Hollywood sign fail

Hi & thanks for checkin' out my blog! I share a lot of my adventures and images, here on the blog. One thing I don't do too often, though, is tell the tales of the fails... As with everything in life, my adventures are a mix of highs & low and successes and failures. the highs and successes are what I usually write about & share. But, I wanted to bring to light that mine is still a labor, all be it a labor of love. A lot of time, energy, & hard work go into this blog. And sometimes the work doesn't yield the results I'm after. There have been occasions that yield little to nothing worth sharing, and then there are times where I don't get the shots I am after but I find others that I didn't think to go after. This story is just that...

My buddy Erika hit me up one day to see if I wanted to shoot. She didn't know what she wanted to shoot and asked me to take the lead on a photo mission. I offered up 2 suggestions. ...the old L.A. zoo & a hike to the Hollywood sign. Her response was, "yes!" So we headed on our way to the old zoo, and decided we'll play it by ear with the Hollywood sign. We hit the old zoo and explored all the old cages, hiking trails, & picnic areas collecting images. That half of the mission was a success. We both left the zoo with smiles on our faces, knowing we had some good shots to take home. With daylight running out, we decided to take our chances with the Hollywood sign. The first task was finding the right street to take up into the hills. Fortunately, I had done my research and knew exactly where to go. The next hurdle was finding a place to park. We got lucky there, a car was leaving right as we reached the top of the street. By this time, the sun was setting, so it became a race against time. We started up the hill as fast as we could walk and made it up to the trail entrance just as the sun started to disappear. I was moving pretty fast up the hill and my buddy was having a hard time keepin' up with me. When we got to the trails, I asked Erika if she wanted to keep going? From the look on her face and her heavy breathing, I could tell she wasn't as enthusiastic about reaching the top as I was. She paused, looked up at the sign, and then looked at me as she signaled a thumbs down to the idea. So we took a break and got a few shots of each other in front of the sign before starting our way back down the mountain. I was disappointed, having come so close and stopping with just a little left to go. But, I didn't want to push my buddy to hike up a mountain in the dark, with her looking so tired. We failed in getting to the top, but we had fun on our adventure and got a great workout along the way. She probably saved me from getting myself lost in the mountains at night anyway. Lol. ....I still have yet to get to the top of the Hollywood sign, but I think I'll try my luck again soon. Hopefully, I'll have some good weather, when I do, so I can get some good shots of the city from up on the mountain top. Stay tuned to see if I make it or not. Till then, here are some shots from my failed attempt...