I love Santa Monica, it’s hard not to. With three nights in LA a couple of weeks ago, we made sure one of those was dedicated to Santa Monica. The pier, the architecture, the shops of the 3rd Street Promenade, the sand and the sun and an overall disposition that seems tangibly happy, Santa Monica is world famous for good reason.

There are also few other places I’ve been where the sunset is quite as beguiling. As you’ll see in these photos, it was all about timing the pressing of the camera shutter at the same moment the seagulls were flying by.

Keep a look out for further Roxborogh Report photo essays from my USA trip (which also included Miami, Memphis, New Orleans and Austin) as well as full articles for Let’s Travel Magazine and the New Zealand Herald. But in the meantime, here are my top 20 photos from that autumn evening in Santa Monica as the sun set into the Pacific Ocean.