Being a landscape photographer in Southern California has been a bit of a challenge for me. I’m constantly battling crummy weather and not a whole lot of scenic landscapes that are easily accessible. Not to mention the fact that we’re enclosed by several mountain ranges that keep tons of smog trapped over our cities.
As any landscape photographer can vouch for, we always go out hoping for cloudy skies and perfect sunsets, but it rarely works out that way. The evening I shot this, I left the house not even being able to see Mt. Baldy, due to all the smog. To give you a bit more perspective on this, Mt. Baldy is less than an hour drive from my house. By the time I got to the beach, the sky was so hazy that you couldn’t even make out the sun. It was as if the sun was hiding behind a curtain of fog, except it was smog.
It has become a challenge of mine to continue shooting through all the dull and uninspiring days, like on the evening I shot this photo, and to break free from my dependence on perfect sunsets to be able to shoot great photos. I read once that a great photographer can shoot great photos regardless of the conditions they are shooting in, and that is what I strive to achieve every time I go out shooting.
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