Story time

/

Story time!  In July of 2011, I was living in Hermosa Beach, California.  My parents flew out to visit me for a few days, and I used their visit as a good excuse to go see a part of California that I hadn't seen before.  We headed up to Big Bear Lake, which is where many people from the Los Angeles area go skiing and snowboarding, but I had heard it was beautiful at any time of year, and I figured it was a pretty drive to get there.  I was right. We had a good day, saw a lot of things, and near the end of the day, we were all tired.  We checked in to the Motel 6 I had booked for us, and my parents wanted to lay down to take a nap.  That sounded pretty good at that point! I almost took a nap as well, but I made a last minute decision to take a walk before it got dark out, with camera and tripod in tow.  I found a boardwalk along the Stanfield Marsh, and checked out the beautiful sunset.  I had lined up my camera to take a photo of just the marsh and the mountains, and suddenly I decided to change my angle to include the boardwalk itself.  The ensuing photo came out great, and I was very excited about it.  I posted it on Facebook and my website and received a good reaction.  Time went by and one day I heard from a woman named Sierra who worked at the Big Bear Lake water department.  She had found the photo online, and she asked me if she could use it on their website.  I said yes, and they put it up.  It still can be seen to this day at http://www.bbldwp.com/ She also signed up for my email list, and bought some prints of other photos from me as well.  We chatted a bit online, and she seemed like an interesting person to know.

A couple of years later, a woman named Kim, who works at a real estate office in Big Bear Lake contacted me, and she wanted a large canvas print for one of their offices.   While I usually have prints shipped from my printing company to me first so that I can approve and sign them, based on their budget, that became cost prohibitive, so I had the print shipped directly to their office.

Today I returned to Big Bear Lake for the first time since that day in 2011.  First, I tracked down Kim to meet her in person, and headed to the office where the print was hanging and snapped this photo of it.  I also had dropped Sierra a line, and we met up for lunch.  We had a really interesting conversation, ranging from my past travels, to my future travels, to her life, and to the drought that Southern California is experiencing.  I had talked about how I often stay with various people at their houses on my trip, and she even invited me to stay with her and her husband some day when I'm passing through the area again.

I really enjoyed the afternoon, even though I should have planned to have more time there.  I look forward to spending more time in that area some day, whether it be a few weeks, a few months, or a few years from now.

It's funny how that one photo led to me having new friends in this random little town in California.  And it never would have happened if I had decided to take that nap!  I'm not sure what the moral of this story is, but it never ceases to amaze me how such seemingly minor decisions can change my life.

1-6

 

Big Bear Lake Area

/

Off Holcomb Valley Road, Big Bear Lake, California Today I met a woman named Sierra in person, who has been a professional contact in Big Bear Lake, California for about 4 years, but only over the internet.  We had a good chat over coffee and lunch, and she recommended that I check out Holcomb Valley Road.  It's a dirt road.  That's awesome to begin with.  Then, there's this old mine, and I like how the newer road and town and mountains can all be seen.  I haven't been this interested in an overall scene in a while, even if the photo isn't the most patently beautiful.  I guess it would be better if the field in the top right section of the photo was still a marsh, but I think that whether or not I get a good photo is not really an important effect of the ongoing drought in Southern California compared to what those living here are dealing with.

1-5

A piece of home in California

/

A while back, when I was posting on Facebook looking for people to host me throughout my travels, a woman named Terrie invited me to stay at her house in the city of Brea, in Orange County in California.  I got in touch with her again a few weeks ago to take her up on her offer, and last night I arrived. We were chatting, and I asked her if she remembered how she originally discovered my Facebook page and my photography.  I was assuming it would be from the year I spent in Hermosa Beach, California, or maybe when I spent several months in San Diego.  But no...she said it was when I was posting photos of Mohonk. For those of you who don't know what Mohonk is, it's a mountain with a beautiful old hotel, lake, and hiking trails in Ulster County in New York, just a few miles from where I grew up, and where I call home again.  I was very surprised, and asked her where she is from.  It turns out she grew up in a county across the river...Dutchess County.  So we had some fun talking about that.  And look, she even has Hudson Valley coffee mugs.

It never ceases to amaze me how many of my travel experiences and the people that I meet can be traced back to the photos I've shot in the Hudson Valley, and the way that the word has spread from there.

How cool is that??

1-7

Crystal Lake

/

While wandering around the Angeles National Forest in my Jeep, I saw signs for Crystal Lake.  I got excited.  Just the name conjured up beautiful images in my head.  I drove high up into the mountains, parked, headed up the trail to the lake, and this is what I found.  And that is the moment when I remembered that Southern California has been gripped by a massive drought for a few years.  I haven't decided yet whether I want to google it and see what it used to look like.  I probably will. 1

Somewhere overlooking the Pacific Ocean

/

I took a drive up the coast for a few miles starting in Santa Monica, California.  I took a random turn up the hill, and wandered around a neighborhood a bit.  I walked up a strange outdoor staircase to nowhere, and took this photo.  I think it was probably Pacific Palisades that I was in.  I am pretty sure I wasn't as far up as Malibu.  This is one of those shots that I don't imagine anyone would ever want as a print, but hopefully you find it interesting! 1

Walnut Canyon National Monument

/

Walnut Canyon National Monument On the way out of Flagstaff, Arizona, heading to the Meteor Crater, my friend and I saw a sign for Walnut Canyon National Monument.  It was not in our plans at all, and the sign was the first we had heard of it, but the word plans isn't really accurate for that day any way.  We were winging it.  I told her that I thought maybe I had been there in 1987 when I was 8 years old, and that I thought it had cliff dwellings.  She quickly looked it up on her phone, and it indeed had cliff dwellings, so we got excited and went.  When we got there, we found out that the trail that goes past the cliff dwellings directly was closed for renovations.  We got disappointed for a few minutes, then laughed at ourselves and realized it was like a Louis CK bit where he talks about how quickly the world owes someone who only knew something existed 30 seconds ago.   So we walked the rim trail, and I shot some pics, including this one, where you should be able to see a pathway going past the cliff dwellings.  It would have been neat to get closer, but it was still neat to see all the same.

 

1-3