travels || on tour

Back, way back in January, Ellie Arciaga and I planned to take to start a project titled Letterbox.  We would be following our good friends in Pickwick around the west coast (and a little bit of the Midwest) documenting the first leg of their first national tour.  While this isn't a post about Pickwick (you can view that on the Letterbox site) it is about all the shots that was taken while on tour. We traveled from California, down to Arizona, through New Mexico, over to Texas, up to Colorado and ended in Salt Lake City in under 3 weeks.  I had not been to 5 of these states before and I was truly excited. We were on such a tight schedule that at times we would literally see an amazing shot, slam on the breaks, jump out of the car with the engine running, take 5 or 6 shots and jump back in the car so we could catch up with the van.  Moments like these, just too good to keep to myself.

Touring was as intense as anyone can say, Ellie and I weren't playing the music but we were right there along with them; driving just as many miles, sleeping only a few hours a night, eating gas station beef jerky, using porta potties... and taking photos at every waking moment.  It was a challenging experience that I won't ever forget, nor would I trade for anything in the world.

There are so many specifics I could talk about, but.. I think that the most memorable moment was when Ellie and I drove into Salt Lake City. We were almost at the end of the trip having a flight that night back to Seattle and we had to clean the rental car before then.  We found one of those automatic spots where you drive up on to the track and they swish you down a series of colorful foamy polishes and rinses.  We scrambled for our phones to photograph the kaleidoscope on the windshield.  Even then we wanted to take a photo, even after 3 weeks of non stop shooting, we wanted to remember the car wash.  It reminded me that I loved taking photographs, even streaks of purple soap on glass, even when I was tired as shit, even when we were SO ready to be done and go home.  I remember how strange it felt not having my camera around my neck the following days after we got back... like I had lost an arm.

Afterwards we took everything out of the car (so we could vacuum up the spilled cashews and potato chips).  We then neatly packed our mementos, our saved succulents from Texas that we would root when we got home, our postcards, our questionable vintage purchases from Los Angeles, our beat-to-shit cameras, our dirty, smelly clothes.. It took us 3 weeks by car to get there, but only 3 hours by plane to get home.

anyways, enough of my reminiscing. here's the gems:

Los Angeles

Somewhere in California 

Arizona

New Mexico

Texas

Colorado

travels || southern california

On our way down to a wedding in San Diego, we made a pit stop in Laguna Niguel and stayed at a friends house.  They have amazing white sandy beaches- and thats where our interests lied, we wanted to live in our swimsuits and this was the place for it.  We pool-hopped, we beach-hopped, we tested the water with our toes and got sand in everything we owned. (my clothes still smell like sun-screen and I think I'll keep it that way for a while).

San Diego was quite striking as well. We ran around in the Encinitas area, which I preferred- mostly inhabited by locals/surfers, it felt like the real deal.  La Jolla's beaches are unlike anything I've ever seen and it made me want to sell all my things and pitch a tent on the beach (you can do that, right?)

Here's to you, Southern California, and all of your glorious, sunny perfection-

travels || carmel-by-the-sea

I suppose I'm having to squeeze a bit of effort into this post.  I didn't love Carmel, or the Carmel that most will read about or will vacation at... it's pretty kitschy and there are lots of little shops and places to winey and diney, blah blah. it's all a bit much for me.  This is all completely beside the point.  What I really want to talk is about what I noticed about Carmel when I was post-processing these photos.  By the time we had reached this gilded little european-esque beach town it had been engulfed by late afternoon fog and was almost completely devoid of color.  I loved these photos almost more than the shots I gathered from Big Sur because of this discovery.  The contrast between foggy skies, white sandy beaches or stark stuccoed houses silhouetted by wind-blown trees and their shadows, black wrought iron fences or dark figures on the beach.... well, it was really something.  I like quiet, peaceful, stark Carmel. That's the Carmel I could spend some time with.