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California

96 posts
Elephant Rock at El Matador Beach
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El Matador Beach – Malibu

El Matador Beach is an awesome little spot just above Zuma. I'm guessing it got the name "El Matador" because this rock formation looks like a bull with its head down. This location is about halfway between Ventura and Santa Monica on the Pacific Coast Highway in California. It's known for its beautiful rock formations. It can also be a little romantic getaway. I only say that because I saw lots of couples cuddling and whispering sweet nothings into each other's ears while I was there taking this photo. You don't want to be stuck there during extreme high tides since there is not a lot of beach.
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Orange Skies of Santa Monica
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Orange Skies – Santa Monica Pier

This photo is of the Ferris wheel at the Santa Monica Pier Amusement Park. I love sunsets when there are no clouds in the sky. You get nice even colors that are easy to tweak. Shot with the Canon 5Dmkii and the 24-70mm f2.8L USM lens. I tweaked the exposure in Lightroom. Created a silhouette and shifted the sky to be more orange than it already was. A very simple composition and color edit leaning into what was already there.
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Santa Monica Pier HDR
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Santa Monica Pier – HDR

This was my first time shooting the Santa Monica Pier on my Canon 5Dmkii. It's a very popular spot for photographers but it's rare to get the timing of the lights right. If you plan on going here to shoot the amusement park on the pier, the best time I've found is to shoot after the sun goes down. Unless of course there is an amazing sunset happening which only occurs a few times a year in Los Angeles. Most of the time it looks like this. 
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Malibu Pier Landscape Photo
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Malibu Pier In HDR

The coast highway in California is one of the greatest drives one can take. One city in particular that I like is Malibu. Although part of L.A. it really is its own little world with a completely different vibe from the rest of the city. It has some great surf, some amazing views, and lots of things to do. The area around the pier is a great place to go paddle boarding and take photos.
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Fourth of July at the Queen Mary with Fireworks.
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4th of July Fireworks – Queen Mary

On this Fourth of July, I went to Long Beach, California, to shoot the fireworks show at the Queen Mary. Shooting fireworks can be tricky, but it really isn't that hard. It's important to shoot with a fairly stopped-down aperture and a slow shutter speed.  Most of these photos were shot at around an f/16 with a shutter between 10-30 seconds.  I also shot with bracketing of 3 photos at two stops for these photos. The camera was set to aperture priority. This gave me three shots, all with slightly different shutter speeds, for more variety.
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