California, USA from the Sky

Top contributor and drone pilot Seven Roads Media brings us this fantastic DVOW nominated video from San Diego, California.  The video opens with a shot of the pier of Pacific Beach, just north of Mission Bay, before cutting to the Cove area of La Jolla.  At the :18 mark, there's a nice timelapse of the city's harbor, followed by some nice shots of San Diego's legendary surfing scene.  Other shots include the Mission Beach Rollercoaster (aka the Giant Dipper), the Pacific Surfliner passenger train on the Pacific Coastal Highway, and more.  

Head west with contributor Deniz to the golden state of California in this beautifully cinematic drone video from a trip to America's Golden State.  He traveled through its northern and southern regions to capture aerial footage of all its great features.  From the prickly cactus-filled deserts, to the famous pier of Santa Monica, to the winding roads of San Francisco, and to the waves of the Pacific, he really captured the true essence of California in this Drone Video of the Week nominee.

Drone pilot and new AirVūz contributor elstevedore created this beautiful aerial compilation of California's North Coast. The North Coast is a region on California's Pacific Ocean (west) side that stretches from San Francisco all the way up to the Oregon border a distance of over 600 km (around 370 mi.) by road. Notable locations along the North Coast are Redwood National Park, Point Reyes National Seashore, Sonoma Valley, and the Golden Gate Bridge. This video was a DVOW finalist in June 2020.  

Multiple Drone Video of the Week Winner FrameworkFilms brings us this stunning aerial footage of some blue whales off the coast of Southern California.  The graceful creatures can reach lengths of up to just under 100 ft. (about 30 m) and can weigh up to 400k pounds (about 180k kg), making them the largest animals to have ever lived on Earth.  They generally spend their summer months near the poles and their winter months in the tropics; sightings such as what you'll see in the video usually occur during migration periods.    

This drone video by top content creator and pilot Thatdroneview starts off by exploring the old Presidio military complex in San Francisco where the Golden Gate Bridge appears to float above dense Northern California fog. Shot with a DJI Phantom 4 Pro, the video then moves on to other classic Northern California spots like the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts and the Bixby Bridge on the famed Big Sur coastline.  Prepare to be amazed by the bird's eye views of some of the most iconic sights in America.  

California's Kelso Dunes presents one of the most iconic desert scenes to be found in the USA.  It's part of the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County, east of Los Angeles.  Covering 120 square km (around 45 square mi.), the dunes here rise to a height of up to 200 meters (about 650 ft.) above the desert floor.  Part of the Mojave National Preserve, you can check out the marvelous hills of sand from above in this fantastic drone video by top AirVuz content creator and pilot rememorales. This video was selected as a DVOW finalist in July 2020.

Top contributor Lucas Pinhel is an Instagram phenomenon, with over 200k followers who love his creative videos combining drones,  ground camera, and people.  In this marvelous piece, he travels to Los Angeles, California to make one of his signature videos, one that highlights many aspects of living that LA lifestyle. Whether it's playing basketball with buddies, rollerskating on the sidewalks of Venice Beach, or grabbing a bite from In-N-Out, this drone footage is all about the City of Angels.

A great deal of care went into this 4k cinematic drone reel of San Francisco from top content creator and pilot AttilioRuffoPhotography. He cautiously flew a DJI Mavic Pro drone over the northern California city, capturing its skyline (including the new Salesforce Tower, which became the city's new height champion in 2017), the famed Golden Gate Bridge, the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge, Coit Tower atop Telegraph Hill, Dolores Park, and more.  If you love the City by the Bay, these bird's eye views will delight you! 

Top content creator and drone pilot Tommy Choi used a drone to make this highly imaginative aerial video of Los Angeles, America's great Second City.  Using a variety of editing techniques, his video shows us the towering skyscrapers of downtown Los Angeles (including the new Wilshire Grand tower, the city's tallest) and the nearby Southern California shoreline from an amazing new perspective.  This video was nominated as a finalist for the AirVuz Drone Video of the Week Contest in June of 2018. 

La Jolla means "The Jewel" in Spanish.  And that it is.  Situated just a few km/miles north of downtown San Diego on the Pacific Coast, La Jolla has one of the finest beaches in California.  It has always been extremely popular with surfers, snorkelers, kayakers, and hang gliders who launch from La Jolla's famed cliffs overlooking the beach.  Now drone pilots are discovering this magical spot on the Pacific, as you'll see from this amazing aerial video from contributor and drone pilot Skyguy.

One of the ironies of the beauty of the great USA state of California is how fragile it all is.  Earthquakes, mudslides, and forest fires regularly visit devastation on the Golden State.  In this video, top contributor and pilot Douglas Thron used a drone to show the devastation of local homes in the Santa Rosa area, north of San Francisco, from a wildfire which raged out of control for days during the month of October, 2017.  This production was shared by many media outlets across the country. 

Top contributor Dave Yip earned a Drone Video of the Week nomination for this epic drone video of California's Big Sur, a stretch along its central coast.  It runs about 110 km (about 70 mi.) on California Route 1 from Carmel to San Simeon.   It's known as one of the most pristine stretches of coastline anywhere in the developed world; the entire region is home to only about 2,000 residents.  The video features some of the most well known sites along the famous route, including the Bixby Bridge.  

Top contributor and drone pilot SFDrones put together this epic aerial video of the San Francisco Bay area.  While it's got amazing bird's eye views of the iconic San Francisco skyline, much of the video is shot outside of "the City" as its known to the locals.  It has some amazing aerial shots of the South Bay, including the area around the Dumbarton Bridge (the southernmost of the three bridges which cross the bay, Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara (home of the 49ers football team), and much more.  

The Golden Gate Bridge connects the City of San Francisco with Marin County to its north, at the opening of San Francisco Bay.  It was conceived during the depths of the Great Depression, and at the time of its completion in 1937, it was the longest and tallest suspension span bridge in the world at 1.3k meters (4.2k ft.).  Contributor and pilot Jordanthe used a drone to create a memorable aerial view of this bridge, which since its construction has been one of the most iconic sites in the United States.   

Although surfing didn't originate in California, it was in the Golden State where an obscure activity which originated in the South Pacific migrated (by way of Hawaii) and became transformed into a mainstream activity seen throughout the world.  The cauldron where this occurred was in the string of beach communities west of Los Angeles from Manhattan Beach Beach to Malibu.  Contributor Sky.shots brings us this drone video of surfing in this legendary area, now commonly referred to as Silicon Beach. 

Death Valley is located in the Mojave desert of southeastern California.  It's a land of extremes - the lowest point in the USA, and home of some of the hottest temperatures ever recorded.  In the 1970's, the other-worldly look of the place caught the attention of a filmmaker named George Lucas.  The result was that Death Valley was used as a filming location for the first Star Wars movie, now called Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.  In this video, EUCORP gives us a bird's eye view of the famous valley.

Take an aerial tour of sunny Los Angeles in this beautiful compilation of drone footage of the great Southern California metropolis. From the Pacific Coast to the iconic Hollywood sign in the hills above the city, from the Venice Skate Park to the wealth and fame of Bevery Hills, contributor and drone pilot evanthomas1 takes us around all the sights and sounds of modern Los Angeles.  With its upbeat and energetic feel, this drone video brings a new romantic feeling to the second largest city of the United States.  

For a 60 second tour of the proverbial City by the Bay, it's tough to beat this one by contributor and drone pilot iDroneU. With short bursts of epic footage, you will be taken around to see virtually all of the highlights of San Francisco. Watch it for bird's eye views of Lombard Street, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Presidio, the Financial District, the Marina area, and more.  The highlight is probably some amazing overhead shots of Alcatraz, the former prison-island in the middle of San Francisco Bay.  

California's Donner Pass is one of the key passageways through the Sierra Nevada Mountains; it was the route for the famous Central Pacific railroad and later for the cross-country Interstate Highway 80.  It's one of the snowiest places in the USA, with an average of over 10 meters (over 400 inches) of snowfall every year. Without snow removal, much of Northern California would be "snowed in".  In this drone video from AerialKelly, you'll see the snowfighters of the Union Pacific as they battle to clear the rails after a big snow. 

Muir Woods is one of the great natural treasures of the San Francisco Bay area. It's an area of old growth redwood forests near Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge which connects Marin County to the city of San Francisco.  The main area of the woods was donated to the US government from a private citizen, and later converted to a national monument by President Theodore Roosevelt.  In this video from Trosencrantz, you'll get a bird's eye view of the fog-enshrouded ancient forest.

Contributor Travispacheco created this stunning video from the area around the Monterey Peninsula, which lies roughly in the middle of California's Pacific coastline.  Using mostly drone footage, the video features footage of the famed Pebble Beach Golf Course, Spanish Bay, Pacific Grove, and 17 Mile Drive, the road connecting Pebble Beach and Pacific Grove.  The areas shown are considered some of the most beautiful spots in the USA, and have been used to film countless movies and TV shows.

Check out this stunning aerial collage of Northern California, compliments of contributor travispacheco.  The video opens with a spectacular shot of the reconstructed eastern section of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, completed in 2013 at a cost of over $6 billion.  Then it transitions to some wonderful footage of the state's rocky Pacific coastline and the famed Pebble Beach golf course.  Then it's on to the Napa Valley wine country and the Sacramento River estuary, ending in the High Sierra's.  

Host of the 1960 Winter Olympics, Lake Tahoe is a vacation destination for people around the country. The Olympics were located in the Squaw Valley on the California side of the lake, however Lake Tahoe straddles Cali and Nevada. It is known for its beaches, ski resorts, and the multiple state parks that surround the freshwater lake. Aerial cinematographers that know it best, LakeTahoeDrone, shot this bird’s-eye-view, 4K video during the record snowfall season, winter 2018-2019.

Stillmotionpicture created this stunning drone video of one of California's most famous lighthouses.  Pigeon Point Lighthouse is situated on the Pacific coast between Santa Cruz and San Francisco, in San Mateo County.  The structure was built in 1871.  At 35 meters (around 115 ft.), it's tied for being California's tallest lighthouse.  The location of this lighthouse was particularly important as a navigational aid for ships on coastal routes from the south headed for San Francisco Bay.

If you thought that ancient ruins would be perhaps the one phenomenon that couldn't be found in California, guess again.  Exhibit A is this fascinating drone video by contributor and pilot JordanB22 of the Blythe Intaglios, a series of ground inscriptions by pre-Columbian people.  Situated near the eponymously named town in the Colorado Desert east of Los Angeles, the figures are hard to discern other than from an aerial view.  Radiocarbon dating suggests they could date to as long ago as 1000 BC.  

There are big rocks and then there are BIG rocks.  This one is definitely the latter.  It's called Giant Rock, and there is no false advertising here.  Situated in California's Mojave Desert, it was believed to be the largest freestanding boulder in the world.  The past tense is due to the fact that a large chunk of it broke off in 2000, enough to dethrone its position as the World's Biggest Rock.  Contributor and drone pilot tglass0000 brings us this beautiful aerial view of Giant Rock, which stands seven stories tall.  

Christopher Abbey used a drone to record an epic trip to popular Mt. Whitney in California. It's part of the Sierra Nevada chain of mountains which run down a portion of eastern part of the Golden State.  With a peak elevation of 4.5k meters (around 14.4k ft.), Mt. Whitney is the tallest mountain in the chain, in the state of California, and in the continental United States.  The perfectly shaped peak was first scaled in 1873, following a series of failed attempts.  Its eastern face wasn't conquered until 1931.

Without doubt, the most flattering view of a $32 million mansion on California's Pacific coast is an aerial one.  Contributor Douglas Thron put together this epic drone video of an extremely high end residential property located on Pebble Beach golf course in northern California.  It's on the southwest-facing side of the Monterey Peninsula, opposite the city of Moneterey.  The bird's eye views of this gem, tucked in close to one of the world's most famous golf courses, is simply spectacular. 

The Sierra Nevada Mountains, which run through eastern California and a portion of western Nevada, are part of a vast chain of mountains that runs down the "spine" of North American and South America.  The Sierra's are about 650 km (around 400 mi.) north to south, and are divided between a western and eastern "slopes".  In this beautiful drone video by contributor hakisair, you'll get a marvelous bird's eye view of the Eastern Sierra's in California, home to some of the most beautiful natural scenery in the USA.  

If you want to see how drones have revolutionized our ability to see surfing up close, check out this video by myflyingeyes.  It was filmed on the beaches of Ventura, a beach community in Southern California.  Lying about midway between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, it's considered one of the prime surfing spots on the USA's West Coast.  The video uses some very skillful slow motion editing and provides a window onto this lifestyle sport which is so closely identified with the California lifestyle.   

The quaint seaside town of Monterey, California is one of America's most beautiful spots.  Situated on a prominent peninsula about 120 miles south of San Francisco, it was immortalized in John Steinbeck's classic 1940's novel Cannery Row.  Fast-forward several decades, and Monterey hit it big again as the location for HBO's popular TV series Big Little Lies.  In this drone video by caldroneflyer, you'll get a bird's eye view of the town, including the "real" Cannery Row, the Aquarium, and Lover's Point Park. 

AirVuz contributor and pilot hakisair combined drone and ground camera footage to create this video of a "ghost town" called Cerro Gordo in Southern California.  It's an old mining town in the Owens Valley, northeast of Los Angeles.  The mines around the town produced silver, lead, and zinc from the mid-1800's before being shut down in the 1950's.  The town, located a short distance from Death Valley, was recently sold to a group of investors for about $1.4 million according to a report from CNBC.  

The Alabama Hills are actually nowhere near the southern USA state; rather they are an area of the Owens Valley in southeastern California.  Located in Inyo County, the hills are known for their rugged appearance and unusual rock formations.  The hills were "discovered" by Hollywood in the 1920s; they began to appear as filming locations for Western movies beginning in the 1920s and somewhat later in Western TV shows such as Bonanza.  Check them out in this drone video by contributor and pilot hakisair.  

California's Pacific Ocean coastline is home to some of the most spectacular coastal scenery in North America.  In this outstanding drone video by former Drone Video of the Week Finalist brendanbeale, you'll get an aerial view of a beautiful stretch of the California coast.  The video was shot just off the Pacific Coast Highway (aka California State Route 1) near Dana Point, which is in southern Orange Country and roughly halfway between the downtowns of Los Angeles (to the north) and San Diego (to the south).  

Take a ride with top contributor and drone pilot th3venture and his fiancee on an epic road trip through the USA's Golden State of California.  The video, which combines drone and ground camera footage, starts in the southernmost city of San Diego.  From there it's on to Joshua Tree National Park in the Mojave Desert, Cambria in San Luis Obispo County, Big Sur, the Monterey Peninsula (incuding the Bixby Bridge, shown in the opening credits of the Big Little Lies TV show), Santa Cruz, and more.

By most accounts, the University of California at Berkeley is the USA's most prestigious public university.  In fact, the UofC's flagship on the eastern side of San Francisco Bay is generally ranked amongst the top half-dozen research universities in the world, on a par with its cross-bay rival Stanford.  Its campus in the hills north of Oakland is easily distinguished by Sather Tower, the world's third-highest clock tower.  In this video, caldroneflyer gives us an aerial perspective on the Cal Berkeley campus.   

Two-time Drone Video Award winner Chrisxgxc helped to produce this moving video story about the impact of the Carr Fire which raged through Shasta and Trinity Counties of Northern California in late July and August of 2018.  The fire, one of the worst in California history, destroyed over a thousand homes and damaged hundreds more.  It took over a month of backbreaking, dangerous work by hundreds of firefighters to bring the fire under control.  The film required superimposing fire and smoke effects on drone footage of the area.  

The valleys north of San Francisco, California are home to some of the world's most famous wineries and vineyards.  In this excellent drone video by AirVuz contributor travispacheco, you'll be treated to an 11 minute+ aerial tour of two of the most well-known areas in California Wine Country: The Napa and Suisun Valleys.  Napa Valley, the more well-known of the two, has been in the business of cultivating grapes since the mid-19th century, although it's only been since the 1960's that the name has been associated with premium wines.  

Cypress Point is the westernmost spot on California's Monterey Peninsula south of San Francisco.  The northern part of the point is occupied by Cypress Point Golf Club, considered one of the top courses in the US.  The southern part of the point is perhaps best known for appearing in one of the most iconic movies ever filmed in California - Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 masterpiece Vertigo, starring Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak.  You can get a bird's eye view of Cypress Point in this drone video by Caldroneflyer.

Pacific Coast Highway, also known as California Route 1, is a 659-mile long stretch of highway which runs in a generally north-south direction along California's Pacific Ocean coast.  Notable locations along this roadtrip worthy highway are Big Sur, the Golden Gate Bridge, Malibu, San Luis Obispo, and Mendocino Headlands. In this drone video, top AirVūz contributor Dave Yip stops at Mugu Rock, which overlooks the ocean and is one of the many incredible sights along this famed roadway.

Former Drone Video of the Week Finalist Dave Yip brings us this outstanding drone video of a well-known rock formation in the desert of Southern California.  It's called the Rainbow Basin, and its part of the Calico Peaks range in the Mojave Desert east of Los Angeles.  The basin is known for its unique rock formations, which are not only beautiful but also of interest to geologists due to the light they shed on the conditions here during the Miocene Period, which covered the time between 12 and 16 million years ago.  

Multiple Drone Video of the Week Winner FrameworkFilms brings us this outstanding drone video from the Central Coast of California.  The video opens with a dramatic shot of the Bixby Bridge, which lies near the northern end of the Big Sur route and was featured in the opening credits of the hit HBO TV series Big Little Lies.  Featuring some magnificent timelapse sequences, the video will take you over some of the most dramatic natural scenery in the USA, far removed from the teeming streets of San Francisco and Los Angeles.  

Top AirVuz contributor Dave Yip brings us this fantastic drone video of Paso Robles, California.  Located in San Luis Obisbo County, roughly halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, Paso Robles is the heart of one of California's great winegrowing regions.  Paso Robles has a long association with grapes and wine making.  The first vineyards were planted here during the Spanish period in the late 1700's, and the first commercial winery was established in the 1880's.  It's now the enter of one of the USA's premiere winery regions.

Top AirVuz contributor and drone pilot Dave Yip brings us this DVOW nominated video of an extinct volcano in central California.  It's called the Coso Volcanic Field, and it's located in the Mojave Desert about 160 km (around 100 mi.) northeast of the city of Bakersfield.  The field is one of the most seismologically active areas in the United States, and the area frequently sees tremor "storms" involving hundreds of small quakes.  The area is also home to the Coso Geothermal, one of the largest geothermal installations in the country.  

The San Andreas Fault is one of the most famous cracks in the earth.  It's boundary between the North American and Pacific tectonic plates, which periodically slide across each other and release gigantic amounts of destructive energy in the form of earthquakes, including the one which nearly destroyed the city of San Francisco in 1906.  In this drone video by Allan Crawford, you'll get an aerial view of the fault as it runs along the Corrizo Plain in the center of California, about 270 mi. (around 430 km) southeast of San Francisco.  

Multiple Drone Video of the Week Finalist la.drones brings us this excellent drone video from Palomar Mountain in Southern California.  It's actually a ridge which is part of a chain known as the Peninsular Ranges in the northern part of San Diego County, well to the north of the county's namesake city.  Famous for its telescopic observatory, Palomar Mountain reaches an altitude of 6.15k ft. above sea level (a bit under 1.9k m).  Densely forested, much of the mountain is part of the Palomar Mountain State Park.  

Talented content creator jayxlamar brings us this fantastic drone video from Morro Bay on the coast of California.  The bay of the Pacific Ocean is part of San Luis Obispo County, roughly halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles.  The video prominently features the giant Morro Rock, a volcanic "plug" situated at the bay's entrance.  One of 13 such geological structures in the area, the rock stands 581 ft. tall (177 m).  It's connected to the mainland via a causeway.  It's considered sacred by the area's native inhabitants.  

Take in these marvelous drone views of the California state capital city of Sacramento, compliments of AirVuz contributor Grigori6032.  Teh video opens with a fly-over of the Golden Center arena, home of the Sacramento Kings of the National Basketball League.  Starting at about the 1:35 mark, the California State Capitol building will come into view.  Designed in the Neoclassical style, the building was completed in 1874.  Other highlights include the columned Stanley Mosk Library and Courts Building, starting at about the 5:00 mark.  

AirVuz contributor agomez760 used a DJI Mavic Air 2 drone to create this splendid aerial video of California's Big Bear Mountain. Big Bear Mountain is located in the San Bernardino National Forest east of Los Angeles.  With a top elevation of about 8.9k ft. above sea level (around 2.7k m), it's home to the most popular ski resort in Southern California.  Big Bear is part of the San Gabriel Mountains, which extend westward almost to the Pacific Ocean.  The San Gabriels in turn are part of a larger grouping called the Transverse Ranges.  

Caldroneflyer brings us an aerial look at one of the world's most famous universities.  Stanford University is in Palo Alto, California, about 45 minutes south of San Francisco.  It was founded in 1891 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford.  While considerably younger than most of its  East Coast competitors, it is nonetheless considered one of the top half-dozen research universities in the world.  Watch the video to get bird's views of Hoover Tower, the Quad, and other sights on its 8k acre campus.

Check out this drone video of one of the world's most well known (and unusual) rail passes, compliments of canyonrunvideos.  It's called the Tehachipi Loop, and it's what's known as a helix.  Owned by the Union Pacific, the loop connects the San Joaquin Valley in south-central California with the Mojave Desert.  The loop was completed in 1876, and was considered a significant engineering feat at the time.  Trains over about 1.2k meters (around 4k) will cross themselves as they run through the helix.  

AirVūz contributor and drone pilot Umgapa Sky created this haunting aerial video of Santa Cruz, California as the city was engulfed with ash and smoke from raging forest fires in the late summer of 2020.   Located at the northern end of Monterey Bay, about 120 km (around 75 mi.) south of San Francisco, the beach community found itself in the midst of one of the worst wildfire seasons in decades.  Shot with a DJI Mavic Pro drone, this video was a Drone Video of the Week Finalist in September of 2020. 

Check out this stunning video of Santa Barbara, California by accomplished pilot JZFPV. The former Drone Video Awards nominee in our Extreme Sports category is taking his skills to the beach, highlighting one of the reasons the central California city is so famous. Sandwiched between the Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, the area is known for its dramatic views, Mediterranean-style white stucco buildings and Spanish colonial heritage. This was an FPV Pilots to Watch piece in December of 2019. 

Check out this rather haunting drone video from Los Angeles during the Covid-19 pandemic, compliments of brand-new AirVuz contributor Brennan Maxwell.  The video was shot during the first few weeks of the quarantine, when strict social distancing measures imposed at the state, county and city level left most of LA's roads, highways, and other public spaces virtually empty.  The video features footage of the Staples Center, the Los Angeles Zoo, Dodger Stadium, Chinatown, the famous Hollywood sign, the Santa Monica Pier, and much more.

Brand-new contributor socalhiking brings us this excellent drone video of Amboy Crater, am extinct mini-volcano in the Mojave Desert of Southern California.  It's located just a few km/mi from its namesake town, which lies on the fabled Route 66.  Formed around 80k years ago, the volcano has a height of 76 meters or around 250 ft.  The crater was used as a filming location for the 1959 science fiction film Journey to the Center of the Earth.  In 1973, it was designated the  Amboy Crater National Natural Landmark.   

Former Drone Video of the Week Finalist Dave Yip brings us this stunning drone video from the California's Carrizo Plain in th midst of its famous spring "superbloom".  One of California's great natural treasures, the grassland plain runs a length of about 50 mi (around 85 km) in San Luis Obispo County, about two hours north of Los Angeles.  During the Spring, wildflowers turn the plain into a sea of yellow.  With copious snowfall during the preceding Winter, the 2023 Superbloom was one of the most spectacular in recent memory.  

Check out these drone views from a famous Southern California beach, compliments of AirVuz contributor and pilot AerialWings.  Crescent Bay Beach is located on a small bay in the town of Laguna Beach in Orange County, about 50 mi. (around 80 km) south of downtown Los Angeles.  One of a series of small bays of Laguna Beach, it's situated a bit to the southeast (as the coastline runs) from Newport Beach and Huntington Beach, the two largest and most well-known Orange County seaside communities.  

Santa Catalina (known as Catalina) is an oddly-shaped island located about 50 km (around 30 mi.) south-southwest of the Port of Los Angeles in the Pacific Ocean.  Mostly uninhabited (preserved) land, its main town is Avalon, on the island's southeastern shore.  In this video from Glazed Aerials, you'll get a bird's eye view of the quaint harbor town.  The most prominent landmark in Avalon, the round, red-roofed Catalina Casino, made a prominent appearance in the 1974 classic, Chinatown, starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway.    

Burney Falls is one of the most famous waterfalls in California.  Seen in this short but well-filmed drone video by AirVuz contributor hankstahlecker, Burney Falls was called the Eighth Wonder of the World by no less an authority than President Theodore Roosevelt.  Fed by underground springs on Burney Creek, the falls maintain a relatively constant flow over its 114 ft. height (35 m) drop.  Burney Falls is located within McArthur–Burney Falls Memorial State Park in Shasta County, not far from California's northern border with Oregon.  

AirVuz contributor AerialWings used a DJI Air 2S drone to create this excellent aerial video of Newport Beach, California.  Newport Beach is one of the largest and well-known communities in Orange County, which is part of Greater Los Angeles.  Situated on Newport Harbor (a body of water which includes several islands), Newport Beach has become the unofficial sailing capital of the USA's West Coast.  It's home to nearly 10k boats, one of the country's largest concentrations of recreational marine vehicles.    

The beach community of Santa Cruz, California has long been near the epicenter of the USA's surfing culture.  Located at the northern end of Monterey Bay, about a 90 minute drive south of San Francisco, Santa Cruz offers some of the most consistently favorable surfing conditions in the continental US for those willing to don wetsuits.  In this drone video by AirVuz contributor travispacheco, you'll get an aerial view of the surfing scene at Paradise Point, considered the single best spot to surf along the Santa Cruz beachfront.  

Multiple DVOW Winner FrameWorkFilms brings us this amazing drone video of one of the world's largest thermal solar energy installations.  It's called the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility, and it's located in the Mojave Desert near Clark Mountain in Southern California, near the Nevada state line.  Unlike "traditional" solar farms, which convert sunlight directly into electricity, solar thermal plants use mirrors to concentrate sunlight and generate steam, which in turn drives giant turbines to generate electrical power.    

Explore a famous California mountain forest in the depth of winter in this outstanding drone video by AirVuz contributor Allan Crawford.  The video was filmed over Tahoe National Forest, which is located north of Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  The forest covers almost 1.4k square mi. (over 3.5k square km) of largely virgin forest, and includes mountain peaks of up to 8.6k ft. above sea level (around 2.6k m).  This area receives some of the highest annual snowfalls of anywhere in the Continental USA.  

Explore the beaches of Orange County, California by drone in this excellent aerial reel by AirVuz contibutor AerialWings.  The video opens with some beautiful shots of the pier of Huntington Beach, one of the largest coastal communities of Orange County which is located southeast of Los Angeles.  At about the :40 mark, you'll see the Corona Del Mar Bend, a waterway which connects harbor of Newport Beach (just to the southeast of Huntington Beach) to the Pacific Ocean.  You'll also see the mini-skyline of Newport Beach off in the distance.   

Brand-new AirVuz contributor unlimited_aerial_visuals brings us this excellent drone video of the city of Sacramento, the California state capital.  The video opens with a great shot of the Tower Bridge, which spans the city's eponymous river and connects it to the suburb of West Sacramento.  Other featured locations include the state capitol building and Sutter Health Park, home of the Sacramento River Cats Minor League Baseball team.  Sacramento is located about 150 km (around 90 mi.) northeast of San Francisco.   

While Los Angeles is too big to be considered a "college town", it would be hard to overstate the importance of its post-secondary institutions.  Among the most prominent of these is the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), which is located in the Westwood neighborhood on LA's West Side.  The school has an enrollment of about 45,000, over half of which is in the university's graduate and professional schools.  In this drone video by caldroneflyer, you'll get a bird's eye view of the UCLA campus.  

This wonderful 4K San Francisco piece by FrameworkFilms opens with some outstanding shots of the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge, looking west toward the Financial District. At the 1:35 mark, there's an epic view of Coit Tower on Russian Hill looking at the same scene from the northwest.  Here you'll get very clear views of the city's three tallest buildings as of 2019 - the Salesforce Tower, Bank of America Center, and the Transamerica Pyramid. Other shots include the Golden Gate Bridge, great timelapses of downtown, and more. 

Explore the legendary Big Sur coastline in central California in this fantastic drone video by AirVuz contributor davetke2002.  Big Sur is generally defined as a roughly 70 mi. (aound 110 km) stretch of Pacific Ocean coastline bounded by Carmel on the northern end and San Simeon on the southern.  Shot with a DJI Mavic Air 2, the video features some stunning shots of the coastline as well as the mountains which lie just to the interior.  Starting at about the :40 mark, you'll get a nice view of the famous Bixby Creek Bridge. 

The beauty of California makes a perfect backdrop for this highly cinematic first person view (FPV) mini-tour of the Golden State by talented AirVuz content creator Lucid Box Films.  The first few sequences were shot in the state's interior, including some nice footage of the Mojave Desert.  At about the :30 mark, you'll dive the US Bank Tower (aka Library Tower) in downtown LA, the city's tallest skyscraper for nearly three decades.  This video was picked for the FPV Pilots to Watch list in September, 2021.   

Check out this fantastic drone video from the California coastline, compliments of brand-new AirVuz contributor David Johnson Productions.  Shot with a DJI Mavic Pro 2 drone, the video opens with shots of Keyhole Arch on Pfeiffer Beach on the stretch of Pacific Ocean known as Big Sur.  At around the 2:14 mark, there's great view of Point Arena Lighthouse in Mendocino County, north of the Bay Area.  You'll also be treated to some amazing shots of the cliffs which line much of the state's 650 mi. long (over 1000 km) coast.  

Explore the California coast from above in this excellent drone video, compliments of AirVuz contributor and pilot My Travels.  The video opens with shots of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, followed by the famous Santa Monica Pier just west of Los Angeles.  At the :40 mark, there's a nice shot of the San Francisco skyline.  Further on, you'll head to Crescent Bay Beach, which is located in the city of Laguna Beach in Orange County, about 50 mi. (80 km) south of downtown Los Angeles.   

Top AirVuz content creator and drone pilot Kasz Photo Creative was a 2017 Drone Video Awards Finalist in the aerial photography category. Specializing in aerial photography, she says this was her first attempt at creating a drone demo reel. We're pretty sure it won't be her last!  Featuring aerial views of the changing seasons, a cresting whale, beachside dronies, a wide variety of beach and ocean shots, winter scenes and more. Kasz's bevy of work, largely based out of California, is wide and impressive!