Pt. Loma 5.14.10

Thursday, the 13th, 200 or so photographers from across the continent started arriving in San Diego for a photography weekend sponsored by the company I work for. This gave us all a chance to rub elbows with, take photos with, and listen to world famous photographers give advice and talk about their work. More information is at: niksummit.com.

Early, if not bright, Friday morning we boarded buses to Pt. Loma and the Cabrillo Monument. The day started out overcast and hazy so I pointed my relatively little lens at things other than the views of downtown San Diego, which are normally amazing.

Grandma: 1912 - 2010

All stories from my mother’s childhood center around the house on Eagle Street. The house was just outside of town in the early 40s when my grandfather, a carpenter (died a few months before I before I was born), rescued it from its former life as a public tavern (with small rooms in the basement where a gentlemen could pay for the company of a lady), and turned it into a single family home. After the GIs came home and re-visited old haunts, the family was woken up late in the night frequently enough that my grandmother would just leave the butcher knife out on the large kitchen table, the better to run them off. It was sort of a reverse Three Little Pigs: after huffing and puffing and blowing the door down, they got run out by Mama Bear.

Several years after my grandfather died my grandmother, with her youngest daughter still at home, moved into a 1st floor flat of a 2-story house, where all the family gatherings of my childhood took place. She and all of her daughters (5), including my mother, had well-trained voices. She also played the organ very well and had one in her front room that we’d gather around and have sing-a-longs. I remember watching her with both hands and both feet going full blast, in walks one of my older cousins (brother?) with a girlfriend. She yells, “Hi, I’m Grandma” and goes back to the song without missing a beat.

The picture above was from a trip home in 2006 where Mom and I took a break from Thanksgiving with my brothers and went to see her. She was happy and alert, just a little hard of hearing. She mentioned dreaming about my grandfather every night. She had only occasionally mentioned him over the years, saying how proud he’d be of his family.

My mother’s voice was understandably a little shaky when she left me the message last night that Grandma had passed. But I’m finding it hard to be too sad. She missed her husband for over 47 years and now she’s back in his arms.

Night Time Skyline

Heading Out

Reflecting the Setting Sun

For this picture, and the previous one below, I used our black & white program, which is so much fun to work with, to add a burnt edge, a color filter, and toning. Then, back in Photoshop, I changed the blending mode from Normal to Luminosity to blend the effects into a color image with unique lighting.

Yacht Club

Cruise Ship

I learned an important detail today about how to use our sharpening software. It makes me want to go back and redo every photo I've done for the past 6 months, which I'll try to resist. But it does make the details pop ever so nicely.

Downtown San Diego from Shelter Island

I love the contrast of small sail boats and larger military ships.

Maidenhair Falls

As the trail continued to climb up to 900 ft above the desert floor, the canyon got narrower and the boulders got bigger until we're climbing over these minivan size behemoths. The trail also started to weave back and forth across a tiny trickle of a stream and a few palm trees appeared. Finally, after going further than we ever planned on a trail way more rugged than we were ready for, we sprawled on the broad, flat top of one of those boulders to rest before heading back down.

I knew there was something special at the very top of the trail and I didn't think we were very far from it, so I told Steve and Jeff to enjoy the sunshine and I'd be back in half an hour. After hiking exactly 15 minutes up the trail and crossing more and more water I came to Maidenhair Falls.

At 18 feet and little more than a trickle most of the year, Niagara it's not. But after hiking in the desert for a couple hours, coming to this cool, shady place with the sound of falling water and a cool clear pool to soak your feet in, it may be better.

The first thing I did? Pulled out my cell phone, of course!

Steve and Jeff, back down the trail, exhausted on the rock, wondering 'what did he get us into?' Hearing the phone ring. Thinking there wouldn't be any signal out there. Dammit!

I think they enjoyed the falls. It certainly was a memorable trip. We'll see what they say next time I suggest an outing.

Steve let me use these shots he took with his camera. He got lots of excellent photos with his amazing little Canon point-and-shoot.

Hellhole Canyon

After walking around the Anza-Borrego Desert Visitors Center we drove a couple of miles to Hellhole Canyon. The trail starts out in a wide desert meadow meandering by ocotillo and teddy bear cholla, then rising gently between steep ridges. The beginning of the hike was pleasant if not pretty. Not many flowers were blooming near the start. But as we started feeling the exertion of the constant rise, we noticed the higher we went the more blooms we saw, until we're looking around in amazement thinking this may be the most color we've seen in the desert.

More from our Picnic in Anza-Borrego

Anza-Borrego Desert 3/27

Saturday morning I filled half a dozen water bottles with ice and water and then loaded them into the car; along with hiking boots, a jacket, a couple of hats, and a camera. After stopping for gas and air I headed east on the 8 to La Mesa to pick up Steve and Jeff. They brought along a picnic lunch, snacks, and more water. Back in the car we continued east on the 8, then north on the 79, pausing to put the top down to enjoy the bright, sunny, scenic drive. We made a pit stop at Lake Cuyamaca, which had the most water in it we'd seen, and a brief stop in Julian to buy an apple pie. Once we got to the Visitors Center in Borrego Springs we found a nice shady spot and enjoyed Steve's wonderful ham & cheese sandwiches and homemade potato salad.

More pictures and details of our adventures coming soon!

Meerkat

Caterpillar

Lilies

Arranged by Andreas Loeffler.

After Sunset

Julian

Morning Light

Spider Web

Jennifer

This weekend Jennifer came from Chicago to escape winter and catch up with friends. So Friday night I headed downtown to the Gaslamp District to hang out with her and a bunch of other people I haven't seen much of since I worked at the architecture firm. We had so much fun and it was great seeing everybody.

Avatar

Sunday morning I left the house at 11 and walked 1 block to Starbucks and picked up a coffee, a frapacino, and an iced green tea. A few minutes later Heriberto and Skip pulled up in Heri’s car. I handed in the drinks, jumped in the back, and off we zoomed to the Santa Fe Depot downtown (although we had to steer Heriberto passed the airport; he kept thinking we were flying and started to turn at Laurel). They just started boarding Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner as we walked up so we got on and found seats on the ocean side. Before we knew it we were gliding smoothly, quietly, quickly through downtown past the airport, Mission Bay, La Jolla; heading towards Irvine and the giant IMAX movie theater at the Irvine Spectrum Mall to see Avatar in 3D.

A word to the wise: do not travel with us if you’re super cool and will be embarrassed by 3 goof balls acting like teenage tourists taking pictures of each other and carrying on at every amazing sight along the way. We’ll understand if you spend most of the trip in the café car.

The train ride is truly beautiful, going right along the beach in many places. And it’s fun to see familiar sights from a different perspective and notice things you miss from the car.

Getting off the train in Irvine.