photograph in San Diego.  Check out my blog post Top 15 Locations to Photograph in San Diego.  From San Diego you can actually head into another country – Mexico!  You can cross the border and see two countries in the same day.  Tijuana is a bit dangerous so be careful.

Spot #2 – Salton Sea California  (Google Map It)

After visiting the beauty of San Diego, hop in your rental car and head out to one of the most unusual places in the world.  It takes about 2.5 hours to get to the Salton Sea from San Diego but you will get a very beautiful desert drive along some lonely roads and some great photography opportunities.

The Salton Sea is one of the oddest and off the beaten path day trips you can make from San Diego.  If you like photographing quirky places, abandoned houses and desert life you have to check out this place.  I wrote a blog on it since I like it so much. You can check out more photographs of it if you link to this site.  The Weird Salton Sea.   There is a road that can take you pretty much all the way around the sea but it is very large and takes a long time. My recommendation would be to check out the city of Bombay Beach, Niland and Salton City.  Make sure you are here for sunset as it is extraordinary.

Spot #3 – Joshua Tree California (Google Map it)

 The drive from the Salton Sea to Joshua Tree California is about 1.5 hours so you can do it in the morning or evening. Joshua Tree National Park is an amazing and beautiful place.  You could spend a whole day here photographing some of the beautiful Cholla Cactus that are here and the beautiful rock and sand formations. I would recommend planning your day so you have at least 6 hours at the location and you should be there at sunset since that is the best time of day to shoot.  This place is gorgeous and it’s like your traveling to another world when you enter the park gates. Don’t get lost on the trails – it’s easy to.  This location is famous as a location for photography shoots as well as movie shoots too.

Spot #4 – Los Angeles California (Google Map It)

Los Angeles California is a 2 hour drive from Joshua Tree National Park and it is one of the biggest cities in the United States.  There are so many locations for you to visit in Los Angeles that you will probably need at the very least 2 full days to see them all.  I recommend visiting Santa Monica, Venice Beach, Downtown Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Hollywood and possibly even DisneyLand which is about 1 hour away.  Los Angeles is amazing and so full of life.

Spot #5 – Catalina Island California.  (Google Map It) 

Catalina Island is 26 miles off the coast of Los Angeles and a stunning place to visit and photograph.  To get to Catalina you need to go to Long Beach Ferry and take a boat.  The boats leave and return many times in a day and you can get there and back in a single day trip if you leave early.   Here is a website for the company that runs the ferry service Catalina Island Express .  Its called Catalina Express if the link changes.  Get to the Ferry a couple of hours early if you want to tour the Queen Mary which is a beautiful ship and other photographic opportunities.

If you go in the winter, you will probably spot whales and dolphins during the boat ride over. In the summer you will probably see flying fish as they flee the fast moving boat.  The island is quite small but you can rent a golf cart and then take fantastic photos all over the island.

Spot #6 – Sequoia National Park  (Google Map It) 

From Los Angeles there are various routes you can take to San Francisco.  The route I recommend with this itinerary is the route that requires the fewest driving miles for the whole trip.  If you have more time in California, I would recommend taking the coastal route which will allow you to see all of the amazing cities and beach towns along the California Coast.  This would mean more driving but if you have more time than head up the coast to San Francisco before heading out the National Parks I outline here.  Here is the alternative scenic route and the places I would recommend going along the coast.  It includes Los Angles to Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara to Avila Beach, Avila Beach to San Simeon, San Simeon to Big Sur, Big Sur to Carmel, Carmel to Monterey, Monterey to Half Moon Bay, Half Moon Bay to San Francisco, San Francisco to RedWood National Park, Redwood National Park to Yosemite and Yosemite to Sequoia National Park,  Alternative Long Route along Coast.   My recommendation if you take the long route is to skip Redwood National Park because it adds too many miles to the drive.  But the drive I must tell you is absolutely gorgeous in many places.

Assuming you take the route I mentioned you can be in Sequoia National Park the next afternoon if leave Los Angeles early in the morning.  Sequoia National Park contains 5 of the 10 largest trees in the world and it is astounding and beautiful.  If you want to check out the pictures I took at this place you can go here to this blog – Sequoia National Park.

Spot # 7 – Yosemite National Park (Google Map It) 

Yosemite National Park is one of the most awe inspiring places in the world.  It is truly one of the wonders of the world and probably one of the best places in the world to capture iconic and well known images.  Even if you don’t take pictures it is one of the most beautiful places you will ever visit and that is a guarantee.  This place must not be missed if you are traveling within California.  While you are traveling to Yosemite, you might pass through this small ghost town called Chinese Camp. I highly recommend you stop at this place too. Chinese Camp California The Most Haunted Town in America.

Spot #8 – San Francisco California (Google Map It)

San Francisco is the best city in the United States.  It has everything that New York has and more.  You can’t miss coming to San Francisco when you are in California because this may be the place that you end up leaving your heart.  You need at least 2 days to thoroughly enjoy San Francisco and you have to get to Fisherman’s Wharf to get the crab!

Spot # 9 – RedWood National Park – (Google Map It)

If your planning on heading up to Oregon from California than a trip to Redwood National Park is on the way and definitely worth your time.  These trees are giants – so tall that you cannot even see the top and so large that you can drive your car through some of them.   Going to Redwood National Park is an experience that you will never forget.  If you are not headed to Oregon the 10 hour roundtrip from San Francisco to Redwood and back again might be a little tiresome but there are some interesting things you can see along the way.

Spot #10 – Bixby Bridge and Big Sur California (Google Map It)

Assuming you have not taken the coastal route up through California and want to see some of the most awe-inspiring coastline in the world than you need to head down to Big Sur and check out one of the most famous bridges – The Bixby Bridge along the way.  Big Sur is over 40 miles of untouched coastline with some of the most amazing cliff views you will ever see. Big Sur is one of the most beautiful places in the world and the coastline is so rugged and dangerous that you will never experience a drive like this.

Get in the car and go!

To truly experience California the way you want to. I recommend doing it all by car.  Rent a jeep and get adventurous.  There are so many hidden and tucked away beaches along the coastal route that you will want to stop off at.  California is a world paradise and you want to experience every inch of it you can.  You will come back with incredible pictures and a lifetime of memories.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at [email protected]  Happy Photograph Hunting and enjoy your California Adventure!

If you want a beautiful sunset, is there anywhere more beautiful to see it than San Diego?  This view is a few mere steps from my front door.  I come down to this beach every day I can to see what unfolds before my eyes.

It’s fun to shoot Elk.  By shoot I mean with my camera and of course never with a gun.  I knew a pretty bad guy once and that was his hobby – shooting and hunting Elk.  He was so bad in fact that he was locked away in jail in Montana and called the worst Poacher in US history.  He was actually accused of hunting Elk in Yellowstone National Park. That is pretty outrageous if you ask me.  This guy, his name was Steve, was supposed to do a bunch of work on my house.  He ended up taking a bunch of money from me and never doing the work.  I knew he was pretty much a con-man and a crook but I never knew he was such an idiot to shoot and hunt Elk in the most protected National Park in probably the world.

In Yellowstone, while we were there. Keven spotted two Elk crossing a river and drinking from it.  We were on a hike and it was a pretty amazing moment to be so close to wild creatures and they didn’t seem so afraid of us.  I thought back to Steve and how he hunted perhaps these very same animals and how he possibly damaged the serene wild calm that they called home.  I guess that is why he got locked up for the next 25 years.  Good riddance. In any case I was really happy to come across these Elk in their natural habitat.

In the middle of Montana, Yellowstone National Park sits on what is now considered the largest Super Volcano in the world.  All around this park, signs of internal distress within the earths crust is evident.  No where is this more evident than in the multitude of bubbling mud pots that collect almost everywhere within the park.  Mud Pots are sorts of acidic hot springs that contain a limited amount of extremely hot water and lots of mud.  What you get when these mud pots develop is a little bit of boiling water under the crust of the earth and lots of mud.  The mud pots because they have various colors within the park are also called paint pots because they resemble artist pools of different colored paint.  The only difference is that the mud pots are boiling and mud is flying everywhere.  The mud pots produce this really cool steam but the steam smells like boiled eggs and actually makes your eyes burn.  You want to stay around the mud pots, but the tremendous amounts of steam, fog and general bad smell make you want to leave after a little bit.

These mud pots spell trouble for dogs and travelers to the park.  Just a couple of months ago, a dog jumped into the area where the mud pots were and cracked through the crust and literally boiled himself alive.  The owners friend, jumped in the pot to save the dog but alas he fell to the same fate.  One generally does not want to venture off the beaten path in Yosemite because it is quite easy to break through the ground and end up in one of these boiling mud soup pots.  It is quite an amazing place, full of beauty and danger.

Today marked day 2 of our stay within Yellowstone National Park.  Call it luck of the Irish as my car broke down in just about one of the best places you could break down.  Unfortunately today however we found out that they had to special order the part from another state and have it federal expressed by Monday to the location.  Apparently Range Rover does not open on weekends so that is going to have Kevin and I stuck yet another day here in Yellowstone.  I guess the word “stuck” is all based on your perception of the problem.  Things could be worse but this means that Kevin and I will have to do some fast driving on Monday night to make it home by Tuesday. I think we are still on mark to travel over 3500 miles on the road in less than 7 days.

Kevin and I spent the whole day driving through most of the park – actually we drove all around the park and could probably now become Rangers since we know the park so well.  We saw even more wildlife today – Bison, Osprey, Orange Bellied Beavers, Cranes, Elks and Ravens.  We also saw some amazing waterfalls today – the most intense and large that I have seen in my life. The lower waterfalls in Yellowstone must be seen to be believed.  They were loud and millions of pounds of water we pouring over the side of the cliff every minute.  It was a pretty awe-inspring site.

We finished off the day watching 2 elk wade across Yosemite River and pause to drink water – now that was another great day.

A view of one of the great waterfalls at Yellowstone at a location called Artist Point.  It could take your breath away it is so beautiful

Everywhere you look within Yellowstone is like a picture perfect postcard.  This place is called the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  Can you see why?

Kevin’s smile reveals the terror within his heart as he grips the railing to avoid plunging down through the raging waterfall.

Kevin slapped this surprised Bison on the Butt Cheek as we drove past him.  The Bison literally walked right beside our car – close enough to touch,  or in Kevin’s case, close enough to launch a butt slap on him.

This elk was slightly annoyed that we were watching him wade in the water and have sips of water.  Eventually about 10 cars were lined up taking pictures and trapping the poor elk in the water.

Burned trees are everywhere in the park.  That comes with the territory as boiling hot springs and mud pots spring up in random places and burn everything around.

Burned tree sticks create a barren landscape in some places.  Barren but still so beautiful.

Kevin sits on one of the picturesque park benches in front of a waterfall.

I was walking through the desert in White Sands New Mexico this week and I spotted this tree in the distance. It looked very interesting and a little scary so I went off the path to go take some pictures of it.  The branches were dry and they sprouted in all directions towards the stormy skies.  The sun began to peek out of the clouds and lit the branches and the trunk of the tree but everything else around it was still dark.  It was a scary tree.

What a long day. I spent the day driving from El Paso to White Sands National Monument.  What an unusual place in the middle of New Mexico – brilliant white sands in the middle of the desert.  The white sand is created by gypsum deposits from nearby mountains which has formed over many thousands of years.

People come here to take photographs or to take sleds down the huge dunes of white sand that cover 250,000 acres. It sure is easy to get lost in the desert with all that sand around you.  Spring is the windy season so when you go walking your footprints are erased almost immediately. You really have to keep your sense of direction to avoid getting lost. I was fortunate but they have to rescue people all the time here.

If you head down the San Diego coast and take a walk along the beach you will probably watch dozens and dozens of Pelican’s soaring up and down the beach in their V-Shaped squadrons.  The Pelican population in San Diego is swelling and you can see evidence of it on any given day.  Many years ago you be lucky to see one or two squadrons a day; the pelican squadrons are  near constant thing throughout the day as they soar back and forth.  I cannot think of any real explanation for it other than the fact that there must be more food for them out along our coast and that is why they are doing so well.

I took this picture of a pelican flying along the coast yesterday afternoon.  They can be quite lovely to watch fly because they fly in long gliding motions. They are so beautiful flying up in the air.  When they are on land however they flop around and can make quite a funny sight.

It’s March here in San Diego and springtime is springing up everywhere that you look. Now I must admit we don’t have the terrible winters that you might get back east so Spring does not mean the first flowers poking up through the melting snow or anything like that.  Well for us SpringTime is just that beautiful time of year when the weather is perfect and flowers are springing up in all directions.  I visited the Carlsbad Flower Gardens today and it was in full bloom.  Beautiful spring day in San Diego.

After a long search of hundreds of houses across San Diego Tu finally found her dream house and moved into the beautiful home this week.  Tu knew the instant that she walked into the fairy tale backyard of the house that it was her dream home. She called me to come over and take a look at the house. She never told me why.  The minute I walked into the backyard I was instantly overcome by a sense of calm serenity and peacefulness.  The backyard reminded me of  a Japanese Tea Garden and at the center of the garden stood a Banzai Tree which was planted over 50 years ago.  The garden was a complete masterpiece – a work of art and something that evoked emotion and feeling from the instant you stood in it.

Well, the backyard was not the only incredible thing about the house.  The entire interior of this beautiful property was painstakingly remodeled from floor to ceiling.  Hardwood floors, completely new kitchen, new appliances and entirely renovated bathrooms were the cherry on top of the whipped cream on top of the cake of this place.

While the garden was magical and the house beautiful, the real energy and soul of the place was the history of the family that lived there and grew up together there. In 1961, 50 years ago a young couple Del and Grace purchased the small home in Clairemont with the vision of raising a family in the beautiful town on San Diego. Over the next 50 years they did have the family they dreamed of having 3 boys and 2 girls – Christopher, Geary, Michael Leslie, Lisa and Denise.

I had the chance to meet with Lisa on various occasions and she filled me in on the history of the house and shared with me many stories about what happened there as they grew up.  As she told me the stories, I thought back to my own childhood home and realized that selling the home must have been a very emotional experience.  It was not just a house to them, but a place where almost all of their best memories happened.  I felt honored that they would entrust us with something so special.  Having viewed many of the homes that Tu was interested in, I had a chance to view lots of homes with very little soul or character – flips where sometimes unscrupulous buyers would buy properties cheap from distressed homeowners, do a few cosmetic changes and then try to sell the property for tens and thousands more than they bought it for.  I think that is what made this house incrementally more special to me.  It was a diamond amidst the rough housing market.  Lisa told me the story of the garden and how her father came home from work each night and trimmed the trees and roses, how her mother had carefully selected clippings of special plants from places she had visited and planted them in their garden.  Each plant held special meaning in this garden and things that would not grow anywhere else in San Diego defied the odds and grew in this backyard.  Maybe the plants and tree’s grew not only on sun, soil and water but on love.  Lisa mentioned to me that she began the renovations over 6 months ago and that it was an outlet for her after she lost her partner.  I realized that this renovation on her families property was not about money but love.  It was a labor of love for her father, her mother, her family and loved ones and for the memory of her childhood.  This was about bringing the home to its most beautiful state before saying goodbye.  Well it was quite touching and made me realize that this home must be taken care of and protected to protect the legacy of so much that has happened before.

The day before the closing – Lisa’s father came by the house to drop off a gift for Tu. It was a Buddha statue from a ruined temple in Vietnam.  The statue was beautiful and we placed it in the center of the garden.  It was the perfect place for the statue.  The whole garden seemed to come together after this perfect and thoughtful gift.  Later that day, I looked out in the garden and saw two hummingbirds playing and flying from tree to tree. As I watched outside, I thought to myself that this truly was a magical house.

http://www.frankiefoto.com/Photography/The-Magic-House/21655974_ss6tNJ