Photography at Yorba Linda Regional Park

I’ve been so busy lately photographing real estate projects and portrait head-shots that I’ve fallen behind in my personal photography.  Yesterday I had the opportunity to go out shooting with another photography friend and our destination was Yorba Linda Regional Park.  This was the first time I’ve ever photographed in this location, but I’m not at all unfamiliar with it.  In fact, Yorba Linda Regional Park has for many years been my turn-around point for weekly bicycle rides up the Santa Ana River Trail.  As the crow flies (or the bike rides), Yorba Linda Regional Park is about 18 miles away from Costa Mesa.  The park has several small lakes which are surrounded by a scattering of benches—the perfect place to sit and rest, eat a banana, drink water, and just enjoy the beautiful and peaceful scenery.

I really didn’t know much about the park in terms of its history until I searched out information on it after yesterday’s shoot.  At nearly 140 acres, and over 1 mile long, this somewhat linearly-shaped park is situated in the mouth of Santa Ana Canyon in the city of Anaheim and runs parallel to the adjacent Santa Ana River. Because the park is in a historic setting in an area where such names as Yorba, Peralta and Dominguez were common, the Orange County Board of Supervisors recognized the 1976 opening of the park site by designating it as the official Orange County bicentennial project.  Yorba Linda Regional Park has been developed to provide an abundance of family and group picnicking facilities. More than 400 picnic tables are situated in the park, many with permanent shade structures. A series of four lakes with connecting streams offer a pleasing aquatic environment and provide opportunities for fishing and model boat sailing. Bicycle trails meander through the park, and connect to the nationally recognized Santa Ana River Trail, leading some 20 miles to the Pacific Ocean--a stretch of trail I’m intimately familiar with!!  Playgrounds and restrooms can be found throughout the park as well as volleyball courts, horseshoe pits, two ball diamonds, a physical fitness course, and some 200 barbecues.

 

So what was I there to photograph you might ask?  Birds of course—and lots of them!  There were a variety of species that I was familiar with having photographed at numerous wetland locations around Orange County, but there were additional sightings which were new to me.  The weather, like today, was perfect and made for an enjoyable morning of photography.  I hope you enjoy seeing this handful of photographs.  My full collection from yesterday can be viewed at:  http://www.costamesaphotography.com/OC-Orange-County/Yorba-Linda  (this is where prints/enlargements are ordered).