Exactly eleven days after the last post, this is what that same tree looks like. Just amazing. I really do prefer the first image – but I can’t get over the opulence of the second image. Spring is on a rampage!
And catch the orange California Poppies below – our state flower, and one of my all-time favorites!
According to National Geographic, Spring officially arrives on the vernal equinox, which this year occurred today at 1:48 am Eastern time. I am soooo ready for it this year! Longer days, more sunshine, warm soft breezes… It’s my second favorite time of year, right behind summer.
I shot a special project today – I can’t talk about it yet, but soon! The image above may be a little hint…
I’m still working my way through all the images I shot in Chicago – two concerts and one portrait session, and four more mini-portrait sessions – it’s a lot. But yesterday I got a series posted of Bobby Kourelis at Hammerfest. Seeing the images all together in one spot, you really get just how passionately he plays – he’s something else! I also have some engagement shots to post tomorrow that I shot on Monday here in California – beautiful, beautiful couple!
Oh, and I met a photographer in Chicago – totally random – you just never know who you’ll bump into! I checked out his portfolio today and he’s good – his work is really modern and clean. If you need a headshot in Chicago, he’s definitely worth checking out! Hans Rosemond at hansrosemond.com.
Isn’t Spring just the best?
I’ve been shooting the old Fruit Packing Plant in Fallbrook for years – I’ve blogged about it before.
The renovations are almost complete, and I wanted to get a shot of the building at this stage – that was my main goal today. But I also wanted to play with the plastic sheeting, and chain link fence on the west side of the building. The way the sheeting was looped and tucked, and the way it blew and shimmered in the breeze was compelling to me, and I knew I could get some fun images of it.
And my final goal today was to get a shot to submit to a Day in the Life project some friends were putting together – today is Leap Day, so what better day for a bunch of photographers all over the world to all submit one photo, and then create a slide show that takes the viewer all over the world, all on one day, hour by hour, and minute by minute. Fun!
So those are the documentary shots. Now onto the fun stuff!
And finally, this is the shot I submitted to the Day in the Life Project. It’s the lock on the front gate – and I love the way the light hits the fence, and the shadows on the sidewalk. It’s a very simple image – just a picture of a gate – but I love it!
I’m posting this just because I think it’s fun!
For those who don’t know, the reality show Tori & Dean, Inn Love was shot here in Fallbrook, at Oak Creek Manor Inn, which they renamed Chateau La Rue after her dog – but that was just for the show! Once they stopped filming, it reverted back to Oak Creek Manor.
The ad above appeared in our local newspaper, and it just strikes me as funny that when a monetary value was placed on the job Tori Spelling was doing, it’s only $1100 a month? No wonder she bailed on the project!
So I took a little walk downtown on Main Street today, and did a little documenting…
Diva’s always has the best window displays. Right now they’re featuring dresses made out of tissue paper and these really pretty lamps. It’s very creative – and their windows always are – and they have a lot of windows! My grandparents used to own shoe stores and my Grandma did beautiful displays – it’s definitely an art form.
I love the way the street and the traffic lights are reflected in the window. And you can see through the window, back out to the other side of the street, as well as into the shop. It’s just a really interesting shot with lots of levels.
A view of another window, with yet another lamp and more reflections.
For years Fallbrook didn’t have a place to buy fabric, but it looks like we do again. These bolts of a plastic-y fabric for outdoor use, were sitting outside, and inside there were people happily shopping.
It’s not unusual to see a vintage car like this parked on the street. I think there are more classic cars in the area than anywhere else in California, and the owners like to show them off!
On Main Street some of the buildings are really old, and some are made to look that way, and it’s sometimes hard to tell the difference – which is a good thing.
I love this sign! The Mission Theatre runs a dance school across the street, so their students are often seen darting across. In this case, “Dancer Xing” is accurate.
The Mission Theatre was built in 1948, and the inside still has some great original details. They do mostly children’s theatre now, but in the past they did adult productions, and before that it was all movies.
As I’ve mentioned before, the building my studio is in, Elder House, was a school until only recently – and the traffic signs haven’t been removed yet.
I love to watch leaves fluttering in the breeze. I shot nearly thirty frames of these leaves as they blew wildly, and considered putting together an animation. Maybe…
And of course there are some pretty little plants along Main Street…
These trees are just now blooming – so pretty!
And my favorite shot of the day! Who knew some leaves and stems could be so yummy?
There’s a little one-room schoolhouse in De Luz – the only other existing one-room schoolhouse that I know of in this area, is in Anza, and it’s the school my great-grandma attended. She was born in 1904, lived to be 100-years-old, and rode a donkey five miles to get to school. But this post isn’t about her, it’s about the schoolhouse in De Luz – which is situated in the prettiest oak grove. It’s peaceful and quiet, the ground is fertile and rich, and the oak trees are the tallest I’ve ever seen. It’s paradise.
De Luz Elementary was built in 1927 and one teacher taught all eight grades. In 1968 the school was closed, and since then the building has been used as De Luz Ecology Center.
The tiny post office may look like someone’s idea of a little joke, but there really are mailboxes in the side of the building.
I’ve shot in the area many times, but today was different. It was a gray cloudy day, and the light was flat except for a few brief moments when the sun broke through. But flat, subdued light can be be quite beautiful if you have the right subject matter. So this time I didn’t shoot the big soaring trees, or try for majestic landscapes – instead I mostly went after the subtle details that usually get lost in stronger light. And I found some wickedly beautiful details…
Leaves on an oak tree.
Have you ever seen grass this pretty?
Where they’ve cut off a limb, the tree oozes sap.
These sheep are very lucky – they live in paradise, have plenty of room to roam, and look healthy and happy.
I was the only human in the area, so I thought they were all watching me, but shortly after I shot this image I saw some coyote footprints, and it occurred to me that this was the kind of day when wildlife is more active – and it’s the exact kind of day I’ve seen bobcats and mountain lions in the past, and here I was all by myself, with no other humans around, and I was concentrating on blades of grass and leaves? I’m usually smarter than that… So I decided to call it a day, and got back to my car, and then watched as a nice-looking healthy coyote trotted across the street. I am not afraid of one lone coyote, but a mountain lion is a different matter.
And finally I shot this image on the way out to De Luz. I shot the same tree in December on a pretty sunny day, and the difference today, just two months later was striking. Where the hill was brown before, today it was green. Where the sky was bright blue in December, today it was gray. Very, very different day, and very different image – but still a really beautiful and striking tree.
And the freshest little weed…
For more on the De Luz Schoolhouse, go to:
http://www.fallbrook.org/history/de-luz-school.asp
Driving into town on Reche Road you pass some of the worst fire damage – in fact the Valley Oaks Mobile Home Park where over one-hundred homes were lost is visible from the road as you drive by. And there’s other damage – the canyon by Wilt Road was particularly hard hit. It’s a miracle if you look closely, because you can see where the firefighters held back the flames.
At the intersection of Reche and Wilt something interesting is happening. Someone is placing Christmas decorations on the burned branches. It started with just a couple shiny balls. Then it grew, and now it’s starting to spread down the hill. Who knows if it’s one person, or an organized group, or just a bunch of individuals inspired by what they see, and contributing in their own way.
It could have been garish. or ugly, or just in bad taste – but somehow it’s not. It’s beautiful, and it fills me with a combination of hope and defiance every time I drive past. Hope for the future, because the fire did not destroy the truly important things in life – and defiance, because even though the landscape is charred, we’re clearly not letting the fire destroy our hope.
It’s just a few shiny decorations – but it’s very cool! Kudos to whoever is responsible!
I’m planning to shoot some images of the exterior of my studio once I get my new signs, but I thought I could at least show Elder House today! You can see the stairs leading up to my front door in the second picture, and the large deck, and the wonderful skylights that flood my main room with soft beautiful light. And in the top picture you can see my little balcony, and the edge of the deck.
Elder House has an interesting history. According to an article that appeared in the Village News in 1998, it was built as the result of a competition between three local men in 1883. They each were to build a house for under $3000, and the one who built the best house would win. One of these three houses, described as a “beautiful, ornate home,” was built on Juniper Street, and later moved to West Elder. It didn’t win the contest, but it is the only one of the three still standing.
I’m not sure when this photo was taken, but it’s a fairly early shot – probably from before the house was moved to Elder Street. The staircase on the side of the building is long gone, and the house has been extended on both sides, at some point during the last 100 years. But the bay window downstairs and the tiny balcony upstairs look almost exactly the same today as they did when the home was new.
There are stories that one of Fallbrook’s first newspapers was located here. In the 1980′s it was a popular restaurant, then in the early 1990′s a construction company was located here, and in the late 1990′s it was first Fallbrook Country Day School and then The New School in the early 2000′s. And now it’s the home of Fallbrook’s Village News downstairs- and I’m very lucky to have the upstairs!
If you’d like to read more about The Building Contest in 1883, go to:
http://www.fallbrook.org/history/history_the_building_contest
Edited on 6/23/2011 to add…
Even though I no longer have my studio in Elder House, I’m still interested in it! And I found this old postcard featuring Elder House, circa 1970! Evidently it housed Grandma’s House Restaurant at the time – and it looked a little different 40 years ago. The spindles on the railing on the second story deck and balcony are much narrower – and more authentic for the time period. The wider style in place today is charming, but I like the 1970′s version! And it’s hard to tell for sure, but the window on the top story, on the far right, may be the original narrow Victoria-era window. At some point it was replaced by a wider window – which lets in more light – but isn’t quite as authentic to the period of the house. And the staircase on the far right, is clearly different – it seems to be oriented east/west, instead of the current south/north.
But perhaps the biggest change is that there was no porch area in 1970. There’s a tiny little landing, leading to the front door, with a tiny railing – a very simple entrance for such a big house. Today there’s a covered porch that’s still small by most standards, but definitely a lot grander than what was there in 1970!
Other than that? Not much different! Even the color isn’t too different. It looks blue in the photo – and it was gray when I first came to Fallbrook – and now it’s a nice warm tan – but still all in the same vein – a nice medium tone, set off by the bright white railing and black trim. It’s a good look!
I woke up this morning to a friend pounding on my front door. Why? Because it was such a beautiful day and the clouds were so gorgeous she didn’t want me to miss any of it.
As she said, “You have to go out and shoot!” She was right!
The awesome sky!
And a cool mud puddle! It’s rained the last two days, so a little mud is to be expected.
Awesome, awesome light!
The road to Deluz takes you through some of the prettiest oak groves. When I think of Fallbrook, this is what I picture! And there are other trees as well. It’s just the most beautiful road to drive!
