Balboa Park Spanish Colonial Architecture

Author's Comments

The first time I walked El Prado I was looking for the obvious shot, the California Tower against blue sky, and I came away with something serviceable and forgettable. The park has taught me since to slow down. There is too much detail here to take in at speed. The facades along the promenade carry an almost absurd density of ornament - cherubs, saints, scrolls, coats of arms - and at midday it all flattens into noise. You need raking light to make it legible. Late afternoon in winter is when I keep returning. The sun drops fast in January and February, and for maybe forty minutes the western face of the California Building goes the color of warm sandstone. Every carved figure on the tower casts its own small shadow, and the whole structure stops feeling like a backdrop and starts feeling alive. Shoot from the north side of the Plaza de California with a longer lens. The compression flattens the tower against the dome behind it in a way the wide shot will never give you. The Cabrillo Bridge is the other photograph, and it wants the opposite light. Morning, front-lit from the east, the arches throwing clean symmetrical shadows down into the canyon below. I have walked that bridge a dozen times trying to get the perspective right. The trick is to shoot from the eastern approach before the traffic builds, when the road is empty enough that you can stand in the lane and use the centerline as your axis. Bring a tripod if you have one. The detail work rewards stopping down, and the light at the edges of the day moves quickly.

Gallery