The BLOG of Freelance Photographer John Schreiber | Los Angeles, South Bay, Redondo Beach

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Catalina Island’s Interior

A few shots from a ride through Catalina Island’s interior with the Catalina Conservancy.

While the town of Avalon on Catalina is well visited, the island’s interior is much less accessible. Either you have to hike through fairly rugged terrain, pay a nice little sum for a tour, or you have to know somebody that owns a car on the island (and it takes about 15 years to get a permit to even own a car on Catalina). I got to ride along with the Catalina Island Conservancy, a private land trust that owns and protects about 90% of the island.

As I was told, this is what California looked like before it was developed. It was a beautiful ride through the island and we even came across one of the island’s many buffalo that are left over from the days when Hollywood shot western movies on Catalina.

Jan 17, 2012 | Categories:BLOG | 1 Comment »

Scenes From Death Valley

Chelsea and I spent our New Years Eve camping in Death Valley National Park. For a place that is known for its extreme heat, we experienced the opposite — extreme cold. I was planning for temps in the 30’s, but it ended up dropping down to 14 degrees where we were camping. Much too cold for someone who hasn’t experienced a real winter for well over a year now.

Despite the cold though, Death Valley was a beautiful and other-worldly place. After driving 28 miles on a four wheel drive road, we camped next to an area known as “The Racetrack” which gets its name from the large rocks that move across a dry lake bed all by themselves. These rocks leave trails behind them as they move which I supposed looks like they are racing.

There are a lot of theories as to how these rocks move, but the popular theory is that the dry lake bed has to fill with just a little bit of water and then freeze. Then, strong winds have to come along to scoot the rocks across the slippery surface leaving a trail behind.

My theory? Aliens.

Jan 04, 2012 | Categories:BLOG | Tags: California, Death Valley National Park, Mojave Desert, Moving Rocks, Racetrack Playa, Southern California | 1 Comment »

Big Sur

A couple of photos I have been meaning to post from our trip up to Big Sur at the end of October… Oh, did I mention I got engaged to Chelsea that weekend? Yeah, it was a pretty good weekend…

Dec 17, 2011 | Categories:BLOG | Tags: Big Sur, California, Central California, Hiking, Pacific Coast Highway, Redwoods | Leave A Comment »

Snow in Los Angeles?!?

Nah… just a very cool snow machine that was set up during a holiday event in Redondo Beach. The kids didn’t seem to mind the fake snow though:

Dec 07, 2011 | Categories:BLOG | Tags: California, Christmas 2011, Holiday Stroll, Redondo Beach, Riviera Village, South Bay, Southern California | Leave A Comment »

Sailing on the Lady Washington

I had a cool assignment to photograph the historic Lady Washington tall ship last week as she transited from Redondo Beach down to Long Beach.

Standing at 67 feet long, the wooden vessel is a replica of the original Lady Washington, which was built as a merchant ship in the late 1700’s and was the first American ship to round Cape Horn in Africa and the first American vessel to reach Japan.

Today’s replica, built in 1989, is Washington State’s official tall ship ambassador and serves as a living history exhibit while docking in ports up and down the western coast of the United States.

The ship has also appeared in major Hollywood movies including ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl’ when the vessel, renamed the Interceptor for the film, was commandeered by Johnny Depp’s character, Captain Jack Sparrow. It was pretty prominently featured in the movie as Depp and Orlando Bloom sailed it around for most of the movie.

It was a pretty rough ride due to the fact that we sailed the morning after one of the windiest days in the past 30 years in southern California. I didn’t puke, but I certainly thought about it a few times.

The crew of the boat were all a really great group of people and many of them were volunteers. It was a great day of “work” being out on the ship.

Find the deckhand… ^

Dec 05, 2011 | Categories:BLOG | Tags: California, History, Lady Washington, Sailing, Ship, Southern California, Tall Ships | 1 Comment »

Halloween on a Whole New Level

I wasn’t too excited to shoot trick-or-treating last Monday night, but when I got to the street I was assigned to, I was blown away. I have never seen a street go so crazy for Halloween. As one homeowner said, “We don’t decorate for Christmas, so we put all of our efforts into Halloween.”

People on this street in Manhattan beach buy over 1,000 pieces of candy per house and they expect an equal amount of kids to pass through on Halloween. There are crazy decorations, lights, costumes, and even a haunted house. Wish my street was like this when I was a kid.