“The $105-million overhaul of MCASD, including the new Jacobs Hall, feels more connected to the topography. “It’s a delicate balance in capturing the art and architecture for each space,” says Bazzari of her approach. “Do I highlight the architecture and emphasize the artwork? Will the ocean views be the focal point, or how does the architecture connect with the landscape?”

Maha Bazzari

“I experience art within the space, sit with it, and then digest it.” That’s not the technical part, but it’s absolutely the starting point for Maha Bazzari, an architectural photographer who splits her time between San Diego and Palm Springs. The trained architectural designer and fine artist is an accidental photographer. She started by shooting her own work, then friends, and then global architecture firm Gensler came knocking.

Most recently, she was tapped by MCASD La Jolla to chronicle the quiet minimalism of the $105-million overhaul by Selldorf Architects. The photographer came often: mid-morning as the marine layer lifted. Golden hour. During a rainstorm. “I know every nook, in every light,” she says, perched on a concrete bench in the museum shop.

When she’s not traveling (Berlin, most recently) she frequents local architectural gems from the Salk Institute to Bell Pavilion. Her work has been featured in Dwell, WSJ Magazine and National Geographic. “Expressive images require an understanding of the artist’s concepts. And being selective.” Bazzari often collaborates with local artist Yomar Augusto, and there’s a fluency that develops between them. “To capture Yomar’s work is to follow the flow of lines and strong colors.”

“Bazzari maximized the rare stormy day to capture this dramatic image of architect Annabelle Selldorf and MCASD director Kathryn Kanjo. “With the use of strobe lighting and image bracketing I was able to uncover the rainy views, bring them to the foreground, and show the expansive lines of the architecture.”

Maha Bazzari

“Bazzari maximized the rare stormy day to capture this dramatic image of architect Annabelle Selldorf and MCASD director Kathryn Kanjo. “With the use of strobe lighting and image bracketing I was able to uncover the rainy views, bring them to the foreground, and show the expansive lines of the architecture.”

Maha Bazzari

“The size of the exhibit space dictates the photography style. For the smaller exhibitions, the art must be at the right scale to the architecture so they complement each other. For larger gallery spaces, I don’t want the art to get lost or capture too much information.” 

Maha Bazzari

“My love for the visual arts goes beyond a still image. I dabble in painting and explore different materials. This is a detail of Gravitational Attraction. I used acrylic paint, graphite, spray paint, and iron filings that were manipulated by the use of magnets to create this shape. Concept: The force of attraction is inescapable, especially the connections between people and their souls through interaction, sharing of ideas, stories, and experiences.”

Maha Bazzari

Macro-micro is a common theme throughout Bazzari’s photos, as shown with these two shots of a piece by San Diego artist Melissa Walters. Of All Things was a site-specific installation made of 2,600 paper tetrahedrons. “The amount of detail that went into this piece is mind-boggling,” Bazzari says. “I had to consider the physical space in relation to the theoretical Omniverse that contains it.”

Maha Bazzari

“I photographed this beautifully dramatic artwork for Yomar’s solo show at Point Loma Nazarene University. Although the mural was the main piece in the exhibition, the pieces came together through the narration of graphics throughout the gallery space.”

Maha Bazzari

For this mural, commissioned by San Diego Made Factory, Bazzari added scale with pedestrians and trolley tracks. “I wanted to underscore the urban setting of the East Village.”

Maha Bazzari

This abstract and colorful geometric calligraphy painting was commissioned for a residence in Mission Hills. “We wanted to highlight the colorful streaks and textures by enhancing the contrast, especially on the dark canvas.”

Maha Bazzari

This light fabrication is by Tecture in collaboration with Gensler San Diego. “I captured the curvilinear sculptural elements made from independent layers of milled extruded PVC with suspended lighting in between.”

Maha Bazzari

“This historic preservation of a mid-century modern house in San Diego [by architect Kristi Byers] is one of those projects that I photograph and admire all the work and consideration that went into it.”

Maha Bazzari

“We arrived before sunrise to make sure we captured the best light on the small chapel at Point Loma Nazarene University. It took us five hours to photograph the saturated colors, clean lines, and thoughtful materials.” The Lyle and Grace Prescott Memorial Prayer Chapel is a collaboration between architects Carrier Johnson and Tecture.

Maha Bazzari

On The Salk Institute by Louis Kahn: “I can spend all day capturing this monumental architecture with its details, observing the light moving across all the surfaces.”

Maha Bazzari

There are many approaches to shooting a door, especially this one designed and built by Tecture for a San Diego beachfront home. “It is a large pivot door with four operable windows, and a wheel operated gear system. So, we played around. Opening, closing and passing through it.”

Maha Bazzari

A symphony of concrete was required to show off the muscularity of this chair designed and fabricated by Tecture. “We connected this piece to its surroundings—the concrete chair to the concrete floor and walls. Aligning textures and materials was the goal.”

Maha Bazzari

The post Documenting the Quiet Minimalism of MCASD appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

2012 Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawai‘i“The view of the mass swim start of 2,000 triathletes from my position hanging out the door of a helicopter. This is a moment in time you don’t get to see anymore—they now send the athletes out in waves instead of all at once.”

Donald Miralle just returned from the LA Marathon, where he and his team of assistant photographers captured the annual siege: nearly 40,000 athletes methodically descending on the city. From the Dodger Stadium starting line, where Miralle hovered above the crowd at dawn on a cherry picker, to the finish line at the Avenue of the Stars. After capturing the thrill of the start—80,000 legs suddenly in motion—they hopped on motorcycles to zip around the city and capture key moments of the entire 26.2-mile course. His wife, Lauren, and their two sons are happy to have him back on solid ground at their Leucadia home, but they know it won’t be long before the award-winning photographer takes off on his next adventure.

By Jet Ski, helicopter, or his own two feet, Miralle has gone far afield to capture the world’s most prolific athletes (Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal in the early 2000s, all the gold medal events for Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps), the largest events (the Super Bowl, the Summer and Winter Olympics), and the most remote locations, like cave diving isolated cenotes in Tulum.

“The moment I get on a scene, I take the camera away from my face and look around, absorb what’s around me,” says Miralle. “When your face is in the scamera, you miss out on a lot of things. I step back, watch the scene unfold, see the bigger picture.”

From the alternate realities just below the surface in the Yucatán Peninsula to the highest bike race on earth in Nepal, Miralle’s massive portfolio is a visual love letter to the great outdoors. His anything-for-the-shot approach has landed his work in The New York Times and Sports Illustrated, and earned him over 50 international awards, including six from the World Press Photo Foundation and seven from the Pictures of the Year International Competition for Sports Photographer of the Year. For our annual outdoors issue, Miralle shares some of his greatest adventure shots of all time. — Erica Nichols

Donald Miralle – Tokyo Olympic diver

Team China in the men’s synchronized 10-meter platform diving at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics

“This is such an insane sport, where divers have to be in perfect synchronization. This photo captures that dynamic, multiple-exposure movement showing the spins and dives they’re doing.”

Donald Miralle – Tokyo Olympics swimmer

Caeleb Dressel: Men’s 100-meter butterfly at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics

“Dressel is one of the most powerful swimmers on the planet. I sat with a really long 600 millimeter lens prefocused to the spot where I predicted he’d come up and captured him bursting out of the water, on his way to get the gold medal.”

Donald Miralle – swimmer

Swimming Team Free Final in the 2019 FINA World Championships

“The moment Team Russia enters the water, where the water is still really calm—I flipped the photo so their reflection at the bottom of the pool is mirrored. I had to really envision what I wanted way before the moment came here. The camera is static, situated in an underwater box that’s weighted down in the pool with about 200 feet of cable running out of the pool and onto the pool deck, where I fired the shot with a remote control.”

Donald Miralle – Chumbo surfing

Professional surfer Lucas “Chumbo” Chianca at Mavericks in Half Moon Bay, 2017

“The California coast was hit by a massive swell, where the conditions were projecting waves from 35 to 50 feet for several days. I was positioned on a Jet Ski, capturing Chianca dropping in and outrunning this avalanche of water.”

Donald Miralle – US Open of Surfing

2014 US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach

“Shot for Sports Illustrated. I hung out of a helicopter to capture this cool, graphic view of the spectators along the pier and the turbulence in the water as the surfer paddles out.”

Donald Miralle – Carlsbad bioluminescence

Bioluminescent waves beneath a full moon in Carlsbad, 2020

“Amid COVID, we were treated to bioluminescence and a full moon. With a couple of friends, we went out to a secret spot at night. It was a stealth mission of them paddling out into the water, myself waiting in the dark to watch them get a wave. Magical.”

Donald Miralle – Reef sharks

Blacktip reef sharks in Bora Bora, 2016

“I was out in Tahiti competing in an open-water race. On my day off, I spent the morning swimming with these blacktip reef sharks and was able to appreciate the beauty of the pristine water there—it’s crystal clear, with a beautiful ecosystem.”

Donald Miralle – Fish and coral reef

Fish moving among a coral reef in Bermuda, 2018

“On my last day of a work trip for Condé Nast, I took a boat out to a reef and free dived about 30 feet down, capturing this cool, pretty sea fan and the fish moving all around it.”

Donald Miralle – Swimmers and turtle

2016 Ironman Triathlon World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawai‘i

“I found myself at the bottom of the bay, at six a.m., as nearly 2,000 athletes waited in the water above me for the signal to start. There was this anticipation in the air when I saw this green honu [sea turtle] swim by my lens. I almost couldn’t believe it. It’s one of my more famous photos in sports and captures the mana [soul] of the event and of the Hawaiian Islands.”

The post Award-Winning Photographer Donald Miralle Shares His Top 10 Outdoor Shots of All Time appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

Jussi Oksanen, retired Finnish snowboarder-turned-cyclist, scouts locations by bike for commercial lifestyle photography campaigns.

Todd Glaser

They’ve explored the world through their lenses. One is a former pro snowboarder from Finland. The other has claimed his own title as Kelly Slater’s trusted photographer. Together for this issue, Jussi Oksanen and Todd Glaser set their cameras on each other at their respective playgrounds: Oksanen hits the bike trails at Lake Hodges while Glaser and his wife, Jenna Klein, maneuver a switchback at Black’s Beach. The photographer’s world in San Diego proves limitless.

Jussi Oksanen

San Diego Trails – Jussi Oksanen

Todd Glaser

Jussi Oksanen never runs out of locations. Ever. The retired Finnish snowboarder-turned-cyclist brings his off-piste adventure to his photography career, exploring San Diego’s untamed corners to shoot lifestyle campaigns for Specialized bikes, Volkswagen, Kashi, and Fat Tire. With a sixth sense for light and topography, he scouts locations by bike, breezing through Borrego, Mount Laguna, Mount Israel, and his nirvana, Lake Hodges.

“If someone would have told me I’d be wearing more spandex than normal clothes, I’d say no f—ing way,” laughs Oksanen.

An overhead shot of lush Mount Laguna

Jussi Oksanen

Cyclists pausing at a mountain pasture

Jussi Oksanen

The craggy cliffs of Anza-Borrego

Jussi Oksanen

After an 18-year snowboarding career that spanned the Olympics, X Games, and US Open, Oksanen cofounded Mizu, which makes insulated water bottles, back in 2008. Here in San Diego, he tapped into a long-standing love of photography to tell brand stories with a stirring sense of adventure and place.

San Diego Trails – Jussi at sunset

“There are areas here like Mount Laguna and Mount Cuyamaca where you feel like you are in the Sierra Mountains,” he says.

Iman Wilkerson

Runner Iman Wilkerson likes to wind down her runs with a listen to Duke Ellington and John Coltrane’s “In a Sentimental Mood.”

Jussi Oksanen

For Iman Wilkerson, every run starts on instinct and ends with Coltrane. As the early morning fog lifts, the marathon runner and Lululemon ambassador winds down at Mission Trails or Mount Laguna’s Noble Canyon Trail. Each time, “In a Sentimental Mood” soundtracks her transition from runner to community creator at The Run Down, the app she cofounded in 2019.

The Run Down builds a tight-knit band of runners across six major US cities (San Diego and LA were first) by linking them with nearby running groups, races, and resources. There are amateurs prepping for their first 5K and seasoned pros gearing up for their next marathon (Wilkerson has completed Boston and NYC twice). From her post in University Heights, Wilkerson is reshaping a sport of solitude into an amoeba of runners across all ages, genders, body types, and experience levels.

“The more we’re connected, the more collaboration—you see people running together that you never thought you’d see,” she says. “It’s really cool to be able to have that kind of synergy.”

And it all starts on a path—gravel, dirt, concrete, whatever’s in front of her—where she says moving one’s feet quickly turns into liberation in motion.

Shelby Stanger

Wild Ideas Worth Living podcast host Shelby Stanger on a barefoot beach run in La Jolla

Todd Glaser

Consider her the audio equivalent of a starter gun. When host Shelby Stanger takes to the mic on her Wild Ideas Worth Living podcast, listeners can’t help but foist themselves from their couches and step outside. We’re not talking triathlon training. Or even a hike up Iron Mountain.

The Solana Beach–based journalist advocates that the smallest dose of adventure goes a long way. Her casual interview style—combined with her vulnerability in sharing her own struggles, triumphs, and even vitiligo—lends the show a convincingly fresh voice of courage. “I’m a pretty open book,” says Stanger, “which helps most guests cut through small talk to the stuff that matters most.”

Since 2016, Wild Ideas has evolved into a safe place where she’s interviewed accidental heroes alongside heavyweights like Wim “The Iceman” Hof, Wild’s Cheryl Strayed, and Free Solo rock climber Alex Honnold. It’s no wonder REI has her booked ad infinitum: This season, listen up for Erin Parisi, the first trans woman to attempt the Seven Summits; Eddie Taylor, part of the first all-Black team to attempt Everest later this year; and Rick Stanton, one of the cave divers who helped rescue the Thai soccer team in 2018. When she’s not recording, you might catch her moonlighting with her friends from Surf Diva, where she’s taught surfing since she was 16, consulting with brands to create their own podcasts, or barefoot beach running from Cardiff to La Jolla.

Lesford Duncan

Long-distance runner Lesford Duncan begins each adventure with the mantra, “It’s going to be a long day”

Eh Ler Tha

He took Mount Whitney first. Then Mount Everest Base Camp, Kilimanjaro, the Tour du Mont Blanc. Lesford Duncan has seen the world from its most impressive peaks. This spring his eyes are set on the San Diego 100, a single-track mountain course spanning the Pacific Crest, Noble Canyon, and Lake Cuyamaca trails, with 26,000 feet of total elevation change and an average run time of 32 hours.

It’ll be the first 100-miler for Duncan, a 34-year-old ultramarathon runner and associate executive director of Outdoor Outreach, a nonprofit that connects San Diego youth to the transformative powers of the outdoors. For him, it’s a run-work balance. He averages 50–70 miles a week around central San Diego with groups like Black Men Run SD, or goes solo on his most-loved trails, like the Stonewall Peak loop in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park.

“I want to make the outdoors more inclusive,” he says. “A part of that is expanding the outdoors beyond competitive feats—to be in this space just to enjoy it.”

It’s not a time game for Duncan so much as an act of personal resilience. He starts with his mantra—“It’s going to be a long day”—and slowly, steadily embraces that until he finds himself at the finish line. “Running long distance is both mental work and complete joy,” he says. “It’s knowing you can put your body through this and somehow feel more alive than you ever have before.”

Todd Glaser

Kelly Slater’s personal photographer Todd Glaser and his partner Jenna Klein, a competitive cyclist, before catching some waves.

Jussi Oksanen

“Kelly makes the waves look good,” says Todd Glaser. It’s an understatement, from the humblest photographer on the planet. It takes his wife and fellow adventurer, Jenna Klein, to brag on his behalf. For 15 years, the San Diego–born surfer and waterman has served as Kelly Slater’s personal shooter. “I’m super fortunate to see some of the best waves in the world on the best days,” he says.

San Diego Trails – Glaser cliffs

Jussi Oksanen

Guided by swells, Glaser’s itinerary is intense. In the last few weeks alone, he’s traveled to Tahiti and twice to Hawai‘i, including the Pipe Masters, where Slater won the title (at age 50, cementing his superhuman status). But his home turf in North County is where he adventures with his most trusted partner, Klein, a competitive cyclist. There’s camping in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, pilgrimages to Iron Mountain with headlamps, and wild bike trips through Catalina’s backcountry. “I try my absolute hardest to pass her,” he says with a smirk.

San Diego Trails – Epic surf

Glaser’s work has appeared in the New York Times, Outside, and at the Smithsonian; he’s got a book under his belt and a second planned for the Slater oeuvre.

“I want to make images that define that feeling of surfing,” he says. “Their journeys reflect our journeys.”

A silhouetted hiker at Iron Mountain

Todd Glaser

Golden hour in Solana Beach, where Glaser lives

Todd Glaser

The post We Hit the Trails with 6 of San Diego’s A-List Adventurers appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

“Dinner would like you to remove all of the brown M&Ms from the bowl. Please use tweezers and not your awful, awful hands. Dinner will not leave its staging area until it is a perfect 98.6 degrees (the temperature of the mouth of its fans). It requires a hexagonal serving plate made from conflict-free Sierra Leone diamonds. Dinner would also like some sex. Figure it out. Failure to meet these requirements will void the contract, and dinner will have no choice but to cancel its performance for the evening.”

More than any other point in American history, dinner is a ****ing star.

If Billy Joel wrote “Scenes From An Italian Restaurant” today, he’d be forced to find romance in people taking photos of their carbonara. Restaurants look like the staff of TMZ was having a shift meal when they discovered the world’s tiniest celebrities on their plates—miniskirts askew, rehab mascara, holding bongs like clutch purses. A man with a semi-pro Kodak adjusts a micro-green just so, trying to capture the emotional depth of his short rib. A woman takes a kissy-face selfie with a branzino. The entire scene is screened real-time on Instagram (named Food Penthouse before the lawsuit).

Doors don’t separate the stoves from the diners anymore. Instead, we have “performance kitchens”—literal stages for the knife-and-fire show. Chefs are expected to entertain guests with the circus flair of a sword swallower and the spiritual gravitas of Mr. Miyagi.

Knowledge of hip restaurants is now essential to your status in the American middle-class. That “topic of conversation” used to be held by politics, but let’s face it: that’s depressing. If you haven’t been to Hot New Restaurant X, you are flirting with cultural illiteracy. Haven’t had a Sazerac made with bitters containing the sweat of a lemur in heat? Get with it, Yeti.

Not having reservations is the new not showering.

And now the backlash has begun. People are tired of seeing your illicitly glazed short ribs in their timeline. Your doughnut porn is douchey.

“It’s just food!” scream the naysayers. “It’s just a restaurant!”

But is it? Or have restaurants replaced the family home?

Sure, home used to be where we entertained our friends and family. But, at least for now, those days are largely gone. The restaurant is where families, friendships, businesses and cities are made.

When was the last time you sat down at a family dinner—not in front of the TV or hovered over a smartphone? Even if you’re a do-gooder who answers, “Every night!,” it’s hard to argue that the art of the family dinner is at an all-time low in America. Restaurants are the only place left where Americans still pause, face each other for a few hours, and engage. When you pay for a dinner experience, you’re not just paying for food, service and décor. You’re paying for the undivided attention of someone who’s important to your life. It’s gotten harder and harder to get the entire family to the dinner table. That makes restaurants vitally important to progress. It’s one of the only remaining places where we truly commune.

Dinner is where you break bread with your daughter’s new boyfriend to determine if he’s marriage material or a temporarily dormant restraining order. Restaurants are where amazing nerds sketch out the next Google. It’s where city officials hatch plans to save or screw the city. It’s where we come together, talk ideas, commune.

Not everyone plays golf. Everyone eats.

In 2015, restaurants are not merely alternatives to entertaining at home. They have become the replacement. This is especially true now for a few reasons:

REASON 1: A lot fewer of us own our own homes.

In the ’50s, it seems most American professionals could afford a reasonable abode. With a sexist workplace and a stay-at-home wife able to spend the day preparing meals, the dinner party was a venerated tradition. It was how you let someone important—potential partners, bosses, friends, family members, etc.—into your life to see where and how you lived. They could go through your medicine cabinet during a trip to the loo. Now, we’re living in smaller spaces that are less equipped to host many humans. So we use home for sleep, and outsource the dinner party.

REASON 2: The new home-owning generation didn’t learn how to cook.

For those of us in our 40s, we grew up on microwave culture of the ’70s. We’re button pushers, not sauce reducers. We’re the generation who outsourced the chore of meals—whether it be to McDonalds, Van De Kamp or that killer bistro with five stars on Yelp. By the time we realized our lack of cooking skills was inconvenient, we were already too overworked and overtaxed by modern life to make it a hobby. Picking a restaurant, then, is how we entertain people at mealtime. It’s “skill replacement therapy” for a generation of shoddy cooks.

REASON 3: Fewer and fewer of us work in traditional offices.

The Information Age has drastically reduced the need for a proper office. Many of us are working from our laptops. “Third spaces” are where we conduct business. Our ad-hoc offices. Starbucks is the low-rent startup space. Meeting a client at Juniper & Ivy is like bringing them to your executive corner suite. Choose wisely.

REASON 4: We’re so damn busy.

Our day planners look like Guernica. Dinner is one of the only experiences in life that pauses the go-go-go, speed-dating ADD of modern American life. Even if we had a few extra hours, we treasure that downtime. It’s harder and harder to disconnect and be alone for a few minutes.

REASON 5: We don’t let people into our homes like we used to.

We didn’t used to jump out of our skin when people knocked on our doors. American neighborhoods used to have an open-door policy. But, thanks, media. News outlets love to put the creeps and psychos in headlines. The 24-hour news cycle lays out their gory details over and over while we’re on the treadmill. Based on reporting alone, it would seem 40 percent of America is one angry moment away from discharging a firearm in your living room. Because of that paranoia, the once-welcoming, social American family home is now a panic room. A bunker. A safe haven. Best to entertain potential creeps in a neutral, public location that’s not your home address.

For all of these reasons—smaller living spaces, two working adults, lack of kitchen training, fewer of us working out of traditional office spaces, weirdos in the news—restaurants have become one of the most important places in modern American life. The ones we choose say a lot about us—just like our homes used to do.

That’s why we pay such cultish attention to which chef and interior designer are behind a restaurant. That’s why we obsess over a photo of a sous vide quail as if it was Marilyn Monroe standing over the windy street gate. That’s why restaurants and chefs are such ****ing stars.

I’d love to say, “Oh, it’s just food.”

But it’s not.

Restaurants are home replacement therapy. Now, more than ever.

One Night Only: Dinner!

The post One Night Only: Dinner! appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

And take a look at Picture Perfect favorites for inspiration:

The Hills Are Alive

January 2014. Shot by Phillip Colla.

Torrey Pines State Reserve

Phillip Colla

A Pleasing Path

February 2014. Shot by Diana Alsindy.

Suspension bridge

Southwest of Coronado Island

March 2014. Shot by John Trice

Sailing off the coast of Coronado

John Trice

Under the Coronado Bridge

December 2013. Shot by Michael Jaffe

Under the Coronado Bridge

Mt. Palomar Observatory

November 2013. Shot by Brett Shoaf.

Mt. Palomar Observatory

Gaslamp at Dusk

October 2013. Shot by Justin Lee.

Gaslamp at dusk

The post Summer Snaps appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

And take a look at Picture Perfect favorites for inspiration:

The Hills Are Alive

January 2014. Shot by Phillip Colla.

Torrey Pines State Reserve

Phillip Colla

A Pleasing Path

February 2014. Shot by Diana Alsindy.

Suspension bridge

Southwest of Coronado Island

March 2014. Shot by John Trice

Sailing off the coast of Coronado

John Trice

Under the Coronado Bridge

December 2013. Shot by Michael Jaffe

Under the Coronado Bridge

Mt. Palomar Observatory

November 2013. Shot by Brett Shoaf.

Mt. Palomar Observatory

Gaslamp at Dusk

October 2013. Shot by Justin Lee.

Gaslamp at dusk

The post Summer Snaps appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

SHOOT IT, SEND IT

Submit your best San Diego shots
to [email protected].

Location: Font’s Point Lookout off highway S22

Camera: Sony Alpha 850, shot at 16mm focal length with LEE Filters

What North Park resident Scott Murphy loved about this desert scene was its seclusion. “Font’s Point gives you a 360-degree view of the badlands and Salton Sea, but it’s so hidden that you have to know a local, or someone who goes to the desert riding motorcycles or off-roading,” says Murphy, a medical photographer by day and landscape photographer by night and weekends. Once he spotted the red blooms, he knew he wanted to spotlight them against the grandiose backdrop in the sun’s last hour of light. “[Font’s Point] is best viewed at sunset,” he says. “It’s so peaceful. Locals bring chairs. Some even picnic.”

Font Point Lookout

The post Picture-Perfect: Desert Rose appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

SHOOT IT, SEND IT

Submit your best San Diego shots
to [email protected].

Location: Font’s Point Lookout off highway S22

Camera: Sony Alpha 850, shot at 16mm focal length with LEE Filters

What North Park resident Scott Murphy loved about this desert scene was its seclusion. “Font’s Point gives you a 360-degree view of the badlands and Salton Sea, but it’s so hidden that you have to know a local, or someone who goes to the desert riding motorcycles or off-roading,” says Murphy, a medical photographer by day and landscape photographer by night and weekends. Once he spotted the red blooms, he knew he wanted to spotlight them against the grandiose backdrop in the sun’s last hour of light. “[Font’s Point] is best viewed at sunset,” he says. “It’s so peaceful. Locals bring chairs. Some even picnic.”

Font Point Lookout

The post Picture-Perfect: Desert Rose appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

Concetta Antico’s home

Jenny grabs the first shot of the day. The light was working in our favor for this charming outdoor vignette.

Concetta Antico’s home

Concetta’s cats were the most eager models of the day.

Concetta Antico’s home

Even the water was artful. We loved these pretty milk glasses!

Concetta Antico’s home

Becca perfects the styling of the dining table. The final photo of this room is my favorite from the story!

Concetta Antico’s home

We all gushed over this rug. There may or may not have been a few Instagrams.

Concetta Antico’s home

Becca shows Concetta how she’ll be posing for her “lifestyle” shot.

Concetta Antico’s home

Good light is a photo shoot’s best friend, and this one had lots of it! Doesn’t this look like the perfect place to sit on a spring day in San Diego?

Earthly Delights

Want to see Concetta’s artwork in person? Her next show, Earthly Delights, opens Saturday, April 26 in Mission Hills. For more details, check out Concetta’s gallery.

The post Behind the Photo Shoot appeared first on San Diego Magazine.

Concetta Antico’s home

Jenny grabs the first shot of the day. The light was working in our favor for this charming outdoor vignette.

Concetta Antico’s home

Concetta’s cats were the most eager models of the day.

Concetta Antico’s home

Even the water was artful. We loved these pretty milk glasses!

Concetta Antico’s home

Becca perfects the styling of the dining table. The final photo of this room is my favorite from the story!

Concetta Antico’s home

We all gushed over this rug. There may or may not have been a few Instagrams.

Concetta Antico’s home

Becca shows Concetta how she’ll be posing for her “lifestyle” shot.

Concetta Antico’s home

Good light is a photo shoot’s best friend, and this one had lots of it! Doesn’t this look like the perfect place to sit on a spring day in San Diego?

Earthly Delights

Want to see Concetta’s artwork in person? Her next show, Earthly Delights, opens Saturday, April 26 in Mission Hills. For more details, check out Concetta’s gallery.

The post Behind the Photo Shoot appeared first on San Diego Magazine.