Friday Night I Crashed Your Party, Saturday I Said "I'm Sorry"

Well, here I am again. Another day, another long drive, another beautiful city.

I arrived in San Francisco today; it's been pretty chill so far. All I've done is driven to the laundromat, ATM, and then to the place I'm staying. First time being in a laundromat, I was going to take a picture but I didn't have my camera with me, so that didn't happen. Oh well. Who hasn't seen the inside of a laundromat? Really. I drove over the Bay Bridge to get here. It was pretty good, except for the scrambling through a pile of change to dig out $4 since I had spent my last $7 at the Big Trees State Park (more to come later). I'm sitting there while the man at the booth pretends to look busy and the people behind me are probably wondering what the heck the crazy guy in front of them is taking so long for. But alas, I eventually found sixteen sad quarters sitting there and I handed them over and made my way towards freedom. The city looked amazing just driving in, and so far I've only really been on one steep hill, and that was going down, so it's been good. The girl I'm staying with, Ann, the sister of a friend from high school, Michael, told me of a great place that I can park during the day so I can just ride my bike around town, as planned. It'll give me a chance to actually get some use out of it since I haven't had much opportunity before now. I just have to finish cleaning the chain and deraileur, since the two offroading trips really did a number on them. The dirt was just caked on. I stopped and bought some crazy degreaser/lubricant that I sprayed on today. It looks like it's clearing up well; nothing a wipe of a paper towel and another application might solve.

The traveling Lego Cowboy made another stop, quite a while ago now, at the edge of Zion National Park. I forgot to put that up last post, so he's here now. The Salt Flats were great. Lots of salt and white and endlessness. Nothing too special though.
I went to Yosemite yesterday and that was pretty cool. To see where Ansel Adams really got his start was great also. I could imagine him standing next to me as I ducked under that dark cloth and focused on the ground glass. But, the other ten thousand people (literally) that were there sort of ruined the day for me. I assumed there would be people, but not that many. At one point I just gave up and left because I was tired of trying to get around people and cars. I spent a couple miles hiking through the woods, setting up shots, just so I could get away from the annoyance. It was good, though. Today I went to the Big Trees State Park just outside of Murphys, California. It was a nice little place that had some very big trees. The giant sequioas that filled the land were tremendous to look at and explore. Some had fallen over and were either burned through the center or burrowed through by animals, and you could literally walk right through them. I did another few mile hike through there, lugging around the unforgiving Toyo 4x5 that I've fallen in love with. It's heavy, but worth it. I received more compliments on it today than any other place I've went. One woman asked if I would trade cameras with her, but then she changed her mind, saying that she'd probably have to trade her car with me to get the right value. It's not that great a camera, but I like to think so. I got some great shots of the fallen trees and some really cool root formations. Pretty unconventional shots, I would say, but that's what I want.

I'm not a tourist. I'm an artist.

Unfortunately I left my camera locked up in the car so I don't have any pictures to upload today. Perhaps tomorrow night. We'll see. For the rest of the week it will probably just be text in my entries because I'll be shooting mainly 35mm and Polaroids. Just a little change from the ordinary.

The city demands it.

A word to follow: I uploaded the pictures, finally, and I can definitely see a trend in my work. I stray pretty far from the general tourist photographs that everyone else has. Rather, I focus on the way that light plays with an object and the way that perspective can influence both the understanding and acceptance of the object. I think I may have stumbled upon a new direction to head down for the remainder of the trip. I may have to rethink my final destinations, digging deep to understand just why I feel like they deserve to be captured on film for eternity. Good thing I have five days here and another five or so in Seattle to contemplate. Bon Voyage.


I toss a rock into the air,
and wait for it to come back down.
When it doesn't, I realize,
I'm hanging upside down.