Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Rest Stop Redwoods

The Rains have Started...

The autumn rains have started here in Crimea. We go from not a drop in 3 months to daily downpours and the shock is major. My lungs, on schedule, have started to get really bad as the raw, damp weather soaks them to the core. I'm sucking on my inhaler in a somewhat wasted effort to keep thing working but it's only partially effective. If I keep to plan, in a month or so I'll start coughing up globs of goo and it'll be time to start seriously planning the next trip home.

Speaking of which ... I'm hoping to spend more than a month in LA trying to get enough footing for 2 videos. One will be dedicated to timelapse and hyperlapse where I'll really work on my technique and on covering as much of the city as I can. I'm creating a long list of venues where I hope I can shoot. I'm hoping to get enough footage for 8+ minutes which is a big deal for such a short time. The other project is my animation study and I'll be shooting more raw videos with the new Canon 5D mk 3 I'm buying. I'll use the Magic Lantern hack to get 14 bit color at 24p. The videos I've seen are amazing so I'm looking forward to testing that out. I'll also use some of the footage from the other project so I won't need nearly as much work but it's still a big undertaking. Along the way I'll also be shooting my photos so there'll be lots of raw material for my return in the spring. Should be an exhausting but exhilarating 3 months.

Rest Stop Redwoods

My last stop in California was at a rest stop near the Oregon border. It was an interesting stay for sure. I arrived late in the afternoon and spent the night. Now, I've pointed out before the restrictions on stays in California rest stops. They have an '8 hour' rule which means you are only allowed to stay for 8 hours in a single day. I planned on staying a bit longer as I wanted to eat some dinner and catch a good night's rest and take a few hours to get breakfast and fire up my computer to transfer a ton of images from my camera into safe storage. It was more like 14 hours but who's counting? Well, the guy who cleans the rest stop for one. As I was setting up my computer he wandered over and reminded me of the 8 hour rule. After a few moments to consider what he said, I told him I had no intention of 'living' in his rest stop and was just doing a few housekeeping chores before heading down the road. Also reminded him that it wasn't his responsibility or part of his job description to be telling me that ... he was, after all, the janitor. That put him off just enough for me to finish my work and leave. Arrogant little prick.

I digress ... what was unique about this rest stop was hidden behind thick hedges and trees. I followed a path through the trees to discover this absolutely amazing grove of mature redwoods and a world that couldn't have been more different from the asphalt and dirt of the rest area that most travelers saw. The colors were spectacular. So, being the photographer, I set up my gear and took some pictures. What a peaceful and amazing place this was. And the moss cover on the sidewalk was just icing on this marvelous cake.

Rest Stop Redwoods - 18 mm(1.6 crop),f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

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