- Jul 21 · My Grandma is back home in #Idyllwild! The evacuation order has been lifted for residents, and tomorrow for everyone. #MountainFire
- Jul 21 · 27,245 acres burned, with 49% containment. 60% chance of rain tomorrow. Things are looking up! http://pe.com/local-news/riverside-county/hemet/hemet-headlines-index/20130720-mountain-fire-crews-nearly-double-containment-of-blaze.ece …#MountainFire
- Jul 20 · 30% chance of rain today! Let’s hope Mother Nature comes through with some moisture, and not just the thunder and lighting! #MountainFire
- Jul 19 · “Better fire lines were constructed along the Ernie Maxwell Trail today, according to several officials.” http://idyllwildtowncrier.com/2013/07/19/breaking-mountain-fire-updates/ …#Idyllwild
- Jul 19 · If you live anywhere near the #MountainFire boil your water before using it! California Department of Public Health issued an alert.
- Jul 19 · I found a reporter for the Press Enterprise, who has been up at the fire the last two days, and is Live Tweeting. @johnasbury#MountainFire
- Jul 19 · “Not the Mountain Fire. It turned a very beautiful forest into what many people described as a moonscape.” http://blog.pe.com/2013/07/19/mountain-fire-blaze-destroyed-woods-scalded-trails/ …
- Jul 19 · “Forest fires can cleanse woods of underbrush and leave trees standing alive. Not the Mountain Fire.” http://blog.pe.com/2013/07/19/mountain-fire-blaze-destroyed-woods-scalded-trails/ …#idyllwildfire
- Jul 18 · Another shot of Lily Rock and the smoke… #IdyllwildFire RT @primadonnaj And just like that, the fire is… http://instagram.com/p/b4_eAZJ6Lm/
- Jul 18 · Just saw CBS2 News in downtown Hemet, on their way up the Hill. Fabulous! We def want more news coverage! #idyllwildfire
- Jul 18 · Some of my favorite photos of Idyllwild… https://www.facebook.com/spelts/media_set?set=a.10151704945844454.1073741825.692194453&type=1 …
- Jul 18 · The Mountain Fire is now the number one priority in the nation. #idyllwildfirehttp://idyllwildtowncrier.com/2013/07/18/breaking-mountain-fire-updates/ …
- Jul 17 · Southern California home prices rose more than 28% in the last year. Sounds like the housing crisis is over! http://fw.to/Gf6VT9D
- Jul 17 · My Grandma’s house is high up the mountain in Idyllwild, next to the national park – usually the best spot to be – but maybe not tonight…
- Jul 17 · They’re evacuating most of Idyllwild, due to the Mountain Fire. It’s burned over 14,000 acres so far, and is headed up the mountain.
A year of commuting to Los Angeles
I commuted to Los Angeles, twice a week, for a full year while attending UCLA Extension’s Paralegal Training Program. It was 102 miles each way, and 204 miles roundtrip. So as a way to have a little fun, and to help document the year, I started to photograph an iconic building in Los Angeles that I passed on every trip into the city. I just held up my iPhone and clicked, without looking at what I was shooting – that was part of the fun – the randomness of what I was getting.
I didn’t edit the images, or even pay much attention to what I was capturing. I knew that it was unlikely the images would be very exciting if taken individually, but I thought they might be interesting, collectively. They show the passage of a full year–from June 2012 to June 2013–and you can see the change in seasons, the effect of daylight savings time, and when my own personal schedule was more erratic, and I arrived earlier or later in the day. You can even tell when my wind sheild was clean, and when it wasn’t! And the curvy wavy wackiness? That’s the result of a longish exposure, and camera movement during the exposure. It’s a little side-benefit of a very old iPhone, and I was definitely in favor of it!
Is it interesting? I think so. Is it too long? I went from hundreds of images shot over the course of the year to just these 30, but should I have edited it down further? Maybe. But for me, it’s a visual reminder of a very long year, with a very long commute…
One final interesting note? I knew this was the Morman Temple in Los Angeles, but I had no connection to it prior to starting this project. It was just an interesting building that I passed on my way to UCLA – so it was a bit of a random choice, selected only because it was convenient. But during the year one of my cousins got married – at this very temple – and I watched her emerge with her new husband, from the side doors, after the ceremony. Kind of an interesting coincidence!