20 Science Fiction Movie Locations Every Nerd Photographer Should Visit

By: Tim Kok

Extraterrestrial planets and dystopic locations create a fascinating atmosphere in science fiction movies. Many of these backgrounds are the products of CGI, but some sci-fi movies are shot at locations you can actually visit. If you’re a photographer who likes sci-fi, then you should definitely visit these locations. Besides being beautiful to photograph, they will make you relive some of the classic (and not-so-classic) science fiction movies.

Even if you’re not into sci-fi, many of these locations are worth a visit. After all, they were selected as movie backgrounds for a reason.

Star Trek
Since its beginning in 1966, Star Trek has become the number one science fiction television franchise. There have been several Star Trek television series and also a large number of movies throughout the years. To get a sense of the impressive dedication of ‘Trekkies’ (Star Trek fans), you only have to look at the detail for Star Trek entries on Wikipedia. The following locations have undoubtedly been visited by a number of hardcore fans.

1. San Rafael Swell, Utah – Vulcan, Star Trek (2009)
The San Rafael Swell is a giant dome-shaped structure of sandstone, shale, and limestone that was pushed up millions of years ago. The erosion by flash floods has further molded the area into a beautiful landscape of canyons, gorges and buttes.

Afternoon Sun by Zach Dischner

In the most recent reboot of Star Trek, the San Rafael Swell was used as a background for the planet Vulcan, the planet of Spock and other Vulcans come from. In the movie, the planet is destroyed by Romulans to avenge the destruction of their own home planet. As added bonuses, Galaxy Quest (1999) has also been shot here, and part of the swell resembles the planet Mars.

San Rafael Reef, UT by Don Graham

2. Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park, Los Angeles, CA – Star Trek (several years)
Vasquez Rocks was named after the California bandit Tiburcio Vásquez, who used these rocks as a place to hide from the law enforcement. It’s located north of Los Angeles and its impressive rock formations are the result of rapid erosion and activity along the San Andreas Fault.

Vasquez Rocks by Rennett Stowe

Vasquez Rocks is important to science fiction history because it’s where Captain Kirk fought with a Gorn in the Arena episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. (Coincidentally, that fight has also been nominated as ‘The Worst Fight Scene Ever.’) Since then, the location has represented a large number of different planets in the Star Trek series. Most recently, Vasquez Rocks was used as the planet Vulcan in Star Trek (2009).

Vasquez Rocks by Konrad Summers

3. Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles, CA – The Terminator (1984)
The Griffith Observatory is a beautiful building on top of Mount Hollywood, overlooking Downtown Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean. The Observatory is dedicated to make science, and specifically astronomy, accessible to the public.

Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles by Pedro Szekely

The Observatory is featured in many movies, but for Sci-Fi fans it’s most famous as the place where Arnold Schwarzenegger arrives as the first Terminator on a mission to assassinate Sarah Connor. Just as in the movie, the view from the Griffith Observatory at night is spectacular.

Griffith Observatory with the 5D by Graham

4. Lake Powell, Arizona – Planet of the Apes (1968)

Fast by photophilde

In Planet of the Apes a crew of astronauts crashes onto a planet that is dominated by a highly developed society of apes. The desert scenes in the movie were shot in and around Lake Powell, an awesome man-made reservoir on the Colorado river. The new version of Planet of the Apes (2001) also used Lake Powell as a filming location.

Lake Powell by Wolfgang Staudt

Star Wars
Star Wars—the other large science fiction franchise—has been shot in exotic locations all over the world. This is perhaps not so surprising when you consider the extreme differences between the planets in the Star Wars galaxy.

5. Chott el Jerid, Tunisia – Tatooine, Star Wars: A New Hope (1977)

Chott el-Jerid, Lars Homestead (Star Wars) by Stefan Krasowski

Tatooine, the home planet of Luke Skywalker and Anakin Skywalker, plays an important role in the entire Star Wars saga. The real world equivalent of Tatooine is Chott el Jerid, a dry salt lake in the south-west of Tunisia. This dry and destitute location perfectly resembles a desert planet. Other Tatooine locations in Tunisia are Djerba, Matmata and Tozeur.

Salt Mausoleum by Dennis Jarvis

6. Tikal National Park, Guatemala – Rebel Base, Star Wars: A New Hope (1977)
In the middle of a tropical rainforest, this ancient temple complex was an important location of the Maya civilization. The buildings are over 2,500 years old, but you can still admire their splendor today.

Tikal Sunrise by Adam Baker

Tikal National Park also figured as the the Massassi Outpost on the fourth moon of Yavin, where the Rebel Alliance located their base. Here, the Alliance planned their successful attack of the Death Star.

Tikal, Guatemala by Pedro Szekely

7. Finse, Norway – Hoth, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
The opening sequence of The Empire Strikes Back—in which Luke Skywalker rides his Tauntaun, gets ambushed and stuck in a blizzard—takes place on the ice planet Hoth. On Hoth, the Rebel Alliance has stationed their Echo Base and it’s where a major battle between the Alliance and the Empire takes place. The filming location of Hoth was the Hardangerjøkulen Glacier at Finse, Norway. Finse is located about 2,5 hours away from Bergen by train.

Finse Norway by zen whisk

8. Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, California – Endor, Star Wars: Return of The Jedi (1983)
Who doesn’t remember the cute Ewoks that inhabit the forest moon Endor in the Return of the Jedi? In the movie, the second Death Star orbits Endor and the Empire has an outpost on the moon that holds a shield generator protecting the Death Star. The Rebel Alliance, with the help of the Ewoks, tries to dismantle this shield.

Hiker and redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) on Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park Boy Scout Tree Trail by Miguel Vieira

One of the characteristics of Endor are the large monster trees that make everything, not just the Ewoks, look small. In real life, these trees are the Redwood groves in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. The trees look great in photos and the park as a whole is an excellent place to hike.

Bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum) on Jedediah Smith Redwoods Mill Creek Trail by Miguel Vieira

9. Arecibo Observatory, Puerto Rico – Contact (1997)
In the movie Contact, based on a Carl Sagan book, the scientist Eleanor Arroway is looking for extraterrestrial life at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. She’s part of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) program that scans for possible radio transmissions from outer space. Appropriately, the Arecibo Observatory is (also) used for this purpose by the SETI@home project.

Even if you’re not into the science, the Observatory still looks incredible.

10. Devils Tower, Wyoming – Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
The Devils Tower really stands out in every photo due to its incredible rise of 1,267 feet. In 1906, the Devils Tower was declared the first national monument by Theodore Roosevelt. The location became even more popular in 1977 when it featured in Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind. In the movie, the Devils Tower plays an important role as the site for an encounter with aliens.

Devil’s Tower at sunrise by B D

Devil’s Tower by B D

11. Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia – 12 Monkeys (1995)
In 12 Monkeys, the convicted criminal James Cole (Bruce Willis) has to travel back in time to trace back the outbreak of a virus. For large parts of the movie, James Cole is in an insane asylum, shot at the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. This former, sinister-looking prison has a rich history——for example, Al Capone was incarcerated here and you can still visit his cell——and is the ideal setting for a chaotic, mental hospital.

Eastern State Penitentiary by Sakeeb Sabakka

Nowhere Fast by Justin Wolfe

12. Badlands, South Dakota – Starship Troopers (1997)
The Badlands in South Dakota figure as the home planet of the Arachnids, Klendathu, in Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers. The old Native American hunting grounds make for a beautiful background of an alien planet, to which infantry is deployed to take out the “Bugs”.

These are the Badlands, South Dakota by Joel Hernandez

Skies of Much Oblige by Seth Anderson

13. Kona, Hawaii – Waterworld (1995)
Technically, the main location of Kevin Kostner’s Waterworld is the ocean, as in the movie humanity has been forced to live on the water because of the rising sea level. When land is finally found, however, it’s Hawaii’s Big Island. Moreover, on Hawaii it’s easy to imagine what a world with only water would look like.

Sunset on New Earth by Steve Jurvetson

Swimming with Turtles by Steve Jurvetson

14. Johannesburg, South Africa – District 9 (2009)
In District 9, the classic aliens-arrive-on-earth story is given a twist, when the aliens, or “prawns” as they’re derogatorily called, are confined into a ghetto outside of Johannesburg by the government. The movie references back to South Africa’s past system of apartheid, but also could be seen as a metaphor for the treatment of other vulnerable minorities. The filming location of District 9 was an actual impoverished neighborhood in Soweto, Johannesburg.

East Johannesburg by Chris Eason

johannesburg by Nico Roets

15. Seaside, Florida – The Truman Show (1998)
In the Truman Show, Jim Carrey’s character lives, unbeknownst to him, in the constructed reality of a television show. Seahaven, the perfect town in the movie, is actually Seaside, Florida. Although Seaside is probably not nearly as immaculate as fictional Seahaven, it’s is still quite a picturesque town.

The future’s so white, I had to wear shades by Pat David

Braving Warm Waters at Seaside by Donncha O Caoimh

16. Toronto City Hall, Canada – Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)
Although Toronto City Hall looks unique and impressive enough to feature as any type of building in a movie, in Resident Evil: Apocalypse the building also figures as a city hall (but this time for Raccoon City). In Resident Evil, the City Hall is nuked, along with the entire city. Fortunately, the actual City Hall is still there and is ideal for photos with an ominous atmosphere.

Toronto City Hall 2 by Robert Taylor

Toronto City Hall by Benson Kua

17. Frank Lloyd Wright Ennis House, Los Angeles, CA – Blade Runner (1982)
Blade Runner is a dark and futuristic science fiction movie in which Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is tasked to eliminate cyborg “replicants.” The CEO of the corporation that fabricates the cyborgs lives in the Ennis House, designed by Frank Loyd Wright. Throughout the movie the motifs of the Ennis House return, for instance in Rick’s apartment. The building itself is incredibly photogenic, but so is its view.

FLW. by Sarah Le Clerc

Ennis House by Ennis House

Another famous LA landmark in Blade Runner is the Bradbury Building. The final fight scenes in the movie take place in the courtyard of this building.

Bradbury Building, Los Angeles Historic Core by Craig Dietrich

18. Battersea Power Station, London, UK – Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984)
Battersea Power Station, on the river Thames, used to be a coal-fired power station and is the largest brick building in Europe. The Power Station, both impressive and menacing, has become a cultural icon over the years. It was pictured on the front of a Pink Floyd album, appeared in a Beatles’ movie, and many other movies and television shows since. In the sci-fi movie Nineteen Eighty-Four, the Battersea Power Station was used as the Victory Mansions, the apartment complex in which Winston Smith lives. The building is still a great subject to practice your distopic photography.

Battersea Power Station, London by Lies Thru a Lens

Battersea Power Station by William Warby

19. Samalayuca, Chihuahua, Mexico – Dune (1984)
Large parts of the movie Dune take place on the desert planet Arrakis, where the valuable “spice” melange can be found. The few inhabitants of this planet are the Fremen and giant sandworms. If you’d like to have a similar experience (without the Fremen, melange or worms), you can visit Dune’s filming location Samalayuca, Mexico with, unsurprisingly, plenty of dunes.

Dunas by Felix Garcia

20. North Carolina – The Hunger Games (2012)
If you’re wondering where the first Hunger Games movie was shot, the answer is pretty much all over the state of North Carolina. For instance, Charlotte was used as the Capitol of Panem; in Hildebran, an old (ghost) mill town, the scenes of District 12 where shot; and many scenes in the Arena took place in Pisgah National Forest in the Appalachian Mountains. As the movie shows, North Carolina has many beautiful locations.

Pisgah Ray by D B

IceSheathesRay by D B

Istanbul

The post and pictures below take me back to my military days as a young "Airman First Class" in the United States Air Force.  I was stationed at Incirlik Air Force in Adana Turkey.  Upon receiving my Honorable Discharge, I spent a week on vacation in Istanbul Turkey before returning to the States.  As I view the photos, the memories of outdoor markets, road side fresh fish shops, and street vendors comes flooding back like it was just yesterday.  Enjoy the post and pictures...

Istanbul Through Black & White Film Photography by JP Lemarchand

Lem is an amateur photographer leaving in Dijon, France. He has been taking pictures since he was 10 or 12 but more seriously in the last 15 years. "Curiously enough, digital photo brought me back to film! I love old cameras because I think they add something in what you shoot and I love traditional photography because it makes your brain work," he says. "I like the photography that takes time. I particularly enjoy medium format (especially the suare format) and black and white because it's already something else than what you see. My favorite topics are whatever man looks at everyday but doesn't see anymore."

Here's a black and white photo series that Lem did in Istanbul.

These Photographs Would Die Without Him

Levi Bettwieser buys old cameras not for the camera itself, but for what’s inside: undeveloped film. Now he’s archiving forgotten moments from the 1920s on.

Levi Bettwieser calls himself a camera addict. The 28-year-old full-time video producer and freelance portrait photographer shoots with any of the 14 cameras in his arsenal, all but one of them relying on film. They have names like Bender, Graflex, Hasselblad, Canon, Mamiya, and Globuscope. Bettwieser started collecting cameras from thrift shops and estate sales years ago, popping them open to discover spent rolls of film inside.

“When you buy old cameras, you see film inside all the time. But I didn’t honestly put that much thought into it. You get a camera and notice there’s a roll of film and then you open the camera and the film is worthless after being exposed to the light,” he said.

It was after Eric Bower—a friend and an audio engineer—told Bettwieser he’d been recovering old answering machine tapes from thrift stores in order to archive, that Bettwieser decided to be a little more careful with the undeveloped snapshots. At some point, his curiosity got the best of him and he decided to develop the lost images himself. To catalog the process, he started what he calls the Rescued Film Project, uncovering photographs taken by strangers, otherwise lost to time.

“I’d buy seven or eight cameras, take them home, and open them up in my darkroom,” he said. “I’d pull the film out, wind it up, and put it in batches. As soon as I got a batch big enough for my first one, I just developed it. And I just saw the range of film on there. I got a range of images. I got hooked.”

Bettwieser started buying lots of unexposed film off of eBay. He currently has around 100 rolls of “modern” film (standard 35mm color) from the 1970s to the present, processed and scanned, and another 60 or so older (1920s-60s) rolls of “vintage” film left to process and scan. He’s striking out to catalog every single image at the to-be-launched rescuedfilm.com.

“I find myself not so much looking at the people in the photo as I do the space around them, the rooms the people are in, what’s in that room, what’s sitting on the counter,” he said. “I think that tells a better story than someone just standing there smiling. I find a lot of these images fascinating for the context.”

The photos are ghostly and displaced and voyeuristic in a sense, in the way the splinter of any moment other than this one seems alien and of a time somewhat unfathomable, possessing an unfamiliar spirit.

“It meant something more because the photographers were the only ones who saw it. You get your roll of film, you take it to get developed, you’d be excited to get your prints back and then you put them in a photo album.”

“The more interesting stuff seems to be the last two or three frames on a roll. If you think about it, people are generally saying, ‘Oh I need to take the last couple images on this roll before I go get it processed,’” Bettwieser said. “Generally, those seem to be the more funny, intimate moments: a couple in bed smiling, trying to finish off a roll, a husband taking a photo of his wife coming out of the shower, some of those really intimate moments that you never assume that anyone is going to see.”

There’s something extrasensory to the images, given we’re seeing something that was perhaps purposefully lost or discarded, or something that possibly no one will recognize, ever. Pictures of pets, pictures of relatives in coffins, pictures of intimate moments otherwise discarded in the recesses of memory.

“Technology has changed the way people shoot,” Bettwieser said. “Think about back when you only had nine or 10 pictures per roll. You really had to think about those being the images you wanted. Now I’ll just take as many as I want, fix them up in post, whatever. Part of the reason I do the rescued photo project is that I feel like people just snap photos constantly, mindlessly taking photos. I like the idea that you have to take more time with it, taking it back to a time when we didn’t have digital photography. It meant something more because the photographers generally were the only ones who saw it. You get your roll of film, you take it to get developed, you’d be excited to get your prints back and then you put them in a photo album and then they would be just shared with you and your family.”

One of the most remarkable discoveries for Bettwieser has been that developing film doesn’t require a dark room. He’s eager to make the distinction between processing film and making prints: The former requires just a blacked-out kitchen and his lightproof tank, while the latter is the room used for making actual prints. Because all of the Rescued Film Project images are scanned to digital, the necessity of a darkroom is null.

“People don’t realize that you can develop their own film in black and white for between $150 and $200,” he said. “It doesn’t take much. If you can make an omelet, you can process film.”

While part of the project’s aim is to encourage people to develop film in order to keep the industry alive, another of the ultimate goals of the project is to perhaps get the images back to their rightful owners.


“These days, I feel like people just snap and share. Here’s my lunch, here’s this, here’s that. There isn’t as much thought put into the images people are making these days,” Bettwieser said. “That’s why I think it’s important to go back and find the images that people found so special, and are unique that have only ever been seen by the photographer and myself as I develop them. People rarely ever take pictures of something they want to forget.”

- See more at: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/31/these-photographs-would-die-without-him.html#sthash.WK2ge6zx.dpuf