Land Scapes
Been Through the Desert (still)
This was shot on NV-89. This is a Nevada State road that at one point may have been paved, but the desert has taken over. The road was a combination of sand and gravel. Riding in the tire grooves where the gravel wasn’t so deep worked well until there was a squished bunny that I had to maneuver around. That was a little nerve wracking, driving out of a rut into deep gravel to avoid corpse bunny. At this point I started to think . . .
While traveling down this road, I was about an hour in and realized that I had not seen another human being in a very long time.
I’m in the middle of Nevada by myself and have gone about 50 miles to get to this point.
Do I have enough gas to get to the end of this road?
Did I plan this leg of the journey correctly, do I really end up in Tonopah?
What if I run out of gas?
. . . No, I’ve gone 50 miles, I still have another 200 before I run out.
Oh crap, what if I fall?
. . . that’s why I’m wearing this heavy jacket in 95 degree heat and why my wife made me carry a quick clotting bandage in my jacket.
What if I break-down?
. . . Meh, I have 6 liters of water and 3 days supply of food and shelter. Someone is bound to come by in 3 days.
After about another 30 minutes I intersected with another road and a car met up with me. It was a great feeling seeing another person. The the dirt road turned into pavement and that was even a better feeling.
Been Through the Desert
I just returned from a motorcycle trip to central Nevada. This was taken the first night in Manhattan, NV. With all of those clouds, thunder and lightning, I thought I was in for a wet night. Turns out the storm passed me by about 5 miles.
Back on the Chain Gang?
Maybe its the fence, maybe it’s the bacon induced coma Erin has just put me in, but for some reason the Pretender’s “Chain Gang” comes to my mind when I see this photo?
Last of the Old Trains
This was taken about three years ago at the Steam Town Mall in Scranton Pa. Yes, the town where the show The Office takes place. Last I heard it was one of the largest antique train depots in the country. This could be wrong but hey, it’s the internets.
Raw Power – No, not Iggy and the Stooges
No photo project this week. I have been busy working on the latest and greatest Mutineer Magazine issue and spent most of the week shooting and processing t0 meet the deadline.
So with that I leave you the photos above and below.
On Wednesday I will post photos from a shoot for the current issue of the magazine that hit the shelves this week. You will have to buy the issue to find out which were used.
String Theory
Multidimensionality
Over the past couple of years, I have become fascinated by Physics. The thought of quantifying everything in existence amazes me. I usually drive Erin crazy by only reading non-fiction, typically biographies of Physicists (Richard Feynman was not only brilliant but quite the character as well) or about some mathematical formula or theorem.
The above photo is my own creation trying to depict the multidimensionality that String Theory suggests. Below you will find an English 155 paper I wrote comparing String Theory to Quantum Mechanics and Einstein’s Theory of Relativity to annoy my Professor. English Professors apparently do not like to read about complex mathematical theories because as the deadline approached, the Professor told the class that he was not looking forward to reading it because of its content. This made me happy.
Needless to say, I submitted the paper and received an A. Below you will find the paper.
San Francisco: Screw Rice-A-Roni
Usually when you think of San Francisco, if your old enough, you may think of the Rice-A-Roni commercials full of trollies, and happy people eating some kind of food which comes out of a small cardboard box. Although I did see a lot of happy people and trollies, the neighborhood we were staying in was a far cry from the commercials; especially after dark.
I could have taken the standard San Fran pictures (for the most part I have), but there is so much more to the city than travel brochures and cheesy commercials portray.
Many all of the night shots were taken as fast as I could possible take a picture. It was on our way back from an amazing dinner when we asked our cab driver about some buildings. When I looked at Erin and asked her if she wanted to get some shots after we get dropped off at the hotel, the cab driver cautioned us not to go alone; both of us should be fine.
I’m not one to get all scared and heed warnings from cab drivers. Hell, if I heeded warnings from cab drivers I would have missed out on a lot of exciting things mostly taking place in sketchy neighborhoods in small Caribbean Islands. Besides, usually when someone says don’t do something, it makes you want to do it anyway.
This was a little different though. I usually don’t go into seedy parts of town with well over a thousand dollars worth of camera equipment after dark. Walking the four blocks to City Hall, getting ogled by prostitutes, and passing some of the scariest people Erin has seen, made the fact that the very first photo of City Hall was exactly what I was looking for without setting up a tripod allowed for an easy retreat to safer grounds.
Below is a new slideshow I am trying out. Please let me know how you like it.
The Old Building Project – Silk Mill
This is the start of an ongoing project in which I am on the hunt for old decrepit looking buildings in the North Bay area and this is the first one I came across (I pass it every day on my morning commute).
These photos are of an old Silk Mill and for the most part, it seems to be in good shape. I would love to know what it looks like on the inside but could only imagine the animals I may encounter. Fist-a-cuffs with a raccoon does not rank high on my list of life experiences.
I had intended to take photos of condemned buildings while we were in downtown San Francisco, but during the day they lacked character. Sadly, at night, the condemned buildings became very interesting, but I didn’t feel like taking the camera out of the bag in that neighborhood. More-so after the cab driver warned us in broken English something to the effect of “don’t go here alone”. More on that in next weeks post.
Petaluma Museum-Now Known as Gozer’s Temple
The Petaluma Museum. This was a total off the cuff photo taken just after I visited the local camera shop looking for a CPL filter. It would have turned out much better had I spent the $139.00 for one filter, but I think Erin would have kicked my ass for such a purchase, so I made due without and snapped this.
Too bad some donkey parked their car right in front of the place.
The real reason I wanted this shot is because it reminded me of Gozer’s temple atop of the Shandor Building in Ghost Busters. How’s that for an obscure movie reference.
Before the Storm
Before the Storm
This past week’s weather has been pretty crazy for California. The day before the worst of the storms, I woke up and it was pouring rain, high winds – really snotty weather. The first thing that came to my mind was high winds equal high seas, so I thought I’d go to Bodega Bay to take some pictures.
With that, I grabbed the camera gear, Erin donned her Wellies and raincoat then we headed north. Funny thing about Northern California and the North Bay, it doesn’t have normal weather patterns like the rest of the known universe and consists of many micro-climates. It could be raining cows and donkeys at one location and half a mile down the road it is sunny. Which was almost the case for us this day. When we got to the location, it had stopped raining, but the wind was still gusting to about 20 or 30 mph which was great for some high surf (30 to 40 foot waves).
Seeing waves as big as these brings me back to my days aboard Cutters in Miami and Alaska. Miami, the boat I was stationed on was 110 feet long and we would routinely experience 25 to 30 foot waves in the Caribbean. While in Alaska, sailing from Sitka to Honolulu we encountered 45 to 50 foot waves on a 180 foot boat. It was amazing to see and experience.
And what an experience it was. One trip from Miami to Puerto Rico, we hit a wave so large that it separated the superstructure from the hull, twisted the boat longitudinally and ruptured our drinking water tank. Nothing big, just a cracked weld large enough to let water in. It was an easy fix though, adhesive spray and duct tape – hole patched continue on with the mission. On the Alaska to Hawaii trip, the ship rolled so far that the ships bell, which is mounted on the bridge amidship, clanged on its own.
My Alaska Exploits
As some of you may know, I have been in the Coast Guard for about 14 years now. In the last 14 years I have lived in Cape May New Jersey, Miami Florida, Petaluma California, Sitka Alaska, Seattle Washington, Westhampton Beach New York, back to Seattle then back again to Petaluma. The photos in this post are all from Sitka, Alaska.
I lived in Sitka for two and half years. I arrived there right about the time I turned 21. Alaska is known for the short winter days and long nights. What people don’t realize is that during the summer, it is quite the opposite. Sunrise at 2:00 a.m., Sun set 11:00 p.m.
This summer schedule leads to many great things. The 30 miles mountain bike rides at 7:00 p.m., shooting ungodly amounts of ammunition at the local target range (it was about ballistics, physics and skill, not some type of crazy gun toting militia thing), hiking, and mountain biking. Lots of mountain biking. The winters on the other hand were a different story. The days were wicked short. So short that when I would go to work it was dark. When I got out of work at 1:00 in the afternoon, it was dark. What else was there to do besides hit many one of the plethora of bars in town.
Sitka is the worse place to turn 21. Thanks to some really good friends I learned that Rusty Nails and Lemon Drops do not mix. Gin is a wonderful drink and is highly under-rated. And yes, if you drink too much Alaskan Amber you develop a taste aversion to it which I still have today.
Looking back, forgetting the drunken debauchery and all the shenanigans that I have either created or participated in (there were so many), Sitka was a beautiful place to live. The fresh halibut, crab were never in short supply. And when we were going to the ship yards in Ketchican for 2 months, my roommate would need to clear out the freezer so he made his chili of wild bear, mountain goat, and deer (it was good having a roommate that was a successful hunter) which was great. When I was stationed there I made some great friends and had some crazy experiences. Many of which are best shared in person over a good scotch (or gin) because a good sea story can’t be written, it has to be told.
Morning Commute
Looking through my library of photos trying to decide what to post next, I found a shot from our apartment window in Seattle. This made me realize that I have not seen a real ship for about 6 months. Yeah, I saw the Midway when I was in San Diego, but it wasn’t an actual working ship. There is something sad about seeing a restaurant on the fantail (back of the boat) of an air craft carrier.
What’s more, I haven’t seen a ship/cutter in 6 months and I’m in the Coast Guard. I do however see a lot of cows. My station is in the middle of a cow pasture so I see them pretty much every day. On more than one occasion I had to stop because there was a cow just standing in the middle of the road.
The adult cows don’t care if I pass by on the motorcycle, it’s the calfs that freak out. I always have visions of a cow the size of a Smart Car getting spooked, running out in front of me and taking out the motorcycle. This now brings up the other animal that is constantly circling the station, vultures. So now my visions involve me lying in the middle of the road, Smart Car sized cow running off, vulture circling over head waiting . . . but wait there is more.
There is also a wicked smart coyote I pass occasionally on the way to work. This Canis Latrans has somehow figured out that he can’t do trigonometry. So, instead of chasing me like a dog, he charges head on down the middle of the road. Once he gets close enough, he side-steps, SIDE-STEPS, and then jumps at the motorcycle. There’s something to be said for the little guy that figured out something new.
So, in conclusion, with the Smart Car sized cows taking me out in the middle of the road, vultures circling over head in wait, and the trig-side-stepping coyote all out to get me, my morning commute in Miami was a lot safer.
Olema, CA
Olema is a small town near Pt Reyes Station. After six months of driving by, I finally decided to stop and see what the place was about. There isn’t much to it, a “T” intersection, an RV camp site, a hotel with a conference room (advertised on the sign out front) and a few old storefronts. The most interesting part of the town was the old bridge that was about 2 miles outside of town.
Petaluma Christmas
The view may not be as nice from our apt. in Petaluma, but at least its a bigger place by about 700 square feet.
