City Lights, a photo from California, West

Photographer's Note

I have posted a few pictures on my way to the top of Mt Hollywood in Griffith Park. This photo was THE ONE, the purpose of the trip. I took this picture on the top of Mt. Hollywood facing south direction viewing the city of Los Angeles.

Los Angeles downtown is on the left hand side with the high rise buildings. A different view of the downtown is showing in one of my previous post Los Angeles Sunset. A short flat building on the right hand side of the high rise buildings with blue-purple colored lights is Staples Center, the home of LA Lakers(NBA), LA Clippers(NBA), and LA King(HNL).

The lower right hand side of this photo is Griffith Observatory. The Observatory can be still seen clearly under the dusk. The reason is that this building is above the smog line. The straight lighted line behind Griffith Observatory is Western Blvd. The bright street line on the left is Vermont Blvd; and the one on the right is Highland Blvd. The right bottom corner is Hollywood Blvd in the city of Hollywood.

The reason of the buildings cannot be seen clearly in the Los Angeles basin, in comparing with the observatory, becasue of the pollution smog. From this picture, you can see that below the smog line, it is a hazy city. Above the smog line, it is clear sky.

I borrowed 1931 Charles Chaplin’s movie as the title of this picture.

About this photo:

I have used F/22 (the smallest F-stop available to my camera); 30 second exposure time (the longest exposure time to my camera); and the ISO was set to be 200.

The original photo has the size of 3002 x 1035. This picture is a reduced version with 800 x 276. A larger size (1400 x 483) can be seen by clicking the picture.

The sun was totally set about 5~10 minutes before this picture was taken. The mosquitoes were about to eat me alive.

Due to the construction of Griffith Observatory, the road to Griffith Observatory is closed from sunset to sunrise. My car was parked next to Griffith Observatory, which is about one mile from the top of Mt. Hollywood, where this picture was taken. Right after I took this shot (and one more with the exact setting after this one for safety), I ran all the way in the dark along the way you saw in this picture, although I hiked along a very steep short cut to get to the top. I was delighted when I saw my car was still there (not been towed away). However, my car received a violation citation for parking there after sunset ($40.00). I also found that I lost the camera-attach-piece of my tripod. So it is a costly trip and a costly photo.

I would feel my trouble is worthwhile if you enjoy the photo. Thank you.

carper, apache, ChristianS, thohau, cessy, Fixfocus, jhm, ChrisJ, andchew, singuanti, Steve_T, nwoehnl, kent_s, jjbach, Tue, Jeppe, maurajn, Emile, PJE, jajko, elihesamian, LEA, jbweasle, jrenier, liakos, rajhema, nima82, tootsie, serrano ha puntuado esta nota como útil.

Critiques | Translate

carper (96) 2005-05-07 2:17

Nice one Wes,
not an easy one but you did a good job here, very nice composition and a goood point of view, very good LP shot,
gr. Jaap

apache (1426) 2005-05-07 3:28

WOW Wes,
Did you take this from an aeroplane or something? This is one cool shot. Look at all those lights. Gives an impression of a lava flow...! Very well taken. And nice notes. One of my favourites.
Ranjith

ChristianS (2997) 2005-05-07 3:35

Hi Wes, this panorama is wonderful, I enjoyed even more in the large version. The myriad of lights and the vastness of the city is very impressive, you chose a great place for this perspective, overlooking the city. I like those long straight luminated streets leading the eye towards the horizon and the dark blue sky. Well done!

Regards, Christian

karina (1109) 2005-05-07 3:57

Tremendous view. I love the thousands of tiny lights, and the glow just above the horizon. A good impression of the vastness of the city.

thohau (919) 2005-05-07 4:34

Wow Wes!!!
I'm blown away! I have to revise my comment about your Griffith Park series made few days before: THIS is MY FAVORITE of Griffith Park! This is a perfect night shot - I think I have to add it to my favorites list!
Very good work, Mr. Wes!
Thorsten

rbcy1974 (20758) 2005-05-07 5:30

Very Nice one Wes,
I really appreciate all the work you must have gone through to do this image, I hope you didnt disturb any kissing couples while taking it :)
Regards
Daniel

Hanssie (11022) 2005-05-07 9:31

Spectacular lights and a beautiful view over the city, great shot, Wes !

cessy (13647) 2005-05-07 10:21

woww... !! city of lights !! magnificent view, very well captured Wes

Fixfocus (9385) 2005-05-07 10:32

A fine capture of the light mood here,Wes!
Beautiful colors and contrasts,what I´m missing here a bit is a focussing point,a point where the eye can rest on... just a detail.
Have a nice weekend!

Leonie (8809) 2005-05-07 10:32

Hi Wes, typical american night sight...I remember landing in the States for the first time of my life in Chicago and seeing these parallel nets formed by the streets and roads...and such massive extension... As we Europeans are only used to from movies.!
Nice shot!

Leonie

jhm (211736) 2005-05-07 11:12

Hello Wes,
A very great panoramic picture and certain by night, all this lighting give wonderful depth and large perspective, interesting note too!
Greetings,
John.

andchew (476) 2005-05-07 13:30

Hi Wes, WOWWWW, Such a beautiful panorama view of LAX. I love the glowing lights of the city over the dark blue horizon. Your notes are very informative and good. Regards, Andrew

singuanti (15250) 2005-05-07 15:24

Good grief Wes! Can a shot be any more spectacular?? I think not! I see you took this around 10 at night, which would be about an hour after sunset. So yes Norbert was dead-on with that suggestion. Your colors and sharpness are dead-on. All of the camera settings were perfect. The noise seems very low for a 30 second exposure. Did you remove any? At any rate my sincerest congratulations for this eye-popping shot!

Steve_T (421) 2005-05-07 16:17

Wow, very beautiful picture Wes! Very good work!

nwoehnl (122) 2005-05-07 16:33

Ouah, excellent shot, Wes. What an idea to make a dusk panorama of the urban grid, it really came out great, particularly in the large version that echoes the pulse of the urban heartbeat. Good job with the stitching.

kent_s (1911) 2005-05-07 16:38

We've enjoyed yot trip to the the top of Mt. Hollywood for past few days. Now we're enjoying a terrific night panorama of a city we've seen so much on TV and in the movies.
Your trip up there was worth all the effort at least to the members of TE

Thanks Wes for doing all this.

jjbach (9326) 2005-05-07 16:55

Woooooow !! Gorgeous shot Wes,
Excellent depth, marvellous view !! The light, the angle and the exposure are fantastic!! I believe that you deserve more than two points.
I'm adding this one to my favorites at once.

Sorry for your camera-attach-piece and the citation !!
Regards John

alvaraalto (42804) 2005-05-07 17:45

Hi Wes,
Superb picture. It looks like your flying over the city trying to find the runway. On the large version you can see the other planes looking for the runway very clear. I wish you a safe landing.
Groet Rob

MvS (4163) 2005-05-07 17:45

Fantastic pano Wes!
You really see how big this place is in this shot, and the colours are amazing. After a while I thought it reminded of lava coming coming down from a volcano.
Impressive result,
Magnus

Tue (92560) 2005-05-07 17:46

Hi Wes,
This is really a great picture! All those lights, amazing! Did you count them? ;-)
I like the colours very much, very well done and great idea! :-D
Grtz, Lars

Jeppe (18654) 2005-05-07 17:57

Hi Wes

Hard to capture (in my mind) the amount of light pulps and the energy being used.

Amazing sight and truly worth the trip of yours - thanks a lot for sharing this and other photoes you got this day.

Regards
Jeppe

maurajn (902) 2005-05-07 22:52

I like the lines that the lights make in the photo. I've seen this shot before in movies.

It sure gets dark fast after the sun sets down there!

Really a good urban shot with a lot of details and super notes. Sorry your losses were so high on the shot ... darn.

Emile (20352) 2005-05-07 23:55

Impressive night view of Los Angeles. Very well captured with all those lights, like in the movies.
Also surprise me that you click over the photo and you are able to see the original size picture, wow,,I have to learn a lot.
Well done Wes.

ChrisJ (171888) 2005-05-08 4:36

Hi Wes

Wow! What a multitude of lights! Superb sharpness & color. The wide angled panoramic format suits perfectly. Good work!

PJE (20758) 2005-05-08 9:34

Wes nice pespective from this pan shot. I like the larger feature too by opening it up. I wonder how that is done now seeing I have a few nice pans to post too. I think you would have had a sharper capture on 100 ISO. You should try it and then compare them when you zoom in around 100 to 200 % in the details. But on this you have a lovely pan. Now I can see from the lights that when I same to disney land a few years back that I stayed in that hotel which is exactly 1.569 inches in from the left and .98765 inches up from the bottom. These are exact x y coordinates.

jajko (775) 2005-05-08 11:02

hi.
nice capture of big city. it is very impress. good work. good notes.
regards, lukasz

maphoto (8082) 2005-05-08 22:12

Nice presentation Wes and not an easy one, the panoramic view is excellent sowing all those lights and I guess the fog, good depth, wel done.

kclai (2267) 2005-05-09 1:37

Hi Wes.
Well, after getting a violation citation for parking your car and loses your tripod really worth for such a spectacular night shot of LA.
Your notes really provide the skills.
Bravo, Wes.
EricL Lai

MoosicMan (1231) 2005-05-10 22:57

This one's a keeper, Wes. I am glad you did a large post on this. I look at that street coming down to the Observatory and at the other end of it it looks like the end of the world. Awesome shot, my friend, and well worth the trip and the wait.
Congrats,
Matt

elihesamian (26149) 2005-05-13 13:46

Indeed great night shot you worked,Wes!
Congratulation!
amazingly attractive specially in large version,great work and colors are wonderful,very well managed the view in that dark situation,nicely done with a great composition,Wes!

$40.00!!!...:)

Best Regards
M

premels (2400) 2005-05-15 7:24

Hi Wes, This really a great panorama. The dark blue of the sky, the tick smog covering the city visible on the horizon and finally the city ligths running along the streets and blvd (a bit like blood running through apparent veins), everything is great.

mumek (20226) 2005-05-15 19:32

Good evening Wes!
Fantastic night panorama of the L.A.The beautiful sea of the lights. Thanks for posting the picture and thanks for the note.
regards
ziggy

LEA (5006) 2005-05-16 5:49

Extraordinary picture! I would like to make such a picture of Brussels or of Paris but there is no mount( like mount Hollywood) just next of this cities so such pictures are impossible. Very Great Job.

Steft (6109) 2005-05-19 18:31

Very nice photo with very great colours and a nice wide view. The photo was very costly, but it must have been great to see this view with all those tiny little lights. The result is very good!

coco (30439) 2005-06-22 12:40

I M P R E S S I O N A N T.
No more words.

AmiBe (6042) 2005-06-29 13:56

Hi Wes,
very impressive picture, very good POV.
We can see the large avenues, it's nice.
Good exposure, too.
Well done !

donluicu (24741) 2005-07-26 5:41

Wes
this is an excellent night panoramic shot.
It's view we see oftne in movies, and you share it trough TE..nice work.
bye
loic

jbweasle (9393) 2005-08-01 16:57

An incredible array of lights, Wes. It shows the vastness of the city superbly as well as its blanket of smog. Fabulous panorama shot - thanks for posting the large size.

jrenier (762) 2005-09-07 15:31

Very nice panorama.
I know it's very hard to get a decent picture from that place, i tried many times ;) You did it right, it's really nice.

rajhema (1873) 2005-09-26 12:07

Shorter version is much better thanlonger in my view Wes. What a glittering picture? I'm sure you stitched many pictures together. the picture looks great

tootsie (400) 2006-01-29 21:43

hi wes,
wow there is really nothing like the lights of LA. beautiful capture, love the panorama. great note too.
tootsie

asianowl (2) 2008-03-25 16:11

Great Job man... You can even see the haziness of the skyline. I love LA. I am trying to take some similar pictures to yours as well.

Photo Information

Copyright: Wes Wang (weswang) (18247)
Genre: Lugares
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2005-04-30
Categories: Vida cotidiana
Camera: Nikon D70, 28-85 3.5-4.5 AF Nikkor
Exposición: f/22, 30 segundos
Details: Tripod: Yes
More Photo Info: view
Versión de la foto: Versión original
Tema(s): Photos that have a movie title II, City by night, Selection of My Own "Good Ones" [view contributor(s)]
Date Submitted: 2005-05-07 1:32
Favoritos: 7 [Ver]