Train Tracks

Near Mojave:

Cosmopolitan

Not a bad drink, and pretty popular from the looks of it (although it seems it's even more popular in England).

Dizzy

These three were actually mistakes, and I was about to delete them because they're out of focus, the camera shook, some leaves got in the way in the bottom pic, and other bad stuff. But the more I looked at them, the more interesting they became. Maybe it's just the colors, the brassy glints of sun against the backdrop of the verdant hillside, the juxtaposition of warm and cool, or something. Who knows. Whatever. It doesn't matter. Hopefully someone else will also find these interesting.

Wide Open Spaces

In the Nevada Desert, on Highway 50:














And in the Mojave Desert:

Tool of the Trade

A couple of readers have asked what kind of camera I've been using for these shots. It's a Canon Powershot S1-IS digital. Probably its coolest feature is the Image Stabalization (hence the "IS" in its name), which comes in handy to make pictures clearer. But if you're on a rickety tour bus barreling down a bumpy road trying to take pictures of buffalo on the roadside, you might as well wait for the bus to stop. Still, it's a nice feature to have. There's more info about this camera here, which is where I looked when I was shopping around for a new camera, and you can also look here, and here.

6 p.m.

... Near Mojave:

Further to the South

My friend Stan took this stunning pic of the sunrise in Cancun during his recent trip down there. It seems to fit right in with some of the other pics here, so I got his permission to post it.

Sundrenched

About 2 1/2 hours north of L.A.:

Catalina Island, Part 4

We took one of the tours up into the hills along a bumpy road that twists up the island, overlooking the channel. Lots of nice views.






















































Buffalo roam free up in the hills on the island. (By the way, a number of places on the island serve buffalo burgers-- just a bit tougher and dryer than beef, but tasty enough to make a good meal.)













Just west of Avalon, beyond the casino, is a "private/public" beach, which really just means that you pay two bucks to get into the cove, plus there's food, a bar (Coronas, margaritas, etc.), music, kayak rentals, all that cool stuff.













After about fifteen tries, I finally caught one of these in the frame:













Nightime in Avalon Bay:

Catalina Island, Part 3

Some odds and ends here from Avalon. Here's where we stayed:














This is not where we stayed, but the building looked cool anyway:














A pizza place across the street from the hotel, and how it looks from the inside:




























A brave seagull stands guard over the Snug Harbor Inn (not where we stayed either, but it looked like it would make a good pic):














Another gull posing:














Yet another:

Catalina Island, Part 2

Some pics of Avalon Bay, mid-morning. Gotta love that glimmer of sunlight on the water! The last pic was taken in mid-afternoon, when the light seems a little more pic-friendly and the colors seem cleaner, more pronounced.

Catalina Island

Just got back in town from a four-day trip to Catalina Island. I'm posting just a couple of pictures here; I'll post more in the coming days. The weather was great, although since the mornings were foggy, there weren't really too many good photo-ops for early morning sunrise pics. Still, there were plenty of photo-ops for nice daytime pics.

Guitars

An Ibanez...














And a Cordoba...

A nice place to be

The woman who owns this house saw this pic and asked me how I decide whether to take a photograph in black and white or in color. Not really knowing anything about photography, I just said that if it's some kind of subject matter that seems moody or mysterious somehow, it might make a good black and white photograph. Maybe sometimes color is irrelevant to the mood. I guess. I don't really know. Maybe that's what I thought when I took this photo. This happens to be her favorite part of her house. This is where she'll sit on a Saturday morning, sipping a cup of coffee, reading the Travel section of the paper, staring out the doorway, watching the water in her pool. For her, this means no noise, no arguments, no screaming, no drama, no problems. Just calm and quiet. Must be a nice place to be.