The Sepulveda Dam - from LA River Pix
Sepulveda Dam, Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve,
One of my favorite places to photograph is the Sepulveda Basin and more specifically the Sepulveda Dam located at the Basin’s Eastern end. I will be leading my semiannual LA River Photo Adventure this coming Saturday and the dam is always one of the most popular stops of the tour.
The dam is an imposing structure especially when standing in the flat-concreted section below it. Graffiti periodically lines the walls and a mélange of discarded stuff ranging from broken bottles to rocks and on rare occasions, sacrificed bird carcasses is scattered about.
US_CA_48_3715
Sometimes Cliff Swallows make their mud nests just under the top of the dam and hundreds of excited and expectant parents can be seen diving and manically looping around and above the dam.
US_CA_48_3714
It is also a favorite for filming, credits include: Sabotage, Buckaroo Banzai, Iron Man 2, The Fast and the Furious, The Italian Job, Gattaca, 24, CHiPs, Alias, Bones, Six Millions Dollar Man, Knight Rider and most memorably Escape from New York, when Snake Plissken is almost killed at the end of the film. And the most obscure, a They Might Be Giants music video for “The Statue Got Me High”
US_CA_48_3767
The dam was built in 1941 for flood control after the historic floods of 1938 which killed 144 people.
Sepulveda Dam, Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve,
Our tour is this Saturday, October 25 at 8AM. We have a good crowd already signed up, but if you want more info or would like to join us, just go to the Los Angeles Center of Photography website.