A Hiking Blog for Southern California
I hiked a big loop in and around Sycamore Canyon over the weekend, and was surprised to still see a very healthy amount of wildflowers dotting the landscape.
I’ll have a full write-up posted soon, but here’s a few flowers to whet your appetite until then.
Assuming, of course, that you eat flowers.
Chances are, if you take a camera with you when you hike, the majority of the shots you’re taking are landscapes. If you’re like me, you’re probably using a point-and-shoot, and probably get a little irritated when the sky or ground gets blown out in your final shot.
The folks at All Day I Dream About Photography have written up a handy primer on the beloved Neutral Density Filter, a handy lens that basically equalizes the light exposure on the different areas of the frame - which also allows you to shoot at a slower shutter speed.
As a preventative measure, the site also posted an entry about why you don’t need an ND filter, saying if you’ve got a tripod and some time to fire up the ol’ Photoshop, you can get basically the same results.
As for me, I don’t own one, as I’d probably have to hold it over my camera’s lens manually. Plus, when I’m on the trail, I’m usually “shooting from the hip,” so to speak … but I have wanted to check one out to see if it would make a big difference.
I’ve also heard that a pair of polarized sunglasses will do the trick in a pinch.
This morning, I made an attempt at Mount Lukens via Haines Canyon.
The trip started out all right, but due to some bad directions and bad weather, I ended up missing an important junction, landing myself on a fire road instead of the intended trail.
I hiked up the fire road anyway, despite its frustrating winding direction, and managed to make it into the cloud cover over Tujunga. There, with visibility reduced to about 100 feet and the temperature reduced about 15 degrees, the clouds opened up and poured rain on me, soaking me to the bone.
I kept going for a while, but without the visual of the summit to motivate me (and the fact that I was losing feeling in my fingers), I turned around and headed back down.
I logged about 9 miles and some healthy elevation gain, which is what I was looking for, but the experience was fun and completely worth it once I stumbled upon this — on the trail proper:
Gives “off-roading” a whole new meaning.
I don’t know if I’m going to give this the full write-up treatment yet, as I had to keep my camera stowed for most of the trip, but I did still sneak in a few good pictures.
… oh, and it turns out the spot where I decided to run back to my car and get the feeling back to my hands was just about a mile from the summit.
You think I’m exaggerating when I say that people go nuts here when it snows.
Today is the first sunny day we’ve had for almost a week, and before it starts raining / snowing again, Angelenos are proving that yes — Los Angeles DOES have snow and mountains.
A quick search on Flickr has a ton of pictures of our beloved San Gabriels, blanketed in a healthy coat of the white stuff. Here’s hoping for a good snowpack this year … and maybe a reason to finally invest in some snowshoes.
“Mountains Outside of Los Angeles” by Tarzana4ever.
From somewhere that looks near Red Box by LAPhoto1.
The venerable photography-blog All Day I Dream About Photography has awarded it’s “Photographer of the Week” to the incredible nature photographer Daniel Ewert.
The man knows how to capture a landscape:
Of particular interest to us Westerners are his collections of Pacific Northwest photos and pages of Zion shots, but they’re all worth looking through … especially if you’re stuck inside because of the rain this weekend.
Click here for a Google Map of Los Angeles hiking trails.
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