Often new aquaintances, friends, or family ask me what it is like to live in Los Angeles. The traffic? The people? Part of my response is usually, “it feels like living on vacation.”
There are so many wonderful attractions in Los Angeles, fun places to go and things to do. Before moving to Los Angeles, I was looking forward to seeing many places and Venice Beach was among them. On a Friday, I drove about 30 minutes over to Venice Beach. To live only half of an hour away from such a renowned beach...wow. (I felt the same way traveling a short 35 minutes to get to Six Flags one day.)
I arrived at Venice Beach, camera in hand and learned something incredibly important, something that is repeated itself many times since this day: the California sky is a beautiful natural phenomenon. Unbelievable. I say it all of the time, “it’s the same sky...” Everywhere in the world shares the same sky, but California’s sky is different; it’s better than anywhere I’ve ever seen. The colors reflecting off of the atmosphere, and the cloud formations are astounding. This day at Venice Beach was the first time that I really saw it, appreciated it, and photographed it. God must be a painter and one of His favorite canvases is the California sky.
When I finally sat down to edit these images, I was blown away at what I was able to create in Camera Raw. I would tweak the sliders, change exposure, change color temperature and contrast, and discover astoundingly beautiful color combinations in the image.
*Very important to note, I DID NOT add or paint any of the color patterns or formations that you see in the images. I only adjusted the RAW image as to enhance or bring out the colors. What I'm trying to say, is that the sky naturally held all of these variations, transitions and combinations of color.
I did however have a little artist's fun and seeing what colors gave the most "WOW" for each image. Sometimes the color orange felt strong, other time's blue or purple...
*I also did add a touch of a vignette effect to some of the images, meaning the outside of the images appear to have a blackened edge. I only did this for an emotional effect of comfort and to bring out the vivd colors in the middle of the image.