Our articles about the LA-based pop band “Lights Over Paris” have attracted a lot of attention. Read the articles below to see why.
Hollywood Sign and Malibu Canyon
Hollywood Sign
Lately Dr. Hyperbolus and I have been going on hikes almost every weekend from Griffith Park to Malibu. Dr. Echo Bloom joins us sometimes, but sadly he will be departing to SF in just a couple weeks. Anyway, this past weekend TMFJ (Tom-motha-fuckin-Jones) was in town and we decided to conquer the Hollywood Sign hike. The path we took was a good 3 mile hike up and took around 70 minutes to reach.
View Hollywood Sign Hike in a larger map
Now, you can’t actually rub noses with the sign. It’s fenced off and there are fines/jailtime for trespassing. But you do end up around 100 feet behind it, and it’s still totally worth it for the awesome view of Los Angeles.
So, I wanted to test out some HDR photography again… however this time just using the technique to keep all the details in the shot. The first photo, Behind Hollywood, is a single exposure, but all the others used some sort of multiple exposure. Burbank uses traditional 3-exposure HDR and was created in Photomatix and Photoshop. The other two, Observatory and TMFJ in Hollywood use two exposures that are manually blended together in Photoshop.
Malibu Canyon
A couple weeks ago, Dr. Hyperbolus and I were on the search for an iconic shot of a single tree on a hill. We drove around for a few hours (traffic mainly) and ended up on Malibu Canyon Road (probably our next hiking location). As we were driving, we finally spotted our subject on the side of the road and quickly pulled over. Here she is.
I used 3-exposure HDR for the first two photos shooting directly into the sun and then just a single exposure on the last shot to complement the series with a blown out look.
Comments
Next time you do the hollywood sign hike you really should go touch the sign. All you do is crawl under the fence, then shimmy down the rope that is in place. Easy peasy! It’s fun!
Wow man – this is absolutely beautiful work. Burbank is my favorite, followed by One Tree 1.
D-d-d-d-d-d-dAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn!!!
DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyymmmmmmmmmmnnnnnnn!!!
The last photo is meh. Way too much light.
The two other tree shots are fucking great. Magic Hour???? The lighting on the tops of the landscape is so nice.
Burbank, Observatory, and the TMFJ shot are incredible though. I love the colors in observatory. Burbank is so incredibly lush. Doesn’t even feel like LA.. feels more like you’ve time traveled to some Mayan civilization.
Are these all telephoto?
T
F
!
The landscape pictures are awesome. I especially like how Tom’s shot turned out. Up on that hill, I remember him mentioning to us how “enormous” L.A. was to him. I think you captured his perspective perfectly there. My favorite would be Observatory with the dual color horizon. Love how the moon is enveloped in the yellowish clouds and smog.
The tree turned out nicely as well. Looks like all the driving through traffic that day was worth it. That tree never got so much attention. Maybe we should go back at a different time of day, or a different time of year, and take its picture again.
Great post. Looking forward to more photographic adventures…
Shooting thru chain link is a bitch – nice try though. Most of mine are throw aways. Burb is amazing – Like Dr. Sal said it looks like mayan landscape. The haze and distant mountains give it killer perspective. Are you shooting with a polarizer? One Tree 1 is sublime. Lens flare in One Tree 2 distracts. I haven’t shot a lot of HDR, but suspect processing tends to exaggerate lens flare. Observatory and TMFJ in Hollywood are great shots as well. YOU JUST CANT BEAT WIDE AND DEEP – Keep it up!