California Daydreaming Back

Today's photo digs back into the inner recesses of my Disneyland photos... that were shot in RAW format.  It was not long after I started this blog nearly 14 years ago that I stopped photographing in JPEG and switched to RAW to allow more flexibility and adaptability when editing photos.  It marked a more serious shift in my hobbyist photography, and I've enjoyed capturing countless scenic moments ever since.  

This perspective is also nostalgic, because it represents Disney California Adventure before its more overt IP-fication that started when the park relaunched its "DCA 2.0" self with a whole land dedicated to an intellectual property--Cars--and continued with the later conversions of Paradise Pier into Pixar Pier, Pacific Wharf into San Fransokyo Square, and the introduction of Avengers Campus.  Instead, back then, most of DCA's themed lands were homages to parts of Californial. Paradise Pier? A tribute to the heyday of seaside amusement parks and piers during the mid-20th century.  And though the franchise-based attractions that have been added to or converted at California Adventure certainly have proven to be popular, there's something wistful about the original inspiration of the park.

A sunny spring day on Paradise Pier 13 years ago.