Fourth of July Photos - Live from Imperial Beach!

I'm going to try to keep this under fifty words. These were all shot from the north end of Imperial Beach, looking south toward the pier. I needed light and stability, so I shot pretty much from beach level. There are more, but they're not as good...

Big Bay Boom 2011 - The view from Imperial Beach

There were hundreds on the beach where we were.

Some were bright enough to light up the entire beach.

Some of the explosions were even heart-shaped.



Fireworks were going off in San Diego too, but no one here seemed to notice.



The morning after, the beach was quiet and nearly empty. Only a slight scent of fireworks hung in the air.



 More photos are online at Imperial Beach Patch.

Wildflowers and the Anza-Borrego Desert

--Indigo Bush

[Click on any photo to link to this Picasa album - many more photos!]

Last weekend, my girl and I went out into the desert, looking for the blooming wildflowers and doing a big circuit through the Anza-Borrego Desert. We headed out Interstate 8 from San Diego to the bustling metropolis of Ocotillo. From there we headed north to Borrego Springs, and after dinner at Carlee's Place, we headed home.

--Engelmann's hedgehog flower

It wasn't enough. We went Sunday, too, taking the same route to Borrego Springs, and eating at Pablito's that night. We also headed home a slightly different direction, too. Instead of going out over the Yaqui Pass and through Julian, we took the S22 up the side of the mountain and through Ranchita and Santa Ysabel instead.

--Location north of Butterfield Ranch on S2 (San Diego County Route 2).

Need I add that it was a highly pleasant weekend? I thought not.

--Desert lily

[All photo credits? Me. Click on a photo to link to this Picasa album.]

Photos: El Camino Motel, Imperial Beach ("John From Cincinnati's" Snug Harbor)

One of my favorite TV shows in recent years was HBO's brilliant, criminally-unwatched "John From Cincinnati." Set in Imperial Beach, California, much of it was actually also shot there. The exterior of the Snug Harbor Motel, hands down the show's most important set was filmed in IB's El Camino Motel.

(Click on a picture to see more photos of the El Camino.)

Run down, abandoned, and left to rot off Palm Avenue, I finally decided to get a few shots there. I spoke with neighbors at two different businesses; no one claimed to know who owned it.

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I've read that the cabins on the grounds where Butchie lived were built by the production company. I suspect that's true, but even now they look as if they've been there all along.

As an avid fan of David Milch's looping, baroque "Milchspeak," I loved the show dialogue, particularly the reflective, swirling way that John himself usually spoke. This is just a little taste from John's famous "Sermon at the Motel" - and yes, it's just a bit, and it's clean.

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"Joe is a Doubting Thomas. Joe will save Not-Aleman. Joe will bring his buddies home. This is how Freddie relaxes: cup-of-Joe and Winchell's variety dozen...

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...Fur is big, mud is big, the stick is big. The Word is big. Fire is huge. The wheel is huge. The line and circle are big. On the wall, the line and circle are huge. On the wall, the man at the wall makes a man from the circle and line. The man at the wall makes a Word on the wall from the circle and line. The Word on the wall hears my Father."

Photos: San Diego Waterfront at Night

These shots were all taken on December 28, along the waterfront just north of downtown San Diego. None of them are the "best snaps ever!" that I'd like them to be, but they were one of my first low-light practice sessions with my new Panasonic Lumix fz-35.

These were (obviously) shot with no flash, only the ambient light - which is more than ample, and were done handheld. There was no tripod used, or any measures taken to keep the pictures stationary. Except for me standing very, very still.

If the links work right, you should be able to click through on any of the pictures to see the full gallery.

Let me know what you think.