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Whiskey Tango
FoxtrotFondo
Over this past weekend, I did the Whiskey Tango Fondo, a 90-ish mile, 10k-ish feet of climbing (I think the target was 100 miles and 11k, but road closures shortened it a bit) ride out in the Eastern Sierras. Yes, before you ask, I did have several songs from Wilco’s Whiskey Hotel Foxtrot bouncing around…
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Crisp
One of the strangest parts of riding a bike in California is how quickly you can move between different ecosystems. This ride started in the desert, moved up through a lush and green temperate area, then topped off here, in this wasteland. Stranger still, the trees were covered in ice, as though light dew had…
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Up ‘n’ up
I’ve been going through photos I have from the areas affected by the Eaton Fire. This part of the mountain is closed for the foreseeable future, and the community below is, well, gone.
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Views for Days
From a few weeks ago, a rare day where the sky was so clear you could see (what I assume is) Catalina Island from Mt Lukens 👀🫡
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A Bridge
There is something about 35mm that always makes me view the world from a “I’m a high schooler with an eye for art” eye. It’s silly, but fun. I like how this one turned out anyway — a random pedestrian bridge in Mexico City.
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Fire Layers
One of the things that happens in the mountains around LA, especially (but not only) when there is a fire nearby, is this weird, natural gradient that creates distinctive layers. In this case, there’s a gnarly fire many miles to the NW, and from Mt Lukens truck trail you get these layers of hazy blue.
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Dentista
Got my film scans from Mexico City—the good news is almost all the shots turned out. The bad news is I thought the roll was cooked so I was mostly just screwing around 🤣 Anyway, here is a tiny dentist office shaped like a tooth.
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Black and white (and green?)
Hit up Huntington Gardens and spent most of the time in awe of the bonsai trees. Decided to take a break from my little black and white photo quest but ended up, uh, well…
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Oops, I Did It Again
I was trying to get a photo of a fun, snakey section of Mt Lukens today, but due to some absurd lighting and fog that was well outside my technical capability to correct for, I couldn’t get the photo I wanted. I gave up and just pointed the camera outward. It felt oddly familiar to…
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Above
One of my favorite things about cycling in Los Angeles is how during certain times of the year, you can go from an overcast, crummy morning into a sunlit shining day by simply climbing 5,000 feet into the sky. I’ve seen this sort of scene countless times, but I stop and gape at it every…
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Too Many Hours at Kinko’s
I’ve been playing around with black and white photos for the last month or so. This photo was taken early on, mostly on accident, and I love how it turned out as this sort of “bad photocopy” level of harshness where the clear blue sky turned solid black. This isn’t the same building (or city,…
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They’re creepy and they’re kooky
I was in Montana recently for a long weekend, where the bulk of my time was spent on a boat on a lake, which was glorious. But I did sneak in a bike ride. I snagged a rental and copped the short route of the Last Best Ride, which had been held the week prior.…
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Crispy Summers
I’ve been trying to experiment with getting more in the foreground—didn’t really work here, but whatever. The mountains outside Los Angeles are starting to take a strange turn, as they often do in late Summer. Equally green and burnt to a crisp, browned and yellowed, with a hint of deep red. It’s a color scheme…
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Ringa Ding Rincon
I’ve accidentally done my last two big rides through areas in California recently on fire. Or maybe there are just so many areas that have been on fire in the last decade that this is inevitable. This time, the ride was along the Rincon trail in Angeles National Forest, which suffered through the Bobcat Fire…
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I like Big Basin (and I cannot lie)
A couple weeks ago, I finally made it up to Northern California for a ride. Specifically, to Big Basin State Park. I linked together a series of fire and forest roads using the Old Growth Classic bike race as a base for my route. This was easier said than done, as Big Basin—along with its…
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Spooky
About five minutes after this the sidewall of my brand new front tire was sliced wide open, forcing me to shove a $5 bill in there as a boot along with my only tube. Back tire had a slow leak that the sealant couldn’t seem to plug entirely, but it got me home. But hey,…
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I’m not a photo of a car kind of guy but …
I just really enjoyed this color combo? I guess? I was looking back through photos from the last month or so and realized I’ve been drawn to yellow, which I suppose is either a deep seeded love of Dick Tracy or just the oncoming spring bloom 🌼
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Peekaboo
Hello, kids! Get in my banana, it’s the fastest banana you’ll find and I promise we’ll peel out into the slipstream of the future so fast you’ll be sayin’ “y-ellow” to your kid’s kids.
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This is the End (of the Day)
Sometimes, you get a glimpse of one of the doorways between worlds. Where the light hits just right, and you can see—for just a moment—an entrance. On the other side is, well, that’s still unclear for most people. But for you, in that brief time, it’s all so very obvious. But then the moment passes…
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🏔️
I wasn’t expecting a bunch of snow on today’s ride, but I didn’t hate it. About 3/4 up Mt Lowe I hit about six inches of snow and had to hike-a-bike for a while. It was, fortunately, gorgeous along the way. Ran into three fallen trees to boot.
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Santa Sheds His Skin
At 11:59pm every December 25th, the Santas shed their skins. It’s a beautiful moment in the evening, coming after long hours peacocking around the world, spreading their red tasseled hats among the crowds. But this joy comes at a cost. As the day wears on, fluids leave the body in a drippy sweat, and the…
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Mini golf
Picked up one of those Kodak Ektar H35 half frame cameras and had terrible luck with… almost the entirety of the 72 shot roll, but thankfully this little scene from mini golf—one of my favorite things to do in mountain towns—turned out reasonably well. Should probably have used a 400 film instead of the random…
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License to Chill
From Grand Teton National Park It’s funny how different a national park—any national park—feels early in the morning. Before the crowds arrive, you get a glimpse at what made these parks worth saving in the first place. By 11am or so, as the park fill up, that feeling often flips, making you wonder where…
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The Abandoned Barstow Outlet Mall
There’s an abandoned outlet mall about two hours outside of LA in Barstow. We often end up stopping here for lunch around the holidays when we are driving to (or back from) Colorado, and this outlet mall always fascinates me. It was built in the mid-‘80s, which is clear from basically every visual cue throughout…
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Here’s Luken Through You
Taken on Mt. Lukens, December 16 2023—I think I’ve taken some variation of this photo, from this spot, at least a couple dozen times. I just love what it looks like from right here. This time, I’d accidentally set the exposure at +3 while fumbling with my camera and wearing gloves, but I like how…
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Grass Mountain
This was taken on a hike up grass mountain, one of C’s favorite hikes in all of SoCal. We do it nearly every year. This particular year, the flowers were blooming like crazy, but you had to get above the clouds to even see them. The gradient of the hillside made for a mind-breaking view.…
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Caution: Pine Cones Falling
Hello citizens, We are here today to discuss one of the newest dangers in our neighborhood: pine cones. I know, I know, this has been a long time coming, and I apologize for how long it has taken for us to get this meeting in order. Now then, as you are all aware, we have…
