Snow begins to fall in the local mountains of Southern California, and I grow anxious for get out of the office and go skiing. This year, I was fortunate enough to get out twice during the week to enjoy short lift lines and a relaxed drive in the snow lined highways of the San Bernardino Mountains. This year, I also had a new large format camera to break in, so my goals were two fold this year. I woke up early with snow quietly falling, and covering the granite soil of the northern edge of Big Bear Valley. After some initial tripod issues, I set off across the street towards the national forest. I was rewarded with a quickly changing sky, amazing light, snow dusted boulders and a cold wet dog called Duffy.
Archive for the ‘2004’ Category
Big Bear, CA Winter 2004
Friday, January 29th, 2010Red Rock Canyon, CA, Winter 2004
Friday, January 29th, 2010In the winter of 2004, I decided to purchase a 4×5 camera. The reasons are too many to go into in this report. So, in February my brother and I jumped into my Jeep and drove North towards Red Rock Canyon about 2 hours away. It was a beautiful day, and we almost made it all the way to Red Rock Canyon before my Jeep turned up a little 4×4 trail leading up to an old mining district.
The hike in this area was amazing. A short hike from the car, and it seemed we traveled years back in time as we hiked up the narrow valley towards the mine opening. We scouted the area before I hiked back down to the mine opening that grabbed my attention. The dark sun dried wood held back the collapse of the purple and yellow rock piled high above.
This simple black and white polaroid was my first large format taken in the wilderness. I was amazed when I opened up the lens and peered through the ground glass for the first time. My imagination soared when I realized I was using equipment very similar to the great photographer of the past. Looking at an abandon mine through the glass of a camera that will be abandoned by technology seemed poetic. It took my 15 minutes to compose, re meter, compose, double-check and finally press the cable release to capture this image, but the time flew by in my world. The camera and subject matter may be a scene from the past, but I think that this image represents my future.
