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California Photos and Art

A Native Californian's Homage to Yosemite and Catalina.

California Redwoods, a view in Yosemite's "High Country", and the city of Avalon, Catalina Island.

Click on these "thumbnails" to see a larger picture.  

Welcome!  I am J.R Dunster, and this page is devoted to Yosemite National Park, and other beautiful places in California, my home state.   When I was a child, I was lucky enough to go on many trips around this lovely state with my family.  I guess I sort of took it for granted, since I did not realize that other parts of the country do not necessarily possess the unique beauty that California does.   But, I always loved the places we went to, and as an adult, I took off as much as possible (as a lot of Californians do) to revisit my favorite places in California.   I still love to travel and take lots of pictures, so I thought I would make a web page with information and photos about Yosemite National Park, and other beautiful California places.  (My love for this state has not decreased since I unfortunately had to move away recently...I just make a longer "commute" when I vacation!)   Hope you will want to stay awhile! 

Yosemite National Park is one of California's (and the world's) most beautiful places.   It is about 5-6 hours north of Los Angeles, and about 4 ½ hours from San Francisco.  Yosemite attracts visitors from all over the world, and is "Open All Year".   Probably one of the favorite areas (and frequently photographed) of Yosemite is the gorgeous Yosemite Valley.  It has been used as the backdrop for many films, most recently, "Maverick" (with Mel Gibson) and the much-lamented "Star Trek 5".  (The best thing about that film was the soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith, and beautiful Yosemite National Park!)

Catalina Island is a lovely island an hour's boat ride off of the Southern California Coast.   (I like to think that a little bit of Los Angeles floated away, and became Catalina!)  One of it's most famous (and historical) landmarks is "The Casino", which is actually more of a ballroom.  On this Island are many beautiful homes, owned by famous people, (like the Wrigley House, ---of the chewing gum fame---and Western author Zane Grey's home.)  It has also been used in many films (and TV), some  of the most famous movies are  "Chinatown" (with Jack Nicholson) and "The Glass Bottom Boat" (with Doris Day.)

Beautiful Blue Tenaya Lake in Yosemite's "High Country", a view of Yosemite Valley from Glacier Point (where, if you look closely, you can see Ahwahnee Hotel) and a Catalina fountain, showing off some of Catalina Island's famous tile work.

This is one of my landscape paintings.  I do not consider myself a great landscape artist at all, but Yosemite and other beautiful places inspire me to paint---well, at least tolerable landscapes!  I painted this acrylics painting on location, while visiting the Ave. of The Giants, a Redwood forest in Northern California.  You can see other examples of Yosemite art on my other site, Bearclover.net. There I show some nice Yosemite watercolors that I painted on location in the Park.

• See more Yosemite and Catalina pictures on my next page.
• I have written a few bits of info about traveling to Yosemite, etc.
• Visit my Yosemite '98 Page, with photos from a 1998 visit.

• Half Dome Cam
• Yosemite.org
• My new, more comprehensive domain site, with lots of Yosemite and California photos - Bearclover.net. I also have many photos from my 2001 Yosemite visit.

More excellent Sites:

• Got to visit the Los Angeles Times Home Page!
• One of L.A.'s biggest AM stations, talk radio www.kfi640.com
• Los Angeles' local NBC station (my favorite, channel 4) www.nbc4la.com.