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California, Seen Through the Lens of George Rose

George Rose, an editorial contributing photographer with Getty, has been making remarkable images of California’s people and landscapes for decades. Collected here is some of Rose’s recent photography, featuring his home state’s diverse forests, cities, mountains, and coastlines.

By · June 22, 2026 · 3 min read
This article was originally published by The Atlantic and is republished here under license.
Stark and dramatic cliffs and mountains rise above a forested valley floor, with a distant high waterfall to the right of center.
George Rose / Getty
Yosemite Valley, including Half Dome, Clouds Rest, Bridalveil Fall, and El Capitan, viewed from Tunnel View after a brief rainstorm cleared on March 27, 2025, in Yosemite National Park, California
A lone, bare tree, bent over sideways, stands in a field covered in green grass, beneath dark clouds.
George Rose / Getty
Heavy rains arrived in Santa Barbara County wine country, filling the creeks and streams and turning the hillsides a vivid green as viewed on January 20, 2023, near Santa Ynez, California. Following the notoriety from the Academy Award–winning film Sideways, this farming region north of Santa Barbara has become a popular wine-country stop for global and domestic tourists traveling between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
A farm worker rides a horse on a paved street through a neighborhood.
George Rose / Getty
A farmworker rides a horse through the neighborhood backstreets in Los Alamos, California, on January 30, 2016.
Skyscrapers of downtown Los Angeles, viewed with a backdrop of distant mountains
George Rose / Getty
The downtown high-rises are viewed at sunrise from the Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area in the Baldwin Hills Mountains on February 7, 2022, in Los Angeles, California.
At least seven surfers catch the same medium-sized wave.
George Rose / Getty
A group of surfers catches the same wave in this photo taken from the pier in Pismo Beach, California, on August 21, 2015.
Rows of grapevines on a hillside, seen in rich autumn colors
George Rose / Getty
Pinot noir vineyards in the famed Sta. Rita Hills AVA (American Viticultural Area) turn a vivid red, orange, and yellow, signaling the end of the grape harvest and approach of winter, as viewed on November 26, 2023, near Buellton, California.
An aerial view of a man-made waterfront community—many houses on curving narrow strips of land surrounded by fresh water
George Rose / Getty
Discovery Bay, a waterfront community of 15,000 people built on a network of man-made dikes and surrounded by fresh water, is viewed from the air on May 22, 2023, over Discovery Bay, California.
A woman photographs the Golden Gate Bridge and a heavy fog bank.
George Rose / Getty
A woman photographs the Golden Gate Bridge and approaching bank of heavy fog on February 13, 2014, in San Francisco, California.
People look at a large and rusting metal sculpture of a dragon.
George Rose / Getty
Visitors to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park take in Galleta Meadows, a sculpture garden by the artist and welder Ricardo Breceda, on March 6, 2019, in Borrego Springs, California.
Sunrise on a cloudy day, seen over a mountain lake
George Rose / Getty
Early-morning light shines on Emerald Bay in South Lake Tahoe, California, on October 26, 2022.
Several people walk on a narrow path on gently sloping hills covered in wildflowers.
George Rose / Getty
Following record winter rains, colorful poppies and other wildflowers appeared in the Antelope Valley Poppy Preserve one hour north of Los Angeles, drawing visitors to a “super bloom” on March 31, 2019, near Lancaster, California.
Snow-covered pine trees stand along a calm river.
George Rose / Getty
Trees stand along the Merced River, coated in white after a major storm dumped a foot of snow in Yosemite Valley on December 16, 2021, in Yosemite National Park.
Elephant seals gather on a rocky beach.
George Rose / Getty
Elephant seals gather on the beach at the Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Rookery on February 21, 2019, south of the Piedras Blancas Lighthouse and just north of San Simeon, California.
Many boats, moored in a reservoir at low-water levels
George Rose / Getty
Lake Oroville, California’s second-largest water reservoir, stood at a historically low level during a drought, seen on September 1, 2021, near Oroville, California.
A cow and large oak tree, silhouetted against the early morning sky
George Rose / Getty
A large oak tree is silhouetted against the early-morning sky as the sun comes up on December 26, 2021, near Santa Ynez, California, in Santa Barbara County’s wine country.
A passenger aircraft flies low above an In-N-Out Burger restaurant.
George Rose / Getty
An In-N-Out Burger restaurant adjacent to a runway at Los Angeles International Airport has become a favorite Instagram spot to photograph jets as they land, seen on February 7, 2022, in Los Angeles.
Snow-covered mountains stand behind rocky hills.
George Rose / Getty
The Sierra Nevada Mountains, viewed from the scenic Alabama Hills at sunrise on April 6, 2017, near Lone Pine. Owens Valley is an arid valley in eastern California, to the east of the Sierra Nevadas and west of the White Mountains and Inyo Mountains on the west edge of the Great Basin.
Smoky haze appears above a tree-lined river.
George Rose / Getty
Smoke from a controlled burn produces a haze above the Merced River, seen in the early-morning hours before sunrise on October 28, 2021, in Yosemite National Park.
Thousands of colorful fiber-optic spheres cover a rolling hillside in the evening.
George Rose / Getty
More than 58,000 fiber-optic spheres cover a rolling hillside and gully in a “made for social media” Field of Light at Sensorio on June 1, 2019, near Paso Robles.
Smoke rises from a distant brush fire.
George Rose / Getty
A large grass-and-timber fire, the Lake Fire, dominates the horizon in Santa Barbara County’s Santa Ynez Valley, viewed from a nearby vineyard on July 6, 2024.
A stand of aspen trees with white bark and orange-yellow leaves
George Rose / Getty
Tourists flock to patches of aspens, cottonwoods, and maple trees that turn bright red, yellow, and gold along Bishop Creek Canyon and in the canyons of North Lake, Lake Sabrina, and South Lake, near Bishop, California, on October 9, 2021.
Snow, rain, and sand fall from a dark sky above Death Valley.
George Rose / Getty
A mixture of snow, rain, and sand moves across Death Valley on March 2, 2023, near Furnace Creek, California.
A large statue of a Brontosaurus, painted pink, near several palm trees
George Rose / Getty
A large statue of a Brontosaurus stands at the Cabazon Dinosaur roadside attraction off Interstate 10, seen on May 11, 2022.
The gnarled branches of old vines stand in a vineyard.
George Rose / Getty
A farmer riding a tractor cleans out weeds in an old-vine zinfandel vineyard near Healdsburg, California, on March 22, 2022.
Large waves crash against a cliff, splashing high in the air.
George Rose / Getty
Heavy surf created by a large storm in the Gulf of Alaska sent huge waves crashing along the coastal rocks and shoreline near the Piedras Blancas Lighthouse on February 4, 2016.
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