Whenever I visit southern California I like to shoot around the beach cities of Orange County: Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Dana Point, and Huntington Beach. I have been shooting there for years and have some favorite locations.
Since the MTV show Laguna Beach: The Real OC went on the air Laguna Beach has been inundated with tourists looking for Stephen at Laguna Surf and Sport. I watched the show a couple of times and I can tell you it is really fake. They showed these high school kids sitting on the deck of some fancy restaurant overlooking the ocean sipping Margueritas. Well high school kids, even rich ones, don’t hang out at those places. They are overpriced places strictly for tourists. In the summertime the traffic in Laguna Beach is gridlock. Except for some good surfing I would not recommend visiting Laguna Beach in the summer.
I have been photographing models on the beaches of Laguna since about 1994, before I even lived there. There are a lot of little coves that are scenic and secluded for topless shoots. There are steep cliffs and tidal pools that make interesting compositions. For several years I lived in a house overlooking the beach and shot models on the beach a couple times a week. But if you don’t live there parking can be a real problem.
Dana Point, on the other hand, never has traffic jams. It has a harbor and marina for sailboats. When they built the harbor back around 1970 they wiped out a famous surf spot called Killer Dana. But unlike L.B. there are affordable restaurants in Dana Point and no tourists. The first beach I ever shot on in southern California was Salt Creek Beach in D.P. for the 1994 Ujena Bikini Jam but I don’t shoot around Dana Point very often. I remember that year we shot a lot at the Ritz Carlton and the security was pretty nice about it.
North of LB. is Newport Beach which also has a big harbor. Newport Beach is known for rich people and shopping at fashion island. Just about everyone in N.B. drives a Mercedes, Lexus, or Range Rover, even high school kids. Movie stars like John Wayne and James Cagney had boats there back in the 1940’s or 1950’s. John Wayne’s boat is still there. Today Nicholas Cage has a huge house right on the bay. I’ve sailed by his house a hundred times but have never seen him. All I ever see is the help working doing the gardening and washing the boat. I don’t think he’s ever there to enjoy it but the servants sure have it good. The are a few spots I shoot in around Corona Del Mar.
Huntington, a.k.a. Surf City, has a wide flat beach and some of the best surfing in the world. But I think it is too flat and open for photography. Not much variety in backgrounds. I hear there is a new TV show about the lifeguards of Huntington Beach. I wonder if that will ruin H.B. It is also a great place to ride beach cruiser. I have ridden my 20-inch BMX trick bike from Newport Beach to Sunset Beach many times.
A little further up the coast is Sunset Beach. Never did any photoshoots there but I usually head there for Taco Surf, which is a great MexiCali restaurant and a biker bar that has live music on weekends. The waitresses there are really nice and I highly recommend it. I usually order the 3-Taco special, it is a real bargain.
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