Early morning sees quiet at the old construction site, where this home at the site of an old palm plantation (which had fallen into disrepair) is being renovated. I love the chaos amid the grid of palms.
Category: California
A “Nope” Cloud Over Coachella
A terrifying cloud (I swear, it makes sense) is the antagonist of “Nope,” and I saw echoes of that shape in this cloud above the San Jacinto Mountains and the Empire Polo Club.
Pirates of the Salton Sea
The Bombay Beach Ruins now feature this fanciful pirate ship, but at its core is another sculpture with a far different 1950s-automotive-aerial aesthetic. I wonder what inspiration caused the artist to transform one piece into another—or if this was the work of a second artist? I’m reminded of old masters reusing canvases, painting over earlier works to repurpose the raw materials.
Sunset on 2025
We’ve reached the end of 2025 and I’ll celebrate with what I think is one of my best shots of the year—and also just chronologically one of the last shots of the year. The tiny camper van and far-off lights add a sense of scale, saying “goodbye” to the distant events of that past time. Happy New Year!
Swing Is Dry Now
The Bombay Beach Ruins is a sculpture garden on the shallow shores of the Salton Sea, and this particular swing is the site of some of my favorite pictures—but the gradual evaporation of the sea has stranded a symbol of whimsy and magic on the beach as, well, just a regular swing now.
Ending the Season with the San Jacinto Mountains
Though the tiny lights of the Coachella Valley set the scale for the mighty size of the San Jacinto Mountains, even that range is dwarfed by the mighty scope and expanse of the sunset.
Gray Day at Pacific Beach
Though sun and fun and surf (and turf?) may be the core of the SoCal identity, even Pacific Beach gets a gray winter day.
Convention Crossing Crowd
After a nighttime poster session, crowds of chemists issued forth from the San Diego Convention Center and across the tracks to the Gaslamp Quarter.
Passenger
A bright gold shirt is a great way to stand out against the black paint of this mid-1950s Buick.
Bubble City
The enormous interior halls of the San Diego Convention Center are far beyond the size necessary for most of the American Chemical Society presentations, so these pop-up tents divide the space in an excitingly futuristic way.
BNSF Paint Job?
A childhood spent with a bedroom window facing the train tracks built a skill for identifying train engine paint jobs, but the intervening years of mergers and the geographical distance between Illinois and California have diminished the intense recognition that would have had me swear that black, orange, and yellow meant a BNSF engine.
Many Rails
So many almost-parallel lines in this image (both rail and power) gives it a disorienting quality.
But the Curtain Did Not Rise Again
Spreckels Theater closed in 2020, was sold in 2021, and leaves behind its marquee as a grim and overly optimistic reminder of a different time.
Return Flight, Almost Night
Reflections of sunset light from the engineered surfaces of an aircraft are quite different from the rougher surfaces of buildings and plants at ground level.
Lunch on the Elevator of the USS Midway
From a past carrying aircraft to the flight deck of the USS Midway, this carrier elevator is now a lunch spot.
Decaseconds 