Not A Bad First Sunset Of 2014. Happy New Year From Topanga State Park. 01.01.14
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state park
Pines to Palms
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So spent Easter with the family. Was really nice. We don't get together all that often, and decided this time we'd take a day trip and just kinda cruise around. Headed to Idyllwild up in the Anza Borega Mountains (I think…), had some coffee and beef jerky (don't ask…my love for the stuff got revived in Yosemite earlier in the month), then headed through the mountain range along the Pines to Palms Highway just south of Mount San Jacinto. After a crazy Jurassic landscape drive through mad boulders and twisty madness along the Pines to Palms Highway , it threw us out into Palm Desert, where we continued into Palm Springs and ended up at the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway.
We got to the ticket center and all of us were deciding whether or not it was worth the 21 bucks each to ride the thing. We've never even heard of it, but apparently it's been around since 1963, some crazy rich guy's dream and he made it happen. I figured if we were to look 
back on this day in 10 years, this would probably be the thing that we'd remember, so when I said that, everyone agreed. Let's do this thing. A rotating aerial tram that climbs up about 6000 feet in less than ten minutes up through the craggy rocky prometheus looking mountain to the peak of San Jacinto Mountain, overlooking the entire Coachella and Palm Springs Valley from the peak of a snowy mountain top. Had dinner, watched the sunset, snapped a couple of photos, including the one you see in this post, and headed back down. Easter with the family was a success. And discovering this aerial tram thing was a heck of a bonus. Well worth it and will definitely be back.
And I think I may have had a bit of a photographic breakthrough on this one…while we were driving through that valley, it was some of the most beautiful landscape I've seen in Southern California…like a time machine into old ranches and half lit trees and mountain tops and crazy cloud formations…usually, I'd be pulling over every half mile snapping away like a madman, and still filled with anxiety that I'm not getting anything. But not this time. The folks even said, if I wanted to stop at any point, let them know, but something inside of me was telling me that I didn't need to snap everything I saw, sometimes I'm allowed to just sit back and enjoy and appreciate it. This time, I just wanted to appreciate it the same way the rest of my family was appreciating it.
The other thing was, I like to think it's my confidence building as a photographer, but I figured that no matter where I ended up, I'd find something that I can make a photograph out of. I didn't have to think about the shots I was 'missing,' and was more focused on being in the moment…and then when I had an opportunity, I can think about the shots that I was getting. Sometimes it's just nice to just be. This was one of those times.
Anyway, in the midst of this post is the crazy Pines to Palms Highway road, and at the top and bottom of this post were the views from the top.
Working Better Under Pressure - A Malibu Creek State Park Docent Story
It's strange how my life has turned into a series of photo taking and processing. Sure, not getting paid for all of it, so can't really call myself a true professional, but all of my income is coming from this stuff, which is actually kind of…eh…neat. For the first time in my life, I'm actually feeling like I'm doing something I'm supposed to be doing. 36 hot damn years old and now I'm figuring this out?
Anyway, woke up with the intention of spending all day today working on editing the Megan Racing videos and processing those photographs so I can get a paycheck before rent-time creeps up in a hurry, but remembered that my docent project is due tomorrow at the final interpretation I'm required to go to as a new Malibu Creek State Park docent.
Yeah, started the process over a year ago as a means of staying outdoors and being involved in the California Park system after my attempts at becoming a park ranger two years ago were thwarted by…well…a story we'll get into at a later date, but as part of my requirement, I was supposed to create a project for myself to help better the park and docent program and I had a year to create it and am supposed to present it tomorrow at the Spring Interpretation.
Well, I tasked myself with the project of taking new fresh photos that we can present in the Visitor Center and creating a Google Plus page to help bring the docent system into the internet age to help attract a fresh crop of park-goers and outdoor enthusiasts. Unfortunately, it wasn't until I woke up this morning that I remembered this was due tomorrow. I spent an hour trying to convince myself that it wasn't, even though I knew it was, and so replaced my train of thought from trying to think of excuses, to getting at it.
Luckily, I have spent a lot of time in the park over the past year photographing all over, so I had the files, just had to get through them and process the better of the bunch, so that's what happened today. Got it all together, even got a Google Plus page started (add us to your circles: gplus.to/mcspdocents), and am now uploading the photos to an iPad to present when my turn comes up tomorrow. So after having a full year to get this done, culled it all together in a day. Another example of how I work better under pressure I suppose.
Anyhow, will also get prints of some of them made so we can present them in the Visitor Center. That'll be my next part of the project. Hopefully sometime in the next couple of weeks so they'll be there for Spring and Summer park attendees. So with that, above is one of the photos, as is one here below (this one actually got mentioned on This Week In Photo podcast, which I was gloating about a few weeks back). And here's a full gallery: http://goo.gl/uE2wi
Ok then.
