Edward Burtynsky - Manufactured Landscapes

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

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

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

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"

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"

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.