Snowy plovers
The snowy plovers at Ocean Beach are pretty spectacular (not to mention extra-snowy in black and white).
Outdoors Archives, page 16
I like to go outdoors a lot. Primarily hiking, occasionally camping, and sometimes other fun activities.
To the top of Kelso Dunes
Here are some more photos from our Thanksgiving trip to the Mojave Desert. While there, we climbed to the top of the Kelso Dunes, which turned out to be surprisingly challenging.
Mojave landscapes in black and white
For Thanksgiving last year, Stephanie and I rented an Escape Campervan and drove down to the Mojave Desert. There we met up with friends Julie and Patrice who had driven down separately. It was something of a reprise of our Thanksgiving in 2008, when we all met up at Joshua Tree. I say we make camping in the desert our new Thanksgiving tradition. It’s dry, it’s warm out (when the sun’s up), and it’s uncrowded. I like the expansive emptiness of the desert. I’m glad Stephanie does too.
Salt ponds in black and white
Inspired by the DVD series Saving the Bay, I volunteered a few hours one morning last October with Save the Bay, weeding invasive species from the Ravenswood Salt Ponds. Afterwards, I walked along the Bay Trail between Bayfront Park and the headquarters of Facebook (of all places), taking photos of the salt-crusted channels of an old salt pond. It seemed an apt subject for the Leica loaded with black and white film.
Olive crush
On Saturday we camped at Joseph D. Grant County Park east of San Jose with Casey and Kyle. It was probably the coldest weather we’ve ever camped in—I’m pretty sure it got below freezing during night. Inside my sleeping bag I was wearing wool socks with heating packets, jeans, boxers, a tshirt, a fleece pullover, a hoodie, a winter jacket, and fleece gloves! It was not the most technical garb, and I probably should have been better prepared, but we’d only planned to camp for a single night. We were down there because one of Kyle’s coworkers had invited us to help pick olives at his wife’s family’s home in the nearby countryside.
