Adam Novak Photography Blog

Shoot Location: Huntington Beach Pier

The Huntington Beach pier is a landmark for "Surf City, USA," and it's a great location for beach photography!  The pier is a large concrete structure that provides an artistic industrial contrast against the beautiful Pacific Ocean.  The environment around the pier is always full of life, and it's usually busy with street performers, beach goers, and surfers providing for a fun and relaxed atmosphere for photos. 

The HB pier is a convenient location to shoot at as well.  It is located at the intersection of PCH and Main Street and is easily accessible.  There are two parking lots at the base of the pier, so parking usually isn't an issue. Don't forget cash to pay for parking.  There are restrooms at the pier as well.

If you're up for it, you can hang out downtown after your photoshoot.  Downtown HB is full of great restaurants, bars, shops, and a movie theatre, all within walking distance from the parking lots next to the pier.    

         

Shoot Location: Little Corona, Newport Beach

There are many beautiful places to shoot at in Newport Beach, California, but I am going to focus on Little Corona in Corona Del Mar.  Corona Del Mar is located towards the southern end of Newport Beach.  Within Corona Del Mar there are a couple of beaches.  Little Corona is a small beach and tide pool area that can only be accessed by walking down a short moderately steep road. 

Little Corona is a great beach for photographs, and on weekends it is frequently busy with photographers of all types.  Let's take this from the beginning....When you arrive at Little Corona, you will have to deal with classic Newport Beach parking (that is street parking only), so give yourself a few extra minutes to find parking.  After you find parking, you will take a 10 minute walk down a road that leads to the beach.  For convenience there is a restroom halfway down to the beach.  Once you get down to the beach, you will find a great sand beach that is surrounded on both sides by beautiful rocks and tide pools.  Some of the best spots at Little Corona do require some walking on tide pool rocks, so make sure you bring appropriate foot wear. 

I really enjoy shooting at Little Corona during sunset and preferably at low tide.  

  
 

Shoot Location: Salt Creek

Salt Creek is a beach park located in Dana Point, California.  It's well known for its great surf, but it is a great location for photography as well.  The cool thing about Salt Creek is that it has so many different locations within it to shoot at.  The parking lot for Salt Creek sits a couple hundred yards from the beach and on top of a hill.  At the back side of the parking lot there is a beautiful small park with bright green grass and multiple palm trees.  To the side of the parking lot there is a grand entrance to an up scale housing complex that has an amazing waterfall.  From the parking lot to the beach there are two tunnels, one that is lined with corrugated steel on the inside that gives a great industrial look and one concrete tunnel that is brightly painted leading to the Pacific Ocean.  Once you get to the beach, you stand in the middle of a large curving bay that has multiple rocky tide pool areas with an expansive sandy beach. 

As you can see, Salt Creek can offer up some great opportunities for photography, and I look forward to shooting there again very soon!  Check out my February 6th Blog for more photos of Salt Creek.

 

Shoot Location: Strawberry Farms Golf Club

Strawberry Farms is a beautiful golf course located in Irvine, California. 

I had the lucky opportunity to shoot here a couple of times this year.  I'm sure some of you have been to Strawberry Farms either to golf or to attend a wedding.  If you have, you probably recognize the big red barn in the photo below.  Most of the weddings at Strawberry Farms take place around this barn, and most of the wedding photography evolves around it as well.  The really cool thing about my shoots at Strawberry Farms is that they took place on the actual golf course, a first at Strawberry Farms.  I was able to gain access to the course because I was taking photographs for an employee and the owner's family. 

The shoots were really fun!  I loaded all of my gear onto my own golf cart, and we were off.  Most of the photos you see below were taken on the back nine holes of the course.  This course is amazing. The back nine holes all work around a large lake with streams and bridges.  The last hole of the course ends with a fantastic 30 foot waterfall with a stream and smaller waterfalls around it.  It's a great way to end a round of golf or a photo shoot!

Both of the shoots you see below were taken around sunset when the light was perfect! 

Shoot Location: HB Central Park

Through out the years I have shot at many locations.   Over the next couple of months I will be blogging about some of them.  Keep checking back to see some of my favorite spots.

Central Park- Huntington Beach

Central park in HB is a large park that has many great locations within it to shoot at.  There are beautiful trees, large fields of green grass and a lake.  I usually like to shoot here in the early morning when the sun is low.