The Sitting Room

I’ve had good luck and bad with travel sites (e.g. Hotwire) that offer a price for a room based upon its location and general swankiness, but that hide the actual hotel until after you’ve booked. This time, however, I hit the photographic jackpot: the Westgate, built in 1970 and designed to recreate the Rococo stylings of of Versailes.

From the ornate carvings on the chairs to the silky, nearly-luminescent wallpaper, every detail screams “opulence;” spending just a few moments here brings to mind immediate thoughts of subjugating the populace.

The Sitting Room

Control Towers

Back in January, when I was visiting San Diego, CA, I had a chance to drive to the top of Mt. Soledad (near La Jolla) to see the sunset. Ultimately, the day was too hazy to get really good sunset pictures, but I was able to shoot these surreal radio towers at the top of the mountain. I really like the way they stand in contrast to the bushy trees around them. Having played a lot of the fantastic Mass Effect 3 lately, seeing this photo put me in mind of some sort of sinister signal broadcast center.

Control Towers

Sand Fortress

To the adults at the beach, it was December: the light was fading fast, the wind was a bit chilly, and every surfer had a wet suit. To the kids, though, it was summer. A day at the beach is always a slice of summer, with the wave splashes and ambitious sand construction projects to prove it. With the camera down at “kid height,” the beach stretches on forever and I faced a contest in which serious consideration was given to who had created the most imposing edifice.

Sand Fortress

Hey, Surfer Girl!

This shot of a surfer in La Jolla, CA is another from near the Scripps pier that I featured previously here. The contrast between the reflection on the sand and the rough, concrete pier turned out pretty well, by my favorite part is also the one over which I had the least control: the surfer (and her brightly-colored board) just happened to be walking by. The whole scene just felt so classically “Californian.”

Hey, Surfer Girl