A view of Griffith Park, the Griffith Observatory and Downtown Los Angeles
I’m happy to have a photo running in this month’s Outside Magazine. Second one in the past year! The photo shows Griffith Park and downtown Los Angeles and was used to illustrate a story called “Welcome to the Jungle” for a series on weekend escapes. Escaping on a weekend was likely why I was there shooting in the first place, so I’m glad the photo found an appropriate home.
Pomona cactus patch
Erinn carefully frolicking in the cactus patch
SoCal contrast
Last week I had an assignment to photograph some activity at Cal State Polytechnic, way out east in Pomona. It happened that Erinn was free, so she came along so we could go out to dinner on the way back home. The job had me arriving in Pomona, about 50 miles east of Venice, at 6 p.m., which meant that if we left at 4 we might get there by 6:30. So rather than sit in traffic all day, we decided to take off at 1 and find something to do there before my start time. Leaving that early, we were actually able to make it there in the hour that it should take to drive 50 miles, which meant we had plenty of time to kill. Turns out there’s not a ton to do in Pomona. But we took the attitude that we were happy just driving around and finding places to get out and walk, and before we knew it the time had passed. First we found our way downtown, which turned out to be pretty nice. There’s an antique’s row and a main street area with several restaurants and bars. I didn’t realize until driving through downtown that I’d actually been there before, having visited the Fox Theater to see the Meat Puppets and Built to Spill with friends when I was out here visiting prior to moving here. Met Mike Watt that night too! Just after he’d been inducted into the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame with the Stooges. Anyway, after we walked around the town for awhile, we made our way over to the Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park where we found a hillside covered in patches of cacti. So we got out of the car to check them out and take some photos. The photos turned out well, but they cost me a few stab wounds. Two in the shins and one in the butt. It’ll teach you to be aware of your surroundings. Somewhere along the way I also hopped out and took the last photo here, which struck me as something you’d only see in Southern California. After the assignment, we made our way downtown for some grub. We ended up deciding on an amazing Japanese restaurant called Daikokuya in Little Tokyo. If you’re ever in the mood for really good ramen noodles check this place out!
North coast landscape 1
Double rainbow (oh my god!)
The gang in the backyard
I just returned from a fantastic week exploring the northern coast of California on a family gathering outside the small town of Elk, in Mendocino County. The area is primarily known for three things – wineries, breweries and landscapes – and we made a point of enjoying all three in mass quantities. The group consisted of my father, his fiance Gayle, her son Geoff and his girlfriend Bianca, myself and my younger sister Lauren, and was more or less a Thanksmas gathering for those of us living in the western states. The drive was about 9-10 hours coming from both LA and Portland, home to Geoff and Bianca, so the location was an excellent compromise. The others flew in to San Fran and had a 3-hour drive north from there. The week basically consisted of lazy mornings around the house followed by day trips to the numerous vineyards, breweries and small towns situated up and down the coast, and then a return to the house where we took turns cooking enormous feasts, including an untraditional Thanksmas dinner (if there is such a thing?) of freshly caught Dungennes crab. Among the favorite spots we visited were the Anderson Valley Brewing Company in Boonville, the Pacific Star Winery north of Fort Bragg and pretty much the entire seaboard, which is among the prettiest territory in these United States. I probably didn’t do as much shooting as I could have, but I thought I came away with a few nice landscapes. The weather was overcast and foggy for all but one or two afternoons, but that was fine by me. The weather made for better photos. With a few exceptions, the landscapes are all I’ll post here, but will probably put more family photos up on the Facebook page soon.
Pacific Star Winery, Fort Bragg, Calif.
Long exposure; nighttime at Mt. Charleston, Nev.
Stella Artois Draughtmasters Regional Championship, Las Vegas
Last week we made a trip out to Las Vegas for a shoot with Stella Artois, who were holding a regional Draughtmasters Championship at the Wasted Space nightclub in the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. The promotional competition, to see which bartender can complete the most perfect pour, has regional championships around the country followed by a national championship later in the year in Boston. My trip happened to coincide with Erinn’s days off, so she came along and met up with a friend while I got to work. Following my shoot I joined her at the slots, where I downloaded my cards to my laptop while having a few goes at the lever. This, of course, caught the attention of a security guard, who stopped by to see if I might somehow be hacking into the slot machines, which I assured him I was not. After an hour or so I managed to finish up and break even before heading back to the room to transmit a few files for them to release to the press the next day. Having been to Vegas a few times now in the past year, I have to say that the Hard Rock Hotel was my favorite place to stay. The rooms were nice, the pool was amazing and it didn’t have nearly the levels of gaudiness and overabundance of places like Caesars Palace. Plus, it’s off the strip. We had a good mix of work and fun that evening, but the next day decided on a change of scenery and headed 45 minutes west to Mt. Charleston. I hadn’t done any research on the place, but had heard that it was a nearby place where you could get out of the heat a bit. This was imperative, as daytime temps were a tire melting 105 degrees in the desert. Dry heat, schmy heat. It was a great surprise as we ascended the mountain up beyond 8,000 feet, that it was an entirely different climate up there. As we drove up we were greeted by drizzling rain and temperatures dipping down into the 60s. I’d somewhat expected a rockier, desert environment, but it turned out to be densely wooded with towering Ponderosa pines, which, when we hopped out of the car, found to create the most incredibly fresh smell.
Now, when camping it’s best to come prepared with such things as a tent and perhaps some food. We had only partial supplies of both. As we were setting up the tent, excited that we practically had the place to ourselves and that the ground looked to be a nice, soft bed of mulch, Erinn asked if I had packed the poles. Um, they’re not in the same bag as the tent? Apparently not. Had it not been threatening to rain some more, we would have considered sleeping beneath the stars, but since it was we were considering throwing in the towel and heading back down the mountain to find a hotel. We hopped in the car to go tell the campground hosts that we weren’t sure if we were staying due to our unfortunate situation and were surprised to find that they were a very nice old couple who offered to lend us their spare tent! Camping crisis averted. We paid them for the stay and went back to set up the tent before heading out for an evening hike to the Mary Jane Falls. The food situation was that we had figured we’d go check out the campground and then go out for groceries. Normally, we come with all of this in tow, but since we were at the hotel the night before, we left out any perishables. However, we hadn’t realized the size of the mountain and by the time we set up the tent we would have had to choose between driving down to get groceries and actually going out and enjoying the mountain. We had with us only a partial loaf of bread, an avocado and a baggie of trail mix, but we decided this was sufficient and opted for the hike.
That night as we were heading for bed the skies finally cleared for a few minutes and the woods were lit up like the day by a nearly full moon, so I stayed up a little longer to take some shots. The affect is exaggerated here by a long exposure, but it was pretty impressive in person as well. After 15 minutes or so the clouds came in and dampened the light, providing me with a excuse to call it a night.
Santa Ynez Valley vineyard
Santa Ynez Valley vineyard in autumn
Santa Ynez Valley vineyard in autumn
We just returned from a two-day, mid-week weekend in the Santa Ynez Valley wine country. As it was mid-week and off season we practically had the place to ourselves. While there we hit up Foxen, Curtis and Beckmen Vineyards, as well as the Flying Goat tasting room in the “wine ghetto” of Lompoc, a small town abutting the Vandenberg Air Force Base, about an hour north of Santa Barbara. The name is derived from the fact that the tasting room is one of a few located in the town’s commercial warehouse district. Nevertheless, they served up some excellent Pinots from a number of the area’s vineyards. I was hoping for some more photo ops while we were there, but not much was going on as the season winds down. However, we were treated to some lovely landscapes as the effects of fall turned the vineyards a nice golden yellow. It’s nice to know that if we tire of the lack of seasons down here, autumn is only a couple hours away.
Acadia National Park
Bar Harbor Lobster!
None of these pictures are actually from Bar Harbor. It’s just fun to say. Following my visit to Sebago I joined Erinn at her aunt and uncle’s place in Town Hill, Maine, which is right on Mt. Desert Island next to Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor. Although I wish we were there to see the leaves turn, it was still a beautiful time to be there. On my first morning we tried to get up to be out in Acadia for sunrise. It’s supposedly the first part of the United States to see the sun at the beginning of each day. As I said, we tried, but it proved to be too early for us. We were up around 5:30 and out the door by 6, but by the time we were in the park the sun was 10 degrees off the horizon. Ah well. Next time. We still had a great time hiking up a hill called the Beehive and on cliffs next to Sand Beach. In the middle of the day we took a break to play with her aunt and uncle’s pet bunnies and to prepare a delicious lunch of fresh Maine lobster, which Erinn’s uncle bought off the docks for only $3.99/lb! I understand that’s a bit lower than the lobstermen would like, but we thought it was incredible. After cooking them up on the back deck we made up some lobster rolls and chocolate chip cookies and went up on top of Cadillac Mountain for a picnic. Amazing. We also had fun picking and eating fresh blueberries right off the trail. Can’t wait to go back!
Acadia National Park
