13th Biennial Ontario Open Exhibition, Opening Reception

Hey, don’t mind me. I just broke my website again. For me, WordPress is not user friendly. I even paid for services from an outside vender once. I’m never doing that again – it still hurts. I need to change subjects though. We have another group show coming up, gang! This one is in Ontario, CA and it’s free to the public. Next Saturday at 2pm. That’s May 3^rd next Saturday. I hope to see you there.

Things That I Have Done

I will graduate tomorrow with a bachelor’s degree.  This is one of the things I did to earn it.  It was the first video I created in Final Cut Pro X.  It’s a bit rough but I liked it.

The Objectivity Project Show

I've have fallen behind on my posting.  But there has been a lot going on.  Like this upcoming show - a lot of preparation.

Arts N Fashion Magazine

Wow, the year’s end is upon us.  Well, I have an assignment tonight in Beverly Hills – cool.  2014 will be a great year I know.  Here is something cool that happened in 2013 – got published in a publication not associated with my university – cool.  Enjoy.

http://issuu.com/artsnfashion/docs/winter2013/1?e=2296489/6035979

Oh, I updated my website too.

http://www.edwardlancemontgomeryphotography.com/

Happy New Year!

Victorville’s Blue Dawn

I think I have said this before but the Victor Valley is a scenic place.  When you look around the place, you see how it could have easily been a vacation spot if it was approached that way years ago.  This blue dawn is another example of how amazing the views can be.

In this photo, I’m looking east north east, if you will.  It is a quarter past 6:00 am and you can see Apple Valley in the distance.  I think the layers of mountains are what really make the image.  Enjoy.

A Time of Great Happiness

You have to live up here in the Victor Valley in order to appreciate the significance of this bridge opening up.  They have had it planned for years.  They have been working on it for over a year.  Today they had a big “whoop tee-do” celebrating its initial opening.  That’s what the pictures are about.  You still can’t get on the interstate from it but you can cross to the other side (La Mesa Road) from Nisqualli Road.  You’re not forced to endure the standstill on Bear Valley or try your luck on Palmdale Road.  To get to Wal-Mart or the mall will only take 5 minutes instead of 15 to 20 minutes depending on what time of day it is for the same distance.  That’s a lot of gas idling away as you sit and wait.  And the freeway entries and exits should be operational within 30 days.  Just in time for the fall quarter.  Enjoy.

Joshua Tree and Sky

Hey, Happy New Year!!  So, when should we stop wishing people “Happy New Year”?  Never.  I read somewhere that you should start each day with expectation.  So, let’s wish everyone a happy new year all of the time.  My expectation is that I photograph wonderful things all of the time.  This is one.  I took this photograph of a Joshua tree way back on Sep 2011 not far from my kids’ bus stop.  You’d never know that I was in the middle of Victorville.  Well, if you live here you might.  Just the same – it’s cool, huh?

Rainbow

I was working on Poohstock last time but did this shot with my cell phone – A Blackberry Torch.  Why do I plug the corporations?  Who knows because they definitely do pay me.  Anyway, we were riding from Lancaster back to Victorville when I spotted this rainbow southbound on 90^th East.  No, I was not texting and driving – I was drive-by shooting!  A technique I developed in Iraq in 2003/04.  No, not with my M16 – with my camera.  Just the same, cool rainbow.

Victor Valley, CA

So I am driving around trying to scout out the area for photo shoots because I am new here.  Here being Victorville, CA.  I had been in Fontana for almost a year and just relocated to Victorville here in the VictorValley.  I had been driving around a few places, doing my ‘drive by shooting’ with my camera, when it occurs to me that the area was poised to blow up before the great economic meltdown of 2008 – The Great Recession as it is known in the financial world.  I say that because you can see signs of development that simply stopped.  So many places were in that predicament all over the country.  But why were people coming to Victor Valley in the first place?  The place gets crazy hot in the summer (it sits in the Mojave Desert) and crazy cold, with snow, in the winter.  In the winter, people do get “snowed in” up here when the CHP closes the Cajon Pass on I-15 – that means you are cut off from getting down below into San Bernardino/Riverside Metro and on to LA.  Well, you could always reverse direction and head to Vegas I guess.  But aside from being a place to stop and eat on your way to and from Las Vegas, why would people want to live out here?  I only came because it was cheap relative to many other areas in So Cal.  Nevertheless, the place was growing before the Great Recession.  Median house prices were above $350K back then.  I believe there is something more going on here than meets the eye.  Clearly, I am going to have to learn more.  But look for yourself:

I was out next to Mojave Narrows Regional Park on June 2 looking for interesting places to do a photo shoot.  Look at those mountains in the background.  California is full of impressive geography if you just pause to look.  I shot these with my Canon PowerShot A540 – still working my old faithful.

With my PowerShot A540 in hand on June 4, I was driving around way out in the far parts of Apple Valley (yeah, the “far parts”) and saw this abandoned place. Definitely, the ‘Hills Have Eyes’kind of stuff going on here. Oh, they filmed part of that movie out here. Makes you say hmm…

Yesterday, June 9, while driving to school (Cal State San Bernardino in North San Bernardino) on I-15, I observed how the smog was held at bay by the mountains as I drove through the Cajon Pass.  I know, what’s worse – texting and driving or shooting and driving?  It’s not as hard as it looks when you have a CanonPowerShot S5 IS with its “High-resolution 2.5-inch vari-angle LCD for easy shooting at any angle”.  Was that a plug or what?  They should hire me.

This last shot I took with the PowerShot S5 too.  I was just cruising the streets in Victorville hunting for places to shoot.  I just like how I caught the sun in this shot.  I shot this today, June 10, 2011.