California Travel Photography on Hwy 1

Before I was ever any particular ‘kind’ of photographer (i.e.: portrait photographer, commercial photographer, etc) I have always been just a photographer. Someone who just has to drag my camera around and take pictures of the world around me. I guess that makes me a travel photographer too. Lately I haven’t been able to get away to do enough of that, I’ve actually been in kind of a creative funk. So I was thrilled to be able to enjoy a little me time with my camera Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Nothing breaks a creative funk like a road trip. Travel photography is actually one of my favorite things to do. I vow to go do it a bunch more.

Traveling the back way North of San Francisco is wonderfully barren of traffic and rich with farms, vineyards, sheep, cows, oak and eucalyptus trees and currently, a plethora of beautiful yellow mustard. I haven’t seen the mustard in California for a good 8 years, having been living in the South and all, but I am here for it now, and I am so happy. The rain this year has helped give the fields this intense green color that is so beautiful in the winter.

I wanted to share some of the landscapes with you, the ones I grew up with. This is how I remember California, and what I used to long for when I was away.

First night, at Land’s End in San Francisco by the old Sutro Baths, I happened upon this lovely sunset.

Land’s End, out by the Cliff House and Sutro Baths. A place where there are a lot of ghosts of San Francisco past.

Up the hill just a tad, looking down upon the baths, you can see out at the very edge on the left of the big pool where I was standing when I took the shot above.

If you look long enough, you can almost see the former Cliff House right there on the hill.

The next morning, as I set off on Hwy 1, I came upon this abandoned house that is in the middle of a horse field. The horses were missing today. I wonder if they ever wish they could go in side? I do. I love to see the inside of abandoned homes. I did not try to get in there though. I was good. See the halo on my head?

An abandoned house that now belongs to the horses.

It was a very happy thrill to see the mustard in bloom. A sign that Spring is almost here. I forgot that in California, Spring starts in February.

Have some mustard with your wine?

And then there are the trees and rolling hills… California nirvana.

Mama and baby oak…

This is why I love California, right here. Rolling hills, oak trees, rows of fir and eucalyptus, mustard in bloom…

Two Eucalyptus Trees, bonded together for life.

You can not be on Highway 1 without passing ocean and surfers at some point along the journey. It’s a California classic, so I made it black and white. Heh.

A never-ending supply of surfers enjoying a black and white wave-scape.