Sliver Of Sunset
Here is another shot from Sunday evening above Hollywood and the Academy Awards. I wanted to avoid the chaos of my neighborhood on street level but also wanted to capture the busy city from afar so Hollywood Bowl Overlook was my logical destination.
I hoped tourists would rather stand around for no reason hoping a celebrity would be wandering around on foot than head to this vantage and I was mostly correct. The parking lot was full and after a few minutes of waiting, a spot opened up and there was really no one else around me. One guy was set up with a few cameras but was gone after it began to get dark and for a while, I stood on the sloping path down towards the city all by myself--which is what I prefer.
I love cityscapes even though I still have some issues trying to get settings right. It's one thing to expose a shot for the sky or for the foreground but dealing with changing ambient light or working in a longer exposure can present challenges. This was a pretty quick exposure--mainly because I wanted to focus on the blimp as long as it was hovering over my view--but surprisingly, even at longer exposures later in the evening, the clouds really didn't change much. The shutter speeds on the 3 posted so far from sunday night range from 1/125th of a second to 77 seconds and the sky remains mostly the same...the main difference being the light trails on the freeway and the lit buildings after dark.
Probably the biggest saving grace of coming here during the sunset to my back is when the intense light creates that golden sliver across downtown as seen here. I've shot here maybe 15 times now over the last year and have seen conditions like this on about 1/3 of the visits. While part of me is always bummed that I didn't go somewhere to shoot the actual sunset, at least I have aspects of the sunset incorporated into my shot. There really is no clean angle of a sunset here and I haven't found any good areas along Mulholland that are easy to stop at either. Nearly every scenic overlook faces away from the sunset--probably intentionally to avoid traffic--and as long as this is my favorite city view, I'll probably continue to pick this place first over any other area nearby.
LOCATION
Hollywood Bowl Overlook
Los Angeles, California
February 26th, 2017
SETTINGS
70mm
ISO 100
f/2.8
1/125th second
Sliver Of Sunset
Here is another shot from Sunday evening above Hollywood and the Academy Awards. I wanted to avoid the chaos of my neighborhood on street level but also wanted to capture the busy city from afar so Hollywood Bowl Overlook was my logical destination.
I hoped tourists would rather stand around for no reason hoping a celebrity would be wandering around on foot than head to this vantage and I was mostly correct. The parking lot was full and after a few minutes of waiting, a spot opened up and there was really no one else around me. One guy was set up with a few cameras but was gone after it began to get dark and for a while, I stood on the sloping path down towards the city all by myself--which is what I prefer.
I love cityscapes even though I still have some issues trying to get settings right. It's one thing to expose a shot for the sky or for the foreground but dealing with changing ambient light or working in a longer exposure can present challenges. This was a pretty quick exposure--mainly because I wanted to focus on the blimp as long as it was hovering over my view--but surprisingly, even at longer exposures later in the evening, the clouds really didn't change much. The shutter speeds on the 3 posted so far from sunday night range from 1/125th of a second to 77 seconds and the sky remains mostly the same...the main difference being the light trails on the freeway and the lit buildings after dark.
Probably the biggest saving grace of coming here during the sunset to my back is when the intense light creates that golden sliver across downtown as seen here. I've shot here maybe 15 times now over the last year and have seen conditions like this on about 1/3 of the visits. While part of me is always bummed that I didn't go somewhere to shoot the actual sunset, at least I have aspects of the sunset incorporated into my shot. There really is no clean angle of a sunset here and I haven't found any good areas along Mulholland that are easy to stop at either. Nearly every scenic overlook faces away from the sunset--probably intentionally to avoid traffic--and as long as this is my favorite city view, I'll probably continue to pick this place first over any other area nearby.
LOCATION
Hollywood Bowl Overlook
Los Angeles, California
February 26th, 2017
SETTINGS
70mm
ISO 100
f/2.8
1/125th second