MOUNTAIN PHOTOGRAPHY is part of the L.A. weather cycle. Heavy rains bring clear air, which reminds people in the city center that there are mountains behind the air, which then leads to an avalanche of peak pics in our social media feeds.
This rainfall season saw the cycle play out multiple times, and some of the resulting photos generated a lot of engagement online. Here’s one from photographer Mark Girardeau that racked up fifteen thousand likes:
An image of Mount Baldy over Newport Beach, with caption. (@orangecountyoutdoors on Instagram)
But this shot was not without controversy. Dozens of commenters showed up on Instagram and Facebook — mostly Facebook — to accuse Girardeau of fraud.
Many other pictures of the mountains that went viral this winter were met with the same skepticism.
“Mountains aren’t that close - AI folks,” responded Threads user @kathyfulton_bpp to a dramatic tableau by Stephen Velasco.
“Images like this crack me up,” added @rusticchicana in response to a glamour shot posted by @quancyclayborne. “They give the impression that Downtown Los Angeles is right up against the mountains, which it’s not.”
The volume of negative comments eventually drove Girardeau to post a response to the responses, a video in which he takes a boat offshore and demonstrates how he got the shot with a telephoto lens. “A lot of people call it Mount Photoshop,” he says. “I get a lot of death threats.”
So are these images reflective of our geographic reality? Or are they a scam to mislead outsiders? How far are the mountains from the City of Los Angeles, really?
