This series was created by Alain Chamot (1971-2020).
BillinGlendaleCA
The waning days of 2020 saw a cold Pacific storm roll though southern California bring thunder, lightning(a rarity here) and heavy rain. It also brought snow to lower elevations(though not a low as 2019), so the first thing to do once the storm clouds passed was to head to the Baldwin Hills to get some photos of Los Angeles with a snowy backdrop. I took both my NX1 for visual shots and the modified NX300 for IR shots. With the exception of the panorama at the end of this set, all the photos were processed in RAW Therapee(as opposed to Lightroom) to emulate different film types(Ektachrome 100, Kodachrome 64, and Aerocrhrome for IR).
Sign up
here to get The Wild sent weekly to your inbox.
Welcome to The Wild. Winter is an ideal time to explore the close-to-home front range of the Angeles National Forest. Josephine Peak would be a good place to start. It’s not particularly high, at 5,558 feet, but it offers spectacular views of Los Angeles, which can look like the Emerald City of Oz rising in the distance. Turning north toward the forest, you’ll see a vast quilt of canyons and high points in the San Gabriels, most prominent Strawberry Peak.
One of the oddest items on top: Open-air green shelves where hikers have left mementos such as a Yosemite cap, sunscreen, notes, rocks and even a dollar or two. It’s a remnant of a fire lookout that stood from 1937 until it burned down in the Big Tujunga Canyon fire in 1975. I always wondered who Josephine was. The local Sierra Club’s Hundred Peaks Section says a U.S. Geological Survey surveyor named the peak after his wife, Josephine Lippencott. No word on whether