Cloudscapes II: Higher Ground

On New Year's Day, 2009, I camped with some friends at the Pendola Hot Springs in Los Padres National Forest, just NE of Santa Barbara. After half of the group left the next morning, the rest of us headed back up the mountain for cell phone reception to see if we could stay an extra day... and this is what greeted us! The last 2 images are actually from the next day when we reached the same peak on our way home.

I can't begin to express the significance of this trip, both at the time it occurred and the several months since. I'm just grateful for the ability and opportunity to capture a visual reminder of such a pivotal time in my life.

Cloudscapes I: Beware the Storm

On December 26th, 2008, I hesitantly opted for a solo photo excursion to the Lake Mead Recreation Area about an hour or so East of Las Vegas, rather than join in a group over-nighter in Death Valley with some of my family. The previous few months back in my home of Santa Barbara had been particularly tumultuous and exhausting, and it had occurred to me that perhaps it could be beneficial to revisit some cobweb-covered tendencies and habits - namely, the tendency to get in the car by myself without much more than a direction in mind and the habit of keeping multiple film cameras within reach...

So I turned left at the fork and chased the barometric trouble brewing in the distance. Little did I know how symbolic and comforting these 2 days and the resulting images would become.