I was briefly in Toronto a few weeks ago and had an hour or two to roam around exploring. As with many cities, it was difficult to just jump in and out of the car while I was downtown, but as I edged away from the city center, I had a little more flexibility. I thought this was an interesting image – the contrast between the fancy downtown skyscrapers and the tatty transitional neighborhoods.
Toronto Contrasts
I was just in Utah visiting my wife’s family for Thanksgiving and was able to make a couple of exploratory excursions while we were there. This is a small marina not far from where we were staying.
Marina - Utah Lake
I was up and out early this morning to photograph the goings-on in and around the Newport Pier in Newport Beach, California. It was an overcast morning, so the line between sea and sky was diffuse, almost unrecognizable, which can make for interesting images. One of my favorite photographers, Hiroshi Sugimoto, has made a series of sensational seascapes using the blending of water and sky to great effect. This was a Sugimoto kind of day.
I arrived early enough to capture several long exposures before the sun came up and then stuck around to photograph the dawn surf patrol.
Newport Pier - Newport Beach, CA
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Newport Pier - Newport Beach, CA
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Solitary Surfer - Newport Beach, CA
For years I have been driving through the San Gorgonio Pass wind farm on the way to Palm Springs or Phoenix and have wanted to pull off the freeway to take a look around. I suppose I always assumed that I wouldn’t be able to get close enough to the windmills to make the detour worthwhile. Turns out I was wrong. I finally decided to stop a few weeks ago on a monsoon-y afternoon drive from Phoenix to Orange County and was able to get much closer to these massive structures than I had expected. There is something very ominous about this setting, like a scene from a David Lynch or Coen brothers movie….
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After four years in Arizona, I decided it was finally time to visit Arcosanti, Paolo Soleri’s city of the future , which is just off the freeway between Phoenix and Flagstaff. You can only walk around the site with a tour guide, so it’s difficult to slow down enough to find interesting photographs. I’m not thrilled with anything I shot in Arcosanti itself, but I thought this was an interesting scene: a slightly worse for wear RV under the huge Arizona sky.
When I was younger and more prone to moments of wonder, I always chose to sit by the window when I flew. I loved the freshness of perspective that looking down from 36,000 feet gave me. As I have gotten older and more claustrophobic, however, I have increasingly opted to sit on the aisle. I want to be as comfortable as possible in that cramped aluminum tube, and when I arrive I want to get out as quickly as I can can. Which means, of course, I miss those moments of reflection and wonder that come from staring out the window as the country passes below.
I have seen so many amazing sights from the window of an airplane: lightning storms all along the eastern seaboard as I flew from D.C. to Miami; the thin, green ribbon of the Nile tracing its way through the Sahara; the flood-stricken Great Plains states; the mast of an enormous sailboat poking through the fog as we took off from Orange County, California; the Grand Canyon and the Meteor Crater in Arizona; the Milky Way and countless full moons and sunsets. As I think about those experiences, I feel indicted by Louis CK’s widely viewed Everything’s Amazing and Nobody’s Happy rant on Conan O’Brien’s talk show.
So, on a recent two hour flight, when I found myself in a row by myself, I moved from the aisle to the window, put away the stacks of reading materials I had brought and pulled down my camera from the overhead bin. It was hot on the ground and the air was hazy, but I still took about 250 photographs along the way. It was another example of a recurring phenomenon in my life as a photographer: the camera helps me to see. The world is an amazing place. I need to remember to slow down and look at it.
Here are a couple of images from my recent flight:
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I love this city. Even the French Quarter, although I like the Quarter much better during the day than at night. I didn’t have nearly enough time to explore during my recent visit, but was able to get out for a couple of quick excursions. Here are a couple of images from those expeditions:
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