Missoula, Montana

                                                                                         String Lights and Tent Top - Portland

In Missoula today - Post Falls, Idaho tomorrow.

This morning I went out for a drive but mostly wandered around aimlessly. Was searching for a carousel I found on the internet with no luck. Great clouds today but very little light for the most part - and did I mention the light drizzle....one of those days when nothing happens.....

While tooling around Oregon last week my friend David and I had a conversation about photographing a brick wall - seems like this is, at best, a difficult image to make...something he carried with him from his RISD days. Today a few versions of a brick wall...

Off to Post Falls, Idaho tomorrow.

Bend, Oregon

 Back to work yesterday in Bend, Oregon.

Bend is a really great town - very green and the downtown area has only one chain store, Starbucks - everything else is local except of course the banks....Feels much like a college town but is mostly a tourist location good recreational facilities (skiing - hiking). Depending on your budget I would highly recommend the Oxford Hotel, a small new hotel in the downtown area.

Still playing around with ways to use the 5MP resolution in the new iphone. Last night I made a few captures of the live show for the "postcards" series. Worked them with a few difffernet applications and managed to create a good starting point...

Off to Portland today - looking forward to next week in Missoula (home of Photographers Formulary) and Post Falls, Idaho.  

Bend, Oregon

Great drive yesterday over Mount Hood to Bend. Cold and rainy at the peak - warm, blue sky, great clouds on the south side....made a few images, had a root beer float at the Tasty Freeze...did not have my hand between Diane's knees.....

Image today is from the drive along the Oregon Coast. The IPhone application keep getting better and better...more blend modes and layers are appearing in many of the newer applications. Personally I like the 5MP resolution - hopefully it remains at that level....

Oregon

 

                                                                                                                        Sunset - Eureka, California

'When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.', 'The clearest way into the Universe' .........John Muir

My photographer buddy, David Reinfeld, met me in San Francisco and we headed up to Eureka, California.

                                                                                               Fern Canyon - Mystical Tree

Once we arrived in Eureka we rented a car and headed off to Fern Canyon and the Redwood National  Park located about 50 miles north on route 101. The 'Mystical Tree' image above is from Fern Canyon, and, of course, the Redwoods were amazing. Some of these trees are 280 feet tall and 30-40 around the trunk. One can only stare in amazement at what nature has created and standing amongst these trees is a cathartic experience. On a political note maybe a few of our Washington buddies need to take this trip - might change the way they think of our planet and what really needs to be done - but enough politics....

                                                                                                                  Neon Sign - Klamath, Oregon

After Eureka we headed up to Portland and the Oregon Coastline. My daughter Emiie joined us in Portland for the trip down the coast...

And, of course, the Oregon Coast lived up to the hype. First thing you notice is the access available to get to the various parks, beaches and ocean. The other oddity I noticed was that there are small drive through coffee places all along the coast - fabulous idea.

We headed out early and drove to Astoria located about 90 miles northwest of Portland. Astoria has been around since 1810 and is located just across the Columbia River from Washington State.After astroria it was south on the 101 to get to the '3 Cape Drive' which takes you through Cape Mears, Cape Lookout and Cape Kiwanda. At Cape Kiwanda we drove out on to the beach, parked and wandered around taking photographs. My guess is one needs at least 10 days to properly explore the coast of Oregon - need to stay out on the coast and catch the changing light all day - way to much for a 24 hour period.....

All in all a great trip and the local knowledge picked up along the way will help next time around.

Off to Bend, Oregon today......

San Francisco

'There are places I'll remember
All my life, though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All this places have their moments
With lovers and friends I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life, I've loved them all'

Lennon - McCartney...........

Just spent two hectic days shooting in and around San Francisco.

Always like being back in San Francisco. I was dis-charged from the military in SF circa 1964 and the path of my life changed. Two friends from high school who had relocated to San Francisco met me and showed me around the city - complete with the local fare of the time. The actual moment that I decided not to leave happened on the drive down Lombard Street, arguably one of the most popular winding roads there is.

On Saturday I started off downtown on Bryant Street then on the Sausalito to have a look back at the Golden Gate Bridge. Went to San Rafael and had lunch with my buddy Rob Bleetstein who runs Pearl Jam radio then drove up to Point Reyes where I stayed until sunset....

Sunday was spent on route 1 south of Half Moon Bay - mostly near Pescadaro. There is a good deal of beach access and rock formations that are somewhat prehistoric looking...mostly I like what the Pacific Ocean has done to the smoothness and tonal value of the rocks.

Passed by allot of places and landmarks that made me think back to the 60's in Sn Francisco. Not much has changed around here - yes the landscape is different but there is that underlying San Francisco feeling that was and still exists.

Just arrived by bus into Eureka, California for a day in the Redwood Forest....

Las Vegas

 
Found this one this morning just after sunset in Las Vegas - off to Ontario today then up to San Francisco on Friday...

More Iceland

Last day in Los Angeles today - off to Vegas at Noon.

On Friday heading north to San Francisco for a couple of days - looking forward to exploring the coast starting at Half Moon Bay down to Pescadaro. After San Francisco it is off to Oregon - first time getting to explore the coastline.......have been told that most of the Oregon coast is easily accessible.......

Looking for ideas of where to shoot in Oregon......

Iceland

Santa Monica Pier

 

Was able to work on a high resolution of the Santa Monica Pier this morning.

Santa Monica

Up early this morning and captured both IPhone and high resolution images of the Santa Monica Pier. Having a love affair with the new IPhone - loving the resolution. 

Today's Postcard is very different from any of the past images; one of which is posted below. 

Still have a few more days out here - need to get to the sunset over the pier.....

Iceland Postcard

 Downtime today in Los Angeles and going out to the Santa Monica Pier for Sunset tonight.

Very much liking the 'Postcards from the Road' idea so I went back into the Iceland archive and re-processed and image for today's postcard.

I am experimenting a bit with post-processing outside of the phone in various Photoshop CS5 software - the trick is to maintain the IPhone look without over-processing.  What I am liking is being able to get those rich blacks that add a bit of mystery to the image and still maintain a good amount of detail.

Have a great weekend....

IPhone Postcards from the Road

                                                                                                                                   
Have been out on the road since last Saturday and have done nothing but shoot with my IPhone - just been too busy to do anything else. Recently a number of my favorite iphone applications were updated so in a way this has been a test run.The main upgrade has been to resolution - as the IPhone 4was degrading resolution in some of the older applications that were designed for the 3G and 3Gs......

So far I have been to Lincoln, Nebraska - Billings, Montana - Casper, Wyoming and today arrived in Los Angeles. The hotel in Los Angeles is very near the Santa Monica Pier which is one of my favorite locations in Los Angeles. Needless to say expect a few images from the Pier over the next few days.

The image in the header is one from Bucks County, Pennsylvania......

Lincoln, Nebraska

Good Morning Lincoln, Nebraska

No Left Turn Unstoned

 "The answer is never the answer. What's really interesting is the mystery......Ken Kesey

I went to LaGuardia airport this morning at 5AM to catch the 7AM to Kansas City only to find out that the flight had been canceled. This is meaningful with regard to today's image in that if my flight had gone I would not have had time to process this morning.

So I get back home and get an email from Karen Tate, a wonderful Bucks County photographer acquaintance. Karen had posted a comment about one of my IPhone images which triggered me looking for the image above which was shot in Iceland.

Somehow this all led me to think about the blog title quote.  Then I started thinking about Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters which in turn led me to the idea for today's blog. 

How this all fits together is beyond me but somehow isn't that the beauty of it all....

Off to Lincoln and points West later today.....

'I've never seen anybody really find the answer—they think they have, so they stop thinking'....Ken Kesey

Iceland Panoramic

I am leaving on Sunday for a short musical tour of minor league ballparks out in western USA....places like Billings, Casper, Lincoln and points west ending up in the Yakima, Washington on September 4.

Needless to say I will have my camera gear with me, and, who knows, maybe I get a few hours in one of the many National Parks in that part of the world - some of my favorite places to capture images.

But for today this panoramic image is another from the Iceland Trip.  Pretty neat how those clouds seem to have found a home over the three separate mountains. My guess - and this is completely unsubstantiated - is that these are dormant volcanoes and there is some sort atmospheric anomaly that causes these clouds to sit like they are.

Anyone got an idea?