My pirates at the beach in Santa Monica

These photos are from the beach in Santa Monica using my test models.  They happen to be my children too.  I shot them on Veteran’s Day, 2010 – no school and nice weather.  We were at home and they had no idea about my plan – their questions become overwhelming so I always leave it a surprise.  I made them some lunch then, after they ate, I told them to get their shoes on because we’re going on a ride.  They suspect something is up but have no idea what.  My oldest is besides herself during the ride – she must know where we are going or she will die an agonizing death.  My youngest is just happy to be riding and singing songs that she makes up.  This is normal behavior for them.  When we made into LA proper, I let the cat out of the bag.  They were whooping and hollering them.  I even got a few choruses of “We’re going to the beach!”  Needless to say, they like going to the beach.

The first two photos I took with my BlackBerry Bold.  The other 20 I shot using my Canon PowerShot S5 IS.  22 photos, that’s a lot for me to put in a blog posting.  Oh well.

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.

Entry 14: Oceanside Beach

What did I say?  Oh yeah, I was going to feature woman from now on.  As much as I would love to do that, I just take too many photos of other things.  I have to put them somewhere.  Ok, this is a photography blog.  The beach at Oceanside, CA is where I took these photos.  There are women in the photos too so I guess I’m still sticking to the “females” plan.  I won’t bore you with a lot of jibber jabber about this, that and the other on each photo.  I was just killing time before I picked up my kids and listening to my dad talk to me on the phone while I did it.  I won’t jump into the world of TMI and tell what my dad was talking to me about either.  However, since I’m gabbing, how about that situation in Egypt?  That place can’t be any fun right now.  I’ve never been there – been to the Middle East but not there.  The Lee Greenwood song is playing in my head now.  I heard someone on the news talking about how they have a lot of inflation there in Egypt but wages are staying the same.  That reminded me of my “Warehouse Story”.  Back in 1986, I left a job with the once thriving now extinct retailer, Mervyn’s, where I worked at one of their distribution centers (warehouse).  When I left, I made $11.95 an hour.  This is in the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Area, again in 1986.  I left the job for the Army.  In 2005, I was preparing to leave the Army and took a night job at a K-Mart distribution centers (warehouse) in the Atlanta metro.  I was supposed to be a warehouseman, like when I worked at Mervyn’s, but was offered a better paying position working for Loss Prevention.  They paid me $12.00 per hour.  Wow - 20 years later and the warehouse job is still paying $12.00 per hour.  Oh wait; it’s less because that was the Loss Prevention pay.  Lee Greenwood is still playing in my head and I definitely don’t want to move to Egypt but that whole pay situation is just wrong.  I don’t know about where you live but the price of gas has gone up a lot more than that wage over the last 20 years.  So has the price of milk, rent, a car, going to the movies, rice, need I continue.  It is sobering.  Let me get to work on income generation.  But before I go, Oceanside, California:

003, The pier at Oceanside.  Ok, I have to write something about the shot.  I used my EF75-300mm f/4-5.6 lens with a focal length of 80.0 mm.  The picture style was set to standard.  I used the same lens and picture style on all of the shots.

010, Looking south along the beach with the focal length at 80.0 mm. 

011, This one the focal length is set to 300.0 mm so I could zoom in on the guy with the camera.  I like photographing other photographers.

016, This one the focal length is also set to 300.0 mm so I could zoom in on the “chicks” in bikinis.  I told you there were females in the photos.

027, I was looking north along the coast with this shot.  Those dwellings behind the trees must be expensive to be located in such an area where you garner such a magnificent view of the ocean.  I don’t think they pay that rent or mortgage with warehouse pay.  I took the shot with a focal length of 80.0 mm

067, The last shot I took as I was making my way back to the parking lot.  Remember, I had to go get my kids.  This is looking south again.  The focal length was also at 80.0 mm for this shot.  I’m going to have to try shooting with the focal length in the middle just for giggles.

Well, that’s Oceanside, CA.  I have some photos of Santa Monica too.  I’ll have to get those up here sometime.  Oh, an idea has come upon me!  The blogging about the female form – I should just start a new blog about that and leave this one to everything else.  Now there’s an idea.  If only I could squeeze in the time, oh well.  Oh, wait!  Thank you, Anita, for commenting on my postings.  And I would love to work abroad (again but this time for someone else besides my Uncle Sam) except not in Egypt.  I’ll just drag my kids along.  Now I just have to find who is hiring and for what.  Yeah, and where.  Ok, I am in need of sleep.  Good night.