California Part 4 - Napa and the Coast, Highway 1

After five days together in NorCal, my family took off for home, while Alison and I took the long ride to San Francisco. You see, we'd decided to stay in Muir Beach thanks to HomeAway.com giving us a better rate on paradise than we could have gotten on a cruddy San Fran hotel room. You'll see that paradise and the reason later -- first, let's talk about the way we got there.

We stopped in Napa city, picked up a map, and settled on the Frank Family Vineyards up in Calistoga. It was our destined location.

Beautiful grounds and a reprieve from driving in the rain were enough for me, but then we went in for a tasting and mentioned we were headed to Muir Beach. The man behind the counter informed us there was one truly spectacular way to get there: Highway 1.

We had the time, and he had a pen, so with a makeshift map we left the fields and headed through Napa and Sonoma valleys, all the way to the western edge of the state, country, and continent. Once we were past the petrified forest and through the fields of vines, it was us and the Pacific.

This is what the road looks like in front of you, all the time. It's difficult to focus on, however, because of everything on your right. 

Along this drive, we pulled off the road countless times, and my wife said some of the most pertinent advice about life I've ever been told. "If you want to be a photographer, you need to get out of the car." I jumped out at every stop that day, and I've been living according to those words ever since.

I really need to take one last opportunity to thank that man in Calistoga that drew a map for us, because it led to one of the greatest and most memorable times in our life together. What an adventure.

California, Part 3 - Hiking about

Being in Northern California was amazing because there was always so much to see. At first I really did not care for driving, because I'm from a place where we flattened out everything and paved it twice to make getting from point A to B as simple as possible. This is not true of Sonora and its surroundings, where a winding road leads to another and everything takes twenty minutes to get to, at least. Along these roads, however, you can pull off to the side and see some truly amazing sites. This post is dedicated to the world I had to see just by parking on the shoulder and wandering off.

That's me, on a cliff. For the first time, I mean that literally. 

I didn't get a ton of night/long-exposure work done, so here's the only one. 

Edit: I got a request for how I did the above photo, so here's the details: Tripod is a must, and I used varied exposures of 8 to 30 seconds until I got what I wanted. Set your ISO to 1600 (or as high as it goes without getting grainy) and then put all your adjustments into Aperature -- open it up (low f/stop number) and make that your only variable for a bit.

This was an amazing time. My wife took the first one (of me), but the rest are all me. As I've said with all California posts, if you are interested in a full resolution for a print, just shoot me an email. Thanks!

Frank

California, Part 2 -- Small Towns

We went to a lot of small towns throughout Northern California, and I took some pictures. The whole area of Sonora and surroundings is referred to as the Mother Lode, due to the gold rush, and the remnant mining towns are tourist-friendly without being overbearing on price. Actually, everything I saw was free.

California, Part 1 - Yosemite

Here begins the first of five to seven posts about my trip to California. My brother in law, Tim, took my wife and I along to his family home in Northern California, in Sonora. No, I did not misspell Sonoma, and it isn't a desert. It is amazing, and very close to Yosemite, despite the backroad situation requiring an hour drive to the park.

It isn't the beginning of the trip, but Yosemite was one of the most amazing experiences that we had, so I wanted to lead with it. I won't be trying to tell you too much about the pictures -- they speak for themselves. If you would like a higher-resolution file for a print for your house, that is more than possible. I only post lower-resolution because I want them to load. That goes for all photos this week.

Personal favorite -- the wife, the tiny grove of trees unlike the others, everything. 

Eleven doesn't seem like much when I selected them from 232 of my favorites from that day alone. If you are interested in a print, email me about full resolution or my recommendations. 

Metro Times Blowout 17 - Friday Night

I made three out of four nights for Blowout this year, and while that has some disappointment to it, I have to respect my limits. I did make it to Hamtramck on Friday for a bit, and saw two bands that I'll tell you all about right now. This will conclude my run of posts from Blowout!

First up is an all-girl rock group out of Rochester -- I actually used to teach several of the members a few years ago, but they've come a long way since then. Electric Graffiti has great stage presence and instrumentation, and remains a group of young musicians to watch for the future. Here they are on stage at Small's, which is a pretty amazing venue to play so early in a career.

Of course, when I asked them how school was going, they didn't care much to reply. Always, the awkward teacher-outside-of-school stereotype remains, I suppose.

Afterward, I headed to Kelly's on a recommendation from my friend and co-worker Sean. Friends of his from high school, collectively Amateur Anthropologist, played a set that loudly shook the bar that always seems like a house to me. Comparable to Queens of the Stone Age or the rock side of punk, I would highly recommend following Sean's advice to check them out.

That's it for my work from #MTBlowout. I didn't make the last night, and that's okay. Get ready for a lot of California shots all this coming week! 

#MTBlowout, Night Two!

Last night was second night of Metro Times Blowout 17, and the first night that the action came to three cities at once. Again, trying to shoot on a school night (I can use that phrase, I'm a teacher) proves difficult, so I was only out for two bands last night. I ventured to the Rust Belt Market in Ferndale for some folk songs, and was not disappointed.

First up were the DeCamp Sisters, a folk duo from up the road. Alternating a steel guitar and a banjo between them, they played fantastic songs about books and drowning, while talking here and there about horse birthdays. Great musicianship, excellent harmonies, and lovely melodies. You can listen to them and see their fantastic cover art at their bandcamp page. Here are some photos:

I was so happy to get this shot.

Afterward, Dolfish (a guy named Max) took the stage, and gave the kind of folk performance I love. His songs were incredibly catchy, and by his own proclamation, sad stories presented in a funny way. I'll admit I laughed at his pain more than once, especially on "I'm proud of you Joanna," but it was his personality that made it possible. Never has a man with an acoustic introduced a song before as his "CLUB BANGER," and I was more than willing to accept that each track was, truly, a banger (by non-Haverford definitions). Look him up at his bandcamp, and check out the pictures below.

That's all I had time for, but I'm really enjoying Metro Times Blowout so far this year. I intend to make it to Hamtramck tonight unless I just run out of steam, and then tomorrow (Saturday) will be Ferndale again, where the Rust Belt will have a food truck rally. I love food, you guys. Anyway, see ya.