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Random Jazz: Donkey Water Edition

By on August 28, 2011 in Photos

Location: Laguna Beach, Deep Creek, Santa Barbara, Colton Subject: Donkeys, beaches, rivers, cemetery

Another edition of random stuff for you, now with 100% more donkey! The photo at the top of the page as well as the next one were taken at a place called Deep Creek out in Apple Valley. It’s a beautiful little river, but the site is made better by a series of hot springs that locals have turned into hot tubs. This particular adventure would have been perfect if I hadn’t dropped my Canon 7D in the river.

Since you’re thinking to yourself something like “what kind of idiot drops his camera into a river?” I’ll explain: I had it on a tripod late at night trying to get photos of the Milky Way above the river. While the tripod itself was doing a fine job of holding up the camera, I didn’t realize how slick the rock was that it was all resting on. A momentary lapse and it all slipped right into the river, as if there was no grip at all. Unfortunately, one of my favorite lenses went with it. I’m hoping Canon can do a repair, but it might be time for a new purchase.

On a previous excursion to the Colton area, I had seen signs warning of wild donkeys, which for some reason I found hilarious. Camping for the night, I woke up the next morning and heard some in the distance. However, I didn’t see any.

I went back a few months later, finished shooting for the day and tossed everything into the truck to head home. Suddenly, donkeys! Since all 40 or so of them were blocking the road anyway, I fished my camera out and shot for a few minutes. Staying in my truck they all acted as normal donkeys would: eating, hee-hawing, etc.

But then I got out of the truck, and it all stopped. 40 donkeys dropped all their donkey business and just silently stared:

I photographed them for a minute and then slowly backed towards the vehicle. I’m pretty sure I was moments away from never seeing my family again, as I’m certain they were planning something via telepathic communication. I started the truck and put it in gear; the crowd parted to let me through. It was quite surreal to look in the rear view and see them staring at me in just the same way as I drove off.

This next single shot is from a quick trip I made to Santa Barbara for my cousin’s wedding. I had planned on photographing around the city all day Sunday, but I was so annoyed by traffic from the day before that I decided to get out early. I made a quick drive through the cemetery on the way out of town and decided to get this one mausoleum, which was one of the oddest grave sites I’ve ever seen.

The photos below are from a weekend I spent staying in the Three Arch Bay community of Laguna Beach with some friends. The first two are from an area of the bay called “Shell Beach.”

Finally, this last one was taken about 20-30 minutes after sunset, looking south across the bay. 

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Waiting for July

By on July 4, 2011 in People, Photos

My friends Sonja and Ben had their first son the other day, Sonja having waited an extra 15 minutes to push so that Gavin would be born on July 1st instead of the 30th. For some reason, this makes perfect sense to me. :)

The collection below represents some of my favorites from the first few days of Gavin’s new life.

Sonja is a Starbucks fiend, so I brought her a cup on my way to the hospital. Here, she poses Gavin with it. (No actual babies were given caffeine in making this photo.)

Apparently, newborns sleep a lot. Who knew?

Ben had just suggested that I take some shots of Gavin’s feet, blurring his face out in the background. I had literally just done that before switching focus back to his face. No sooner did Ben finish speaking when G started lifting his feet up in my direction as if to say “Try it again; I don’t think you did a good enough job the first time.”

A baby’s eye view of the living room.

Toby: teenage trouble maker and new older brother.

And last but not least, a quiet moment between mom and son.

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Rocky Mountain /R/oad Trip

By on June 14, 2011 in Animals, Architecture/Man-made, Landscapes, Photos, Travel/Landmarks

Long overdue for a break from my day job, I took a 4-day weekend to visit friends in the Denver area. And, thanks to the good folks over at /r/Denver I had a plethora of ghosts to chase down. Weather worked against me a little, but I worked against me more. I mis-timed arrivals, couldn’t find landmarks, left needed filters in the car, and just generally avoided finding my groove. Fortunately, Colorado’s a beautiful place, so it’s virtually impossible to come away empty handed.

The advantage of nature and travel photography is that even on days when you get it wrong, you’re still amidst nature and enjoying travel. If nothing else, it’s research for next time. Not a bad way to spend time….

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Day 1  was a calm one: lunch with Brian’s in-laws (great guys!), coffee with Brian, Tracy, and new friend Kristen, and then a barbecue with more in-laws to celebrate a birthday.

Day 2 found Brian and me on the hunt for the ruins of abandoned mines, but alas, we were skunked. On the way up to the city of Idaho Springs we happened across the grave of Western icon Buffalo Bill Cody. Three thoughts came away with me:

  1. His grave was not particularly attractive as graves go.
  2. “He was a Free Mason, really?”
  3. It felt odd in this day and age to read on his grave that he was an Indian fighter. What a different world we live in.

As mentioned, we didn’t find much in Idaho Springs to photograph (besides touristy ruins), primarily because I did far less research than I normally do on an area. Fortunately, Brian introduced me to a pizza parlor that gives you honey with which to dip your leftover crust. Oh, and we also found this waterwheel and waterfall across the street, so that’s cool.


On the last day of my trip, we went to a Renaissance Fair not too far from the house. I found this guy on display at a booth for Colorado’s predatory birds.

The Idaho Springs graveyard: difficult place to drive a wide vehicle; lovely place to spend eternity.
We headed south to try and catch sunset at the ruins of the Castlewood Dam, which burst in 1933. Alas, we started the hike from the wrong spot so we didn’t make it to the dam. However, we did enjoy hiking along the bottom of beautiful Castlewood Canyon.

Day 3 found us in the neat little town of Estes Park before heading into Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). This place is a real gem, so if you haven’t been I’d encourage you to go. Elk (?) are quite abundant throughout, and I spent some time stalking them. Here, a group enjoys an evening snack.

One of my favorite subjects is moving water, whether it be at the beach or in the form of a waterfall. High on my list of targets was Alberta Falls, near Bear Lake in RMNP. We got there late and the still abundant amount of snow on the trail made it a race to beat sunset. In my rush to get the shot I didn’t notice the copious amounts of mist on the lens, dust on the sensor, and the vignette resulting from stacking filters. It also didn’t help that the exposure is too dark! This is a junk shot, but it was a lovely hike and a nice way to end the evening, so I present it anyway in all its junk glory. :)
Whilst walking around the Renaissance Fair looking for subjects I paused at the numerous shows. The performers and guest in the foreground were supposed to be the real focus of the show. However, the little one in the back (did she belong to the performers?) caught my eye as she repeatedly wrapped herself in the banner and tried to stay out of trouble. How rad are the red and zebra-striped tights?

I enjoy shooting architecture as well, although I didn’t have much time on this trip. One of the shots I did want, based on recommendations from Reddit, was the skyscraper at 1999 Broadway. A desire to retain the historic Holy Ghost Catholic Church resulted in the office building going up mere feet from the church.

I wanted a high angle of the buildings, so Brian and I scouted out nearby parking structures. To get this photo, I had to climb up and stand one-legged on the skinny outer wall of a structure, some 7-stories up, and then shove my camera through railing. I was less afraid of falling than I was of someone calling the police on me as a jumper, so I climbed down post haste. An unintended consequence of shooting through the rails was a sort of fake tilt-shift effect that I didn’t notice until I got home.

Note the tiny little church just to the right of the center tower.

Here it is from a different angle. Even from this side you can’t really appreciate how close together the two buildings are.

Bear Lake. It occurred to me just now that I don’t think I’ve ever seen a frozen lake. Weird.

Local, RMNP.

Castlewood Canyon again. 

I wasn’t expecting snow on this trip, and there was still a lot of it throughout RMNP. We found this guy hanging out at around 11,000 feet at the Forest Canyon overlook.

My good friends Tracy and Brian, who put me up (and put up with me!) for four days.

Finally, another shot from Castlewood Canyon. Bloody ‘ell is that place great for photography. I’m looking forward to another trip, which will definitely need to be longer.

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Time Travel: Evil Edition

By on May 23, 2011 in Architecture/Man-made, Photos, Ruins/Abandoned

Whilst reading Reddit recently, I came across an article on Murphy’s Ranch. Built by Nazi sympathizers in the 1930s, this compound in LA’s Rustic Canyon was designed to protect its inhabitants during the eventual fall of America at the hands of Germany.  Later used as an artists’ colony, the property was abandoned in the ’60s and suffered significant fire damage in the ’70s.  The wooden structures are mostly gone, but significant stone and metal ruins remain over a wide area.

My brother, cousin, and I set off on a fire road from our car with instructions to go down a huge set of stone stairs, but took a turn too early and ended up south of the compound. Although this made the trip significantly more difficult, it was more than worth the detour. A single track trail winds along hills, streams, and through overgrown glens before delivering us to the hidden edges of the village.  Continuing through the forest we come across various structures that most visitors probably never see. Eventually we arrived at the main driveway and the larger structures, now well covered in graffiti. Continuing a little further, one finds a large collapsed structure, and beyond that, an old barn.

If you’re ever up there, the trip down the driveway is an easy walk, although its a decent elevation loss and gain. For the more adventurous, wear pants or long socks and take the wooden stairs for a rare Los Angeles adventure.

Jonathan, exploring the inside of a large metal structure.

Nate takes a quick break.

I went to look through one of the windows and almost put my whole face right into an enormous spider web. Fortunately, it was occupied by a tiny spider, so had I made this folly my nightmares would have been slightly less horrific.

The back side of the power station, just below one of the large cisterns.

This cistern was maybe several stories high and mysteriously, was violently bent inwards. I attempted to climb it but stopped when it became an inverted climb.

Me on my way up before retreating in shame. Photo by Jonathan.

North of the power station was a large steel structure that had been badly damaged. Just beyond it grew what looked like wild orchids. Throughout the compound we found a number of plants likely brought in by past inhabitants. On our way out I spotted a lonely bird of paradise nestled amongst an ocean of very different neighbors. 

A book I just made up says that this machine was used to extract Fraggles from the ground below.

More orchids?

Finally, the interior of the power station, complete with fresh paint. The holes in the ground were full of what looked like decades of spray paint cans.

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Random Jazz: OC Edition II

By on May 1, 2011 in Architecture/Man-made, Beach, Photos, Seascapes

Below is a collection of photos I’ve taken throughout Orange County over the last 4 weeks.

One note and then I’ll shut up: During weekend forays along random OC back roads, it surprised me how many memorials there were. Driver safer people; operating a motor coach isn’t rocket science.










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Adventures in the Magic Kingdom I

By on April 11, 2011 in Architecture/Man-made, Disneyland, Photos

I bought an annual pass to Disneyland back in December (I think) and have ignored it until recently.  Having gotten past my apprehension about going alone, I now prefer it: no boring my friends whilst I pause repeatedly to take photos.  Since I’m on a long exposure kick these days, the pauses are longer than they might be otherwise.

Rather than bore you with more blah blah blah, here are some photos. More to come in the next 9 or so months.

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Seasets VI: Loss

By on March 27, 2011 in Beach, Landscapes, Photos, Seascapes

The text below is adapted from something I wrote last Thursday. The photos themselves are from two different days at Corona Del Mar: the first is from a session the day my friend died, while the second was done in a “make up” session this evening.

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My long time friend, Bobby Villanueva, passed away today, leaving behind a wife and two young daughters. In recent years Bobby had taken an interest in photography, and we spent a number of long conversations discussing lenses, cameras, and techniques. Like photography did for me, it opened up a new way of looking at life for him.

The quest to become an artist is not for everyone. A lot of people are content to take a simple photo, file it away, and call it a day. They’ve captured the moment, and now it’s on to the next photo. For those that paint, draw, sculpt, or photograph, I think there’s a sense that you could potentially create one image or piece in your lifetime that’s so perfect, it wouldn’t matter if you ever made another.

The issue though, is that you know you’ll never get there because real life is too beautiful, and memories too ephemeral to be corralled by a human’s coarse hands. It’s like trying to grasp at smoke. We critique ourselves, think about what we could do better, and go buy more paint, pencils, or film. What we’re trying to accomplish is impossible, but the pursuit is an extension of ourselves, and so we continue.

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In a conversation with my friend Susan today, I explained why I don’t shoot a particular subject very often: “It feels too much like work.”

I was not being very productive at the office this afternoon, and decided that I needed to be somewhere else. My conversation with Susan in mind, I headed to the beach. The ocean has always calmed me, so it seemed like the right place to be. I photographed it for a while, failing miserably to capture everything I saw and felt at that moment. This was not work though, to be sure.

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A few months back Bobby asked if I would donate some of my photos to a charity event he was doing for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. As with photography, he felt passionately about helping this organization and his daughter, who suffers from the disease. I’ve always felt like my photos just missed the mark, but for someone else to think them good enough to auction meant a lot to me. My passion was able to assist in his passion.

I felt bad for Bobby’s family, for his friends, for myself: all people who lost something in his passing. I thought about Bobby trying to create his own art, to capture the love he felt for his daughters. Passion to passion. How do you do it though? How do you possibly capture the magic of life and love with any real success?

The waves swept in and the water ran out, and I understood that you can’t. Life is in the chaos, in the brush strokes. The manifestation of love is the chase, the yearning to understand the world and the people around us. We’ll never create that single, unifying piece, because life is too big and us too small.

I tripped my shutter and froze the earth for an imperfect moment, trying to squeeze my emotions into some container that I could hold onto. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. I trudged up the beach cold and sad, knowing my memories will never do him justice.

And so, I hope we all have something in life that we can feel passionate about, something that doesn’t “feel like work.” More importanly though, I hope everyone has someone else to hold onto; someone to make each of these fleeting moments as permanent as possible.

Farewell my friend; you’ll be missed.

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An Uncut Weekend

By on February 28, 2011 in Animals, Architecture/Man-made, Beach, Landscapes, Photos, Seascapes, Travel/Landmarks

My weekend started off with an early trip to photograph the US Uncut protest in LA. Unfortunately, the group never got very large while I was there, so I opted to take off and didn’t take any photos.  On the way home I stopped off in Long Beach to take photos of my friend’s puppy Gnocchi, and then met my cousin towards sunset to capture OC from on high.

My associate and friend Bruce arrived from the frozen lands of Scranton, PA Sunday morning. Whilst in the LAX area we drove to the Getty museum followed by the Huntington Beach pier so that he could tell his friends that he’s been to Huntington Beach. Also, to take photographs at sunset. Without clouds the pier sunset was sort of boring, but it was nice to be outside and not in the office.

This first shot is from Lemon Heights.

A view from the Getty.

Shooting puppies is more difficult than shooting hyper children. About the only time you can get a still portrait is when they’re too exhausted to continue. Here’s Gnocchi, dreaming of baby tennis balls.

Without much variety in the sky, I made my own. This shot has a slight shutter drag.

A resident at the Getty.

“Buildings on Mars.” An attempt at the unusual, looking inland from the shoreline in HB.

Lemon Heights again.

You got seashells in my pier photo. No, you got a pier in my seashell photo! (Sigh, I know I’m not funny.) My favorite of the weekend.

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Lights, Camera, Action!

By on February 20, 2011 in People, Photos, Studio

Like her brother before her, “Action” Abigail was the subject of 7-month-old portraits. No, I don’t know why it was 7 months in both cases, but I do know this is a pretty darn adorable future superhero child. I’m sure you’ll agree.

Older brother Declan in mom’s boots. Nearing 3 years of age, D is like lightning in a bottle if that lightning blew up the bottle and then drank Red Bull made from double Red Bull. Although he wasn’t the subject of the shoot, I tried to catch him every time he ran across my paper. This was about the only frame in which he wasn’t a blur.

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San Francisco, [A]Bridged

By on February 7, 2011 in Architecture/Man-made, Landscapes, Photos, Ruins/Abandoned, Seascapes, Travel/Landmarks

I turned 33 today and decided that I should be out of town for my birthday weekend. My day job is still too hectic at the moment to go anywhere too far away, so I took advantage of my cousin’s generosity and that of his wonderful wife Laura and crashed at their San Francisco condo.

Before heading up I made a list of subjects I’d like to cover, much of which consisted of urban exploration. That is, abandoned buildings, train stations, etc. Unfortunately, with limited mobility and time this was not to be in the cards. So, with the help of websites like this one by Thomas Hawk I reduced my list to a manageable size and prepared to be selective and patient, neither of which I particularly care to engage in very often.

Previous trips to San Francisco had resulted in tough shooting conditions, or basically “every day” in San Francisco: cold weather, fog, rain. As luck would have it, this past weekend was the nicest one San Francisco has seen in the history of always. This meant very little in the way of clouds (sort of boring for photography), and a rare heat. It may have been in the 80s on Sunday.

The reason I mention this is because San Francisco is a city that can be done on foot to a certain degree, and I probably put in about 10 miles in two days. “But Jake,” you’re saying, “that’s barely anything. Even my wheelchair bound grandmother runs 15 miles a day, surely you can handle a paltry 10.”  Ordinarily this would be true save for two facts: first, I was lugging around my gear, which weighs in at about 30 pounds. Second, if you’ve never been to San Francisco it’s hard to imagine how hilly it is, but trust me, it is. If this applies to you, imagine a perfectly straight line that goes up and down for like 20,000 feet. That’s every street in San Francisco. Add a 30-pound pack and hot weather to that, and now you can understand why your grandmother wouldn’t stand a chance.  Also, she told me that she doesn’t love you. So there.

In any event, my plans didn’t call for shooting the Golden Gate Bridge as much as I did, but I really couldn’t avoid focusing on it. In the end, this trip became a study on the bridge and less a study on the city itself.

Before I get to the bridge, let’s meet Wally and Ziggy, my cousin’s two dogs. Wally (pictured here) is small and full of energy, but knows how to chill. Ziggy is small and full of energy, but is like a nuclear explosion who’s energy just keeps on growing.

Saturday morning we started near the Presidio at the Sutro Baths. Not much is left of them, but being a sucker for ruins I was delighted to walk amongst them. Here’s a misty overlook.

Low shot of debris in a standing pool.

Although it bugs me that people tag historical sites, I can’t help but be impressed by talent.

Next, we headed to Baker Beach so that I could scout a place to shoot the Golden Gate at sunset. The northern end of the beach is nude, so it was funny to have shot the bridge and then look at the photos afterwards, only to see the occasional very pink San Franscisan hanging out in the bottom corner. I figured it was safest to post a photo of flowers. :)

Another shot of the bridge, this time from the National Cemetery at the Presidio. The cemetery was peaceful and quite pretty in its way, and has some of the oldest burials I’ve personally ever seen in the States.

Another shot of the bridge, this time near the “Warming Hut” on Fort Point. In the distance is the yacht club where I got the shots at the bottom of this post.

I decided that I picked the wrong place to shoot sunset, so I decided to try my luck at the Palace of Fine Arts. I hoofed it over there and had time to kill before the light show, so spent time figuring out my best angles. At one point I was sitting on a bench waiting for the sun to go down when this eccentric woman rode by on her pink bike with music blaring, lights on her spokes, and bubbles flowing.  As she circled across the pond and into the palace proper, I got my telephoto lens out and waited to see if anything interesting would happen. This little girl was with her family and as the lady rode past, just darted happily after her in dancing, bubbily bliss. You could tell by the way her dad was frantically chasing her that it wasn’t a sanctioned event. :)

I took a lot of the photos as the sun set, but this one is my favorite. I like the sort of mystery in the building not being fully illuminated. 

A Sunday morning view of the city (and in the distance, the Bay Bridge) from atop one of the ungodly tall hills. That tall pointy building is the TransAmerica building, which stands at over 800 feet tall. Note how relatively close I am to the top.  This was supposed to be an “easy” walk to breakfast. ;)

I opted to skip out on the Superbowl and instead get to another spot across the bay to catch the Golden Gate as the sun went down. With a car at my disposal I ended up at the yacht club on Fort Baker with plenty of time to spare.   At the top of the hill lie the abandoned remnants of Battery Yates, a former gun emplacement that stood watch over the bay.  Here’s a detail of one of the buildings that the guns once stood on top of. 

A warning from a time when the buildings held deadly artillery.

As the sun started to get low I cursed the beautiful, empty skies, and pondered how to make my photos more interesting. I decided to try two things.

First, work on a meaningful foreground. As any student of photography will have heard, the best photos tend to have a fore-, middle-, and background.  While this seems obvious, foregrounds are not my strongest suit (although I think I nailed it in the cemetery photo). As a result, I spent considerable time trying to find a spot that would give me something of interest in the foreground and line up with the more important middleground.

The second thing I worked on was color cast. Very few photographers know this, but most dSLR cameras have the ability to change color cast in the camera, including color bracketing. I don’t normally like to do it in camera, preferring instead to do it in post-processing. However, with time to spare, I played around a bit. Each of these below was touched, but actually very little. The changing light as the sun set made the biggest difference.

For those of you wanting to try this, the fastest way to do it is via the color balance settings, which can usually be changed via a button or dial. Otherwise, look for color bracketing in your camera menu.

Here’s a shot of a rowing crew coming home.

The gentleman in this photo is called Michael Feldman. I chatted with him for a bit after capturing his silhouette against the bridge.  Here’s the scene he was painting. Earlier in the day, I had sat in the same place as his subject. Perched atop the bluff with nothing but the bridge, bay and strong wind on my face, I felt very small in such a large space. I live for experiences like that, which is why I love travel photography so much.

Although this photo has the least obvious foreground of any I took that night, it’s probably my favorite of the bunch. With the bridge lights on and the gradual transition to night in the sky, this photo captures the peace I earnestly felt at that moment. If you’ve never been to this site, I would strongly encourage you to make the drive.

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