Southern California has gotten quite bit of weather lately, thanks to the changes in the jet stream track in this El Niño year. readers may recall my post from last week: El Nino turns ‘el mean yo’ for California where I had a front page of the Bakersfield newspaper showing a snowstorm in progress over the Tehachapi Mountains. There were more storms after that, and many mountains in Southern California now look like mountains in the Sierra Nevada. This one of a kind photo, showing mountains and the beach, pretty well sums up the scene.
Photo by Elena Zimina, taken from the Huntington beach Pier, looking east. Downtown Huntington Beach and the Pacific Coast Highway (CA101) are in the middle of the photo just beyond the palms.
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Those mountains are 10,000 feet high – they get snow every year. Several ski resorts in those mountains as well. It isn’t a surprise to see snow in the mountains outside LA.
I guess it went over your head I !!
The close juxtaposition of mountains and beach seen here is obviously Photoshopped. Google search reveals the photographer to be a Huntington Beach realtor. Realtors are also fond of using the vignetting and high dynamic range effects seen in this image.
Sorry, no. I know the realtor, she’s a friend of my sister who lives there. The image is indeed taken in HDR mode, but it is NOT Photoshopped. A zoom lens was used to compose the image while in HDR mode.
What exactly does “the vignetting and high dynamic range effects ” even mean ??
I’m lucky to get a photo into my computer, and then share it with anyone that might even care.
An internet search will quickly turn up many photos like this along the coast. Grapevine Pass north of L.A. on I5 becomes a nightmare for drivers during the same snow falls this time of year. The mountains south of Palm Springs often have large amounts of snow on them this time of year easily visible from I10. No telephoto lens required to capture that. Since Tucson was mentioned above, you can take in a mild winter day in Tucson, or go up 9,000 feet to near the top of Mt. Lemmon at the north edge of town to go skiing for the day. It’s a 90 minute trip when the roads at the top are full of ice and snow.
As others have pointed out, this is just the flattening effect of a long telephoto lens on perspective.
The flood of small sensor short focal length lenses in phones and small cameras means this perspective effect is not seen much anymore, but get a medium format or larger sensor with medium telephoto, or a 35mm sensor with 200mm or longer lense and you get the foreshortening effect on perspective.
Oddly, the effect is a direct result of the focal length, (as are depth of field effects), so a 250mm lens gives the same perspective change regardless of film size… but the sensor / film size crops the image circle and determins what we call telephoto. This means that a 250mm lens on an 8 x 10 field camera flattens perspective while not being telephoto…
Folks usually don’t think about that, but high end photoraphers use it all the time. Want shallow depth of field and flattened perspective? Use a bigger film size and long fast lens wide open. Want exaggerated distances and everything in focus? Use a small film size, 18mm lens, stopped down. No photoshop required.
One of my gripes about the Nikon SLRs with APS size sensor. My 24 mm lens is no longer a very wide angle lens, and the “normal” 50mm lens is now a mild telephoto, but doesn’t give as much foreshortening effect as the mild telephoto on full size 35mm sensors. As I love the telephoto perspective and shallow depth of field, I need to find a few $ thousand to buy high end gear to get back to what lower end “medium format” film cameras would do. Sigh.
For photography, sensor size DOES matter. Not just for resolution, but for perspective as well…
Next we will get that over used word, ‘co-exist!’ Money gets answers wether they are right or……. doesn’t matter,
Photo not that unusual. Back in the mid-60s, when I lived in Pasadena CA at the base of these mountains, many times in mid-winter I sat on my patio in short-shirt-sleeves, under a lemon tree bearing lemons, and looked up at show covering the top tops. A popular activity was to drive up to Mt Wilson, covered with snow, and pile as much snow as possible on your auto. Then drive it back to the city, still covered with snow but melting fast, amid blooming flowers and people in light clothing.
This just in: Tornado warnings SE and NE of Red Bluff, CA. Heavy rain. These are north of Chico where Anthony lives (I think).
(Screw Anthony, it’s where I live ; )
Wow!
This isn’t the only image of the combination of snow and clear air:
http://www.latimes.com/visuals/photography/la-grapevine-interstate-5-closed-ice-pictures-20130220-photogallery.html
Once in the early 90’s I road a Motorcycle in the snow, fun times. I was taking a roommate to visit his girlfriend who lived in Scottsdale Arizona. Somewhere I have pictures of snow on the front lawn of the house I owned in Mesa.
My parents complained that every time they had moved since they were married, it poured down rain on them as they moved (I can count six or seven moves).
The time they move to the Cresenta Valley — the last move they were to make, as it turns out, it did not rain,
It snowed. (The second time in my lifetime that it snowed where we lived.)
Thanks for that wonderful photo.
Southern California has gotten quite bit of weather lately, thanks to the changes in the jet stream track in this El Niño year.
Nice to know they are still getting weather in California. I would hate to think that they were no longer getting any weather. 🙂
Between Tehachapi and Bakersfield, I have seen snow on top of palm trees themselves. This was near State Rt 58, some years ago.