I run small workshops every once in a while called Shootin’ Up LA. In the past, they’ve been for friends only, but I’d like to make the activity a public event for anyone living in the Los Angeles area (free of charge). Here are the details:
Shootin’ Up LA IV – Good Timez in 09
Thursday, February 19, 5:30PM
It’s about time again! Join me for the fourth installment of Shootin’ Up LA!
Let’s get together Thursday (Feb 19) for a bit of photogging. Who can stay indoors in the evening on days like these? Anyone with a camera is welcome to come, no matter if you own a top-of-the-line SLR or just a disposable. As the saying goes, “It’s not the camera that makes a good shot, it’s the photographer.”
I find that photographing with other people inspires more creativity and sharing of photographic ideas. After work on Thursday (5:30-ish), meet us at the Mission Goldline Station in South Pasadena. After spending an hour or two (or three) shooting stuff in the area, you’re free to grab a bite to eat at one of the superb dining establishments in the area. You can meet us in the area if you can’t meet us at 5:30pm. Contact me via e-mail on how to do that.
Most of the evening will be played by ear, following our eyes to the next interesting thing, but before the sun sets, I’d like to run a small workshop on macro photography and provide tips & tricks on how you can take quality shots of really small stuff with your camera.
Shootin’ Up LA V – Wildlife Weekend
Saturday, February 21, 10:00AM
Join me for the fifth installment of Shootin’ Up LA – Wildlife Weekend!
Let’s try something new and get together on Saturday for a bit of nature photogging. Anyone with a camera is welcome to come, no matter if you own a top-of-the-line SLR or just a disposable. As the saying goes, “It’s not the camera that makes a good shot, it’s the photographer.”
We’ll meet at the front gates of the The Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden at 10:00 AM. If you can’t meet us at that time, you’re welcome to meet with us in the gardens anytime between 10-2pm. Contact me via e-mail on how to do that.
In the gardens, I’d like to run a small workshop on macro photography and provide tips & tricks on how you can take quality shots of really small stuff with your camera. This will be similar to the Thursday evening outing, but location and lighting will make this workshop as different as, well, night and day!
I can be reached at : kahunna@no_spamming_gmail.com
It was supposed to rain over an inch today in Southern California. That’s a lot for us. Enough for most here to reconsider their weekend activities. For instance, I was hoping to have made a weekend trip out to Joshua Tree National Park myself, but when the rain came down yesterday, I pictured myself soaked to the bone carrying my camera gear around in 40 degree weather. Not my idea of a fun weekend.
So I hung out around the house, got some chores done, and worked a bit on my book. Rainy day activities. Funny enough, though – the rain didn’t come.
So late in the afternoon, I grabbed my rain jacket and hiking pole and headed out to do a little hike in the local hills. I went to my favorite spot: Echo Mountain. It stands about 2,500 feet above the San Gabriel Valley and has some cool ruins of a 100-year old funicular train station and hotel. Along the 3-mile trail, I passed many hikers coming down. When I reached the top at about 5pm, I was alone. Just me, the clouds, and the spectacular view of the Los Angeles area.
I listened to my iPod on the hike and at the top, a Sigur Rós song began to play. Untitled #6. It really added to the mood and thought it would be appropriate background music while you view the photos and videos I took (with my Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS)
One of the common questions I get asked by friends and co-workers when I tell them about a recent trip is, “How much did it a trip like that cost?” Many are surprised by the answer. One excuse “someday” travelers make for themselves is that travel is too expensive to consider, especially during our economic crisis. But if you’re a glass-is-half-full, always-looking-for-the-silver-lining type, like my brothers are over at BootsNall.com, you might use this as an opportunity to finally make that Big Overseas Trip. The website specializing in independent travel recently discussed in their e-mail newsletter the opportunity this economic crisis offers: The economic downturn “has caused airlines and hotels to become desperate, to the point that they are slashing prices to unheard-of levels.”
If that isn’t enough incentive to plan – and I mean really plan – your overseas trip, consider the fact that there are still places in the world that you can travel comfortably in for less than US$40 a day.
I recently sat down and reviewed all of my expenditures from my recent trip to Nicaragua. I’m a quite fastidious journal writer when I travel. Among other details, I tend to write down every centavo, santim, pence or penny I spend on an international trip. So allow me to answer exactly how much a trip to Nicaragua cost me.
Keep in mind a few things:
I am a mid-budget traveler. I’ll generally stay at a cheap hostel (“it’s just a bed”) or camp in my tent. If i have my camera gear with me, I’ll usually get a private room.
When exploring a city, I tend to enjoy walking around a place rather than visit a museum.
I’ll spend a bit more on public transportation if it will get me to my destination faster (i.e., a taxi over a bus).
If I opt for a guided trek, I’ll usually look for experience & reputation before price. I don’t care about the amenities they might offer (such as camping gear or food).
With that said, here’s the breakdown of my expenses. Costs are in US Dollars. At the time of travel, US$1 = 19/20 Cordobas.
Nicaragua 2008 Trip Report
November 26th – December 14th
Airline ticket (including taxes): $442
Total amount spent in country: $626
Average amount spent per day: $35
NASA’s Earth Observatory has posted an image of one of my favorite camping spots in California, Joshua Tree National Park.
NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using park boundary geographic data (GIS) provided the U.S. National Park Service and Innovative Technology Administration’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics, and Landsat data from the United States Geological Survey. Caption by Rebecca Lindsey.
When Joshua Tree National Park was first proposed for preservation in the 1930s, the suggested name was “Desert Plants National Park,” because of the 700 plant species, including cacti and succulents, wildflowers, desert palms, and hardy shrubs that manage to survive in the desert climate. The plants support the park’s wildlife, among them 25 species of snakes; mammals such as bighorn sheep, ground squirrels, and coyotes; hundreds of migratory and resident birds; and thousands of species of insects and arthropods, including tarantulas, fairy shrimp, scorpions, and more than 150 species of butterflies and moths.
From space, all this biodiversity is far less visible than it is on the ground, but the reason for the diversity is apparent in this Landsat satellite image captured on May 28, 2003. The high levels of biodiversity are the result of the adaptation of plants and animals to three major topographic and climatic zones that meet in the park. The north-northeast part of the park intersects the southern edge of the Mojave Desert, which is higher in elevation and slightly cooler and wetter than the Colorado Desert areas in the eastern and southern parts of the park. A third topographic zone is provided by high altitudes (above 4,000 feet) of the Little San Bernardino Mountains at the far western edge of the park. Natural springs, forced to the surface near geologic faults, also create five rare desert palm oases in the western part of the park.
Ultimately, the park was given the name of its largest, most iconic, plant resident: Yucca brevifolia, nicknamed the “Joshua tree” by European settlers. Rangers have described the plant as the “canteen of the desert” because its tissues hold water during dry spells. Although its spiny leaves and thick bark discourage all but the thirstiest animals, the living tissue of a Joshua tree is often the last source of moisture for animals during times of extreme drought. Ecosystem and climate models suggest that climate-suitable habitat for Joshua trees could dramatically shrink in coming decades as a result of global warming.
After looking at the photos in this gallery, you might be surprised to hear that they were taken just an hour or so from Las Vegas. Valley of Fire State Park is usually lost in the shadow of the less natural activities in Sin City. When I went in the spring of 2007, I found myself alone quite frequently. But while exploring an ancient land painted in reds and oranges – without a casino in sight – I was not complaining.
As you might have read in the archives of this site, I’ve been working on a project called retrotravels.net. The site will allow you to explore some of my collection of guidebooks used during the Golden Age of travel (1880-1939). You will be able to peruse books not for what is printed on the page (which is interesting in itself) but rather the lingering proof that the book was used by its previous owners. Notations and marks on the pages (called marginalia). Museum or transportation tickets. Scribbled notes. A pressed flower that has made a home between two stained pages for over 70 years. Little pamphlets on a tourist location folded into the pages. I believe that these books hold a forgotten history of a overseas trip and, if studied carefully, can reveal what the traveler from the past did with the book, where they traveled, and what they saw. I’m still working on some major layout and design issues and how to express my fascination with the books.
Luckily, I’m not alone in this fascination. RadioLab, a weekly NPR program about… well… everything. One episode was about the history of War of the Worlds and its effect on those who heard it when it was broadcast. Another hour-long broadcast was about the language of music and how the brain processes sound. Another was on the history of sperm. All of their programs are well-produced, entertaining, and discuss fascinating subjects.
Forensics, archeology, genealogy, and genetics are devoted to figuring out what really happened. In this hour, we hear surprising stories of playing detective and finding that what really happened in the past is not at all what you’d expected.
One of the three stories they discussed was about a mysterious pile of old letters found on the side of a rural road. If it wasn’t for the spotting of a goat standing on a cow, the discovery would probably never had happened. I suggest listening to the program and hopefully you too will understand my fascination with these ghosts found in ephemera.
I was bored by the previous look of my Gallery section, so I redesigned it. This new look combines my love of photography with my love of vintage stuff. As with most of my graphic design work, the objects I use are photographs/scans of real items I have in my collection. You might recognize the following: a 1956 Rolleiflex medium format camera (which I use from time-to-time), a Kodak Stereo Camera (35mm) from 1958, a box of old slides I purchased at an estate sale, a 1960s light meter, a shutter release timer, and a couple of blue flash bulbs (both from the 1950s). Click on the image below to visit the new-and-improved gallery:
For my South America trip in December 2004, I created a book that would act both as a guide and a journal. I included what I felt wad pertinent information from a collection of over fourteen books about Peru and Bolivia. Creating the book by hand turned out to be a time-consuming project in which over 100+ hours were spent designing, printing, and building the 250-page book, but the hard work produced something that I will always cherish.
Once you’re done perusing a few of the pages (click the image below), you should head over to my travel website – kahunna.net – and see how I created this book from scratch.
Do you ever wish for that perfect day? A day where you can block out your day with moments of peace, relaxation, productivity, and growth in spirit, mind, and body? There’s a relatively new blog that’s compiling the daily routines of famous people. For instance, we learn that Ben Franklin believed that “every part of my business should have its allotted time.” Writer Franz Kafka seems to have been a major procrastinator.
We now settled into a routine which has ever since served in my mind as an archetype, so that what I still mean when I speak of a “normal” day (and lament that normal days are so rare) is a day of the Bookham pattern. For if I could please myself I would always live as I lived there. I would choose always to breakfast at exactly eight and to be at my desk by nine, there to read or write till one. If a cup of good tea or coffee could be brought me about eleven, so much the better. A step or so out of doors for a pint of beer would not do quite so well; for a man does not want to drink alone and if you meet a friend in the taproom the break is likely to be extended beyond its ten minutes. At one precisely lunch should be on the table; and by two at the latest I would be on the road. Not, except at rare intervals, with a friend. Walking and talking are two very great pleasures, but it is a mistake to combine them. Our own noise blots out the sounds and silences of the outdoor world; and talking leads almost inevitably to smoking, and then farewell to nature as far as one of our senses is concerned. The only friend to walk with is one (such as I found, during the holidays, in Arthur) who so exactly shares your taste for each mood of the countryside that a glance, a halt, or at most a nudge, is enough to assure us that the pleasure is shared. The return from the walk, and the arrival of tea, should be exactly coincident, and not later than a quarter past four. Tea should be taken in solitude, as I took it as Bookham on those (happily numerous) occasions when Mrs. Kirkpatrick was out; the Knock himself disdained this meal. For eating and reading are two pleasures that combine admirably. Of course not all books are suitable for mealtime reading. It would be a kind of blasphemy to read poetry at table. What one wants is a gossipy, formless book which can be opened anywhere. The ones I learned so to use at Bookham were Boswell, and a translation of Herodotus, and Lang’s History of English Literature. Tristram Shandy, Elia and the Anatomy of Melancholy are all good for the same purpose. At five a man should be at work again, and at it till seven. Then, at the evening meal and after, comes the time for talk, or, failing that, for lighter reading; and unless you are making a night of it with your cronies (and at Bookham I had none) there is no reason why you should ever be in bed later than eleven. But when is a man to write his letters? You forget that I am describing the happy life I led with Kirk or the ideal life I would live now if I could. And it is essential of the happy life that a man would have almost no mail and never dread the postman’s knock.
