Saguaro National Park

 

There are few places in the world that seem to live out the Old West frequently seen only when accompanied by John Wayne or Clint Eastwood. However, search long enough, and you will find such places within the Sonoran Desert of the southwestern United States. In these spots, time has not brought change to the world. Rocks may be decorated with paintings from an ancient tribe. Overhead, the echo of hawks really does resound throughout hidden valleys.

Thankfully, not all such places require an ox-driven wagon to get to. Just outside of Tucson, Arizona lies one of the most unique expanses of desert in the world: Saguaro National Park. One of the newer National Parks, having been designated in 1994, the Saguaro and its namesake encompass two different areas on each side of the city of Tucson. Each half covers a varied landscape featuring everything from dry desert basin to rugged mountainside dotted with Douglas fir and pine. If unable to make a trip the park, don't worry! The Sonoran Desert the saguaro calls home sprawls across southern Arizona, California, and even parts of northern Mexico. While the density of the giant cacti is distinctive of the park, any trip across the southern US can see them dotting the I-10 freeway.

My trip was reserved for the western area of the park. This half is known mostly for it's arid climate and sweeping basins. Aside from the saguaro, few plants grew taller than my chest. Pockmarking the landscape were huge boulders to offer some shelter from the wind. Several trails can be found throughout this expanse, and for families on a day-trip, the 5-to-6-mile Bajada Loop can be driven through an unpaved portion of the park. I also highly recommend a stop at the Red Hills Visitor Center not only to pay the $10 car fee for the park, but for some great information on the trails and paths throughout the park. The shop offered plenty of resources on wildlife in the area for those photographers that may be inclined (I will gladly admit to playing with some coyote and roadrunner dolls in the store). The 15-minute slide show is also a must-see with its nice "surprise" ending.

My trip was relatively short, having been in the area for only one day. The weather was cool with storms beginning to rip through the area. While this would deter many visitors, I found it to be extremely thrilling as there are only a few times of the year that this great desert would receive any rain. The family and I definitely got a little wet, but nothing near the levels of the monsoon season in early Summer that can cause flash floods through the park. Besides, the sheer scale of the saguaro in the area were enough to capture my attention despite any weather.

The saguaro are protected in the state of Arizona with permits needed to move or destroy one of the cacti for construction purposes. Because of this, most residents and visitors have no doubt seen these behemoths throughout the landscape. However, driving through the entrance to the park seemed as if a line had been drawn in the sand, inside of which the saguaro become a forest of needles and arms. According to the 2010 census, the park has an estimated 1,896,030 saguaros! This was in addition to the dozens of other desert plants found at the feet of the symbolic cacti. In addition to the sheer numbers, were the size of many of the plants, the largest of which can grow 50 feet tall. Many of them were armless, meaning they were relatively young in Saguaro Time. Usually, a saguaro will begin to grow arms between 50-70 years old. As I walked along the Hugh Norris Trail, time was essentially lost as realization set in that many of this expanse had looked the same when those classic Western films were just beginning to be released. Yes, looking into the distance a traveler can see telephone wires and paved streets. But, in the mountains themselves, one of the larger saguaros had probably remained as a silent sentinel since the days of the earliest settlers of old.

All-in-all, the Saguaro National Park was a wonderful day trip, and I would love to go back and explore it in greater detail (possibly without the rain, despite the wonderful photo opportunities it gave). While not as famous or large as perhaps Yosemite or the Grand Canyon farther north, the park is definitely deserving of its national status. Walking among gigantic, five-armed forests, it's easy to see why. Listen closely, and you may even hear the sounds of galloping horses and John Wayne's Winchester rifle in the distance.

 

Saguaro National Park Website 

Wildwood Canyon

Despite its infatuation with cars, Los Angeles can still be an interesting place for nature-lovers to visit. It is, after all, a giant basin surrounded by impressive mountains in nearly every direction. The city is surprisingly park-friendly with little pockets of greenery throughout the city and a few major areas like Griffith Park and the Angeles National Forest to the Northeast. Hikers and picnickers alike can find plenty to offer if they are willing to search a little.

A personal favorite of mine lately has been Wildwood Canyon, nestled in the Verdugo Mountains that dominate the Burbank skyline. I managed to go early enough one morning that it was extremely quiet with little traffic and found it to be a fairly difficult but satisfying hike. Parking was free, and you will find gorgeous views of the mountains, downtown Burbank, and even a little training fire range for BPD as shown above. As you ascend the trail, you begin to feel like you are in the heart of a massive range rather than in the middle of a city, and there are points where the San Fernando Valley almost completely disappears from views. For those less exercise-inclined, the benches along the main road through the park offer a nice place to escape and read for a few with peace and quiet.

There is very little shade on the hiking trails, so try to go during cooler temperatures if possible. My personal favorite is during the transitional seasons where mornings are cool enough to create beautiful clouds and fog among the mountain peaks while leaving the ground visible and clear. Just be ready for a fairly winding hike once you get started, especially if you are new to hiking. But, get to the top near the radio tower and you'll certainly feel a sense of accomplishment.

You can find more information at The LA Mountains Website

Impressions of New York

I recently traveled to New York City for the first time about a month ago, as you may have noticed from my King Tut blog. With the Yankees in the playoffs yet again (hey, I'm a Cardinals fan, but we fell out awhile back), I figured it was high time to update this page with my trip and impressions.

Abrah and I arrived in the city mid-day Saturday after a direct flight from LAX. She had not been feeling well due to the plane, but I was ready to get out and explore the moment we had landed. It's important to note now that Abrah has been to the city several times almost every year since she was born due whereas this was my first trip. Throughout the next week, she would start to feel better and do her own things, but most of my time was spent meandering without any real purpose or direction through the city. Anyway, we took a short taxi trip from JFK to her friend's apartment that would remain our basecamp for the next few days.

The ride was interesting, to say the least. It's hard to describe someone's first thoughts of Manhattan. It looks essentially what you would expect from countless movies and television shows. The skyline is nothing but skyscraper after skyscraper. What makes it unique, however, is the feel of the city, and emotion that is rather difficult to put into words. As we came out of the tunnel and into the city itself, I was immediately hit with a sense of scale from both sides. I began to realize that, while you are surrounded by these massive buildings, you are still on a limited island. It's one thing to read that, yes, Manhattan Island is only 8-miles long or whatever, but to actually be in the middle of it for the first time is what really puts that scale into perspective. I would be taking advantage of this on my walks later on through the week.

We arrived without problems to our host's apartment and, after getting settled in, the three of us set to work on a theme that would quickly become my favorite throughout our vacation: food. While the girls weren't terribly hungry, I was starving and, for whatever reason, I was craving an authentic NYC meatball sub. I have no idea why this came into my mind, but I had decided I wanted to just walk into some small hole-in-the-wall place and get a sub. So, that's just what we did. I can't remember the name of it (I think it was PJ's Pizza, on 52nd and 10th), but it was, hands-down, one of the best meatball subs I had ever had. It really set the tone for our culinary experience the rest of the trip. And of course, this was only topped by the rooftop view we had from our basecamp:



It was a perfect way to start our journey.

The next day, we each set out for our own separate trips. Abrah still was not feeling well, so I got an early start on walking around. I certainly looked and acted like a stupid tourist, but getting out into a new city is always a rush. I had no idea where I was, but thankfully NYC is set up in such a way that it's hard to get lost. Labor Day weekend was approaching, so the city was still fairly crowded (although I guess it's always crowded) in the touristy areas. I managed to run right into a huge street festival on Broadway, which was a massive timesaver with no traffic to worry about. It was here that I managed to get my legs for the city and approach the idea of jaywalking. In Burbank, that will almost always net a ticket, but in this massive city, it was everyday life. I had no fear here, and was able to get around with my camera to feel out the city easily enough.

Eventually, I made my way into Central Park. It was certainly massive, although I'm not sure if it's exactly what I had always thought. To be honest, after growing up in Missouri my whole life, a park is a park until it gets funded on a national level in my eyes, and CP was not much of an exception. It was certainly fun, and large, but not what I had imagined after seeing it in so many areas. The shade was a relief, to be sure, and I did enjoy watching a couple softball games with the city towers as a backdrop. Perhaps I need to take that "movie tour" that is offered to get a better sense of place. Also, I got lost in the Ramble. Never again.

I eventually met back up with the girls near the street festival and, unknown to me, I had completely passed by Times Square without even noticing. If there was one place in the city that I felt was smaller than what I imaged, it was Times Square. We ate at the Sbarro's nearby (apparently much different than the others), and went off to do some shopping. The night was rather quiet, and we ordered delivery to watch the Emmy Awards in the evening after meeting up with yet another friend in the city.

We awoke early the next day for what would be one of the highlights of our vacation: attending the Late Show with David Letterman. Now, it's important to remember than both Abrah and I work in the industry for George Lopez and Ellen DeGeneres, respectively. We knew the process of a live-taping and were here mostly to see Dave and to see how they run their show. Well, I was there to see Dave anyway. It was a fantastic experience on the whole, and seeing a living legend up close was a dream come true. We were placed front row and both spent a good while figuring out how their audience coordinators handled their seating. Their staff was amazing, and we were happily informed that it was the start of his 17th Season. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested. just remember you have to answer a trivia question before the tickets are granted!

The rest of the trip was spent between museums and shows. I had made the Museum of Natural History one of my major stops, with the King Tut exhibit being a spur-of-the-moment event. You can read about the latter in the blog. The MoNH was really interesting, at the least, and I fell in love with the dinosaur exhibit. The girls mostly stayed behind to chat about girly things or to make fun of how much of a kid I was being. I had never seen many fossils in my time, but the T-Rex made the 8-year-old, Jurassic Park-lover in me delighted. I spent as much time on the upper floor as I could. The other floors were ok, but I have to admit to being a little let down overall. Most of the displays were dioramas, which isn't much after having grown up going to the St. Louis Zoo with real animals everywhere. I also felt there was a ton of emphasis on different tribal cultures, which isn't much of a natural exhibit at all, cool though they were. On the whole, I enjoyed it, but felt the King Tut exhibit was the better of the two museums on the trip.

We also managed to wrangle great seats to American Idiot. We caught up with one of our LA friends and coworker of Abrah's who happened to be in the city as well. Somehow, the girls managed to get front-row Mezz seats via Rush seating. I'm am an avid hater of stage theater after having lived it since the 6th grade (give me motion pictures or give me death), but I had to admit that i did not hate the show as much as I thought I would. They sounded like Green Day, which was the only real requirement I had, and I only disliked the portrayal of St. Jimmy out of the cast. It was the play I had imagined after first hearing the album, and I would consider one of the very (very) few musicals I would be able to tolerate again. After the show, we managed to go onto the stage thanks to some connections our friend had with the guitarist. He was a gentleman, and it was extremely cool to be on a major Broadway stage, if nothing else.

Overall, the trip was incredibly enjoyable and I know what others mean now about falling in love with the city. I felt like there simply was not enough time to see all that I wanted, but I guess it would take lifetimes for that anyway. The city is definitely one-of-a-kind, with its own culture, layout, sights, smells, etc. Just seeing a picture of the city now brings up a ton of different memories (mostly the smell, but you get the idea). I doubt I could ever live there and am happy with the city, but I certainly would not mind a job that sent me over to their coast on occasion. Most of all, regardless of any positive or negative opinions a person might have, New York City proved itself one thing of all others: unforgettable.

Finding My Niche

So, as I try to gear up and prep to take this photography thing into the "professional" realm, one theme I keep running into in most forums, books, and blogs is finding your photographic specialty. There seems to be a running sentiment that a photographer needs to focus on one genre or area and keep everything else as nothing more than playthings to mess around with in our spare time. I've had a hard time dealing with this on several fronts.

I've always been keen to the idea that you should do what makes you happy and cut out things that only bring stress or drama. This is a philosophy that applies not just to photography, but to all aspects of my life, from relationships to work to simple hang-outs with friends. I'm not on that likes being told that an area I like being in won't be applicable due to economics, competition, or what-have-you. So, as you can guess, trying to narrow down only a few focuses out of the wide world of photography has been a bit of a challenge.

I guess in a business world, everything will click, and artists become much more willing to sacrifice things they enjoy once paychecks are rolling in. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be writing about trying to break into the art world if I had, well, all ready broken into the art world. So, those sacrifices don't mean much to me yet, and I continue searching. I have narrowed down a few key items, though.

1) I don't do weddings. They don't interest me creatively.
2) As such, I also don't do general "portrait studio" work ala Olan Mills.

There's a whole two items! Which isn't a lot to work with. Even number two is rather vague, since I still do portrait and headshot work, so long as it isn't repetitive. and then there are other factors, like being able to objectively look at my work and notice that, at the moment, I probably couldn't handle doing a lot of food photography on a commercial level due to inexperience. Or sports due to a lack of long lenses. Etc.

So where is my niche? What do I enjoy? And, most importantly, how can I make money out of doing what I love?

To start, my tagline for photography is "Bringing the World to You." I've been a reader of National Geographic since 2004, and it has quickly become less of a casual read and more of an obsession. I love the magazine, the Society, and all that it stands for in bringing readers aspects of our world that we may not be able to see otherwise. Whether it was the special report issue on China for May 2008 or an article in January this year on Scotland's Hebrides, I'm enthralled by learning all I can about this world. So, in point, I like taking pretty pictures of culture, landscape, and wildlife that breaks outside the realm of "normal." I love adventure.

Naturally, this is an area loved by many photographers and, to make matters more complicated, it's largely an area dominated by those that can afford the travel in the first place. Hello, Money, Crusher of Dreams. Now, I come from a family that has struggled pretty frequently on finances. I have an awesome job at Warner Bros., but it's also only slightly above minimum wage, which is immediately drained by that thing called "Rent." Travel is certainly a luxury, not a career. My future will have to involve finding a way to flip that around. Somehow.

A least I have my niche. Sort of. It's a start, a goal to work towards. I can't imagine that will be the only area I find some interest in as I journey through the optical world, but there's now some emphasis above everything else.

Anyone know of a research expedition that needs a photographer?


Gone Fishin' by =serphius on deviantART