Oh Rosie

If I had looked at these photos even just a year ago I probably would have wanted to either vomit or punch someone in the face. A particular someone but really anyone would have been ok. These roses were given to me by my ex on our 5 year anniversary. That was 2002 when everything was, what I thought, hunky dory. In reality things were not good even then. I can actually see that by looking at these roses. They're dark and foreboding. At the same time there is some beauty there. It's all very descriptive of my entire time in Sweden pretty much. It was more or less a 10 year depression with periods of happiness. When I think of myself during that time the first thing that comes to mind is "Who the hell WAS that inside my body??" Not that I regret that time or anything. In fact, I look at it as a crucial time in my life that was a catalyst for a tremendous amount of growth.

For probably almost a decade I've wanted to do something with my photography other than take photos once in a while and put them on the internet. I've felt like there's some kind of story to tell but I never knew what. It's been this huge looming project. Now that I've been in California for 4 years it's finally time to start that project and I know what I want to do with it. I don't know all the details but realized I don't need to know all the details. I just need to start. And started I have!

Lost Horse Mine Trail - Joshua Tree 2012

It never fails. Every time I take a trip out somewhere and take photos it will take me weeks to actually sit down and go through them. I'll download them to my computer almost right away and take a quick look but over the next few weeks I'll let them sit in my mind while I decide what exactly I'm looking for in the photos. What feeling am I trying to convey? What are the dominant colors and how can I enhance that? It's also partly due to anxiety that they'll be total crap and I'll hate all of them when I look closer. Some of my best photos have sat on my hard drive for over a month until I see in my minds eye what I want from it. Of course, there are other photos that come out right away because I knew what I was looking for when I was taking it in the first place. Would be nice if it was always like that. It would also be nice if I could sit down at the computer whenever I wanted without a 2 year old trying to either climb on me or searching for something she can destroy because apparently that's her job. 

My sister was here a few weeks ago and we drove out to Joshua Tree. It was my 3rd trip out there and is probably one of my favorite places in Southern California. The drive out is a mere 2 hours. I love the fact that in 2 hours time I can be out in the middle of the desert with nothing around me but silence. No cell phone service. No people. No cars. No toddlers. Nothing. I love it. 

This time I found a trail out to a place called Lost Horse Mine. There were maybe about a dozen other people out on the trail but luckily everyone understood that this is not a place to be loud and obnoxious. Here are a few of the trail we walked out there. It was a couple miles out and a couple miles back. 

Trail to the Emerald Pools - Zion National Park

We get off the little bus that runs through Zion every few minutes..shuffling around tourists just like ourselves. We decide to walk up to the Emerald Pools. A short 1 mile 'hike'. Naturally it starts to drizzle as we're walking and thunder is heard in the distance. Not a big deal but considering I'm lugging around an almost brand new camera that isn't even paid for and a heavy tripod I get a tad worried. Worst case scenario: torrential downpour and I have to find a rock to hide under to protect the equipment. Of course that didn't happen. It did eventually start to rain harder but I got these shots right before that happened...

By the time we got down to the Emerald Pools it was raining too hard to take any photos. I'm happy with what I got anyhow!

Court of the Patriarchs - Zion National Park

During our last trip to Las Vegas in September we took a day trip over to Zion National Park. This was a big deal for me because I haven't seen a lot of National Parks but have it on my bucket list to visit at least all of the major parks here in the United States.

The drive there took about 2 hours and I don't have any photos of that because there was nothing on the way there. Literally nothing. It was even more desolate than the drive from Corona to Las Vegas. At least that trip does have Barstow...as depressing as it is. I would like to note, however, that within 5 minutes of entering Utah I spotted a traditional Mormon polygamist female. I felt like I was on safari spotting some strange creature. I'd only HEARD of these types of people but had never actually encountered one. Nothing much to report though; she was only exiting the gas station and got in a pickup truck. 

Zion is very tourist friendly. The place was pretty packed for a cool cloudy day with rain in the forecast. Most of the tourists were also foreign. Of course we had the Japanese but I also heard a few Swedes in the group. One of our first stops was Court of the Patriarchs. A difficult task to achieve as a photographer in heavily photographed areas is to get an interesting shot. It requires climbing into areas the other folks don't venture off to. So I left the path and climbed up the hillside a bit to get a different perspective.

Here I was squatting at the edge of the river praying I would not fall in. If I had fallen in I would not have been surprised. Kind of a clutz.

 More Zion Photographs