Took a quick trip up to the Bay Area to see family and spent a really fun few hours at a park in Walnut Creek. The following weekend we had summer-like weather in LA for the first time in a long time and took advantage of it by pumping out the boat and grabbing a mooring ball for the afternoon.

Since my last post I traded in my car and bought a certified (used) VW wagon. I was excited about it, but just as quickly as I was soaking up the sun in my roof-length sunroof, the car was back at the dealership to get repairs due to the leaky glass roof. I still don’t have it back and it’s been over month. More on that, and pictures (hopefully) when I (hopefully) get it back (hopefully) this week (hopefully) (They’ve told me it’ll be ready “tomorrow” almost every day).

Anyway, when I did have that car on the one Friday it was in my possession,(yes I’m bitter) I found a little park in Palos Verdes that had interesting high-altitude views of the Southbay and Downtown LA. Perfect for sunset.

The following weekend Mia’s sister visited us and we drove around PV again, looked for whales migrating, checked out a really cool community, and I found more chances to take photos.

After having a rental car for almost two weeks, the dealership finally let me use a loaner car, a brand new VW Tiguan, not my fault I was already trying to plan a quick overnight 200 miles away. So I slept in the loaner car out on the dirt trails of Alabama Hills. This area is off of highway 395, near Lone Pine. Basically between Sequoia National Park and Death Valley, with crazy boulder formations and awesome views of Mount Whitney and the surrounding eastern Sierra Nevada mountains.

Guess what the loaner car has - The same huge glass roof that has leak problems keeping my car in the shop - also I learned that it doesn’t insulate the car well from outside temperatures. Those temps went into mid-30s at night and I nearly froze, but it was worth it for the sunrise photos. I was basically gone from 7pm Friday to 1pm Saturday, not bad to a quick getaway.

Winter is in full swing which means that the boat has felt extra small and stuffy during the storms. Everything on the boat gets closed up, the hatches have old blankets on them to dampen the sound of rain drops falling down from the spreaders and tink-tink-tinking on the hatches, anything left outside in the cockpit has the potential to become a flying object in wind gusts… it’s been exciting.

For a quick summary of the last few weeks: I got to travel to Denver for 4 days for work, the temperature ranged from about 10F when I arrived to 55F on the warmer afternoons. Being in a snowy city is fun for a few days just because it’s a different environment, but I have even more respect for people who tough it out day-to-day in cold and dreary climates. You’ll see in the photos, but the weekend before that trip we had the boat out on a mooring and were enjoying a warm January day. After the Denver trip, I was back home in Redondo for my old roommates surprise engagement party - always great to get a big group of friends back together and seeing their families as well. Also, there was a blood moon eclipse which I made attempts at photographing, and learning just how fast the moon is moving when zoomed in and trying to photograph it. Then we had a slow day at home, kept inside most of the day because of passing weather. Mia and I agreed we had to get fresh air so we walked over tot he Redondo harbor and had a couple drinks in the shelter of a brewery tasting room and a restaurant.

The holidays this year involved just the right amount of busy and mellow. Mia and I went up to San Luis Obispo a few days before Christmas and hung out, drove up to the Bay Area to celebrate a second Christmas with my family and got to stay a couple days, then back to slo and onward to stop off at the boat for a night. Then back in the car seat for a New Years Eve Joshua Tree trip with friends.

I’m feeling the pictures are better than my write-ups, so I hope you enjoy the slideshow below. Some highlights were a trip to the Pismo Beach Butterfly Grove at sunset. There were butterflies that looked like tree branches, horses walking on the beach, and some sea fog filling in around the Pismo Pier - couldn’t have asked for more. Opening presents with the kids this year was great because you can see their excitement level and talk back and forth, also spent time at local playgrounds to get outside and enjoy the weather.

Out in Joshua Tree we stayed in an airbnb which was far out there, sort of in foothills and off long dirt roads. A group of us got up for the sunrise in Joshua Tree National Park - good thing the timing worked because now the park is completely closed due to the government shutdown. We got in 2 days before the closure, spent about 30 minutes in the cold witnessing a great sunrise and then left. Notice I said cold, which is unusual for the desert. In fact, that day the sky got dark and it began to hail, which turned into snow flurries, it was about 30 degrees all day. As the snow started to melt some of us went for an exploratory walk around the area so some photos are from that too.

Then about a week into January I hopped in Connor’s pickup truck/home and headed to Mt. Baldy the day after a snow storm. It was packed on the road leading up but fortunately the trail was basically empty accept for serious hikers. It was a cold, 2000ft climb/5.5 mile hike up to the San Antonia Ski Hut located below the Mt Baldy summit. I was actually glad that it was too snowy and late in the day to try to climb up to the top. Don’t think I’m prepared for that type of “hike” yet.

A weekend without a plan turned into a photo-hunting day. I was kind of wondering how to make the most of a Saturday with great weather and noticed a holiday car show across the street. As I was walking back from my loop around the parked cars I stopped at 1973 Landrover, it was parked away from the shiny muscle cars. Just as I snapped my last shot of it the owner, Lee, came up and we started talking. Turns out he’s my idol now. He runs a creative photography/brand marketing business out of a hangar at Torrance Field in a 40’ shipping container built on stands high enough to park his small collection of cars under. This Landrover is one of 3 he has, along with an air-cooled Porsche and a Toyota FJ Cruiser. I spent 2 hours talking to him about cars, cameras, and camping trips. It got me motivated to go on a little excursion for photos so I packed some snacks and water and headed up to the Angeles mountains. I came here back in April when I first got my Nikon but there was a trail that I passed that intrigued me. It led to San Gabriel Peak, timing was perfect to get there and hike up in time for sunset. The scenery is pretty nice, you can see Big Bear’s snow covered mountains, Mt. Baldy, and this day it was clear enough (thanks to recent rain) to see all the way past Catalina Island to San Clemente and Santa Barbara Island, both of which were about 120 miles away.

I hiked back in the blue-hour and got back to my car in the dark, the temperature had dropped down into the high-30s. There was supposed to be a ULA rocket launch later Saturday night, so I setup in Redondo for that, but unfortunately it was scrubbed - but it was nice to see so many locals crowded along the road at the beach waiting for it to launch and put on a show.

Friday, November 9th, the Woosley fire already began moving through the mountains above Malibu. The massive black smoke cloud was visible from Redondo Beach, the offshore Santa Ana winds were pushing the plume out over the ocean. Meanwhile, the Camp fire up north was tearing through towns and causing poor air quality because the smoke was blanketing the entire Bay Area. Over the next week, the Bay Area air got worse and the fires turned deadly. The photos below are from Friday night, I was at the Redondo breakwall using the 300mm lens on a tripod. Long exposures capture the flight paths of airplanes and helicopters, but also the crazy walls of fire moving towards the coast and taking out homes on the way. Malibu was evacuated, but some people were able to get back in the very next day and stayed to protect their property. By Monday, I donated some items in need to Dive N Surf up the street, because they planned to stock up the Body Glove boats in the harbor and ferry supplies up to a cove and to the people who were staying in Pt Dume. A few posts ago I had pictures of our friend, Molly, her birthday party in Malibu. Her brother was one of the people who got back in and they used their house as a make-shift base camp during the coming week. Really crazy stuff and really sad destruction.

Everyone was relying on time to basically bring changing weather and eventually rain. A week after the fires began our friend group met up in Big Bear for Friendsgiving - a weekend of relaxing - much needed for a few of our friends whose family homes are in Malibu. Two days later, a small rain system finally arrived, as I arrived up in Antioch for thanksgiving. Within 1 day it went from lung-burning, smoke-filled skies to crisp and clear air thanks to the rain and cold wind. I was lucky I got to see my family and spend a few days up there. Took a hike with Dante at Black Diamond Mines park, it was just after hours of rain so we were walking on a fire trail with about 10lbs of mud stuck to our shoes. It’s fun though because he's a photographer, too, so we took opportunities for pictures and I was trying to get creative and moody (photos below).

I got up to San Luis Obispo twice for back-to-back weekends. The first occasion was to celebrate October Birthdays, this included some time at the horses and a new-to-me hike in SLO. Mia got back on the saddle of her horse, George, to show his manner and perhaps have a new owner take over his care - a perfect match due to the limited time he gets ridden currently. 

The second weekend was for a trip we’ve talked about for years. My mom made the drive down to Paso Robles and we all met up to go wine tasting. The biggest highlight was a private tour through Steinbeck Vineyards on a 1958 Jeep by the 80-year old owner of the land. It felt special to get a history lesson from Howie as he cruised through the land and stopped for us to try different grapes. We also visited Scuplterrea which as the name may give away, has a some sculptures (Lots of photos below).

Tulum, which is a 2-hour drive south of Cancun on the Eastern coastline of Mexico, was a special place to our friends Leif and Lily (L&L for short). They chose to have their wedding there and invited tons of friends and family from around the world. Mia and I fortunately were able to go a couple days prior to most guests arrival and had a brief vacation at a hotel called, Mi Amor. We showed up around 3pm from a full day of travel and the only room left was unoccupied because the AC unit was being replaced, but still in progress. Fortunately it seemed to be the room with the best balcony and view of the ocean. We waited happily with some complimentary beverages and food while unwinding from the flying and driving to get to Tulum. All was good, the next day we rode bikes to the Mayan Ruins in Tulum, which was impressive to see, although it was a tourist-heavy place. The days go by quick in Tulum. You wake up, each hotel we saw has really cool healthy restaurants and exclusive beach areas for their guests, for relaxation without enormous resorts, this is probably the easiest and coolest town to be in. Historically, Tulum began it’s popularity by being a yoga retreat town. That vibe still exists, but it also has a surf-town main road of restaurants, bars, clubs, shops, and spas. The water feels about 80 degrees and yes the seaweed is famously a problem there, people spend all day trying to clean up the beaches only to start all over again the next day.

The wedding was essentially a 3-day long, super mellow hang out between 70 friends and family. Most hotels have between 12-20 rooms, and our closest friends occupied all of them at Sanara where the wedding took place, so people we knew were everywhere all the time, it was a ton of fun.

Disclaimer - the humidity, abundant sand everywhere, and my constant state of mild intoxication were factors influencing me not to have had my camera out a lot, so below is what I did photograph plus a couple of iPhone photos from friends.

From the end of July through September, there have been so many little trips and gatherings that I wanted to put on my blog. The photos below are from various activities through the end of summer. I was able to accept an opportunity for a new job, a pivot from what I’ve been doing over 9 years and able to (hopefully) grow many more career benefiting qualities while applying my experience to help others. With the job change, I took a week off and visited family in the Bay Area, that’s where the park playground activities took place. We got to celebrate a birthday for our friend Molly in Malibu with almost all of the attendees wearing blue and walking out to Pt Dume. Mia’s college roommate Laura and her husband Shaun and their black lab met up with us for breakfast and some chill time in El Segundo at a park. I bought a used longboard designed in a way that I’ve been wanting for a long time, to re-learn surfing in the longboard, nose riding style. I got to go to Half Moon Bay and walk around town and the Ritz golf course with my mom as an escape from the summer heat inland. There was a quick trip to SLO and I finally tried some long-exposure beach shots. There was another special birthday for our friend Kait which was celebrated at a rental house in Carpenteria right on the sand. Then, for my first week of work at the new company, I got to travel to Denver to their headquarters. I was able to arrive Sunday afternoon and walked around downtown, which is super cool and photogenic with perfect summer heat-wave weather. As you can probably tell, there’s been a lot going on. Hope you enjoy the wrap up in pictures.

We got to go to a wedding for a friend, Caroline (picture below with the dogs) which was in Cape Cod, MA. We were even luckier that we had a couple days off to extend the trip and hang out with Nick & Jen in Boston (again, we visiting a year ago). We took a red-eye which was dragging us down a little upon arrival until we started to meet up with friends - it was a great crew attending this wedding - and the celebrations lasted for 2 straight days. Cape Cod is a wonderful place, especially in the summer. The town was old and the houses were huge, the beaches were very different from Southern California (trucked-in sand, lots of open space), and most things about the time there were charming and fun. The day after the wedding we drove back to Boston with Kait and Kevin, stopped in Plymouth for food - and as the hangovers wained we reached Nick and Jen’s place. They took us to the waterfront on the Charles for sunset and enjoyed a local beer / home-baked bread picnic on the docks. It was picture perfect. That night Nick and Jen taught us all about mezcal from their recent trip to Oaxaca, and unknowingly convinced me that I need to go. We all sampled mezcal from their trip and caught up. They took us up to a lake north-west of Boston before our flight back to LA the next day.

Now, a month later, I’m still processing some of the activities and fun that was able to be packed into about 3.5 half days.