Last weekend Tanya and I traveled on a Colorado adventure [thanks to my amazing American Airlines travel voucher]. We pulled in roughly 850 miles and visited two different National Parks on my ‘to-do’ list, all while suffering from high-altitude sickness and non-sleepage. Our first stop was the Great Sand Dunes National Park, containing North America’s tallest sand dunes. I think their tag line should be ‘the fastest sand carrying winds in North America’ or ‘don’t exfoliate your skin before you come here park’. Enjoy the pics!
About: Great Sand Dunes National Park
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Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve is a United States National Park located in the easternmost parts of Alamosa County and Saguache County, Colorado, United States. Originally designated Great Sand Dunes National Monument, Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve was created by an act of the United States Congress on September 13, 2004. The park contains the tallest sand dunes in North America, rising about 750 feet (230 m) from the floor of the San Luis Valley on the western base of the Sangre de Cristo Range, covering about 19,000 acres. They are likely 12,000 years old.
Aparently this is the only way to get to Great Sand Dunes National Park. Sorry for the awesome audio quality, we were at 8,000 feet and sand dune sand was pelting our face. I’ve never been in a more windy place in my life, with the exception of being in a hurricane.
Last weekend I went and visited the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve as everything has been blooming over here in SoCal. I’ve actually been following their website for the last couple months waiting for the right time to go visit, and now it looks like it’s finally hit a peak for the season. As for the reserve, it’s a pretty amazing place- quite literally the entire hillsides of the area become an bright orange glob of color. You can probably still catch it for the next couple weeks, you should try to get over there as it’s really a remarkable experience.
About: Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve
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The Antelope Valley California Poppy State Reserve is a state-protected reserve land located in the rural westside of the Antelope Valley in northern Los Angeles County, 15 miles west of Lancaster. The reserve is at an elevation ranging from 2600 to 3000 feet above sea level in the Mojave Desert climate zone. The reserve is administered by California State Parks. The reserve’s namesake and protection is based on the state flower, the California poppy. The area is one of the state’s most consistent poppy-bearing lands. Other wildflowers within the reserve include the owl’s clover, lupine, goldfields, cream cups and coreopsis.
So for the last month or so, I’ve been trying to make it a part of my routine to go out and shoot a new place every week. Mostly this is to get me away from editing photos every day, but I’m also to add to my ever growing stock photo library. With this, I’m going to try and get everyone caught up on the last few places I’ve been which have been pretty cool I think.
About: Venice Beach, California
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Venice is a district in west Los Angeles, California, United States. It is best known for its canals and beaches, but it also has a somewhat Bohemian residential area as well as a colorful boardwalk. Venice is today one of the most vibrant and eclectic areas of Southern California and it continues a tradition of progressive social change involving prominent Westsiders.
It feels like I’ve been running up to Pasadena a lot lately to shoot couple’s engagement shots [which isn’t a bad thing, because Pasadena is a gorgeous place]. It’s just starting to get hot in LA, and it’s in the Summer that I really appreciate living down by the beach- it’s just too hot in the valley for my blood. Even still, during the Summer you’ll find me out swimming in between working almost on a daily basis. Anyway, so I found myself in the early Summer heat out shooting Aaron and Melinda’s engagement shots whom Tanya and I met over by the Playhouse 7 theaters as they’re big movie buffs. We also stopped over at Caltech, which is a great scenic campus in the area with a really nice mix of architecture.
Last weekend Tanya and I got together and shot some photos with Karen and Dan from Pasadena. They wanted some beach shots, so we met down by the beach and got some nice engagement photos.
Starting April 8th there’s going to be a special iTunes pre-release of the Weepies new album ‘Hideaway‘! If you haven’t heard ‘Say I am You‘, it’s really a must listen if you like folky stuff- probably on my top fav. 3 albums.
Here’s the details on the new album:
We are thrilled to announce The Weepies latest album, Hideaway, will be in stores everywhere on April 22nd, 2008! An exclusive iTunes pre-order is set to launch on April 8th and will feature a bonus download of “Hideaway” acoustic. This special version of “Hideaway” will only be available through iTunes for a limited time and will not be available for purchase after April 22nd. The album features 14 original tracks of beautifully crafted tracks complement with the perfect vocal contradiction of Deb and Steve’s. More details to come!
You can also hear some samples of the new album on their myspace page.
Our poor little cocker spaniel Riley has had a tough last couple weeks, he had a reoccurring problem common to cocker’s called Cherry Eye. I’ll spare you the details, but for the brave ones click here- You’ve been warned, its gross. He has since had great successful surgery, but now his leg is all busted up, we’re thinking from playing a little too much rough ball catch. Here is a nice little slide show so you can see how funny he looks with his cone hat.
Every once in awhile I’ll go back and kind of overhaul my sites, and this weekend it was my photo site’s turn. I went and added some new photos [mostly to the headshot section, the rest is later] and cleaned everything else up. It’s also the last site to be moved over from Dreamhost to Media Temple, which I’m pretty pleased I did rather seamlessly. I’m pretty happy with the new update and it’s work a look if you’re pretty bored or at work, or both.
A couple weeks ago I went and shot an engagement session for a great couple Rachelle and AJ. They’re going to be getting married this
July and wanted to get some fun beach shots for their engagement. I’m going to try this whole slideshow thing, lets see how it goes…
I was very pleased to finally pick up the ‘Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea‘ documentary this past weekend- which I must say is completely fantastic. If you know me, you know one of my favorite trips is my once a year trip to the sea where I think I’ve taken some of my best photos. If you’ve never been, or you’ve been and want to learn more/relive the amazingness you should really pick up this disc. You can get it on Amazon, or support the filmmaker and buy it direct.
I’ve been trying to continue my little Los Angeles project whenever I can, and the most recent shoot I did was over in the Venice Beach Canals which is a great little side away from the crazy beach scene over there.
About: Venice Beach, California
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Venice is a district in west Los Angeles, California, United States. It is best known for its canals and beaches, but it also has a somewhat Bohemian residential area as well as a colorful boardwalk. Venice is today one of the most vibrant and eclectic areas of Southern California and it continues a tradition of progressive social change involving prominent Westsiders.
I thought this was pretty funny- Someone decided to use one of my Paris Photos [with credit, thankyou] as a background for their Paris clothing style thing. Actually I’m not quite sure really what it is, but it’s pretty amusing.
Thanks to my beautiful $300 free travel voucher from American Airlines, I’m going to Denver in May and am going to hit up some National Parks that I haven’t been to yet…mainly Rocky Mountain National Park and maybe Black Canyon of the Gunnison down south.
For more information on how to get bumped from flights and get free vouchers, check this out.
