Archive for the ‘Landscape’ Category
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11
Oct
2010
FROM SOCAL TO SOCAR
After nearly 5 years living and working in Los Angeles, California, I found out my heart belongs in South Carolina. Funny how the place that you swear upon yourself that you will move away from as a child turns out to be the place that you eventually want to dig your roots deep. It was an insanely tough decision, which ultimately involved me jam packing up my awesome little Scion xB with nearly everything I could fit in there, and drive 2,487 miles to my new destination.
Along the way I didn’t bother to take out my well-packed Canon 5DmkII. Instead I conveniently used my iPhone 4. I highly recommend a cross country trip to anyone. Preferably with a good friend. Fortunately for me I had Domo to keep me company. He’s quiet, and makes a good pillow.
Mapped out and ready to go. Phoenix, Austin, Mobile, and Atlanta would be my pit stops along the way.
Poor box. Not an inch to spare. The Border Patrol in El Paso, TX were laughing at my car for being so ridiculously low. I just told them “this car is a tank, it’s made the trip before!”… of course after the German Shepard sniffed around my car, and asked about my US citizenship.
Thank the tech gods for GPS. Something about seeing a blue dot move across the screen makes me feel that I’m not actually driving in circles.
New Mexico knows how to put on a good sunset show.
3am somewhere in West Texas, yep.
After 17 straight hours I arrived in Austin, TX at a friend’s house. Along the way I picked up a few hitchhickers.
Ben Sassani was shooting a wedding on Oct. 2nd in Austin, and I thought I’d help out. I didn’t know free beer was involved. I also didn’t know that Ben is THE master at Angry Birds. WTF!
Introducing the (2nd) best bar-b-que I’ve ever had. And where else than The Salt Lick outside of Austin, TX. Arguably the best part about The Salt Lick is that it’s BYOB. Meaning you can BRING all the beer you want. Now that’s what I call family fun. The 1st best bar-b-que? Easy, that’s Bessigner’s in Charleston, SC.
Next is the legendary Lance Armstrong’s Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop. Do I really need to say more? BIKING UTOPIA!
Meet Shah, Fred Sassani’s dog. The biggest, scariest, nicest Doberman in Austin Texas. He does lots of circles. And is awesome.
Now meet Chewy, Ben Sassani’s dog. The exact opposite of Shah lol.
Louisiana is fascinating if you love wetlands. Chick-Fil-A is ALWAYS fascinating.
This threw me for a loop. One second I’m driving through rural Alabama, and the next I’m going through a time-warp tunnel under Mobile, Alabama!… at 41mph.
After a night in Daphne, AL (just outside of Mobile), I took off to Atlanta. Now THIS is what I have in mind when I think Alabama. Old, empty, long, 2-lane roads being hugged by tall trees and blue skies. For kicks I listened to country music.. for 5 minutes. That’s all I could handle, but it felt right.
I rolled into Atlanta, and my friends Lieze and Andy Sapp invited me to come along and see Jeff Koons at the High Museum of Art. He’s one of the most successful artists of our generation. Yes, please.
We got to ride the Marta train to and from the Museum. A little scary around midnight, but living in Los Angeles trained me to be tough!.. but that’s not a street tough, that’s Andy taking some pics 
After a good nights rest, I drove the remaining leg to South Carolina. It’s good to be back. And Domo was thankful to get out and stretch his legs, and touch REAL grass for the first time in his life. Cheers!
24
Aug
2010
Road trip mixed with Base Jumping
Last weekend I spontaneously drove across the Mojave desert with Bogart the foster dog to visit my Aunt and Uncle in Phoenix. Nothing too extraordinary. Growing up in the South where trees and grass dominate the landscape like love letters to Justin Bieber’s mailbox, it still fascinates me to drive through the desert. I usually drive at night to avoid the notorious LA traffic. But this time I drove there and back during daylight, with my camera and a 50mm lens.
Typical landscape of California. Bogart was a great co-driver. He pointed out all the squirrels.
Just so California could remind every driver on the I-10 that they care about the environment, they set up 3,100 turbines near Palm Springs. An amazing spectacle, and would be interested in knowing how many rear-ending-rubber-necking car accidents happen because of them.
Rows and rows and rows and rows of turbines.
They almost look like trees from very far away.
5:00 AM next morning I head out with my adrenaline junkie buddy Matt Frohlich from South Carolina (who goes to helicopter school in Phoenix) to base jump off of Superstition Mountain. Me? I was just along for the ride for a good hike and take some pictures 
We park and start the 2hr hike to the top of Superstitious (the jumping point framed in the background).
An Arizona sunrise is about as good as it gets.
For a brief moment I felt like I was delivering some ring to some volcano.
Once the sun rises the rock looks even more menacing.
Rule #1 when going anywhere in Arizona: Bring plenty of H2O.
Matt looking EXTREMELY nervous to be doing his 800-some-odd jump off a big rock.
Rule #2 when going base jumping: Bring a friend. Rule #1? Open your chute.
Finally reaching the top, Scott and Matt do a wind check to see if it’s safe to jump.
Yep, it’s safe. Tie your shoes tight and get ready. Rule #24 of Base Jumping: Strap a video camera to your helmet so you can impress the ladies on youtube.
One last survey before descending over 1000 feet in a little over 1 minute… hopefully not any less than that.
Matt’s recorded jump. Listen at around 00:10, the sound of the chute opening sounds like a shotgun. That’s me at 0:14 watching from the tip top lol. They got to the bottom of the mountain in 1 minute. It took me 45x that to get back down 
For Matt, base jumping is more safe than driving down a highway, so I wasn’t very worried about picking up any body parts. In fact later in the day we did an impromptu photoshoot near Camelback Mountain of another base jump. Look for the edited shot very soon. After the shoot, and jump, I had just enough time to snap off an incredible sunset over downtown Phoenix. One day I’ll sky dive… and dare I say, one day have enough confidence to jump off 1000′ tall rocks? That’s a damn good way to get over my fear of heights.
29
May
2010
Aiming at the Sun: Venice Beach, CA
For Luke Munnell’s birthday we randomly took a trip to Venice Beach, CA to see all the crazies. Even though the winds were gusting up to what felt like a Cat 4 hurricane sandblasting a layer of skin off our top layer, there were TONS of people walking the strip. Drum circles, men walking in nothing but silver briefs, crack heads, men dressed up as women, women dressed up as men, and marijuana doctors filled the strip… so naturally I tended to aim more UP at the sun, birds and unpopulated beach. If you enjoy people watching, this is ground zero for you!
Crazies as far as the eye can see. Check out the plume of sand and wind-swept trees.
People watching at it’s best.
Birthday boy Luke Munnell, Import Tuner tech editor.
Modified Magazine editor Peter Tarach tagging along.
Hundreds of seagulls fighting the wind. Took a little coercing to fly, so I ran into them
Being careful not to get pooped on.
Luke getting brave with the poop monsters.
Last shot before the sun went down. I would of joined in but damn I forgot my hoola hoop. Next time.
20
Dec
2009
Los Angeles Gets a Bath
Los Angeles gets on average 15 inches of rainfall a year, which is roughly 35 days out of the year. And on those rare 35 days, the rain is comparable to a bird bath at best. Taking full advantage of my new place smack dab in the middle of downtown LA, I grabbed my rain coat, tripod, camera, and headed down to the streets… Because today sir, we have rain!
At first I started on the streets. I figured the sooner the better. Probably not the best idea to stroll around downtown with a nice camera after midnight ya know? Who knows, I’m growing a thicker skin day by day to the “amenities” offered by LA.
After roaming around the streets, I headed up to the rooftop of my building to get some more shots. My camera got very intimate with a Ralph’s plastic grocery bag.
