Saturday, January 16, 2010

Nobody's Walkin' in LA

You've heard of "getting away from it all." If you enlarge this photo, in the distance you can see what-all people around here like to get away from.

22 comments:

Dina said...

Great that you have the "away" not too far away.

Eleonora Baldwin said...

Ciao my webmaster,
this is amazing, becasue I've always seen LA from the OTHER side, the Ocean to the west and Downtown at northeast. I've never seen it from Pasadena (the one time we went to the Rose Parade a million years ago I was looking at other stuff).

This is a totally new angle for me, and it took me a moment to orientate myself. Fun.

Nobody's walkin' in LA is right!
When I lived in LA we spent most of our day in the car. Once I went for a walk to the park and being used to Rome where you walk everywhere, I strolled TO the actual park 5 blocks from the house. A police car pulled up and asked what I was doing walking on a majot traffic boulevard without sidewalks (Beverly Glen). When I said I was going to the park, they gave me this look and then drove off, gobsmacked. I was 13 years old.

Love the favorites of 2009 too. You are so talented.
Ciao
Ele

Petrea Burchard said...

Walking in LA is the title of a song by Missing Persons. Play it without sound and you'd think you're watching Rocky Horror Time warp!

Downtown LA has much to offer, Dina. Fortunately we can get there by commuter train.

Eleonora, I took this shot from the foothills above Altadena, just north of Pasadena. I wasn't very far up, but it doesn't take much! I love your story about getting pulled over for walking.

John Sandel said...

It's like a museum diorama, before the figures are installed: the Technicolor sfumato over the distant plain … the carefully dried weeds, all of representative species … the hand-washed sand, brought from the actual site by gloved interns … that strategic foreground lighting, as from painstakingly tilted halogen lamps …

And what exotic, forgotten beasts would we pose on this hermetic ridge? A Knob-Kneed Pasadena Hiker with Volvo keys dangling? A lumbering Municipal Grunt in antique orange overalls? Or that long-extinct specimen, the North American Record producer, with cellphone, perhaps fleeing a raging Al-Quaeda operative?

But that would require a city in flames. Quick, call back the painters! Time for revisions.

Anonymous said...

Good lord, J+P hit the ground running this morning.

It's lovely of you to take so many pictures of my mountain, P.

Petrea Burchard said...

Hiker, you should hear him after he's had his coffee.

I'm happy to photograph your mountain, as long as you continue to share it with me so nicely.

Linda Dove said...

I recognize this bend in the trail so well now from your photos!!

You and K are going to have to take me up there someday. Never been.

Greg Sweet said...

I just posted a photo of Sam Merrill working on his trail...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2736/4278642141_3a2c1f84aa.jpg

Vanda said...

The layer of smog?

Whenever I look at downtown and it's cluster of tall buildings from Griffith Park, it looks so small. The rest spreads out as far as the eye can see.

Amy said...

And I get away as often as I can. I do like that view though, very pretty photo.

TheChieftess said...

This about sums it up as to why I still live in California!!!

Unknown said...

Petrea, John needs the weekend off.

Unknown said...

I heard that.

pasadenapio said...

Downtown L.A. doesn't look so overwhelming from a distance! I try to avoid it at all costs. Ocean Seafood in Chinatown, Union Station, opera house, courthouse (for jury duty). That's about it for me.

Petrea, these outdoor shots you've been posting lately are lovely. Keep on hikin' and shootin'!

Petrea Burchard said...

Linda, Karin can take you on the gazelle tour or I can take you on the fuddy-duddy tour. John could take you on something in between. If we all go together it would be lovely and I don't mind the challenge.

Greg, I've seen that shot. I wonder if Mr. Merrill always wore a tie for such labor, or if he was expecting the photographer that day?

It goes on forever, doesn't it, Vanda? And it doesn't stop until long past the Mexican border.

I know you do, Amy. (Check out Amy's blog for her adventure and travel shots.)

Chieftess, this is part of the sum for me, too. Our area provides access to all the metropolitan area has to offer, plus mountains, desert and ocean. That's a lot of access.

Cliff...I guess you have your answer. (If he had the weekend off would that mean working during the week?)

Thanks, Ann. It sure is my pleasure.

Katie said...

Cool photo. Nice that you're able to tame the city into submission by looking at it from this view, surrounded by nature. The closest I've been to having a view like this of LA is from the Getty Center (on a spectacularly clear day in March a few years ago), and I was rather impressed (but I'm just a Berkeley bumpkin). I also walked for miles around Santa Monica and wasn't even pulled over by the cops for displaying odd behavior.

Anonymous said...

When it dries out (really dries) after this next week of rain, let's grab Linda and go.

Petrea Burchard said...

Katie, I'm going to steal a line from you. Watch for some variation on "tame the city into submission by looking at it from this view" in my first novel. And I wouldn't call Berkeley bumpkin-land. On a clear day, everything's impressive from the Getty.

Hiker, you're on. It'll be great.

Chuck Pefley said...

Petrea, I didn't realize LA was such a small town -:)

Looks very civilized from this distance, and no traffic.

Dina said...

Thanks for explaining where the title came from, Petrea, so that I wouldn't have to ask.

Linda Dove said...

Yeah, I realized I asked for the Echo tour right at the start of our biggest rain in 12 years. Whoops.

But when it dries...I'm ready.

Petrea Burchard said...

Why wait? The timing couldn't be better. We'll have the trail to ourselves. It'll be just us and the rescue team.

Nah. It'll be gorgeous once it's dried out. We'll have a blast.