Blog - Page 12

After camping at the Wildrose campsite on Saturday night, Penelope and I hit the road around 8 A.M. We took Emigrant Pass into Death Valley. On our way in we passed a ranger on the snow-covered road. I waved, he nodded and that was that.

Later on we discovered that the road we were on was actually closed, he was headed in to lock the gate on the other side! I'm guessing he saw our vehicle and wasn't worried. The road was beautiful. There was about six inches of snow covering the pavement and the ground was white as far as the eye could see. It was really amazing.

We took a side trip to Skidoo mine. We made it about 5 of the 10 miles when we decided to turn around. We were driving through three foot deep snow drifts on a steep, narrow mountain road with sheer cliffs off to the side. We had chains, but didn't need them as we weren't slipping at all, but I decided it just wasn't worth the risk so we turned around at a great lookout point.

Emigrant Pass is covered with snow after a big snowstorm the night before.

On our way to Death Valley, my lovely wife Penelope and I took a detour to check out the Trona Pinnacles. It was raining pretty heavily and the road was a flooded muddy mess. Our trusty FJ Cruiser handled the gooey clay beautifully.

The Trona Pinnacles jut out of the ground behind a river of muddy water in the foreground.

After many many requests I now have prints available for purchase online. You can buy prints of my work here on my PhotoShelter page. I currently have some of my recent galleries up there. I plan to put nearly all my work up in the near future so keep checking back here for updates.

New LA River Photos

Recently a friend of mine took me on a tour of the Los Angeles River. He is working on one of the bridge widening projects and we drove between several of the projects his company is bidding on. Of course we stopped at each bridge along the way:

Click here to see the rest of the Los Angeles River at Dawn photos.

Last night I stood on my balcony in Downtown Los Angeles and saw the Station Fire burning in the hills. I jumped in my car and headed towards JPL. This time instead of robots trying to get out of the sand or high-tech radar systems, I would be photographing fire. A giant fire, making its way down towards NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory:

The Station Fire burns out of control separated by a single ridge above the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

After photographing the fire from below JPL, I decided to head up into the hills to shoot a bit closer to the action.

A firefighter waits for the Station Fire to cross the gully separating it from the home he is protecting.

Click here to see the more Station Fire Photos.

I took these photos the other night from our balcony. We're very happy with the view.

Our short trip to Austin last weekend happened to coincide with the Republic of Texas Biker Rally. I don't own a motorcycle and am not a biker. This didn't prevent me from enjoying some of the great motorcycles on display in Downtown Austin.

Penelope, her brother and his girlfriend hit some bars during the rally. Of course I had my camera with me.

As I mentioned yesterday, I love junk. Last weekend, my wife and I visited her brother in Austin and on our last day there we took a trip to the Cathedral of Junk.

The Cathedral of Junk is basically a giant sculpture in Vince Hanneman's backyard. It's open to the public on most days and entry is free, although donations are accepted. The cathedral is an amalgamation of thousands of random pieces of junk including electronics, bicycles, toys, lamps, bottles and more. It's actually quite beautiful to look at and fun to climb on.

I shot some HDR photos of it using my trusty Canon 5D Mark II and 16-35 f/2.8 L II lens. As usual I combined the +/- 2 EV bracketed shots with Photomatix. The results are after the jump.

Click here to see the "Cathedral of Junk" photos...

If you have an opinion about me embedding the larger sized photos please let me know by leaving a comment. Enjoy!

I love junk. One of my first jobs was working at the world's most amazing junkyard: The Black Hole.

Over the years I have photographed some really cool junkyards including Norton Sales and APEX Electronics. I am always on the lookout for cool places with giant piles of interesting junk. If you happen to know of any particularly cool junkyards let me know in the comments below.

A few weeks ago when I was shooting my June Gloom series in Vernon, I came across a metal recycling yard. On a whim I walked in with my camera and tripod and asked if I could take some photos. As it turned out they were fine with that. I made my way through the giant piles of aluminum, copper and steel scrap and captured the HDR images you'll find after the jump.

Click here to see the "June Gloom Series: Part 6/6: HDR Scrapyard" photos.

One of my favorite perspectives of Downtown Los Angeles is from atop a little hill between the 101 and the 5. I shot one of my most popular photos from that location. A few weeks ago I captured some more photos from that spot on the hill.

It saddens me to think that the 6th street bridge will be demolished someday in the near future. It has cement rot, due to the materials used in its construction. The new bridge won't be the same, but it will still be fun to document the transition.

Click here to see the "June Gloom Series: Part 5/6: 6th Street Bridge Revisited" photos.

The Los Angeles River is not your average waterway. Before it was channelized in the 1940s it frequently changed its path and flooded various parts of the Los Angeles basin during big rains.

Today the LA River hardly looks like a river at all, being completely encased in concrete. It does still attract waterfowl on their migratory paths and water does flow through it throughout the year. That water is about 80% treated sewage when it's not raining. I still find the LA River beautiful with its sloping concrete walls and many bridges and railroad crossings.

A few weeks ago I waded through muck and treated sewage to capture some photos of the endearing Los Angeles River.

Click here to see the "June Gloom Series: Part 4/6: Los Angeles River" photos.