Starlight To The Border
I took the Amtrak Coast Starlight from Los Angeles to Portland, and this photo essay captures the stretch from Southern California to the Oregon border—roughly 600 miles covered in about 21 hours. While my journey continued into Portland, this essay is a tribute to the vast and diverse terrain found throughout the Golden State. From the beaches of Santa Barbara to the rolling vineyards near San Luis Obispo, through the agricultural heart of the Central Valley and along the shifting line of the San Andreas Fault, each landscape reveals a different face of California. The journey winds past the misty marshes of Elkhorn Slough Preserve Park and ends at the foot of Mount Shasta, where the state begins to give way to Oregon’s towering forests.
These photos were taken with my trusty little Ricoh GR IIIx. As always, I care more about capturing the essence of a place than about technical perfection. I’m a traveler before I’m a photographer. I edited this series with a Portra 400-inspired look to reflect the warm, natural tones I saw from my window seat, 28A.
