Where I Stand

I was recently in La Jolla, and spent part of two days trying to photograph surfing. The first day I shot at a break called Hospitals, and my main problem may have been that by the time I got there the tide was going out, so the surf break got farther and farther away. The photos were adequate, but well short of really good. The next day the surf was projected to be higher, and I got organized to get to Hospitals earlier. Unfortunately, when I got there, only a few guys were in the water and the waves weren’t really breaking. Not ready to totally give up, I went a little ways south to Wind ‘N Sea, where things were considerably better. Until I got home and looked at the photos, I hadn’t fully appreciated how much better they had been.

My recent La Jolla surf photos can be seen here.

Pat and I were recently in La Jolla, and this year we decided we would take a trip up to see Death Valley. Actually the trip was somewhat broader than that, as our first diversion was a stop in Lone Pine. Lone Pine is an interesting place – it is not only the closest town to the trail that leads up to Mt. Whitney, but it is also really close to the Alabama Hills. What are the Alabama Hills, you might ask? They are an area in which hundreds on movies have been filmed, primarily westerns. Pretty much every cowboy you ever heard of filmed some of their movies their, and guys like Gene Autrey and Hopalong Cassidy filmed dozens. We even toured the movie museum in town, which was quite informative.

Before leaving the Lone Pine area, we drove a few miles north to Manzanar, which was one of the 10 internment camps for Japanese Americans during World War II. There isn’t much that is left of the camp, but the visitor center run by the National Park Service had informative displays and an interesting short film. Not a fun thing to see, but definitely worth doing.

The heart of Death Valley is roughly two hours from Lone Pine, and features some really interesting scenery. Having been in places like Wyoming and southern Idaho, I’ve seen some pretty barren landscape. Death Valley has that, and more. It is an interesting place, with a lot to see – it’s the biggest park in the Lower 48 at 3 million acres. Not only did we see the lowest place in the North America, and walk on sand dunes, but we also found out about the process of mining, purifying and transporting borax. The classic way to transport borax from Death Valley was with a “20 mule team”. Imagine my surprise to learn that a 20 mule team does not contain 20 mules. Rather 18 mules are employed, with the other 2 places being filled by horses.

On our way back to La Jolla from Death Valley, we drove through the Mojave National Preserve. At 1.6 million acres, this is another very large property managed by the Park Service. It features a number of interesting features, including a sand dune complex that covers 45 square miles.

Photos from this short excursion can be seen here.

I was recently in La Jolla, where I went across the street to photograph some of the Pacific Coast Men’s Doubles Championships. Inclement weather on Sunday resulted in a postponement of the semi-finals and finals; nevertheless, I got in several days of productive photography. Better shots can be seen on the web here.

Greg was in Austin over the weekend for three performances. He reports that they went really well, and notes there was a nice write up by the critic from the Austin Statesman. Greg also observed that one can get some real deal Texas-style BBQ at a place called “Black’s” in the town of Lockhart.

Recently my nephew, Chris Stuart, was in a major bike race, the 2010 Calville Bay Classic. Apparently Chris has a haircut these days that is well removed from the mainstream. Before the criterium stage, Floyd Landis came up to Chris and commented on the haircut, saying something to the effect that with a haircut like that, a guy had better be a bad ass bike racer. Floyd, as you might recall, finished first in the 2006 Tour de France before being disqualified. In the criterium stage, Chris finished third, beating Floyd who finished eighth. Chris made sure to track Floyd down and clarified that, yes, he is a bad ass bike racer.

Today I went over to Baker Park in the southwest metro to photograph a pair of cross country ski races. These were 10.7K races, the Snowflake for men and the Inga~Lami for women. I now more fully understand that there is a tradition of costumes for the women’s race. As I was standing out on the course, killing time between the end of the men’s race and the start of the women’s, I noticed three trumpeter swans fly overhead. Better photos from what undoubtedly was my last cross country ski race of the season can be found on the web here.

Pat has been doing a fair amount of snowshoeing this winter, and today she decided it would be a good idea to take some photographs. Temperatures were in the low 30’s, sun was shining brightly and there was no wind – couldn’t have asked for better conditions. Here are a few shots – Pat standing in our front yard, Pat out in Long Marsh, and Pat running along the trail that crosses our property:

Tonight Pat and I went to the Guthrie to see the Kneehigh Theatre’s production of “Brief Encounter” by Noel Coward. This was a truly ingenious production, working in portions of the 1945 movie version of the play. This may well have been the best night of theater we’ve had.

Today I was over in Minneapolis to photograph the City of Lakes Loppett. There were actually 3 cross country ski events today, a 10K tour, a 25K classic race and a 33K freestyle race. This year I decided to photograph the race at Brownie Lake, just “upstream” from Cedar Lake, where I photographed the race the last several years. There is something of a hill as the course drops down to the level of the lake, and I took some shots on that hill on the theory that some of the less experienced skiers in the tour event might have difficulty here. I was right. Most of my photography today was done out on the lake, however.

I was hoping to photograph our neighbor, Cheryl DuBois, who had a strong race today, finishing fifth. Got some shots of Cheryl and other members of her team sponsored by finnsisu. Got a shot of a guy in the 10K Tour that looked very much like Jack Fabiano. Better photos from today are on the web for the tour, classic and freestyle.

Today I had the opportunity to photograph three winter sports. This morning I was over at the Long Lake Regional Park in New Brighton to photograph the Twin Cities Snowshoe Shuffle. A few photos from this morning can be seen on the web here. In the afternoon, I was in Minneapolis where I photographed bicycle racing on ice (Penn Ice-Cycle Loppett) and skijouring (Chuck & Don’s Skijouring Loppett). The ice racing hotos are on my bike photos web site and some skijouring photos can be seen here.