Chasing The Light

This is one of the reasons I love living in California! This is taken from Mt. Pinos in the Los Padres National Forest.

 We have such beautiful mountains and forests here! This was at the end of the day and there was a thin hazy cloud cover that day so it gave a sort of upside down, surreal look to the sky with the blue on the horizon and the pink over it.

Nature's banquet for the squirrels is abundant. Also, a soft, crunchy carpet to nourish and insulate new life under the snow that will come soon.

 Even at the end of the season Nature's patterns and shapes are beautiful.

Lighting is key in capturing interesting photos. This is the same tree just before the sun set below the ridge and again about a half an hour later.

I am awed by the tenacity of nature. Even a tiny seed in an impossible location can aspire to become a great tree.

 I love interesting colors, shapes and patterns. This rock had all of that going for it with it's natural coloring and patterns enhanced by the bright green moss.

I arrived on the mountain pretty late in the afternoon so my time for shooting was limited. I was trying to shoot some small clusters of tiny red flowers that were particularly bright in the setting sun and I could see the light fading as I was trying to focus on them. I never did get the image I wanted of them.

But it was a beautiful day - a little cool, but I fortunately thought to bring a jacket with me and I had on sturdy shoes (lessons learned from previous unprepared trips).

Even if I hadn't gotten any photos it would have been a good day!

I love being in the mountains, probably as much as I like being at the beach, which is why I love Southern California so much.

A Passion Sparked!

My great nephew, Kristopher (11-years-old), took these photos. His family came to visit last year and I took them over to the Sepulveda Wildlife Preserve for a walk. There were lots of ducks around the lake and Kris asked if he could take pictures with my camera. I showed him how it works and he just took off! He loved taking pictures and got some very good shots.

His parents have gotten him his own camera and I think they got him into a photography class as well. Hopefully he'll email me some of his photos.
 

Out For A Walk/Meeting Myself

This photo was taken at the Sepulveda Wildlife Sanctuary. I was playing around with Photoshop filters and this was the result.

Amazing Sunset

This was the most amazing sunset I've ever seen. And this was the tail END of a magnificent light show. Of course, my camera was in trunk of my car and I was driving up the 5 Freeway while this was going on. I had to hand my cell phone to my friend, Stephen, in the back seat to get this photo. This is straight out of the camera - no Photoshop or alteration involved.

I have seen "god light" many times before - the light beams that come down through the clouds. I tried to look up god light to see who coined that term and couldn't find anything but I know painters of religious images have used that look for centuries as a symbol of the divine. However, I have NEVER see them going UP. Before this picture was taken the rays were much more pronounced.

 I've been trying to photograph the perfect sunset for years and have come to the conclusion that things like that are ephemeral and not meant to be captured or pinned down. They must be experienced and savored in the moment, but that doesn't mean I won't keep trying.

Chasing the Super Moon

This is the photo I got, and it's...ok. It wasn't the photo I wanted to take.

I started out in Santa Monica (at about 3:30 a.m.). I wanted to take a photo of the full moon setting over the ocean.Too much cloud cover sent me driving up PCH in search of the Super Moon. It was a nice drive - not much traffic at that time of morning. The clouds finally thinned out around Oxnard and I could see the moon. It was still pretty high in the sky by then and I seemed to be several miles away from the ocean at that point. I thought I could get up to Santa Barbara or Goleta before moon set (sometime around 6 am).

I got to Goleta a little after 5 and walked out to the beach from the Butterfly Preserve parking lot. It was a lovely walk so early in the morning. It was (human sound) quiet but alive with the call of birds. Small rabbits scurried off the trail in front of me. I've never seen rabbits there before, but, then again, I was going to the cliffs from a different direction than I normally go. 

 The moon was getting "ghosty" because the sun was coming up. I checked today and sunrise yesterday was about 5:30. Had I known that, I might have stayed in Oxnard.and tried to get to the beach there. Oh well.

The moon slipped behind the marine layer shortly after I took this shot, so I wandered down the bluffs, enjoying the morning, taking photos here and there. It smelled lovely and although it was cloudy, it wasn't uncomfortably cold.

There is a lovely, full spider's web just to the right of this plant, but it didn't have any dew on it so, of course, it doesn't show up in the photo. I should carry a mister with me.

Breakfast at the beach.

The beach here has these odd striation of rocks in the sand. I haven't been able to find out what geological formation has caused this. I've never actually been down to the beach here. Maybe that will be one of my adventures for this summer. I'll have to look up the tide charts and go at low tide so I can check out the tide pools.

  

Seasons

So many people (mostly people who have come to live in California from somewhere else) tell me that California has no seasons. The trees know what season it is. Watch the trees - they'll tell you.

Liger Fish?

This is a Lion Fish. But it has stripes, so shouldn't it be a Tiger Fish? Maybe whoever named it thought all those poisonous, spiny finns look like a lion's mane? Mabe it should be a "Liger Fish" instead.  I'm just sayin...

No Tresspassing

Sign in the train station - the first two say "no trespassing" and "no loitering". This is a train station - how can you trespass in a train station? And no loitering? How can you tell if someone is loitering or waiting for a train?

The reflection on the floor is very cool. I need to go back and shoot this photo again on the other side of the sign.

Waitin' For A Train...

"Busted Flat in Baton Rouge, waitin' for a train..."

"...Sittin' downtown in a railway station one toke over the line."

"He's leavin' on that midnight train to Georgia..."

Lots of songs out there about trains. For any of you that remember the song One Toke Over The Line by Brewer & Shipley, did you know that Dick Dale sang it on the Ed Sullivan Show? It's true http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye3ecDYxOkg (if the link doesn't work by clicking on it, just copy and paste it into your browser).

Apparently they thought it was a Christian song and had no idea it was about smoking pot.

Ahhh, the 70's. So innocent for some

Looking Up

How much time do you spend looking up? We spend a lot of time looking ahead and way too much time looking behind - but what about up? It's really quite amazing how many interesting things there are way above our normal eye level. Try looking up more while you're going about your daily routine.

Where Does It Go?

Where does it go? Does it lead to opportunity, danger? Looks like a long way, doesn't it.

Fountain

They look like brass bowls sitting on a colorful snake. The lights in the water give the bowls a warm glow in the early evening. I wanted to try to shoot very slow to get the wispy, smokey quality to the water but the battery on my camera died. An experiment for another time.

Is It a Flying Saucer?

Metro Red Line

When I first heard about a subway for Los Angeles I thought it was a crazy idea. Nine years later, I almost never drive into L.A. any more. Almost everywhere I want to go downtown is within walking distance of a Metro Red Line stop -Hollywood, the Music Center, the Central Library, Grand Central Market, Disney Concert Hall, China Town, Little Tokyo, etc.

It takes about 30 to 40 minutes to ride end to end on the Red Line (North Hollywood Station to Union Station). I can't even drive into Los Angeles in less than 30 minutes most days. I've taken the connecting Blue Line to the L.A. Convention Center and the Nokia Theater. I don't like the Blue as much as the Red Line, but it gets me where I'm going. I haven't taken it (Blue Line) all the way to the end (Long Beach) yet, but that's on my list. I've read in the news that they plan to extend the Wilshire/Western line all the way out to Santa Monica. That would help a friend of mine who lives out there to get into L.A. more easily.

Times Gone By

Once upon a time this whole area would have been full of travelers buying tickets for parts east, north or south. I'm not sure what they use this room for now (if anything). It's been blocked off to the public for as long as I can remember. This is the original lobby of Union Station in downtown L.A. This is one beautiful building! It has been used as a location shoot for many movies and TV shows: Most recently it was used in the last two episodes of Monk. The train station Stottelmeyer was chasing the bad guy through was here in L.A. (not in San Francisco). And the plaza where Mr. Monk met Trudy's daughter in the final episode was right next door at the DWP.

Marble floors, beautiful wood paneling, elegant chandeliers - it's just a beautiful place to wander and look around, take photos, people watch. There is a restaurant and a couple of snack bars there if you want to slow down and enjoy the place. If you're in L.A. and haven't been here, you should take the time to see it.

The Perfect Sunset

I chase "the perfect sunset" photo. I also believe that it can't be captured on film. As spectacular as some of photos I've taken and I've seen of sunsets it isn't possible to capture it on film (or on computer chips). The photo doesn't capture the visceral experience of a breathtaking sunset. I think we're maybe not supposed to be able to nail down an ephemeral moment and hold it forever. We're supposed to experience it, then let it go and look forward to the next moment that takes our breath away.

Shapes & Textures

I like to shoot interesting shapes and textures. This was taken while waiting in line for Big Thunder Mountain at Disneyland. With all the "set dressing" and landscaping they have around there it's a great place to take photos.

It's All In How You Look At It

If you look at a bowl (or a plate of fruit) standing over it, it's just a bowl of fruit, right? But if you change your perspective it looks like an interesting landscape. Shapes, textures, colors take on a different context. I can imagine myself being very tiny and climbing through this rugged terrain. And when I get tired of climbing around (and hungry/thirsty) I can just take a bit out of one of those fruits!

Get out of your normal reality once and a while!

Red Shoes

I keep a lot of Sculpy in my house. It's a clay that can be baked in a home oven to become a permanent object. When my niece was younger she used to come over to my house and "play clay". She would make the most amazing little creatures - and they were so small!

One day I decided to show her how to make red high top shoes. I made one and she made the other. They came out very cute.

Playing With Reality

This image started out life as a simple photo of a large gear leaning against a wooden wall. In Photoshop I cut it up and rearranged the pieces similar to how a kaleidoscope breaks up and reflects images with mirrors. The result is something strange and sometimes wonderful.

The process is very addictive and I have been known to sit and play with the pieces for hours, turning them this way and that looking for something interesting to happen. Usually I have to walk away from it for a few hours or days before I come back and see something completely different that what I had been seeing before. There are almost always happy accidents in this process.