365 Photo Project - Day 176

Taken: June 25, 2010, sunset
Location: I-5 South approx. 200 miles North of LA

As I drove down to LA tonight, the moon appeared even before the sun had set and it hung there in the sky, looming large over the straight-as-hell I-5 freeway, a beacon beckoning me home. I stopped about 200 miles north of Los Angeles to capture it over a massive, dust-filled field that stretched out across the horizon like the surface of the moon itself.

I got some nice shots of the moon itself, but it was this image that moved me the most. I love how lonely and vast it seems. I wish the moon in the shot wasn't so over exposed but as usual I'm going with composition over technique. Maybe one day I'll get them both right.

365 Photo Project - Day 118

Taken: April 28, 2010, 10:30 p.m.
Location: Healdsburg, Ca

As I post this, I'm coming up on being almost three days behind schedule. That's how hard I've been working. So hard, I've had nothing left in the tank for my blog. Hopefully, this won't be a regular occurrence. I apologize in advance for any more lapses. Since I'll be posting three days of photos tonight, I'm going to make this post very short.

I went out to shoot the full moon for this image -- it was so bright you could turn off your headlights and drive by its light.  This is one of my "mistakes" -- a more experienced photographer can tell you better what's happening here because I have no idea. I assume it's a lens reflection. Whatever it is, though, it's kind of cool. I didn't edit this image at all. I mean I did try to edit it believe me, but everything I did to it made it look worse than the original. And since I have precious few shots to choose from, this will have to do.

Shot this with my K100D and my old manual 300mm fixed lens.

365 Photo Project - Day 112

Taken: April 22, 2010, 6:30 p.m.
Location: Healdsburg, Ca

I'm not feeling this project these days. Not sure if it's fatigue or boredom or a just a fear that nothing I shoot is any good. But whatever it is, it's wearing on me some lately.

I know this because I've found myself scrambling the last few days just to get an image in before the deadline. Even when I do finding something to shoot, I'm taking fewer shots and finding one to use is getting harder and harder. Maybe I'm just getting more picky.

I knew I might have days like this -- I was aware the idea of taking a new photo every day would get tougher and tougher as the weeks went by. I knew that my head would be full of ideas on day one but that like any other creative endeavor, there would be a moment when my mind would go blank and I'd think: well, what do I do now?

I don't want to say it's a burden, but I admit on some days, the pressure gets to me. Partly it's because I realize that I'm not just doing this for myself now. Maybe I don't have a helluva lot of readers but those few that I do have are now part of my journey. And I don't want to lose y'all by not keeping the photos coming. I'm already guilty about not writing as much these last couple of weeks.

Fortunately for you, I'm one of those people who hates to break promises, especially to myself. And the hard way seems to be the only road with which I'm familiar. I'll just have to weather these blahs and forge onward.

Doing this project is the first time since my days as a reporter when I have to produce something pretty much every day, rain or shine, idea or no. The first part of my adult working life was spent writing for newspapers, a job I fell into easily and confidently.

There was a moment in my career when you could say with certainty that I was born to be a reporter. I was good at it, noted for being dogged, determined and I'm pleased to say, fair. Even my so-called enemies respected me.

I can recall in detail, the few times I scooped my competition -- details like where I was and what the weather was like, the time of day, the smells. Like the time I beat the Washington Post to a big-time college football story. I was working in D.C., on my way back from covering the old Big East/ACC Tournament at the Meadowlands (which dates my ass for sure).  It was just starting to snow as I hit the Garden State Parkway in my Ford rental, one of those pseudo- sports cars that would slide all over the damn highway all the way home.

I was racing the weather but it was midnight and the papers were hitting the streets in the District and I just had to find out if the Post had the story in its early edition. So I pulled over at a rest stop and called the copy desk. When the copy chief told me it wasn't there, I literally did a dance right there in the snow. I'm sure it wasn't pretty to look at but oh, what a feeling.

I swear that moment seems so innocent by today's standards.

I ain't breaking any news when I say journalism is a shadow of itself. Instant gratification was the first blow but the characterization of solid reporter as being someone "left" or "liberal" was the death blow. Now we got places like Fox News (and to a certain extent MSNBC) that masquerade as real journalism but is in fact nothing more than pointed commentary. But when lies and half truths and propaganda are sold as fact, the slippery slope turns 90 degrees downward, straight on into hell.

I soured on journalism long before I finally left. I hated the idea that the bottom line was becoming more important than doing good reporting and I realized that as long as newspapers had to make money to survive, it was going to be harder and harder to do it right.

What's worse, I don't think I have that fire inside anymore. I no longer dream of being one of the "boys on the bus"nor do I still count bylines or try to figure out who's getting more stories on A1, who's above the fold and who isn't.

I do miss the being part of something, being a fly on the wall of small town politics. There was a moment during my time in one community where I knew everybody's business, where not much went on without me knowing or getting filled in shortly thereafter.

And yet I kind of like being anonymous too. I like the not knowing.  Sometimes I think I'm becoming complacent. But that's why I have to keep this project alive. I have to stay in this game. No turning back neither. So I guess I'll see y'all tomorrow.

The motel in this shot is situated right at the entrance to Healdsburg, I don't know how old that sign is but I love that it feels like it's from another time. I caught this image just before sunset -- the light was fantastic. Wish I could have caught it better. But if the image feels a little dark, it is. I wanted the lights of the signs to stand out more.

365 Photo Project - Day 42

Taken: February 11, 2010, appox 7:15 p.m.
Location: Healdsburg, CA

This road sign is on my street. I pass it every day and at night, it's impossible to miss -- always sparkling reflective yellow in my beams of my headlights. That railroad bridge I shot on Day Two of this project is a mile or so north of here but the trains don't run here anymore. There's long been efforts to build a commuter rail from the Bay Area out here that would include this right-of-way. But while the movement has gained some momentum in these greener days, it's not that popular on the other end down in Marin.

I shot it tonight in a brief, heavy rainstorm with my high-beams on it trying to capture the look and feel of what it's like in the rain. Shot it with my K100D and edited gently in Photoshop.

365 Photo Project - Day 34

Taken: February 3, 2010, approx. 10:30 p.m.
Location: Pico Blvd. at Lincoln, Santa Monica, CA

I took this photo a stone's throw from where we used to live in Santa Monica. Not far from here is the first apartment I rented when I came to L.A. and later, where my husband and I bought and renovated an amazing house that we sold before the bubble burst.  Being back here is always strange for me, maybe a bit melancholy too. I used to think I'd grow old near this corner of Lincoln and Pico --  felt like I'd put down some serious roots here. Funny how life works.  So many twists and turns, many strangely are not as much painful as unexpected.

I'd like to think a person can work with that. The surprises along the way I mean. You don't have to be old and wise to realize there are only winding curves and death-spiral drops on the road of life.  But if it  will never run straight and true, it's still there, always lying out there before us. As Bruce says, "like a killer in the sun".  Not surprisingly, the Boss was on to something.

I'm like a lot of people. I let the small shit get to me;  I spend so much time trying to get away from the world, I forget that the point is not to run away but to find something to run to. Make no mistake: destinations are for hacks. It's the journey down that winding road that gives us the most satisfaction.  At least it does for me.

The things one thinks about on a drive through the old neighborhood, eh?

These two guys were riding in front of me as I drove home from dinner in Culver City. They were on old bikes, that choked and sputtered and apparently didn't go very fast. I used my K100D and the 200mm lens, editing gently with Photoshop.

365 Photo Project - Day 31

Taken: January 31, 2010, approx. 6:40 p.m.
Location: Sunset Strip, Hollywood, CA

Today marks the completion of one month of my project and I'm still shooting. I was trying to get a Blade Runner feel with these shots which were both taken on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.  These two are my favorite of the few I shot. The first -- obviously -- was a mistake but nonetheless, I like it. The second is why driving the Sunset Strip always makes me feel like I'm in a world created by Philip K. Dick as imagined by Ridley Scott.

Took these with my K100D at a 50mm focal point -- through my front windshield. I used my dashboard as the tripod. Edited lightly in Photoshop.

365 Photo Project - Day 30

Taken: January 30, 2010, approx 10:20 p.m.
Location: Los Angeles, CA

This is my lame attempt at capturing the view from my friend's house off Roscomare in Los Angeles, where I happen to be staying this week. Just over that ridge is a pretty big swath of the LA basin, from Beverly Hills to downtown. Pretty cool in person. It was a foggy, partly cloudy night and despite a devastatingly perfect full moon, the view wasn't crystal clear. I shot this with a make-shift tripod and my K100D at a focal point of 95mm and a 1.5 second exposure.

I might give this another try before I had back home.

365 Photo Project - Day 26

Taken: January 25, 2010, approx 8:30 p.m.
Location: San Vicente Blvd., Brentwood, CA

Long day in the City of Angels. Took a lot of photos but this was the only one I felt like sharing. Mama said there'd be days like this. I gotta get back to writing.  Shot with my K100D.

365 Photo Project - Day Seven

Taken: January 7, 2010, approx. 6:15 p.m.
Location: Healdsburg, CA

Not much that moved me today. I took this shot on my way home tonight at the 150-year-old Healdsburg, Ca downtown plaza. I'm still learning how to take shots at night -- as you can see from these two shots.

Both taken with my Pentax K100D and the trusty 18-55m lens - I should have used a tripod but didn't have it with me. Doh.