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These guys toured around California to recreate the Apple macOS wallpapers

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With the exception of the Windows XP wallpaper, the macOS wallpapers from Apple are probably some of the most recognisable photographs out there today. Often, we sit at our screens, seeing landscapes like these, wondering what it would be like to see them in person.

YouTuber Andrew Levitt certainly thought that. So, he teamed up with friends Jacob Phillips and Taylor Gray and then sit off in search of those exact locations to recreate the images for themselves. And, they documented the trip so the rest of us could tag along.

Cosplay photoshoot with giant fake rifle sparks public warning from California authorities

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Last week, a cosplay photoshoot involving a large fake rifle caused quite a stir on the public Seacliff State Beach in Monterey Bay, California. The costumed model was seen carrying the huge replica gun at the beach, and judging from the photos, nothing indicated that it was fake. Some beachgoers reported the photoshoot to the police, and the whole case prompted a public warning from the Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Office.

NASA releases satellite imagery showing massive scale of the “Camp Fire” in California

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The Camp Fire, named after the Camp Creek Road where it originated, is the most devastating wildfire in California’s history. Beginning on November 8th, Camp Fire spans more than 138,000 acres. It has decimated at least 8,000 buildings and claimed at least 50 lives with over 200 civilians still reported missing.

NASA has now released some high-resolution satellite images showing the scale of the wildfire. The image above shows Camp Fire in Butte County, California as soon from the Landsat 8 satellite on the morning of November 8th, 2018.

Photographer dies after falling from 40 feet while trying to take a photo

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Sadly, we have more than once heard the tragic stories of photographers falling to their death while trying to take a photo. The latest tragedy happened in Lodi, California when a 63-year old photographer Jiyoun Park tried to take a photo from the roof of a parking garage. The man fell 40 feet from the ledge and died shortly after.

Video evidence surfaces against two suspects arrested in fatal shooting of California photographer

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Edward French was a 71 year old photographer who was robbed and killed at Twin Peaks Looking out in California about three weeks ago. A police spokesperson at the time said that he was approached by a young man and woman before he was shot and his camera was stolen. KTVU reports that two people have now been arrested by San Francisco police.

The pair, 19 year old Patterson resident, Lamone Mims, and 20 year old Fantasy Decuir of San Francisco have been charged with the murder. The pair were caught as a result of leads from an armed robbery on July 28th of a 53 year old man and 33 year old woman. The prosecution also says they have the murder on video.

Pentax K-5 IIs gets covered with pink fire retardant, hosed off, and carries on shooting

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I always find it interesting to read about the things cameras survive that the manufacturers could never have foreseen. X. Fire and ice, car crashes, months under the ocean, rocket engines, and even babies.

Photographer Brian Maneely recently discovered just how tough and sealed his Pentax K-5 IIs was. While photographing a wildfire, it was doused with pink fire retardant and then hosed off with water.

Photographer shoots Great Balls of Fire which turn out to be a Chinese spaceship reentry

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Photographer Ian Norman was out on shooting some night skies photo in Alabama Hills near Lone Pine, California. The photos are gorgeous (as you can see below), which is pretty usual up till now. But some time into the shoot Ian notices a huge fireball over the Sierra Nevada mountains.

While Ian’s “big guns” gear was not setup to shoot it, he grabbed an A75 and started recording.

It turns out that those fireballs were the expected reentry of the upper stage of China’s recent CZ-7 rocket launch, namely the rocket upper stage.

California wildfire ‘selfie’ arsonist gets 20 years and a $60 million fine

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Selfies are just a part of our culture today, whether stills or video, but they have been known to land people in hot water a time or two.  Sometimes the consequences are simply a little embarrassment, sometimes very severe (and rightly so).

In what seems more suited to ridicule on America’s Dumbest Criminals, California resident Wayne Allen Huntsman captured a video selfie with the beginnings of what would become known as the King Fire, a wildfire that scorched over almost 100,000 acres of land in El Dorado County, California in 2014.

Incredible time-lapse shows the ethereal world of California wildfires

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Up close and personal, wildfires are tragic and terrifying. But if you can step away from the chaos and capture things from a wider perspective, they can become a thing of beauty.

No one knows this better than filmmaker Jeff Frost, who has spent the past three years capturing dozens of wildfires across the Golden State and has turned them into a time-lapse.

Local Landmark Shipwreck in California Burnt Out for Instagram Photo

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Perched on a sand bank in Tomales Bay, CA, the ship nicknamed the “S.S. Point Reyes” has sat for a great number of years, left to rot and decay naturally.  The exact number of years it’s been there is something of a local secret, adding to the mystery of the wreck, which has been a significant local tourist attraction.

Sitting in the bay, and not the Pacific Ocean is the reason why the wreck has remained around for so long, and has been of great interest to photographers visiting the area, which has a long history of shipwrecks.

On Sunday night, it became of particular interest to one unnamed Instagram user who thought it’d be a great idea to start spinning red hot wire wool behind the boat for a photo.  As one might expect, this caused a fire which went on to consume about half of the wreck, and was still being battled by local fire fighters into Monday morning.

This is why we can’t have nice things.

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