photography

cool pix

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a short walk around hollywood with a 20+ year old digital camera.

exploring with my new-to-me nikon coolpix 990. the swivel style 900 series cameras were released by nikon starting in 1998, with the 990 hitting the market in 2000 as the last of the models to be powered by four regular double a batteries. these cameras were pretty advanced for their time & still return decent pictures with their 3.34 megapixels & compact flash memory card. fun fact: the formatting for these camera’s cards can’t be read by mac computers. I had to do some finagling to get me images from camera to web!

dc in 2011

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in 2011 I took an early bus from port authority bus terminal in new york city for a day trip to washington dc with my friend & my film camera. I recently found these images from the excursion.

blooms

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a sweet morning at the flower fields, in carlsbad california.

elmer's bottle tree ranch

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off route 66 outside of victorville you’ll find an incredible art installation called elmer’s bottle tree ranch. elmer long built this unique forest using recycled & found materials, constructing trees out of everything from rebar & glass to old typewriters & even a missile. one of my favourite things about the desert are these types of places, the spots where someone’s creativity shows up in unexpected ways. wandering through the trees under the bright blue spring desert sky was a perfect way to spend a route 66 pit stop.

elmer passed away in 2019, so the ranch is no longer expanding, but the existing structures are well worth a visit.

the ranch is open daily sunrise to sunset, it’s free to enter but donations are gladly accepted.

shot on a vintage lubitel 2 with kodak porta 400

big snow

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while living in brooklyn I experienced my first blizzard. recently I found some of the photos I took walking around the silent streets the day after the snowfall.

dreamworld

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I went to vasquez rocks a few weeks ago specifically to shoot my first ever roll of medium format film on a vintage lubitel 2 twin lens camera. using a camera without any electrical parts (or a light meter!) was a totally new experience for me, & I wasn’t sure if the images were even going to turn out.

but the lubitel is a sturdy camera which was made for the masses. even after all these years it still works! looking down into a viewfinder forced me to slow down & not snap haphazardly. it made the process almost meditative. excited to shoot more with this camera & see what turns up.

shot on a lubitel 2 with porta 400. see more medium format photos.

by the side of the road

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driving home from a day hike I noticed some abandoned buildings off the side of highway 14 in santa clarita. after stopping for some lunch I decided to backtrack & look for a way to access this area. as luck would have it, it was part of an open space off sierra highway. it seemed a perfect place to test out black & white film in my lubitel 2 medium format camera.

vasquez rocks

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just off highway 14 less than 45 mins from los angeles are vasquez rocks. you may recognise this formation from the movies, they have starred in everything from star trek to blazing saddles to the flintstones. the striking shapes were created by rapid erosion during uplift some 25 million years ago & later revealed by further uplift on the san andreas fault.

what’s uplift? known to geologists as orogeny, this is the primary way mountains are formed on earth. an orogeny occurs where two or more (lithospheric) plates converge when the plate’s motion compresses the margin between them. this pressure forces the earth’s crust to crumble & uplift into the formations you see here. these will eventually (millions of years from now) become mountains.

ongoing tectonic activity on the nearby san andreas fault and its offshoot, the elkhorn fault which runs through the vasquez rocks natural area park, continues to shape, uplift, & expose the buried sandstone.

the rocks were named for famous mexican california outlaw tiburcio vasquez who used them to evade law enforcement in 1874. tiburcio was & is a controversial figure, with some believing him a ruthless bandit & others seeing him as a revolutionary opposing the american expansion into present day california.

vasquez entered outlaw life in 1852 when he was witness to the killing of monterey constable william hardmount. though he denied any involvement in the death vasquez fled law enforcement, going on to become a star figure in the infamous decades long roach-belcher feud. after being caught horse rustling in 1856 he spent five years in san quentin before organizing a prison break. in 1866 he was imprisoned again, this time for three years after a burglary in petaluma.

after he was arrested for murder in may 1874 vasquez, who was a charming & handsome figure with many fans throughout the west, sold photographs with & of himself to support his legal defense. he was tried for a murder that occurred four years prior during a robbery in tres pinos (now called paicines) where $2,200 (more that $47,000 in today’s money) was stolen from a store & three were killed. vasquez maintained throughout his trial that though he was an outlaw, he was not the killer. despite his adoring public & a written confession from another member of the gang, he was convicted of the crime & executed by hanging on 19 march 1875 at just 39 years old.

there are numerous geologic formations throughout southern california named for vasquez, including these rocks & robbers roost in kern county. he is buried in the mission cemetery in santa clara where fans still leave him flowers.

because of his affluent background, good looks, education, & sense of style, vasquez is believed to be one of the inspirations for the bandit-hero character zorro.

wind & rocks

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a morning walking amongst the rocks & the high winds at red rock canyon state park, ricardo campground.

one day in san francisco

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in january I spent a single day in san francisco. I arrived on an early morning flight & wandered the city streets until I made my way to the san francisco museum of modern art for their collection of agnes martin pairings & their exhibition of joan mitchell.

this is some of what I saw.

starstruck

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ventured to red rock canyon state park—one of my favourite parks in californa— to make an attempt at astrophotography. this was my first attempt at photographing the stars & it was mostly a big failure, but now I have a better idea of what to do for my next trip!

first & foremost I need to find a buddy to go out with me, because it is very dark out there at night & it’s a little disconcerting!

big valley

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big morongo canyon preserve is one of the 10 largest cottonwood & willow riparian habitats in california. managed by the bureau of land management, the reserve is a 31,000 acres. it is located in the transition zone between the mojave desert & the colorado desert.

salvation

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recently I found a handful of rolls of used film. with no memory of what might be on these I sent them off the be developed. this selection is from a road trip to salvation mountain about 5 years ago.