Balboa Park is such an amazing historical site overlooking downtown San Diego, CA.  It is a great place to visit for museums, walking around, plays, and photography.  Learn more about how the Balboa Shadows photograph happened.

Balboa Park San Diego, CA

The park is just simply an amazing place.  It is over 1200 acres, was the site for the 1935-36 World’s Fair, and roots as far back as 1868 when the land was set aside.  Therefore, there many things to like about Balboa Park.  It is impossible to list them all here.  A link to Balboa Park Website gives an awesome history and talks about what is currently going on.

Behind The Scenes

This image, titled “Balboa Shadows” was taken in the fall of 2016 using black and white film.  In late afternoon, these shadows were just dancing across the concrete walk way. 

The hardest part of this image was waiting and patience.  It took a little bit of time waiting for there to be no people interrupting the shot.  Balboa Park is always busy and it is required to be patient if you want images that don’t have people in them.  The medium format camera was handheld and given the amount of light it was no problem to get a fast shutter speed.  It can be tricky to shoot in busy places, especially when it isn’t easy to use a tripod.  Therefore, think about the conditions before you go somewhere and prepare.  As a result, if using a film camera, make sure you have fast enough ASA film, or use a monopod if possible.

Balboa Shadows is part of a larger portfolio of mine where I explored the architectural highlights of the park.  The series was done in black and white to focus on the tones and shapes of this beautiful place.

Thank you for visiting my site, and I hope you enjoy the image.

This photograph is in my shop HERE.  Email me about availability and price.

Shadows on concrete sidwalk from rod iron fence black and white urban city

Balboa Shadows was shot on medium format black and white film and proves that even a basic fence in the park can be interesting when looking at how it’s shadow is painted on the walkway.

The Trip

It’s hard to have a bad trip to Balboa Park.  Therefore, this trip was a joy as the many others I took there.  The park is such a big place it is easy to see new things. As such, explore often at different times of the day.  Other trips I took there at different times of the day, I never saw these shadows. 

If bright colored sunsets are more your taste, then don’t miss my behind the scenes of Sunset Redondo Beach Pier.

More Fine Art Photographs

Don’t forget to look at the images on my site in the galleries starting at: https://mjvphoto.com/the-art/.  Hopefully you find some of them inspirational for your own photography adventures, or maybe you find an image you want to call your own.