On The Road

We are getting some entries for Springtime in Paris, and multiple people have asked, so we are extending “Paris” to include all of France.

🌼And now back to Joshua Tree with BillinGlendaleCA!

🐾BillinGlendaleCA

Most of my trips to Joshua Tree have been at night, so I’ve wanted to see parts of the park during the daylight (and get some IR shots). I also wanted to get some early season Milky Way shots which are pretty early in the morning, so I’ve looked at the best place for sunrise in Joshua Tree. Most of the suggestions centered around the Cholla Cactus Garden in the Pinto Basin portion of the park.

The Pinto Basin is in the southeastern portion of the park and the ecosystem is quite different from what you find to the northeast (no Joshua Trees). So I traveled down the road from Belle Campground where I was shooting my night shots to the Cholla Cactus Garden. It’s a several acre collection of Cholla Cactus, as the name would suggest, and tried to find a good location for the sunrise. I settled on one cactus and positioned it between my camera and the rising sun.

Cholla Cactus Garden, Joshua Tree National Park, CAMarch 22, 2021

I arrived during blue hour.

On The Road – 🐾BillinGlendaleCA – Joshua Tree SunrisePost + Comments (18)

p.a.

Follow-up on an OtR post by ? a while back.  Since the public is no longer allowed to climb the pyramids I’m sending along a few photos taken in the mid-1990s; basic scans of 4×6 prints and multiple compressed email transfers, so sorry abt the quality, but gives a sense of the place.  Hope they all ‘travel’ well.  I had real issues getting a few to transfer digitally with anywhere near the quality of the prints; like trying to over-enlarge small files.

IIRC Olympus OM-1n, 50mm 1.8, probably Kodak 400.

Pyramid.  There was a large chain set down the middle of the stairs.  Didn’t need it on the way up, but very helpful going down: the stairs are very steep.  Many went down backwards, facing the stairs holding the chain.

On The Road – p.a. – Chichen Itza addendumPost + Comments (25)

When we pressed pause on After Dark a few weeks ago, I suggested that we might do a special Springtime in Paris series in After Dark if there was interest.   Only 5 Paris submissions have come in so far, and I’m wondering whether that indicates lack of interest or if it’s just that you haven’t sent yours in yet.  Let me know in the comments?

On the Road: Week of March 29  (5 am)
Albatrossity – Brazil 2011
p.a. – Chichen Itza addendum
🐾BillinGlendaleCA – Joshua Tree Sunrise
UncleEbeneezer – SE Asia Valentines (Part 3): Notre Dame/Saigon Post Office
Tom V – Death Valley: Mesquite Flats Sand Dunes at Dawn

🌺  And now, another treat with Albatrossity taking us back to Brazil!  

Albatrossity

My second trip to Brazil, in 2011, was also with a Study Abroad class, and this time the class included my youngest daughter. No worries about conflicts of interest, though; I am not an instructor for these classes, so I didn’t have to assign her a grade.

As was the case in 2010, we went to Manaus and the Ariaú Amazon Towers lodge. Since you have already seen the sights of Manaus in last week’s post, this week will be all birds! Next week the saga continues, as we headed to the mouth of the Amazon (Belem and the island of Marajó), and that one won’t be all birds. But maybe there will be a few…

AriaúMay 20, 2011

South America, and the Amazon in particular, is a great place to see woodpeckers, ranging in size from birds the size of our Pileated Woodpecker to the diminutive piculets, one of which, the Bar-breasted Piculet, is the smallest known woodpecker, weighing in at 7 grams, or only about twice as much as a Ruby-throated Hummingbird. They are a challenge to photograph, since they like to spend their time on the other side of the tree. Here’s one of the big ones, a female Lineated Woodpecker (Dryocopus lineatus, or Pica-pau-de-banda-branca).

On The Road – Albatrossity – Brazil 2011, part 1Post + Comments (11)

Mike in Oly

With our wet climate in western Washington State we have plenty of waterfalls just about everywhere you go. Here are some I have photographed over the years that I think are really beautiful.

Olympia

Chenuis falls, Mt. Rainier Nat. Park.  This is one of my favorites, but it is a pain to get to. It’s four miles into a trail and requires crossing a river, so only accessible in summer when the water flow is lower. But it is such a beautiful, peaceful spot. The falls come down a smooth rock slope into a shallow pool that is perfect for swimming (if you can take the cold mountain water). It is entirely shaded over and makes a wonderful respite after the hike in.

On The Road – Mike in Oly – Waterfalls of Western WashingtonPost + Comments (22)

Steve from Mendocino

This set is all in the spirit of Brett Weston. Brett was one of four sons of Edward Weston. He and his brother Cole were both excellent photographers, but Brett stood out, and I’ve admired his work since the late 60’s. I bought a portfolio of 10 8X10 contact prints through Brett’s next door neighbor for $120 the set in a fancy portfolio. They currently hang on my office wall as inspiration.

I won’t title or comment on any of these since the content is easily identifiable with the exception of the third photo from the last, which is a stack of rusted steel plates.

Link to the first in this set, which was published in October.

On The Road – Steve from Mendocino – Shape Studies in Black and White 2 of 2Post + Comments (16)

🐾BillinGlendaleCA

Nikki the Cocker Spaniel was off at the doggie day spa so I took the opportunity to visit Brand Park and hike up the Brand Family Cemetery. I started off at the library, getting some shots of the front as well as looking out from a passageway on the right side of the library.

On my way over to the Japanese Garden/Gazebo/Doctor’s House, I passed the Lady of the Green Cross monument that dates back 100 years to a movement to preserve forest lands. The Japanese Garden was not open, so I shot photos of it, the gazebo and the Doctor’s House though the fence.

From there, the hike to the cemetery involves climbing a hill next to a debris dam. Debris dams are the first part of Southern California’s flood control. They trap, as the name implies, debris like boulders, trees and sediment that would otherwise clog up the flood control system downstream. These basins don’t contain much water at anytime during the year and the debris that they trap are cleaned out during the dry season.

On the way up to the crest of the dam, I spotted a California Quail walking along the side of the road. At the upstream end of the debris basin the road forks, to the right it continues up the Brand Motorway to the top of the Verdugo Mountains, to the left a wide trail heads to the Brand Family Cemetery narrowing to a one track trail heading up the canyon.

Brand Park, Glendale, CAMarch 5, 2021

The Brand Library was Leslie Brand’s home and was donated to the City after his death becoming a library.

On The Road – 🐾BillinGlendaleCA – The Brand Family Cemetery (IRChrome)Post + Comments (13)