Donkey Dominance

We paid a visit to our favorite local wild burro herd this weekend. One of them was a little ornery. He chased the other guy all over the field, biting and kicking him. 

These guys live in the mountains south of Redlands, California. These are a lot of them here--several dozen at least and probably many more-- in a few different roaming herds. No one knows how they got here, but they have been living wild in these mountains for generations. One common story claims they are related to the wild asses that live in the Panamints in Death Valley. They are a charming and entertaining local phenomenon; I hope development and progress doesn't make them vanish anytime soon.

Back to the Botanic

Vernal things are everywhere!

Tarantula Hawk

Chamomile

Sage

European Honeybee

Wild rabbit

Tarantula Hawk

Bye now!

Renaissance Faire

I attended my first Renaissance Faire in 1983. Back then I found it exhilarating. I haven't visited too often in the intervening years--twice, I think-- so I'm no expert in the Faire phenomenon. But one thing is certain: the Renaissance Pleasure Faire has grown much tamer, less bawdy and interesting. During a recent visit with my family, I found the experience a little soporific. It could partly be my age talking, but it's mostly the Faire's homogenization and obvious effort not to offend anyone which has made it a little bland and dull. The addition of uncounted sporadic references to a TV show (Game of Thrones) didn't really help either. That show might be wonderful, but to my mind, the Faire is supposed to transport us to a place other than our televisions.

Nevertheless, I took the best photographs I could in the brutal midday light of industrial Irwindale, California. Here are a few from the Jousting event... a recreation of a historic medieval contest held by agrarian nobility set in a recreation of a renaissance bourgeois town. Because, why not? What's a few hundred years here and there if you're having fun? The Joust was the best part of the day by far.

Friday Night Liberty

The eight prints are hung in the State Parks office at Liberty Station. Now all they need is you! If you're near San Diego, California on May 1st, 2015, consider dropping by. Here is more info: http://www.ntclibertystation.com/what.php

Many thanks to my wife Stephanie for all her help and to the good people of the California State Parks Southern Service Center for inviting me to exhibit in their offices and for all their help with the process.

Corporate Publicity Headshots

The assignment: produce publicity headshots of these six company leaders in a straightforward, honest way. There should be lightness, simplicity, nothing dramatic. The shots should be uniform in mood and presentation, so that they can be used together or apart for a variety of applications. 

Putting together something like this is, perhaps surprisingly, more difficult than making a picture of a wild animal or taking a bunch of different portraits of the same person. Because of the need for uniformity, a certain set of limitations imposes itself once the shoot is underway.

After a long shoot, refinement, and sensitive, time-consuming post work, these are the picks.

I picked the Canon 6D and EF 70-200 f/2.8L II USM as the best choice for portrait work. The lens was set to about 135mm, f/5.6. 135 is a great focal length to help people look their best, and f/5.6 is a good compromise between too shallow and too hard to light with speed lights. The shutter was kept at 1/60 to allow the background to appear more white. The camera was set to ISO400 to give the speedlights a break; there would be a lot of rapid shooting and higher ISO allows the flashes to operate with less power. ISO400 on the 6D looks very smooth. The camera was mounted on a tripod and never moved. The subjects were placed on a posing stool between a 50" silver umbrella camera left and a 36" softbox camera right. A large white reflector was placed below. The umbrella speed light was given half a stop more power to slightly increase dimensionality.

Shooting was done in live view mode with the focusing set to face detection so that I could interact face to face with the clients while shooting, and not worry about missing focus. The company publicist was provided with an iPhone running EOS Remote so that he could review the shots live immedately as the exposure was made, and suggest adjustments to poses, etc.

I was glad to do this work, but being alone in the desert taking pictures of sand dunes is always more fun to me than any other kind of shooting.

Opening: Friday Night Liberty

I was invited by California State Parks' Southern Service Center to provide the images for their share of a much larger open house and artwalk at Liberty Station in San Diego. It's on Friday, May 1st. After the artwalk, the photos will remain to decorate the State Parks offices (and remain on sale) for quite a while.

State Parks selected images that were related to California State Parks and specifically selected two that showed human-made assets in the parks.

I had the images printed on jumbo-sized Fuji metallic paper and professionally framed at Miller's Professional Imaging; they are going to look fantastic! We'll know for certain when they arrive in two days.

It was an honor to be invited, and I think State Parks and the Friday Night Liberty patrons will find the photos pleasing. (Actually, it's the State Parks personnel who have to work with the prints on their walls for quite a while after the show...)

I'll provide more information about the time and location of the event closer to the date.

Coyotes!

Out hiking today with my wife, we spotted a family of wild coyotes. It's such a delight seeing wild animals being wild in wild places. 

A Ten Minute Trip to a Whole Different World

If you're ever feeling too hot in the desert, try taking a ride up the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. The tramway's mountain station is 8,500 feet high on the edge of nearly 11,000 foot high Mount San Jacinto, in California's Mount San Jacinto State Park. 

The floors of the Swiss-made tramcars revolve 360 degrees twice during the extremely steep ascent up the mountain. They are the worlds largest revolving tram cars... and the only ones in the Nothern hemisphere. The only other ones are at Table Mountain in South Africa.

Inside the tram everyone is rapt as the view grows increasingly spectacular... and the drop increasingly far. Everyone, that is, except the operator. The cars hold up to 80 people and are also the only means of getting water and supplies up to the park at the top.

Halfway up the mountain, the tram passes the descending car. Since the cars counterbalance each other, they pass at the midpoint.

Getting closer the the Mountain Station and disembarking into a world completely different from the Sonora desert we just left.

Closer still. If you are unlucky enough to be bothered by heights, it's best not to look back, because the drop is huge. (I'm so glad I don't suffer from this).

As you ascend (and descend), the car revolves. If you were in a spot you didn't favor at the beginning of the trip, don't worry... you'll see everything at some point. Here were are reaching the mountain station to disembark.

Once arrived, you are in the mountains 8,500 feet (2,600 meters) above the desert floor in the Alpine forest of Mount San Jacinto State Park. There are miles of hiking and skiing trails, and two vast connected wilderness areas, if you like to get away from everything and everyone. In fact, the Pacific Crest Trail passes through here. That trail stretches from Mexico to Canada. Up here, it's usually about 30 degrees cooler than in the desert below, and of course the terrain, flora, and fauna are completely different. It's like a ten minute ride to a whole new world.

Stormy Sunset

To me, blue skies are boring. I watch the weather reports and when it's going to be interesting out there, that's when I leave home with the cameras.

Stormy sunset on Mount Rubidoux, Riverside, California

Being There Now: The 60 Freeway Mastodon

Is there something in your life that you rush past every day wondering what's it's like up close? You never have time to stop and check it out, but you see it as you go by and wonder about it. For some it could be a store or a park or piece of street art or a building facade. For some Angelinos, for example, it could be the Hollywood sign. They see it from afar but and they have an idea what it might be like up there, but have never taken the time to go see it up close. They just wonder about it.

In my adopted home town, our Hollywood sign is an enormous rusty mastodon sculpture by the side of the 60 freeway. I pass it almost every day as I'm rushing off somewhere, have for years, always wondering what it's like up close. One day I decided to search for images on the internet. I thought it would be a good shortcut. But alas, it seems as if everybody just stands at the bottom of the hill with their cameras and tries to zoom in. That's not at all like being there.

Here's what it looks like in Google street view. It's a prominent landmark, but relatively far away, and for someone like me who loves monumental things, prehistoric megafauna, outsider art, metal, public oddities and roadside attractions, I finally had to grab my camera and go see this thing up close. And not standing by the side of the freeway and zooming in. I had to go be there.

I was not disappointed! 

The sculpture is part of the Jurupa Mountains Discovery Center, a sort of combination amateur natural history museum and outsider art exhibit. They have this mastodon, plus a dozen or more monumental dinosaurs made out of various materials. They also have an excellent cactus and succulent garden, a gift shop and mineral exhibit, and some other seemingly random things.

I learned again a lesson I have learned many times before: don't just wonder about things. Go and find out for yourself.