Phil Skinner

Chapters

PBRC

Back in August, Mia’s sister Maeve went off to college which meant that Mia’s ultimate master plan to have a horse in LA started to take form. The horse we all know and love, Journey (see so many old posts..), was driven down with Mia, Annie, and Maeve following in another car, to Portuguese Bend Riding Club here in Palos Verdes, the most beautiful un-Los Angeles place in Los Angeles. 

The facilities are a magical mix of horse stables and California missions. As you can tell, I love taking pictures here. That’s even better now because I recently purchased a very used and old (think 1990) Nikon lens (80mm-200mm f2.8) which is built like a tank and has so much torque when it focuses it actually moves the camera body. Anyway, the pictures below contain some of the results of combining classic camera lens and classic horse barn.

Journey gets visited almost every day by Mia now, and in November Maeve came back for Thanksgiving and got to ride Journey again - “He’s a different horse!” was said no less than 100 times. 

It’s been really awesome seeing how Mia will wake up at 6am and pack for work just to drive up and see Journey, walk or ride him, feed him, and then head to her job by 9am. Hopefully when the time changes and sun sets later she can switch back to going after work! 

As for me, I used to be kind of spooked by these extremely large and semi clumsy animals, and maybe it’s because Journey is so chill, but now a days I’m giving him neck massages and more pets than he could even want - I know I’ve hit that threshold when he starts to eat my shirt. 

Philip Skinner
Engaged!

A trip for Mia’s birthday up to San Juan Island and Seattle gave be the opportunity to finally propose. It’s been over 6 years together and was probably not much of a surprise, but we’re happily engaged now!

We took a ferry from Anacortes over to San Juan Island and stayed in a really secluded modern apartment with a private beach. We took drives around the island and stopped at a lavender field, did some whale watching (which was amazing to see orcas) and had a birthday dinner at Duck Soup - a restaurant that Mia’s aunt and husband visited 30 years ago on the island. We decided that we should just come back to the different San Juan islands and visit a new one each summer. It’s really great up there.

For the last couple days of our trip we went back to Seattle, there was a culture shock going from country/island pace to the loud/crowded city but we adjusted just fine at great dinner and drink places and even attending a big MLS soccer game at the Seahawk’s stadium, after a stroll through the Seattle Japanese Garden and arboretum.

Enjoy the photos!

Philip Skinner
SLO start to summer

Living along the California coast, May Grey and June Gloom become welcome months and weather patterns that I have come to rely on, especially living on a sailboat with no AC. This means that most days start off with a low-hanging marine layer of cooler temperaturecompared to jsu

Philip Skinner
Mother's Day In Sausalito

Took a drive up to the Bay Area with the goal of getting as many people together for an early Mother’s Day celebration in Sausalito and Matt & Julia’s house. The weather was perfect for hanging out in the front yard and playing with the kids, picking lemons and running around.

Philip Skinner
Sedona & Grand Canyon

Road trip! Took Thursday and Friday off from work and left LA around 7am taking highway 40 (instead of 10) to go through Flagstaff and down to Sedona. The new(used) car finally went on the freeway for longer than a minute and I was getting mpg’s up a in the 40s chugging along. Once we saw Sedona and northern Arizona I realized my expectations were way off - it was beautiful there! We met up with Mia’s family and over the few days we did a lot of hiking: Fay Canyon and Soldier’s Pass trails, a walk up to the famous cathedral built into the mountains, and a drive to the southern rim of the Grand Canyon. Although it took about 30 minutes to get through the entrance line at the gates, it wasn’t too crowded once inside and we did a couple of hikes before sunset.

It was a great trip and definitely a place I feel the need to go back to.

Philip Skinner
March 2019

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.

Philip Skinner
LA & Alabama Hills

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.

Philip Skinner
It's raining it's pouring

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.

Philip Skinner
Holiday Travels

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.

Philip Skinner
Hikes & Cars

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.

Philip Skinner