Lost in Yosemite

One of the most popular hiking spot in California is Yosemite National Park!
Yosemite is packed with people all season, and, and most of all, it is gorgeous.

Surprisingly, it takes less than 4 hours to get to Yosemite from San Francisco Bay Area, but it requires a lot of planning. Here is something that you should know about Yosemite

Plan ahead
Yosemite camping is very limited. Some major holiday can be an year in advance, and, for early bird campsite, you definitely should get there before 7AM. I know it is hard, but plan ahead if you wanna camp in Yosemite. Outside of Yosemite, there are free public campsite, but there may not be restroom. You definitely bring shovel and toilet paper if you are camping outside.

When to go?
Yosemite is excellent most season, but you defintiely should go Spring to early Summer. The biggest reason is waterfall. It dries out. I went there in August, and some of the waterfall was gone. Especially because California is in drought recent years, you should plan Spring to Early Summer.

Early spring is cool for photos because you can get cool shots of snow, cloud, and fog covering mountain.

What to bring?
It gets very cold, so I suggest you bringing enough jackets and blankets. if you are going there in spring, rain gear and chains are necessary. Chains are very expensive if you have to buy up there. I think I spent $70 in April.

Where to take photos?
If you are looking for wide shots of waterfall and mountains, you don't hike drive on Yosemite roops because the closer you get, the harder to get nice wide shots. If you wanna get shots like Ansel Adams, there is a tour you can schedule. They will take you to some spots that he shot his photos. It is very cool because you meet some other photographer during tours.
If you wanna enjoy hike, I do Vernal fall/Nevada fall hike and Bridalveil Fall. This is mild hike, and you get pretty close to fall.

If you are a hard-core hiker, you can do Half Dome hike and El Capitan hike. It is pretty long hike, and you need wide angle lens, for sure.

Camera equipments?
rain gear. the closer you get to fall, the more mist you get. Bring something to cover your camera.
ND Grad filter. This is the place you wanna bring as many filters as possible. It's a valley/mountain combo, so you will be glad to have a filters.








These are all shots off driving roops.

Lost in Highway 1 (Half Moon Bay/Pescadero/Ano Nuevo)

When you drive pass San Francisco to South West, you start seeing beautiful coast.
If you are a surfer, you probably know the places like Taco Bell Beach and Maverick. Those are located along side of Highway 1.

Highway 1 is also known as one of the most beautiful coastal drive in California. Santa Cruz, Monterey, Carmel are a little South of here. People tend to skip these areas, but they got one of the most unique features that you don't wanna miss.

Half Moon Bay is a little beautiful harbor town where Maverick was held every year. Maverick is one of the biggest wave surfing competition which surfers have to paddle miles away to get a wave. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of mavericks because I don't have any lens to capture that far, and I don't surf. By the way, Sam's chowder house is definitely a good stop for a good clam chowder. Get New England style chowder, for sure. There is also Pumpkin Fest around Halloween time which is kind of fun to check it out.

Pescadero is a very small town along Hwy 1 which I could not even find a downtown. However, coastal formation, pigeon point light house are definitely something to capture. Just off Hwy 1, there is a restaurant called "Duarte's Tavern." They are on Food Network show that I worked on. It is pretty expensive, but their pies are pretty good.

Año Nuevo is kind of a secret state park for me where elephant seals come every winter for bleeding. If you wanna get really close to seals and their babies, you can make a reservations at Año Nuevo state park website for tours. Tours are the only way you can get very close to seals. Without reservations, you will probably not be able to get in tours, so plan ahead for this trip.

Fortunately, there are not much to get lost, so just stop any coastal access and pick your best coastal photos!!


Pigeon Point Light house




These are shots from a coastal access right after Pigeon Point light house. Great Cliff formation. Perfect for scenery photo and portrait. The guy is one of my good friend, Ryan!! By the way, the very last picture is not fake (many people tell me it looks fake.) It is a sea weed on rock.


Elephant Seals

Lost in Time??? (Bodie, CA)

Bodie, CA is located in East of Yosemite near Mono Lake in Mono County.

Bodie, CA is one of the best preserved ghost town in California. Gold was discovered in 1859, and the town become a gold rush town. At one point, there were 10,000 people lived in this town. However, due to the discovery of other better mining opportunities, the town started declining in 1880. Population went down from 10,000 to 3,000 in just an year between 1880 and 1881.

In 1921, there were only 30 people left in this town.....

My friend and I explore the area quite bit. If you explore the area, you can tell why people moved to the other mines.... Most mines around here are very hard to get to. It is (3,000-4,000 feet hike. Consistent 30-60% grade upward hike.) We got lost twice, hiked almost 6hours, and finally found one tiny mine.... You can tell why people moved to other mines. Access to these mines are just horrible.

We only had a day and half in this area, and we just did not have enough time.... We did not have even time to go to Mono lake. (well, we technically went there, but we could not find a good spot to take photos because I got altitude sickness after two 3,000ft hike in a day....) However, Mono Lake is definitiely the place to check out as well. Because of its alkaline content, all the rock is deformed very weird in the good way. I have seen sun rise shot here, and it is stunning.





Bodie, CA. It is a State park, so you need to bring some cash for entrance fee. I saw some people did not have one, so they had to drive back to get cash.... FYI, you can only get inside of 1 or 2 houses. Most of interior has to be shot through window or wires....




This is the reason that you should drive around and hike around Bodie. These photos are taken around the May Lundy Mine. To get there, you take Lundy Lake rd. There are several mines up there. There is a small store, and the owner has a book around that area and mines. Read it!!!

Lost in Coloma Area

Coloma,
One of my most favorite town in California. I come here quite often between April and October to do my biggest hobby: White Water Rafting.

Coloma Area is also know as Gold Rush Town. Coloma is know for the place that lead California Gold Rush. Unfortunately, not many people lives there, so Coloma is considered as a ghost town now....

However, It is not like Bodie, CA. Plenty of people lives and do business out here.

Thanks to all those miners dynamited rivers and hippies. Coloma is actually known for one of the best white water rafting place in California. You can enjoy from Class 1 to all the way up to Class VI rapids safely with commercial rafting company.

During Summer, you see me bunch here in Coloma (either in Camp Lotus or OARS (one of the best and safest raft companies in Coloma) guiding or drinking with friends.

If you see people hitchhiking with lifejackets, please help them out. They just wanna get to their boat.... I hitchhiked many times here....


One of the few club in Coloma. There are only two kinds of people go here: locals and raft guides (summer only)...










Gold Rush revive once a year in Coloma. People live like they are in Gold Rush era for a weekend in Columbus day weekend. This event is held in Gold Discovery Site along 49 in Coloma. You can visit in Summer time to experience panning and discovering gold.


This is my best friend in front of the sign of "Cool, CA." How "cool" is this town? I think you should see in your own eyes......
It is a town next to Coloma on Hwy 49.















This is one of the Class III trip that I do all the time between April and October. It is so much fun!!

Lost In San Francisco

My journey in California started in San Francisco, CA.
The story go back when I was a high school student.... I didn't know nothing about America except for WWII and Hollywood movie.... I was bored in my high school because it was boys-only highschool where took me close to 2 hours to get to...

I wanted to get out of there and my boring life!!

When I was looking for something to do, I found this information packet for an exchange program where you get to stay in American's family house for a month to learn American culture.

First thing I imagine was the movie "Home Alone." A big and crazy family, but it looked fun in the movie. My parents weren't that excited because it was a quite expensive program, but they thought it would improve my English grade (they never thought it would change my life completely.)

Well, I decide my destination to America where I can see Hollywood sign and film set. I talked to my program coordinator and told her that I wanted to see "Hollywood" sign and film set. She told me that she set me up with a great location!!

I arrived at SFO with bunch of Japanese students and was sent to Modesto, CA. ???????

It seems I am lost..... Where is "Hollywood????"





Golden Gate Bridge shots were shot in East of San Francisco. From San Francisco, take 101, drive across GGB, get off at first exit after vistapoint, make a left to go under freeway. It seems like the road will bring you back in freeway, but the road will split. Take one that is going up. Park on left where you see a building and hike up. It is very cold at night any season. I wore a dawn jacket in Summer Time. Do not go there on 4th of July to see fireworks. I was stuck there for about 2 hours...



Palace of Fine Arts: Take Lombard street toward GGB from Van Ness. Right before GGB entrance, look out for PFA or Palace of Fine Arts sign.


Trans America Building/financial district: shot in Vallejo St and Montgomery st near local CBS television station. They shot a part of "Hulk" here.




The musician in China Town: Insider information. He is usually in Grant and California. Please give him a couple of Dollars if you take photos.