lake manly's return

in , , , ,

I spent a weekend in my favourite national park recently, death valley, which is known for being the “hottest, driest, lowest” national park in the united states. right now though, thanks to our strange summer hurricane, pluvial lake manly (the ancient lake which once covered most of death valley) has made a reappearance at the lowest point in north america – badwater basin.

I had thought most of the water would be gone by the time of my january visit but it turns out lake manly decided to stick around a bit longer than expected. the cloud streaked blue skies & mountains reflected in the pristine surface of the ankle deep water made the whole experience feel otherworldly. like visiting the inside of a kaleidoscope.

rolling sands

in , ,

a bright afternoon on the mesquite flat dunes in death valley. I have been playing with photographing the desert in black & white recently. there is just something immortal about the way these came out.

cold boston morning

in , ,

one freezing saturday morning spent wandering along boston’s charles river esplanade.

a few weeks ago I went to boston for the weekend to check out the john singer sargent exhibition at the museum of fine arts. sargent is one of my favourite painters & I couldn’t pass up the chance to see so many of his works in one place. arriving in boston just before 7 am on a saturday morning meant I had a lot of time to wander. I layered on hiking clothes & windproof fleece in the logan airport bathroom before heading into the city to brave 27 degree temps.

it’s been quite a while since I’ve experienced “real” winter. the sharp cold air & ice gathering along the rivers edge fascinated me.

some favourite photos of 2023

in ,

I’m not normally a year end review kind of person but I have been thinking about all the photos I’ve made this year & wanted to reflect on the ones I’m most proud of. these are probably not the best technical photos ever made, but they are images that I thought “that’s rad” when making & look back on fondly.

they run the gamut from landscapes to street photography & were made on a variety of cameras in a range of locations & on different formats, though I’m a bit surprised to realize there isn’t much film in the mix. I think this year I learned that the camera & the gear matters less than I believed it did when I first got back into photography even if I did still buy a whole new setup this year (the fujifilm xpro3) which I still haven’t fully explored.

here’s to more adventures in 2024!

narrows

in

hiked the narrows in zion national park this past summer & did not enjoy it! the canyon is stunningly beautiful but hiking in water is not my cup of tea. twisted my ankle & fell in the water more than once.

“the narrows” are the narrowest section of zion canyon and the name refers to either the 3.6 mile bottom-up hike or the 16 miles top-down route. it is one of the most popular hikes in the national park.

down on the bombay beach

in , ,

installations from bombay beach on the shores of the salton sea.

bombay beach was a popular getaway until the 1980s when the increasing salinity & receding water line of the salton sea destroyed the lake’s ecosystem & drove away businesses. bombay beach remains with a population hovering around 200 & is the lowest community in the united states at 223 feet below sea level. it has been undergoing a renaissance in recent years as artists & intellectuals have moved in. the town is now home to numerous art installations & the annual bombay beach biennale.

the poetry house

in , ,

spent a little time at the poetry house in bombay beach, along the salton sea in southern california. salton sea is one of my favourite places in the whole state & the art installations throughout the town of bombay beach are otherworldly & poignant surrounded by the silent desert & lightly lapping waters.

weird world of joshua tree national park

in ,

lomochrome turquoise in joshua tree.

I love bringing this film to the desert.

pentax auto 110 super // lomochrome turquoise 110

people watching by the pier

in

attended a fun photo walk / meetup with other woman & non-binary identifying photographers in santa monica this past weekend hosted by not your grandma’s camera club. I used it as an opportunity to play with my new (to me) fuji 35mm f1.4 lens. this lens has a kind of mythic cult following amongst fuji lovers & is well known for it’s “character”. I certainly have not figured out how to get the absolute best out of it, but when I managed to hit the focus (& exposure, I’m also still learning the xpro3) the shots are really nice.

digicams at night

in ,

a couple shots from a night out in downtown la with my 2009 casio.

walk around the block

in

a walk around the neighbourhood to clear my head with the fuji x30.

dreamy disneyland digicam

in

spent a day at disneyland & disney’s california adventure reliving childhood memories & eating dole whip with my sony bloggie mhs-pm5. I like the dreamy quality of the sony bloggie when the the light gets low, it becomes almost like a memory.

friendship (1963)

in

agnes martin, friendship (1963). museum of modern art, new york.

gold leaf.

it glows. wherever the light hits. your form leaves a darkened center when you stand in front of it. a shadow.

as you move around it, it changes. changes everything about itself. colour, texture, hue, dimension.

from the left it takes on the shape of paper time cards stacked beside a clock. from the right it smooths out like an expanding field of wheat. a sea of gold. far enough back it’s smooth & faint.

up close it becomes rugged, pocked with texture & moments of almost red scratched through. the lines, etched down to the canvas, become gashes across a face or the raised scars on a wrist. the moments of red… blood?

it undulates & the gold rolls as you tilt your head. between water & oil…

something else, mercury like & waiting to either poison you or wrap you in warmth.

I close my eyes. I can feel the gold on my face like the sun.