I was wandering around Gila Bend, Arizona, and saw this rusted old water tower that was standing right beside the railway lines.
It no longer functions as a tower, but it surely does look good in a photograph. The light is from mid afternoon. And the clouds are the remnants of last nights rain.
A couple days ago, I headed out to the Anza Borrego desert to take some pictures of the wildflowers.
This is the reason that I usually like to travel to targets, and be the driver. When I got to the turnoff on interstate 8, I kept heading east. We wound up in Gila Bend Arizona. … 😎 …
Yeps! Gila Bend.
When a very good friend of mine was going to school at the University of Arizona, Tucson, I used to drive between San Diego and Tucson quite frequently. Gila Bend had a very cool Motel that looked very spacy, and I got it into my head that I wanted to visit it again. Forget the flowers, “Spaceward Ho!”
The original burned down quite a while ago, but it has been replaced by the Space Age Motor Lodge and Restaurant. This image will jump you into the middle of some images. The new one is still very cool. … 😉
For over a year now, I have been shooting images for the San Diego Fine Arts Society, and in that context I have met some fine artists. It is those artists that have been a releasing influence on my work lately, mostly because I love their work so much. …
This particular day, I was riding around with a friend looking for things photographic. And I happened by this alleyway in Ocean Beach. It reminded me of some of Duke Windsor’s work.
So Duke, this is my alley.
I was driving from Santa Monica back to San Diego, and decided to drive the total coast road, including the edge of the Palos Verdes peninsula.
It was amazingly clear. Never have I seen Los Angeles like this. Look at this image in the larger size, and enjoy the view.
As I rounded the point of the peninsula, and looked south, I could see Mount Soledad in San Diego. It was way tiny, and I did not take a picture of that because it would look like a smudge on the horizon. … Still, it was a very interesting day.
Today is very peaceful, as the air wafts softly through the leaves of the trees. It is warm, and comfortable when one sits in the shade. I can feel the hairs on my arms as they are gently moved by the low breeze. Soft chirps of spring birds can be heard across the valley.
This flower is part of a plant that sits in two worlds. The body and its roots lie submerged in the small pond, while the leaves and flowers dance in the sun. Leaves sucking the energy out of the sunlight to process the nutrients out of the pond. There would be no flower without both.
There is a balance in nature that we must have for ourselves. … I live, yet I am looking still.
The area around Southern California, and San Diego is beautiful. I love to hop in a car with my camera tools and wander around with a friend for a day trip, just looking at things.
This specific day we stayed close to San Diego. The farthest we got out of San Diego was Descanso, where we had lunch at the Perkins Store. The Perkins Store is the largest thing I noticed in Descanso and it has been around for quite a while in our short American History. The Perkins Store, established in 1875.
While I was walking around taking pictures of the general area, I headed back to my car, and someone had driven up to the store and left this dog just looking out the window. I thought he looked great.
So, this picture is one of my favorites from my drive to Descanso.
A young woman, standing alone on the beach, has written, “I Love You.”
Like honest love, spoken from a full heart of one person directly into the mind and heart of another person, the young woman knelt down, took her finger, and scribed each letter in the sand, one letter at a time. As each stroke of each letter grew with the movement of her hand, the full mantra of her thought repeated in her head, “I Love You. … I Love You. … I Love You.” …
As I look at this image, I see her hope, and feel her fear. Her words are written by her finger in sand that the tide will wash clean in a few hours. Her love, the sand, the sunset, the ocean, everything, is ephemeral, yet. … A clean sandy sunrise will still hold her words.
Once, I had a love. … “I Love You.”
San Diego is a very pretty place. You just have to go out and walk around, and you will see it.
I had never been to the San Diego Convention Center at sunset. … Correction. I have been there, but I have been convention-ing. I had paid money to go inside and look at things. You know, things like boats, autos, … Comicon. 🙂
From this location, I could see Point Loma and define the silhouette of the Hotel Del Coronado on Coronado island. … This is shot from the High Point of the Convention Center steps looking Westward, across Seaport Village, towards Point Loma, and finally, the Sun at the edge of the world.
Tides go in, and tides go out. Each tide is different depending on the location of the moon, the sun, and in reality, the rest of the universe. … But mostly, the moon and the sun.
I like the low tides because they reveal secrets of the coast normally unseen. And it is always magical to see things to the far range of their environmental envelope. The grasses in this image are under the ocean, twisting in the currents of the tidal zone 99.9+% of their lives. But on these very special days they live, like mountain climbers on Mount Everest, looking out at a world unknown to them, except in their dreams.
This is towards the end of a day where I had some help. …
These three women were walking up towards the top of Fillmore, very close to where Fillmore crosses Washington. They laughed when we started shooting off the great large flash units.
My friends, David Dellinger and Jens Madsen, helped me by lugging around some giant battery packs for my studio lights. We had three studio lights, and three battery packs in back packs, and three studio lights. Mine was a ring flash, and they had one 1600 Alien Bee each. We were connected wirelessly to my camera, and we just walked around blasting the Fillmore Jazz Festival with lighting. …
🙂 It was a lot of fun for me, but I do think David and Jens got a little tired of hauling my stuff around.
In getting ready for an auto show, I was wandering through some of my auto images, and this one popped back into my consciousness as a childhood dream. Yes. I always wanted one of these great car/truck things. …
I know, 😉 .. It is not a car/truck thing, but darn it, I still want one. … Of course the milage may not fit the wallet, but a dream is still a dream.
We have had a wonderful set of well timed storms this year. The ground, and spring growth, have never dried out since the storms began. As the land started to dry, another storm came through.
That little cycle of rain, followed by a small pause, followed by rain again, has been the way of this winter. … Like a gardener coming through with the water can every couple days, ensuring the harvest of flowers will reward the conscientious watering.
This is at the North end of Fallbrook, overlooking the Santa Margarita River valley.
This is just one of a whole set of automobiles I shot this past weekend in Fallbrook. They are for sale on my sale site.
I love this image of three of Americas finest working the streets of the Fillmore Jazz festival in San Francisco. You can tell by their happy smiles that it is a good day for them as well.
This is the first image that I shot that someone I respected liked, and I knew I could see some things that set me a little apart, and might give me a chance at a career.
I had dropped my car off for a car wash in oceanside, while driving back from San Francisco, and a short detour to Yosemite. I looked in the window and thought the people in there looked interesting, and it was a very intersting shop. They let me shoot anything I wanted, and the young man was very interested in my camera.
These animals are so graceful in the water, and lumbering giants on land.
I shot a whole set of images of these strong animals, just north of San Simeon, on a trip to San Francisco. I do not know how to tell the age of the Alice, but it was my feeling, if she were human, she would be about twenty-seven years old, and she liked me enough to be as curious about me, as I was about her.
I was very lucky with this image because their eyes are so dark, they usually look like black marbles, but this time she turned her head to face me, and the sun finally lit up her windows.
Fish. … I love them. And this image of a golden Koi fish in a pond, surrounded by deep blue ripples in a pond just makes my day. That fish seems to be looking right at me, and talking to my insides. … At the very least, we are making eye contact, so that our consciously aware of each other.
This was taken at the Self Realization Fellowship in Encinitas California.
These orchids have been sitting around the kitchen for a few days. This particular morning I decided to place them in the direct light of the early morning sun. … So, they are lit directly from behind, that is why we see shadows in the petals.
Over the past year, or so, I have been shooting images for the San Diego Fine Arts Society, S.D.F.A.S. Some of what I have seen and experienced has started to rub off on me.
It has been very exciting seeing what other artists do in their work. I have always considered myself an artist, and not just a photographer. In that context, I try to use my images to capture beauty. So I have been very lucky, I have gotten a primer in current art.
Now I play more with photos.
