Griffith Park 1

Posted on October 13, 2002 in Photos

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The compulsion to fill my photo blog shoved me up Interstate 5 to Los Feliz Boulevard, Griffith Park, and the grounds of the Griffith Park Observatory. When we got there, signs warned us that we might hear the reports of blank gunfire because they were shooting a movie. A couple of elephantine strongarms stood at sentry duty next to the heavy shooting equipment, a white tent, and some fine looking sports cars.

Other signs warned us that we would be excluded from the summit parking lot. Only hikers, it said, should park along the road leading up to the observatory. We declared ourselves to be hikers, shoe-horned the truck along a crumbling stretch of curb, and tramped to the observatory with a legion of other tourists.

First the lack of batteries (which necessitated a trip to the Rite Aid at the bottom of the hill), then the fog killed my hopes of capturing a Los Angeles sunset. I took several shots anyways, getting intimate with a spectral bust of James Dean, snagging a faint panorama of downtown, and doing a 360 degree shot of the plaza in front of the observatory. Then we went to Chinatown by way of Vermont and Wilshire.

More tales in days to come.