Whenever I travel out of California, I ask folks who will talk with me what images come to their minds when they think of California. Depending on recent news, their thoughts may be of traffic, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lindsey Lohan, etc., but the consistent answers are images of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.Number two is the most photographed natural image in California, Half Dome, overlooking Yosemite Valley. The Golden Gate is beautiful and, because of the way the fog plays with the mouth of San Francisco Bay, it always has a different look. It gets to be pretty magical given some fog and some lingering sun light. However, my personal favorite is Half Dome.
There is nothing that stands out like Half Dome. Some friends of mine just got back from a trip to Yosemite and, like everyone that ever goes there, they brought back photos of Half Dome. When one is in the park, one is beckoned to snap the shot. It is impossible not to take a picture. I have been to Yosemite about twenty times and I take the same pictures every time I am there.When one takes a picture of grandeur it is an attempt to capture not just the image, but the feel. Of course the feel, that sense of being in a great place with the all of the sensory stimuli a maximum delivery, simply cannot be captured. I was looking at some pictures that Ansel Adams took and even his photographs, I don't believe, do not convey all that he must have felt when he was there. However, he captures a mood and that is what makes his photographs so beautiful to me. Half Dome must be the biggest of all the California iconic images.
Not to my surprise, the Hollywood sign is another icon. It seems to have the advantage of being seen by tourists, and additionally, movie goes all over the world. Every year it seems there is a least one movie that has the Hollywood sign in the background. There is nothing beautiful about this icon, but it certainly is the image many people see in their mind's eye when thinking about California - that is, Southern California.This year, the sign was almost lost to development, but a group of citizens got together to contribute funds so the city could by the property. All the years since 1923, when it was first erected, most folks thought it was on city property. As it turned out it was not.
I struggled with this last picture because the image of the California beach and palm trees is not a single image. It is really different to everyone, but it is an image that comes up all the time. There was no particular beach and no particular tree or group of trees that most people could describe accept for the guy who saw the image of the red palm trees from wall of the In-N-Out restaurant. Although all of the beaches do not have palm trees and all of the beaches are not wide and sandy, the picture here represents the majority opinion.
California has beautiful forests and deserts, but no one thought of those images -aabsolutely no one.
Note: the photos use on this post were obtained from Public-domain-photos.com.
