what is ugly/

I have been thinking about ugliness lately. OK, maybe that isn't the right way to put it. I'll go back a bit.
I was driving from LA to SF after a long weekend of work there this past weekend. I LOVE driving the I-5. Most people really hate it, but the mundane, landscape always inspires me somehow. This time, though there was road work so it was a bit more arduous with traffic slowly bottlenecking to one lane not once but two times in the 300 some odd miles. And it was hot. So my mind was wandering and I began thinking about all the things I have been shooting. I am so fortunate. I get to shoot beautiful, amazing places and people all the time. It almost seems easy. Of course it isn't really, but you know what I mean? I started to think "You need to do shoot something you would never shoot. You need to challenge yourself." This has been rolling around in my brain ever since. There are so many things I just have no desire to shoot at all. Maybe I should try and shoot those things just to push myself and my work. Self assignments are so valuable. Handcrafted Modern was basically a self assignment! Photographing ugliness is not the right way to put it, but I am compelled by this idea of shooting things I have no desire to shoot. Maybe it will be the most interesting thing I have ever done...I wonder how it will make me feel?
When I was sitting in stopped traffic, with sweat dripping down my ribs I realized I was in a stretch of the I-5 I always want to stop, but never can. SO here are two pics just out my window. I didn't notice that beautiful bit of roadkill in the first one. A bonus! Clearly I don't consider roadkill ugly.  ; )

light/

Yesterday's post has me thinking about light. I guess every photographer has to be a little in love with it. Some love to create it, some to manipulate it and some just wait and utilize what is there. But being a photographer, or maybe just a lover of light, changes your view of the world. My friends will tell you, often times mid sentence I just stop talking because I have been captured by a wild reflection off a window, or the quality of light that is hidden behind a cloud. Maybe it is just being a visual person...I don't know. I freely admit I have no answers as to why some of us notice this stuff and some don't. I just know what is true for me. Light moves me...more specifically, natural light moves me. It is a fickle, seductive mistress at times but we have come to have a beautiful and deep relationship. My love for light makes my experience of the world deeper, more rooted in the ephemeral quality that is life itself.

PS - Sometimes I hear music and I feel it sounds like light somehow. This Bon Iver song sounds like dawn to me.

Have a great weekend, friends.

I-5/

Another image from my drive down the 1-5 Wednesday.  So pretty!

I-5/

Tuesday I woke up in NYC. Wednesday I woke up in LA. And today I woke up in San Francisco. It has been a bit of a blur, frankly. But yesterday, to get my bearings, I drove home from LA along the I-5. So many people are bewildered when I say I love the I-5. Well, yesterday it was easy to understand why. Absolutely breathtaking scenes out my windows the entire ride. I had to stop and shoot 5 times.