Advance Computer Art Blog

Funes Art Competition Entries

2009-04-27T16:14:00.001-07:00

These are my three entries for the Funes Competition:

Artist Review - Adam Schallau

2009-04-26T22:30:00.000-07:00

While looking for more photographic artists, I came across this photographer: Adam Schallau. His landscape photography is extremely beautiful in my opinion! Many of this photos feature the warm, colorful landscape of the southwestern United States, mainly in the Four-Corners region. I really enjoy his barren landscape pictures of desert scenes. The saturation of the photos make them feel extremely warm and inviting, and inspire me to take a road trip this summer to visit the Four-Corners region. This image especially, "Bisti Badlands," makes me want to visit Sedona in northern Arizona.

Other images by Schallau, like this "Aspen Melt" photo, have a great uniqueness about them. What I love about "Aspen Melt" is how the trees in the background look warm and bright, while their shadows fall on the cold, slowly melting snow in the foreground. All together an extremely appealing picture, in my opinion.

Another image I really like by Schallau is one titled "American Basin Wildflowers." I absolutely love the contrasting scenes of the lush, green foreground, and the stark, rocky peak in the background.

Schallau's work has definitely inspired me to want to travel more around the U.S. and take more landscape photographs.

Artist Review - Daniella Theoret

2009-04-26T21:59:00.000-07:00

While surfing the Internet, I discovered one photographer that has some really amazing work! Daniella Theoret, who is originally from Quebec, Canada, has some beautiful landscape and wildlife pictures. What I like the most about her landscape pictures is how she captures clouds. With the use of an infrared lens, Theoret seems to be able to capture amazing details in clouds, as well as create beautifully vivid photographs. My favorite photograph of hers is titled “Bad Water – Death Valley, CA.” In the image, you can see the extensive detail of the lakebed, as well as the wonderful fluffiness of the clouds in the sky. I love how the colors in the picture are all cool colors too, creating a calming feel in the photo.

Another great photo is her “Orange flower with bee” photograph. I like how close and detailed this image gets. Also, I love how you see a different, messier side of bee pollination. It is just an incredibly simple and beautiful picture!

Overall, Theoret’s work had definitely sparked some inspiration in me. I am going to try and look into getting myself an infrared lens now.

April 26, 2009 - Quail Botanical Gardens

2009-04-26T18:50:00.001-07:00

Today I had the opportunity of visiting Quail Botanical Gardens in Encinitas. It was my first time visiting the gardens, but I was absolutely surprised by how much I enjoyed it! I arrived at the gardens around noon and luckily it was neither hot, nor crowded! The woman at the pay booth was really nice and gave me advice on where to start, and what to check out in the gardens.

I started in the Bamboo garden and worked my way around the area. The bamboo was definitely impressive! I have never seen that much bamboo, or that tall of bamboo, ever in my life! I tried to take some pictures of the bambo that would emphasize their heighth, but because of the noon sun ended up with some bad pictures. However, one photo did come out kind of cool looking with the sun glare on it:

Moving through the gardens, I could not help but be impressed by both the immensity and information found throughout the gardens. Not only were there a large variety of plants and flowers, but practically every plant and flower had a plaque with its name and information. Also, being able to see a variety of environments, from the Mexican Garden to the Tropical Rain Forest, and even the California Gardenscapes, was incredible!

My favorite garden was definitely the Tropical Rain Forest. I loved the waterfall there! It was very peaceful sounding. I got extremely lucky while I was photographing the waterfall though, when a butterfly landed on a fern right next to me. I was able to get a great shot of it before it flew off.

Overall, I had a lot of fun at the Quail Botanical Gardens, and it is definitely a place I want to visit again.

April 12, 2009 - Live Oak Park

2009-04-26T16:02:00.000-07:00

On Easter morning, I had no plans. I woke up around 8 am and decided to go on a field trip. At first, I was not sure where to go, and honestly I did not feel like driving very far. Then I remembered Live Oak Park.

Live Oak Park is a local park that contains some of the oldest Oaks in the Fallbrook area. It also harbors an old grinding rock used by the Luiseno Indians centuries ago.

Arriving at the park, I was surprised to see how crowded it was. A lot of families had planned family picnics for Easter Sunday. I was a bit discouraged to find it so crowded, because I was really looking forward to having the park all to myself (it being a holiday where many families are in church early in the morning). I decided to stay though and take at least one walk around the park since I had to pay the $2 parking fee.

After parking, I started at the north eastern side of the park, and wound my way west along the path through the park. It was really hard to take pictures with so many people, mainly because I did not want to look like a weirdo photographing strangers, so I tried my best to find shots that were void of park-goers.

Even surrounded by people, the park was just as wonderful as I remembered it to be. The oaks are so beautiful and tall there that it feels like you are protected under a canopy of their branches. Each oak has it's own battle scars left from woodpeckers, some more than others. The small creek that runs through the park holds the most memories for me. I remember when I was younger I would come to the park with my grandparents and search for crawdads. We would climb into the water below and wade through it in shorts, looking for the bright red crustaceans with lopsided claws. Once we found at least 5 of them, all different sizes, and we brought a few home to take care of in an aquarium. We would only keep them for a week before bringing them back down to the park to set free.

I continued to walk around the park, trying to take in the changes that have happened over the years. The old playground equipment that used to be made of rusting metal has since been replaced by a large plastic playground of slides and monkey bars. One thing that had not changed was the old grinding stone. It still sits under the same oak tree that it has sat under for centuries.

Coming back around towards the parking lot from the southern side of the park, I did notice a neat little addition though. A new native plant garden! It is a small garden, but it was definitely fun to walk through. I wish I had taken a little bit more time examining all the plants in the garden, but at that point an Easter egg hunt was ready to start nearby and I assumed it best to get out of the kids' way.

Overall, I did enjoy my walk through the park, but I will definitely have to go back there again sans the crowd of people.

March 28, 2009 - Los Jilgueros Preserve

2009-04-20T16:46:00.000-07:00

On Saturday March 28, 2009, I used my first day of spring break to go out and take some pictures at a local preserve in my hometown of Fallbrook. The day started out sunny, so right there it was a promising opportunity for taking photographs!

I arrived around 9:30am and met up with my friend and coworker, Rayney. She had recently bought herself a new camera and wanted to do an outing to learn how to use all of it's different settings and functions. I am by no means a professional, but I figured I could help her out a little bit.

We hiked about a half a mile to the back of the reserve and started by the lake. Here I found an old bench with peeling paint that caught my interest, so I decided to photograph it. I really love the angle I used to take this pictures though:

In Photoshop, I decided to bring out some of the colors of the bench, and dulled the background to give it a really washed-out look. Overall, I was extremely happy with how it came out!

We continued on our hike and I found another interesting shot with a broken fence. It took me a few tries to get the focus correct, but ended up with a shot I was proud of.

One of my favorite areas of the preserve is the "Firescape" area, which is made up of fire-resistant plants (something very useful in the fire-prone area of Southern California!). Apparently, this firescape garden was the second ever garden of its kind to be created in California (the first being in Santa Barbara). Here are some of my photos from the Firescape:

After finishing up in the firescape area, our stomachs were rumbling, so we decided it was time for breakfast at the Garden Center Cafe (a wonderful little cafe in Fallbrook that has the greatest brunch menu ever!). On our way out I found a few more opportunities for photos:

The most wonderful end to the hike was this post though, which features the words "May peace prevail on Earth," in four different languages: english, spanish, french, and chinese. Of all my field trips, this is my favorite preserve, and I plan on visiting it as often as possible!

February 22, 2009- Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve

2009-04-20T16:15:00.000-07:00

This field trip is getting blogged about a bit late, unfortunately (hence the February date with a April posting, haha). I originally was not sure I liked the pictures from this trip enough to post them, but the more I look at them, the more I like them.

This trip started out as a "getting-to-know-my-new-camera" trip. I had just bought my new Canon Rebel XSi and had no idea on how to start using it! Luckily, my friend Chris is experienced with using DSLR cameras, and offered to give me a lesson. I suggested we go to Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve, which is a wonderful reserve near Murrieta, California.

Waking up that morning, I was both happy and disappointed to see a cloudy gray sky. Happy because a long hike under an overcast sky is always fun, but disappointed because taking pictures with an overcast sky is NEVER fun. I guess there are some advantages, but personally, I like working with a lot of light.

We arrived at the reserver ready for our hike. At first I was hesitant to stop and start taking pictures, mainly because with an overcast sky, I wanted to wait until the Sun was a bit higher in the sky. After about an hour, I decided it was time to pull out my camera. At this point we had hiked long enough to be on the top of a hill in the middle of the reserve, surrounded by open, rolling, hills, green from the previous weeks' rain.

I love photographing trees and paths, for some reason. So I took advantage of some of the beautiful trees and trails that surrounded us.

We continued on our hike, this time with my camera out and ready to go. After about another 45 minutes of hiking, we arrived at an open area of rolling hills towards the eastern side of the reserve. Here, I found some extremely interesting decaying tree trunks. The one that stood out the most to me reminded me of a person holding his hands out in praise. I took a few different images of this tree trunk, at different angles and perspectives, but out of all the pictures I took, I liked this one the best:

Continuing on our hike, we finally reached our main destination: the old adobe structures used as bunkhouses for cowboys during the late 1800s. These structures are also shaded by a 400 year old live oak tree. Walking around the house, it was obvious how popular the area was for woodpeckers. I do not think there was a minute there where I did not hear the pecking of these birds!

After spending half an hour around the structures, we decided it was time to get going. I had to get home to work on homework, and Chris had to get to work.

On our way back, we took a different route, so I was able to get some more landscape photos. I definitely want to go back again and get more pictures though. Hopefully, it will be a lot sunnier next time.

Indian Rock Native Garden - March 23, 2009

2009-03-23T23:12:00.001-07:00

On Monday, March 23, 2009, our class had the opportunity to visit the Indian Rock Native Garden in Vista, California. Driving the the garden was a bit unusual though. Our professor had mentioned that it is in the middle of a residential area, but until you are there, you do not fully comprehend how residential it is. Pulling up to the garden, which is surrounded by a simple, chain link fence, I saw that opposite the garden, the street was lined with homes. I was a bit worried about parking in front of a stranger's house, but I did my best to park out of the way.

After parking, I met up with a few of my classmates and walked through the open gate and up a dirt path. Immediately, I noticed the large, tagged rock on top of the hill. Being the only large rock in the area, I knew that was the Indian Rock the garden's title promised. The dirt trail wound around the hill, curving to the left. As I followed it, I found more of my classmates, and our professor. At the moment, not all of our classmates had arrived for our prearranged tour with Alan, a native Luiseno of Vista, and Greg, our native plant guide. Alan indicated that we could go ahead and walk up the small trail to take a look at the rock while we waited for everyone to arrive. Walking up the hill, it was hard not to notice all the beautiful yellow flowers that were starting to bloom (which I learned were Yellow Mallows from our tour with Greg).

Arriving at the top of the hill, there was a large open area, leveled and paved with stones and concrete. To my right I noticed the leftover foundation of a previous structure, and straight ahead of me was the Indian Rock. From this angle, the rock was clean, and untagged by local gangs. To my left, trees and vegetation grew. Some laurel sumac, a non-native citrus tree, and a smaller rock completely covered by wild cucumber.

Personally, I found the rock covered by wild cucumber to be extremely beautiful. The little white blooms and green, prickly fruit covered the rock, giving it an ancient look. I wandered closer to the larger rock in front of me, and made my way around to get a closer look at the front side I had seen first walking into the garden area. It's face seemed almost scarred by the blue and white paint left by a local Vista gang, better known as the Vista Home Boys. Looking at the graffiti, I felt sorry for the rock, alone on a hill, unable to protect itself in the middle of suburbia.

After exploring the landscape around the rock for about 15 minutes, the rest of our group had arrived, along with other local natives, as well as some Vista city council members. Alan introduced himself to us and his involvement with the Indian Rock Native Garden, as well as gave us the background on the garden. He told us about how the rock was important in coming-of-age ceremonies for young women of the Luiseno people. He further told us about their efforts in restoring the native plants of the garden. At this point, Alan let Greg take over the tour. I was extremely impressed by the vast knowledge Greg had about native plants!!!

One of the most interesting things he told us was how drought and fire resistant the native plants can be, which really surprised me. After listening to this and seeing how beautiful the native plants are, I am really surprised people in southern California are not more interested in using native plants for landscaping. Greg took us from the bottom of the hill, all the way back up to the Indian Rock at the top, stopping along the way to give us information on each plant we saw. At the top, Alan took over again, and got even more in depth in the importance of the rock and native garden in preserving the local history of the area. He even mentioned the pictographs on the front of the rock, which I had not even seen earlier because of all the graffiti. Alan told us that the paint from the pictographs will long out live the everyday spray paint, which helped ease some of my concern. Truthfully, I think it is such a shame that these gang members are so ignorant they do not realize or even care how their territorial tagging is vandalizing an important piece of history.

After our wonderful and insightful tour, Alan and a group from the local Luisenos were kind enough to provide some sandwiches, chips, salads, and drinks for us. I was really moved by how welcoming and generous they were. It is definitely an experience I will not forget any time soon!

Overall, the Indian Rock Native Garden was one of my favorite field trips. After listening to Greg and how passionate he was about all of the native plants, I am definitely considering landscaping my front yard at home with native plants and plenty of mulch!

Here are some more pictures from our trip:

Some coastal oak:

Rincon Reservation - March 16, 2009

2009-03-22T12:23:00.000-07:00

For March 16th's field trip, our Advanced Digital Arts class met at the Rincon Reservation to take pictures, and plant some plants. I was a bit lost trying to find the Rincon Tribal Hall, mainly because the building itself was not marked as "Rincon Tribal Hall," but another name in their tribal language. Luckily, during my third pass of the building, I saw my professor standing in the parking lot, so I finally was able to park and join the rest of my classmates.

From the parking lot, we walked around the back of the Tribal Hall area and found a field of little trail of intertwining gravel paths, which divided the field into 4 different sections. Here, we met with our local guide/speaker, and she explained what we would be doing that afternoon. We students were split up into 4 different groups, and each group was assigned a group of plants, and an area to plant those plants. I was lucky enough to get assigned to the desert group, because there were not a lot of plants for assigned to our group. Do not get me wrong, I do enjoy plants and being outside, but only two days before I had had a manicure, and had totally forgotten to grab gloves at home. Needless to say, I was not too excited about doing some planting!

After grabbing our plants and retreating to our assigned area, we had to come up with a layout for where to plant the plants. To be completely honest, none of us were really sure where to put them, so we just came up with a few ideas for our oak trees (I believe we had 4 or 5 coastal oaks to plant), and then just put everything else away from the oaks. The problem with having so many oaks though was that we knew they were going to get tall, so we had to space them out. By spacing them out though, we knew that would create a lot of shade in our area. A lot of the other plants we had to plant were plants that require full sun, so who knows how well they will do once those oaks get really big.

With our plants plotted out, we got approval for our layout and started digging. I have to admit, the soil was pretty strange throughout our section. You would dig up soil at one part, and it would be regular soil, and then you would go 10-20 feet to the left to start on the next plant and you would be digging in sand! I guess it works for our "desert" team, but not knowing how each plant will respond to the soil types made me a little nervous.

Within about 20 minutes we had all of our plants planted! We then put our mulch down around the base of our plants and were ready for watering! Now this is where we all started to get a little frustrated. We were not given very much info or instruction on how to water our newly planted plants. They told us to try and find the end of our irrigating hoses (long black hoses with drip nozzles in them; they were already laid out in our field for some existing plants), but our hoses just continued on into the other fields, so we had no end to ours. After that, we got no further instruction on what to do (even after asking three times about what we needed to do for water), and after standing around doing nothing for 15 minutes we decided to just start helping other teams finish, in hopes that we could leave early. Of course, that did not happen, but I did stick around and help another team with irrigating their area.

At the end of the trip, I was dirty and ready to go home. It was interesting in the fact that I got a chance to plant plants I have never handled before, but overall, it was not as exciting as the Pechanga trip we had last week. Here are some more pictures from the trip:

Adina planting a plant for her team:

Mohave Yucca:

Our Lord's Candle:

Incensio:

Pechanga Indian Reservation - March 9, 2009

2009-03-14T22:19:00.000-07:00

On our last field trip in my Advanced Digital Art class, we had the privilege of visiting the Pechanga Indian Reservation in Temecula. Our guide for the outing, Mr. Willie Pink, was extremely nice and extremely helpful in teaching our group all about the cultural background and preservation efforts of the Luiseno band of Native Americans.

I arrived a bit early to the Pechanga gas station (where the class was suppose to meet up), and was able to use the restroom there before we left on a shuttle bus to tour the reservation. I was extremely glad I did this, because port-o-potties are something I try to avoid at all possibilities!

Our first stop on our tour of the reservation was the Great Oak. This coastal oak was AMAZING! At over 100 feet high, and around 1,000+ years old, this oak is a magnificent tree! Mr. Pink told us of the history of the tree (how flooding had brought in more silt to the valley, raising the ground level to the tree's branches) and how the tree was used for boy scout camp outs. The tree was absolutely beautiful though. No matter what angle you looked at it from, it truly had it's own personality. Looking up into the branches, you could almost feel the tree looking back at you. The most beautiful part of the whole experience was just standing there, looking up at its huge branches, and seeing the sun glint through its leaves.

After spending about 30 minutes at the Great Oak, Mr. Pink decided it was time to move on to our next destination. We piled back onto the shuttle and drove over to an area of an old Luiseno Village. The first thing we saw was this cool rock with petroglyphs on it.

Next, we were able to look at the village. Though the original structures no longer exist, Mr. Pink explained to us a summer program the reserve has for the young Luiseno members, where they build their own structures, learn about the land their ancestors lived off of, and help to preserve their ancient culture by learning both language and customs passed down by generations. Mr. Pink explained how even the mentors are learning much about the work it takes to run and maintain a Luiseno Village. Many of the structures there do not last the winter, because they require constant care (the care it would receive if someone lived in the huts around the clock), but because the program is only a summer program, the structures are normally inhabitable after being vacant half of the year. The structures were extremely neat looking, and I could not resist getting an up close picture of some of the materials used.

In the same area, Mr. Pink showed us some of the native plants used in traditional basket weaving (such as the juncus Mr. Pink is holding in the above picture), along with some petroglyphs. I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed in myself for not checking my camera settings along the trip, because between the stop at the Great Oak, to the Luiseno Village area, I think I accidentally changed something, because a lot of my pictures came out over exposed. I was so angry at myself when I got home and discovered this!!! Luckily though, I was able to use Photoshop to fix a lot of them.

After finishing up at the Luiseno Village, we piled back on the shuttle one more time, and headed to a nursery on the reservation. The nursery was pretty small, but is completely dedicated to growing natural plants for the reserve. There we found juncus, yucca, and oak seedlings just sprouting. There was also different types of willows being grown, which can be used in both basket weaving and hut making.

As the sun went down and the wind got cold, our field trip had come to an end. It was the first time I had ever been on the Pechanga reservation, and our guide, Willie Pink, did a wonderful job of showing us around and teaching us about the Luiseno culture. I feel very lucky to have been able to participate in this trip, and the Great Oak will always be a wonderful memory for the rest of my life!

March 2 - Sally Mann

2009-03-02T18:24:00.000-08:00

We finished watching the Sally Mann documentary on "What Remains," and I was extremely moved by it.

Mann's series of photographs about death was a bit strange, and unnerving at first, but the more she explained her inspiration behind the photographs, the more interesting the whole concept became. One of my favorite photos she took was the photo of dog bones she lined up in a line. The picture of the bones, in black and white and surrounded by "bone dust," really epitomized the idea that all that's left after death is this shell of what you once were.

Another photo that I really like by Sally Mann is one of a tree with a cut through the middle of it. In black and white, it almost looks like the tree is bleeding.

Her work definitely inspires me to try and experiment more with black and white photography, because if done right it an convey very powerful messages.

Quiz Blog

2009-03-02T16:29:00.000-08:00

Tierra Miguel - February 23, 2009

2009-03-01T20:12:00.000-08:00

On Monday, February 23, I was able to go on my first field trip with my Advance Digital Art class to the Tierra Miguel Foundation farm in Pauma Valley, California. Driving east along Highway 76, I was slightly skeptical on what I would find out in the middle of nowhere. I have driven along Highway 76 before, on my way to Santa Ysabel, but had never stopped in the Pauma Valley area before, except for the occasional visit to the Pauma Casino. I had some trouble finding Cole Grade Rd to turn on, mainly because I am still waiting for my new prescription for my eyeglasses, but I did find the turn, and I was a bit surprised when I arrived at Tierra Miguel.

I am not sure what I expected, but what I found at the Tierra Miguel Foundation was nothing like I expected it to be. To be completely honest, after viewing their wonderful website, I was surprised to find a humble looking barn structure, with limited parking in front of it. It felt like I had just pulled up in front of an old run-down farm, and had there not been any other cars parked in the parking lot, I probably would not have stopped. After parking, I found my way inside to where a bunch of chairs were set up, with a laptop, projector, and projector screen. Inside was a bit sparse. An open structure with colorful, old mural paintings that reminded me of the beautiful Pauma Valley hills that surround the area.

I took my seat and waited for the presentation to start. After more students showed up, the presentation began. A spokeswoman, Beth, talked about the history of the Tierra Miguel land, and then proceeded to explain the purpose of the farm. I way absolutely blown away by the information she told us! I had no idea that San Diego was one of the biggest agricultural areas in California, and that our top grown crops are flowers and sod! Learning about the agricultural state of San Diego county really made me think about all the vegetables and fruits I find in my local grocery store, and makes me wonder how many of those are imported from other counties and countries, just so we can have the veggies we want year round.

One of Tierra Miguel's goals that really impressed me was their goal of teaching and helping with sustenance agriculture in Pauma Valley, and with helping the local community reconnect with the food they eat. Overall, I was extremely impressed learning about all that Tierra Miguel has achieved during their 8-9 years in Pauma Valley.

After sitting through the presentation, we finally got a chance to get up and take a tour of some of the field areas with our guide Jonathan. It was not as green as I had hoped it would be, but then again I probably was expecting something more like a normal industrial farm, which Tierra Miguel is not. We were able to walk through their small orchard area, past their strawberry fields, and past fields of "green cover," which they use and till into the ground to enhance nutrients for growing crops.

One of the fields that I found especially interesting was the kohlrabi field. As I was looking at the plants, all I could think to myself was "What the heck is a kohlrabi?" Unfortunately, I missed what our guide told us about the plant, but luckily there is always Google to help me out! Apparently, kohlrabi is a German turnip and "is a low, stout cultivar of the cabbage that will grow almost anywhere." Jonathan showed the class how to pull them up and which part to eat, and within a few minutes, everyone was trying to find themselves a kohlrabi to try, fresh from the ground! I grabbed myself a kohlrabi, broke off the leaves and the dirty roots and bit in! I was pleasantly surprised to find it tasted very much like a cabbage! It was a bit gritty since it was straight from the dirt, but the whole experience really made me feel connected to the food I was eating. I could not help hamming it up a bit and taking a picture of myself with a kohlrabi in my mouth for my friends and family to see (I wish I had used my Canon instead of my iPhone though). Later in the tour we got the chance to pull up baby carrots and eat them as well, which were absolutely delicious!

We finished our tour just as the sun was going down, which made for a beautiful opportunity for sunset pictures. As the sun disappears behind the western hills, the eastern hills turned a wonderful pinkish/purplish color, and looked almost as if they were painted that way. Overall, it was a wonderful experience, and I look forward to stopping by Tierra Miguel again next time I am out in the Pauma Valley area.

Edward Burtynsky - Manufactured Landscapes

2009-02-22T19:47:00.000-08:00

Burtynsky's photographs from Manufactured Landscapes are absolutely amazing! I really like how he uses his images to show us consumers exactly where our everyday products and objects come from and go to before and after use. His images are very compelling images and I think it's amazing how open they are to interpretation. An environmentalist might view one of his images completely different than an industrialist might.

One of my favorite images is this image:

This image of tires really emphasizes the huge amount of waste our society creates, just from tires! Personally, this image tells me that something needs to change, before the effect of our waste and garbage is irreversible.

OnOne Photo Frame

2009-02-22T16:17:00.000-08:00

OnOne Photo Frame is an absolutely amazing program for creating quick borders for your images! I spent some time playing around with the different frames and here are some wonderful creations I made using Photo Frame inside of Photoshop.

February 22, 2009 - Santa Rosa Plateau Nature Preserve

2009-02-22T14:09:00.000-08:00

After a few rain-filled weekends, today is the first day that I was able to take my Canon Rebel out to Santa Rosa Plateau for a hike. I was disappointed when I woke up this morning to find the sky overcast and gloomy, but that wasn't going to stop me today.

I left Fallbrook with my friend Chris around 8 A.M., took the I-15 North and arrived at the preserve around 8:40 A.M. We arrived at the preserve to find the parking area near the Visitors Center practically empty, so right away I knew we were going to have the trails all to ourselves! We put our hiking boots on and were ready for a hike out the the old adobe structures.

We were not sure which way to go at first, and so we did the Granite Loop trail first, but luckily all the trails are interconnected and well labeled, so within 10 minutes we were on our way to the adobes.

First starting out on the trail, I decided to wait to take pictures, mainly because it was still morning and with the overcast clouds, lighting was pretty poor. Instead of wasting memory space and battery life, I decided to just scope out the landscape and just take pictures on the way back when the light was better.

A mile and a half into the hike, the trail splits and we had the choice of staying on the dirt road, or taking a less traveled path, so we chose the less traveled path. It was a really nice route, with small green growth peeking out around the trail. The grassy meadow that surrounds you as you walk makes the whole hike very surreal and peaceful. Pretty soon, the trail started to get steeper and steeper, which neither of us expected. By the time we got to the top of the hill, we both decided that we need to get into better shape! We sat down for a rest and some water and looked back towards the direction we had just come from and WOW! It was a beautiful scene of rolling hills of oak trees and of the chaparral ecosystem with newly snow-covered mountains hanging in the background.

Also around us were some beautiful oak trees which surrounded the trail:

We continued on our hike and came to an extremely interesting dead tree. All that was left of it was the trunk of the tree and the stumps of two large branches it once had. The overall shape of it reminded me of Moses as he parts the Red Sea, and so here is my wooden Moses:

For some strange reason, I found the moss on the old dead tree to be fascinating, so I decided to get a nice close up of it. I think it was the texture that really caught my attention!

We continued on with our hike and quickly got close to the old adobe structures. I had been there once before with my simple point-and-shoot Canon camera, but I was excited to get some great photos with my new Canon Rebel. Upon arriving at the adobe structures, we were pleasantly surprised to be greeted by the tapping of woodpeckers! There were at least five of them hanging around the structures, but unfortunately I did not have the greatest lens for taking pictures of birds. I was able to take a picture of some of their handy work though!

Here are some other pictures I took from around the adobe structures:

After checking out the adobes, we decided it was time to get going and so we headed back to the Visitors Center and called it a day. It was a wonderful day for a hike, despite the overcast, but it was neither too hot or too cold. A lot of my pictures came out a bit bland because of it being overcast, but nothing Photoshop couldn't fix :).

Food Consciousness Blog

2009-02-09T15:18:00.000-08:00

Where did my food come from??

Well, before I figure out where my food came from I need to list out what I've eaten. For breakfast, I ate a fruit cup, and drank two cups of coffee with soy creamer and one cup of herbal tea. For lunch, I had leftover spaghetti from last night's dinner and drank a bottle of water.

I'm sure my fruit cup came from some Dole food processing plant, which most likely processes and packages bruised fruit that is not good enough to sell in the grocery store. My coffee, which was a Starbucks espresso roast, probably came from somewhere outside of the US, where Starbucks in growing coffee beans for cheap. As for my herbal tea, I have no clue where that came from.

As mentioned earlier, my leftover spaghetti was from last night's dinner. The sauce was a homemade sauce made from canned tomato paste and a variety of fresh vegetables. The vegetables, purchased through Major Market, were most likely locally grown, seeing as Major Market normally favors local farmers. We also had some ground up hot sausage mixed in with our sauce, which Major Market makes with locally raised beef.

My bottle water came from Costco, so it's probably just filtered tap water.

It is definitely a bit scary to realize that I rarely stop and think where my food is coming from before I consume it :(

Mark Dion - "Neukom Vivarium"

2009-02-02T18:17:00.000-08:00

I found Mark Dion's piece to be extremely interesting. I loved how he wanted to make a living piece of artwork, but I found it sad that he had to disrupt a natural setting in order to get his living piece. Watching the whole process of using a crane to lift the tree from it's natural setting was a bit disturbing, especially after seeing that there was a birds nest in the fallen tree. Overall though, the idea behind the piece is fascinating. Hopefully, even though he has disturbed a natural process, his piece will help educate and fascinate people who may not normally get a chance to experience the beauty and wonder of nature.

Scott Calhoun - "A Lake of Pure Sunshine"

2009-02-02T15:24:00.000-08:00

After reading Calhoun's account of his visit to the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, I find his stories to be entertaining and inspiring. He writes passionately about his love of different flora and much of his commentary only adds to the stories his pictures tell. After reading about his visit to the Poppy Reserve, I actually find myself wanting to visit it as well. Much of Calhoun's comments are witty and down-to-earth, making it easier to relate to his adventures.

"With their petals closed up, the poppies appeared both shy and defiant, but I enjoyed seeing them with the hatches battened down; the effect was more subtle, and the orange teardrop shapes of the flower heads added to their beauty." I admire how Calhoun uses a different approach to photographing the poppies. Even though the poppies were not open, Calhoun finds them just as beautiful and photographs them anyways.

All in all, Calhoun's poppy story is inspiring and I cannot wait to have my own photographic adventures to write about and share in my blog.

An-My Le Blog

2009-01-26T17:46:00.000-08:00

I found An-My Le's work to be very awe-inspiring. Her use of landscapes really put a perspective on how insignificant we are in nature. My favorite photo from the film is the photo of the military tanks driving along the bottom of a group of mountain ridges. In the photo, you can see these huge advanced technology tanks look like small play toys among the mountains. For me, this really put in perspective that, as An-My says, no matter how big or how advanced we build our military equipment, or other equipment, we still are small and insignificant compared to the big picture.

Robert Adams Blog

2009-01-26T17:09:00.000-08:00

I found Robert Adams work to be absolutely beautiful. I'm a huge advocate for environmentalism, and the protection of forests and wildlife, so seeing his work really touch a string with me. I found his method of balancing nature with civilization to be extremely captivating. His photo of Boulder City inside of the dark tree "bowl," was extremely symbolic to me of how important nature is for us, even though many people do not understand it's importance.

Another photo of his that I found very intriguing was the photo of the huge tree stump with the beer can on it. That image epitomizes how disrespectful civilizations can be towards nature. It is a sign that future generations need to learn from the mistakes of parents, grandparents, and ancestors, and learn how to find a greater balance between nature and the "advancement" of our society.

"Exhuming Andrew" Blog

2009-01-26T16:41:00.000-08:00

I found the music video for "Exhuming Andrew" by Janel Munoa to be extremely interesting. It was interesting to see the persona of the white race through a Native American perspective. I found her criticism of Western expansion to be very insightful. The images she used in her music video really illustrate how devastating the expansion of Western technology and culture has become, especially when it comes to destroying other cultures and natural environments.