5 Great Photo Opportunities in L.A.
A picture is worth a thousand words. It can invoke great memories of a certain time or place or a great way to share your experiences with other people. Taking pictures while on vacation is a must. Capturing the smiles and the fun on camera while discovering a new city will help you have a souvenir that will last a lifetime. Here are 5 of our favorite places for great photo opportunities in Los Angeles.
The Hollywood Sign
One of the most iconic signs in the world, The Hollywood Sign is a fantastic photo opportunity. It truly shows that you are in L.A. It is not only indicative of Los Angeles, but of the entertainment industry, which L.A. is famous for. When it was built in 1923, it was meant to be a massive outdoor ad campaign for a new housing development known as “Hollywoodland”. Constructed from metal squares, each of the 13 letters was 30 feet wide and approximately 43 feet tall and lit up at night. While the housing development eventually failed due to the Great Depression, the sign still stayed and the city eventually removed the “land” from the title to create the now famous sign, “Hollywood”. While you would have to hike up to the sign itself, there are many places to take a photo with the sign as a back drop. It is a favorite spot with our customers on our variety of tour opportunities.
Hollywood Boulevard
Before leaving Hollywood to check out the rest of Los Angeles, you should stop on Hollywood Boulevard where the photo opportunities are endless. From the Walk of Fame to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and everything in between, you are going to want to take a photograph at every corner. The historic Walk of Fame runs 1.3 miles East to West on Hollywood Boulevard and of over 2,500 five pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded along the sidewalk. You can take a picture next to the star of your favorite celebrities from past and present. If you are lucky, you might even catch one of the star ceremonies while you are in town as they are free to attend. You also don’t want to miss capturing some memories in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Since 1927, this theatre has been THE spot for Hollywood Premiers, has more than 2 million visitors a year, and showcases the hand and footprints of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Searching for your favorite star’s autograph – from among the 200+, multicolored blocks in the cement courtyard – is genuinely fun. Visitors can’t seem to resist comparing their shoe size to the stars’ footprints. Few can match the smallest adult footprint in the forecourt, which belongs to Jeanette MacDonald. It measures just 6 1/2 inches. Even smaller are the barefoot, childhood footprints of Shirley Temple.
Muscle Beach in Venice
At Muscle Beach in Venice you can get a little silly and start flexing your muscles like the big boys and girls do. And when we say big boys and girls, we mean body builders. Famous for it’s outdoor gym where men show off their lifting abilities, Muscle Beach started in Santa Monica and wound up down in Venice. It is next to the Venice Beach Recreation Center and near the Gold’s Gym where Arnold Shwarznegger became famous. It boasts weight machines in different shapes and sizes and also boasts gymnastic, rope climbing and acrobatic bars. In addition to muscle beach you can stay a while and check out the Venice Beach Boardwalk. It’s part carnival, part shopping experience and part colorful imagination come to life. Just the bizarre nature of the Boardwalk makes it a place that you won’t soon forget. While the East side of the walk is filled with restaurants, souvenir shops and houses, condos and apartments, the other side is a site to behold with fortune tellers, performance artists , conspiracy theorists and, of course, the man who paints himself from head to toe in gold and does a perfect imitation of a robot. It is fun to people watch while sitting at one of the many eateries along the boardwalk or you can always duck inside one of the tattoo parlors to get a more permanent reminder that this place is real and not just a psychedelic dream you had once. Or you can just take a photo. Your choice.
Santa Monica Beach
You know you are in Southern California when you are at one of our famous beaches. And there are several photo opportunities in Santa Monica, which offers a little something for everyone. A beach town in a big city, Santa Monica is the perfect destination for relaxation and play. You might not have heard much about Santa Monica, but we bet you’d recognize it form some of your favorite movies – Rocky III, Forrest Gump, The Sting, just to name a few. And, of course TV shows such as “Private Practice”, “Three’s Company”, “Pacific Blue”, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” were all filmed in Santa Monica. Sean Penn, Jack Black, Robert Downey, Jr. , Anjelica Houston, Emilio Estevez and many other famous actors and producers have all called Santa Monica home as well. Whether cruising its beaches along Pacific Coast Highway, riding the carousel on The Santa Monica Pier or stepping into the shops on Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica offers something for everyone. You can take pictures along the pier or just walk right down to the ocean and feel the soft breeze in your air and the saltwater spray from the ocean. While you can’t take that wonderful breeze or the feel of the sand beneath your toes with you, your can certainly remember how great it was in a photograph.
Griffith Observatory
Show your friends and loved ones the sweeping views of Los Angeles as you stand in front of one of the many sweeping views of Los Angeles that The Griffith Observatory has to offer. The most visited public observatory in the world, The Griffith Observatory hosts around 1 million people a year. It is also where James Dean gave one of his iconic performances in “Rebel Without a Cause” and Charlie’s Angels kicked into action in “Full Throttle”. Where meteors crash to earth in “Transformers” and is the welcome center of “Jurassic Park” (the original). There are so many wonderful things about the Griffith Observatory and so many spots to take epic photos – it should be a stop on anyone’s vacation itinerary!
We could go on and on about the various picture opportunities in Los Angeles that await you and your friends and family. Come visit L.A. and see all the magic this great city has to offer. Give us a call at 800-549-6625 or shoot us an email at [email protected] and let us help you discover L.A. !