I’ve been to Los Angeles twice now, but wish I had done a better job photographing the city! As one of America’s most famous cities, and the largest in the country after New York, I feel like I should have better represented it. Los Angeles is famous for its warm weather, great beaches, Hollywood, and an endless list of other things. The photo above shows a not-so-impressive view of the city skyline from a downtown perspective.
Hollywood
Los Angeles’s most famous neighborhood is Hollywood. Ever since films began production here in the early 1900s, it’s been symbolic of movies, celebrities, and wealth. The neighborhood is a major tourist destination, drawing visitors from all around the world. Aside from the visitors, many people come here with dreams of becoming famous actors themselves someday. Above is the world-famous Hollywood Sign on Mt. Lee.
There are lots of obvious attractions in Hollywood, but I was also surprised to learn that you can even go hiking or horseback riding here. Mt. Lee is located up in the Santa Monica Mountains, and trails lead all the way up toward the sign. The photo above shows a horse ranch where you can book a ride. I do enjoy riding horses, but chose to go hiking.
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame is something you can’t miss in Hollywood. Just about any famous celebrity you can think of will be listed here. As a matter of fact, I didn’t recognize the vast majority of names since the Walk of Fame began decades before I was born. Above and below are two famous actors from my generation, Harrison Ford and Johnny Depp.
You’ll also find lots of people dressed as celebrities or wearing strange costumes for your entertainment. Most of these people are, of course, doing it for donations, but some are also promotional figures working in Hollywood. Catwoman seemed to be doing promotional work, while the Michael Jackson look-alike was dancing on his own.
Shopping in Hollywood
I did do some shopping in California, but not in Hollywood. I imagined it to be incredibly expensive, even though I didn’t really give it a chance and check out the prices. If you’re interested, though, there are plenty of places to go and some famous designer stores. This photo shows the Hollywood & Highland Center, a large entertainment complex with theaters, restaurants, shops, and nightlife. The photo below shows another shopping area nearby.
More millionaires live in California than almost anywhere else in the United States. Unless I was a millionaire myself, I couldn’t imagine moving here because it’s so expensive! If you’ve got the cash, though, you can find plenty of incredible real estate. This mansion is in Hollywood, but you can find homes like this throughout the Los Angeles area.
Museums of Los Angeles
Hollywood is just one neighborhood in Los Angeles. If you’re into museums, another area you might be interested in is Wilshire Boulevard. There are several world-class museums here, but when I visited I only had one in mind. I did at least photograph the Los Angeles County Museum of Art so you can see how large some of them are.
Above is one of the city’s famous art installations, made from restored street lamps gathered from around Southern California rather than being discarded.
La Brea Tar Pits
A museum that I actually looked forward to visiting was the La Brea Tar Pits. During prehistoric times, natural asphalt deposits trapped all types of wildlife that wandered into the area. This probably gave the animals a horrible death, but their remains were preserved and eventually discovered by researchers. Above is a model of a trapped mammoth at the tar pits.
If you’re wondering if the tar pits still exist, the answer is yes. I took this photo of some natural asphalt still seeping out of the ground. The whole area had a strong smell similar to a parking lot that had just been treated with fresh asphalt.
My understanding at the time was that many remains had already been removed from the tar pits, but new discoveries and research were still ongoing. Inside the museum you could also view researchers working on recovered specimens.
The tar pits preserved animals from the Ice Age. Mammoths, saber-toothed cats, giant ground sloths, and other prehistoric animals all lived here. In the museum they had a recreation of a saber-toothed cat attacking a giant ground sloth. They also included bison, dire wolves, and even camels in the background.
The most interesting section for me was the skeletal reconstructions made from recovered specimens. Most of us who have visited a natural history museum have probably seen a mammoth by now, but this might have been my first time ever seeing a saber-toothed cat!
Los Angeles in 2011
Finding yourself in a tar pit would probably mean your end, but since that isn’t really a threat anymore, people in Los Angeles had other doomsday scenarios to entertain travelers with. This was a long time ago, but somehow some people were convinced that the world was going to end on May 21, 2011.
I don’t recall where I was when I first heard about it, but I remember driving through another city and passing a large billboard with the Judgment Day warning. I was a bit excited to actually see one of these people in person in Los Angeles. I didn’t bother getting into a discussion with the woman about the reality of doomsday coming, but I asked if I could take a photo. She allowed me to photograph the sign but not her, which I found kind of strange. If she believed the world was going to end in just 61 days, I’m not sure why her photo would have mattered.
On the same trip, I visited Los Angeles about ten days after the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The disaster caused serious damage to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and released radioactive material. Trace amounts eventually reached the United States.
These guys seemed to believe it was going to lead to something closer to a Walking Dead scenario. I’m not sure what they believed those masks would do in a serious radiation emergency.
Visiting Compton
Another place I had to visit was Compton. As a kid I used to listen to Dr. Dre and watched Boyz n the Hood more times than I can remember. Lots of rap songs and movies made Compton famous, so here I was! The photo above shows one of the houses I came across while driving through. It didn’t look too shabby to me!
I wasn’t really too sure what to do here. Based on Compton’s reputation, I expected some really horrible houses and buildings in terrible condition along with strange looks from people. While Compton certainly isn’t Hollywood, the houses and gardens I saw seemed to be well taken care of. Had I never heard about Compton before, I would have thought it was just another neighborhood from this experience.
I noticed that the sign for people leaving said, “Birthing a New Compton.” I suppose the area had already seen a major makeover and some serious improvements from its reputation in the 1990s. Years later I continued reading about crime in Compton, but my own short visit was far less dramatic than the reputation I had grown up hearing about.
