So with the addition of a negative scanner, I’ve of course been going through sheets of negatives from back in the prehistoric days shooting black and white film — most of which were related to class assignments from the early ’90s. Pulling a sheet out of the batch on my desk I found what looks to be a series of shots that made up a panorama of the San Fernando Valley from a vantage point somehwere atop Mulholland (I’m guessing between Laurel and Coldwater Canyon boulevards).
Then there was one with it that to the naked eye didn’t look to be from a camera pointed at the valley. In fact it looked to be the other direction. Putting it up to the light and under a magnifying loupe, sure enough, that’s an island in the distance out to sea and a couple tankers making their ways northward across the bay (click it to get the bigger picture):
It’s not a good image in the slightest, which is probably why I never printed it up. But what I surmise is that while cruising Mulholland sometime in 1992 or ’93 most likely on my motorcycle on the way to or from the panormama I shot (which didn’t turn out very well either), I spotted this view from a turnout and snapped it because it’s just not every day one can see such a scene. Trouble is, I’m not sure where was this turnout and what things are we seeing. My guess is it’s from a vista point between the Sepulveda Pass and Beverly Glen Boulevard looking out over Bel Air and that’s Catalina Island with a bit of San Clemente to the left of the frame. The buildings seen past the dip in the ridge line are no real help in pinpointing so that’s the best I can come up with.
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