Laura and I drove into San Diego late last night, after flying into Orange County. It’s nice to be back in California again. It’s a bit cool and grey, which I’m told is due to the “June Gloom,” a weather condition that results in clouds and fog in the mornings and evenings. In the morning, I left Laura to enjoy her conference in San Diego, and drove up the coast toward Los Angeles. I found that the June Gloom quickly gives way to bright blue skies at mid-day, as the California sun is irrepressible.
Heading north on I-5, I made a stop in San Clemente to dip my feet into the Pacific, walk the pier, and to have a delicious seafood salad at the Beach Garden Cafe. I particularly enjoyed walking the beach, feeling the pull of the tide eroding the sand beneath my feet, the ocean breeze through my hair, and the sun on my face. Children pelted noisily by, kicking up sand, splashing into the surf, fueled by new discovery. Their excitement fortified my own desire for exploration. In the distance, dark dolphin shapes looped lazily above the waves before disappearing again into azure.
For the next couple of nights, I’ll hang out with my talented Uncle Wayne in Los Angeles. Wayne has 40 years of experience in architectural photography, and is a great source of professional and artistic knowledge.
I love shooting at night. It’s quiet, peaceful, and the closest thing to meditation that I do. Tonight’s model was this little tree–a maple, I think–located at Spencer Smith Park in Burlington. I noticed the tree when I was out with Laura last night, and returned tonight to shoot it, for no other reason than I thought it looked cool and ghostly. I love the bending shape of its trunk, and how its leaves were at the point of bursting to life from tight buds. It was lit by a nearby street lamp, which gave it quite a strange orange color. The air was quite still, so even though some of my exposures were nearly 30 seconds long, I was still able to capture lots of tiny details.
You can get some really unusual results when you take long exposures. In reality, the color was most like the first of the three images below. Pulling the white balance way towards the “cool” end while processing the third photo made the tree look a bit more like its real daytime color.
Maybe these aren’t the most exciting photos in the world, or the most elaborate I’ve ever taken, but often I find the joy of photography in the act of pure creation, with no goal other than to see something familiar in a new way.
I picked up Pepper yesterday. That’s what I’ve decided to name my new car. She’s not pickled and she’s more than a peck, but Pepper packs a punch. She’s a 2010 MINI Cooper S Mayfair Edition in, of course, pepper white. Sure, she’s cute, but she’s spicy too. Push the “Sport Mode” button by the shifter and she growls with anticipation for the next curve. Pepper’s also rockin the upgraded harmon/kardon sound system. Best. Upgrade. Ever. I have always enjoyed a good car stereo, and this one sounds fantastic. I spend so much time in the car, and cranking the tunes on this system makes time fly by.
My life has changed so much since I first picked up Emeril four years ago. I’ll miss Emeril’s all-weather AWD capability. In fact, Pepper’s the first non-Subaru I’ve had in about 12 years. I’m not saying I’ll never go back to driving a Subaru, because they’ve served me so well and gotten me through so many foul-weather scrapes, but now that I’m a full-time photographer, I just don’t need that kind of utility. If the weather is truly awful, there’s no need for me to leave the studio. I thought it was time to drive a car that went a bit further on a tank of gas, and suited my personal style a bit better.
Driving Pepper takes a little getting used to. The six-speed manual transmission is the first six-speed I’ve driven regularly, so having that extra gear is unusual for me. The spacing between gears is also different than what I’ve grown accustomed to, so I’m still figuring out what gear feels right for different situations. Pepper’s feisty engine is harnessed to the front wheels, and especially in “sport mode” gives a pretty hefty torque-steer twist under heavy acceleration. It’s part of the MINI Cooper S’s character to do this, but it will take a while for me to not to be surprised after having driven those highly symmetrical Subarus for years. The suspension is also quite stiff. Emeril’s suspension rode a pretty fine balance between handling and comfort, so Pepper’s more sporty suspension, combined with low profile tires can be slightly jarring on not-so-perfect Southern Ontario roads. That being said, I’m not complaining. My 39-month leased journey with Pepper is sure to be filled with driving fun.
I have to tip my hat to MINI Oakville, who took great care of me, even though there were bumps in the sales process. I have to admire a company who takes immediately and unreservedly takes responsibility for its mistakes and moves swiftly to correct them. I’m a happy customer, and I’m thrilled to dealing with any of the Budd’s car dealerships in the future.
After picking Pepper up from MINI Oakville, we went for a little spontaneous photo shoot. After all, Pepper’s a photographer’s car!
In the last couple of years, I’ve been on a quest to be more conscious of the food I eat. To me, this meant adopting the paleo lifestyle, and eating local, organic food as much as budget and availability allows. I have also tried as best I can to sort fact from fiction when it comes to nutrition. It hasn’t always been easy, but in the process, I’ve lost a lot of weight, gained lots of energy, and leveled out my moods. I also feel healthier and look much younger than I did before I started this.
My latest adjustment was to investigate grass-fed beef. From what I can gather from the Internet, grass-fed beef is healthier and more humanely-raised than the traditional grain-fed stuff.
My hunt for locally-raised grass-fed beef led me to Ivan McIlroy and his Wallace Springs Cattle Company. A while ago, I arranged with Ivan to buy a quarter cow of his grass-fed beef. Today, the day finally came when I could pick up my order. I hopped in the car and headed to the farm in North Perth, Ontario to meet the meat, so to speak.
Ivan was great. He gave me a tour of the farm, introducing me to his animals and showing me how they live and what they eat. It clearly takes a lot of work and costs lot of money to raise cattle this way. The price I paid for my quarter cow was extremely reasonable. In fact, as Ivan explained to me, it’s not a sustainable price when compared to what it costs to raise the animals. I believe that many people would pay more, especially if they’re given the opportunity to see the farm and learn about how their food is grown.
After spending about an hour with Ivan and his cows, I headed to the meat packer’s to pick up my order. There was an astounding amount of beef. The order included about 70 lbs. of ground beef, four short rib roasts, two shoulder roasts, nine blade steaks, fifteen rib steaks, and a brisket. There was also a big box of beef bones to be used in soup. I’ll be sharing this order with my dad, but still, it’s a lot!
I really enjoyed my trip out to the country today. I’m naturally a city boy, so it always seems a bit exotic to visit a farm. Have a look at my gallery of snapshots with captions below.
These goats are Ivan’s wife Karen’s project. The babies were adorable, as you can see. Their instinctive love of jumping and climbing was fun to watch.
This two month-old calf was bright-eyed and attentive.
The mother cow was very curious. She was inhaling deep breaths of air, catching our scent. I put my hand out to her nose and she promptly licked it.
Ivan is renting barn space and taking care of these cows for another rancher. They are raised on a feed lot in a traditional grain diet.
Here’s one of the conventionally raised steers staring me down from the doorway of the barn.
One of the major downsides of grain-fed cattle is that they have to be fed antibiotics to fend off infection from the sores caused by the food they eat. Ivan is nursing these two immuno-compromised steers back to health.
Here are some of Ivan’s own cattle. They are raised on grass with a little bit of grain in the winter. To me, they seem happier and healthier than the grain-fed steers in the feed lot.
Here’s Ivan showing me one of the blends of hay that he feeds his cattle in the winter.
When you’re passionate about something, you post it on signs.
Here’s the trunk of my car, overflowing with grass-fed beef. This will probably last a while.
