November 14th - Salton Sea UltramarathonOcotillo in the badlands the evening before the race
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Race start - 6:00am, Sunday November 7th.
Shoreline of the Salton Sea. Altitude 230ft below sea level.
 Enjoying the sunrise; Salton Sea Ultra |
Mile 6.9 - runners meet their crew at the gas station on Borrego Springs Seaway and head off into the desert
Fisheye views of the microwave tower at mile 14.4 - first checkpoint
Mile 35 - checkpoint at Borrego Springs Resort
Mile 40.5 - turn into the trailhead for the California Hiking Trail. Altitude 890 ft.
Mile 46 junction with Culp Valley trail. Altitude 3600ft
Mile 63. Lake Henshaw covered in mist at 6:00am Monday morning. Altitude 2680 ft
Miles 69-81 The climb up Palomar Mountain to the fiinish
Mile 81 - Finish line. The Lodge on Palomar Mountain. Altitude 5666 ft.
October 24th, 2021
UCI - Egg drop, ultimate frizbee, reflections, warm light
Intercollegiate Ultimate Frisbee tournament at the ARC fields
Reflections and warm light
 Morning light through the windows of the Interdisciplinary Science & Engineering Building, |
October 17th,2021
A 6:00am walk around campus
Windows
Medical School
October 9th
An unusually ferocious thunderstorm on Monday night took out power to the campus for several hours; but the downpour left nice reflecting pools when the sky cleared the next morning.
And the wet ground accentuated lightshafts from the rising sun
October 3rd: UCI and back to the sculpture garden
 Primeover, side-on: Newport Beach sculpture garden |
 Reflection through a lacuna in Talking Heads: Newport Beach sculpture garden |
A couple of wildlife sightings in walking distance from UCI
September 29th: Newport Beach sculpture garden
September 18th, 2021; A last week of solitude before the campus reopens from the pandemic shutdown.
September 6th, 2021; At home for the Labor Day weekend.
September 6, 2021: Catching up on photos from Bolsa Chica
August 22, 2021: A light rain on Saturday morning enticed me to the UCI rose garden.
[After taking these photos I discovered a paper describing that rose petals exhibit a super- hydrophobic state with high adhesive force that stops water droplets from rolling off]
The intersection of four Irvine subdivision sections. Created from Rancho San Joaquin, the 1837 Mexican Land grant and one of three large land grants that later became the Irvine Ranch." |
August 15th - More from the Newport Beach sculpture garden
August 15, 2021 - catching up with photos from some morning walks around UCI
August 3rd, 2021 - back to wearing a mask at UCI with surging delta variant. Some miscellaneous photos, some looking down.
BADWATER 2021, July 19-21
Back again after a one year hiatus owing to the covid pandemic.
This was my 16th year at the Badwater Ultramarathon, the "World's toughest footrace"; eleven years as a runner or pacer, and five helping on the race staff and as a photographer. My approach the first year I came to photograph the race was from the perspective of a landscape photographer, aiming to place the runners in context of the spectacular scenery of Death Valley and the Eastern Sierras. This year I shifted gears, and also took on the mindset of a 'street'/portrait photographer, concentrating on the runners and their support crews. Badwater offers a photographic challenge of capturing the emotions of a group of very special people pushing themselves to the limit in an extreme environment. Moreover, the runners and their support crews are friendly, like having their pictures taken, and in any case have all signed waivers permitting the taking and publishing of photos!
The images below are a selection from many hundreds of shots. Click HERE for links to to numerous other photos from the 2021 Badwater Ultramarathon. Click HERE for the race website, with links to full results.
Start line at Badwater Basin for the 8:00pm wave
8:00 pm runners at night along the Badwater Road
Dawn the next morning - runners from the sand dunes to Stovepipe Wells
 Fuel for a runner; Badwater 2021 |
 Six bags of ice, Stovepipe Wells; Badwater 2021 |
The 5000 ft ascent of Towne Pass
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Towne Pass to Leaving Death Valley N.P.
Wednesday morning, along highway 190 by Owens Lake
Ascent of Whitney Portal road
 Timelapse of runner rounding the Portal Road switchback; Badwater 2021 |
Badwater finishers at Whitney Portal - mile 135
July 18th 2021; Some photos from a visit to Bolsa Chica last Sunday.
July 14, 2021 - revisiting old photos from Grytviken, South Georgia to create (mostly) quadriptych abstracts.
July 8th, 2021 - Flora seen while walking around UCI
July 5th: A medley of fireworks photographed from the UCI Ecological Preserve.
 A Medley of Fireworks : Newport Dunes 4th of July fireworks display photographed from the UCI Ecological Preserve |
June 22nd: A Saturday morning walk to see the new sculptures installed at the Newport Beach Civic Center
The mirrored surface of Talking Heads yields myriad possibilities for abstract reflections
June 20th: A few more UCI photos
June 12 - Catching up with photos from a trip to Parashant National Monument (May 24)
Ninety miles after leaving paved road we camped on the north rim of the Grand Canyon at Twin Point Overlook. Likely the nearest other people that night were ten miles away on the south rim.
Some rock patterns at Buffington Pockets on the way to Parashant.
And rock and lichen patterns from our last campsite below Limekiln Pass
June 5th - Newport Beach sculpture and desert gardens
June 3rd, UCI Campus photos
Icons of UCI during covid-19
May 16th, The cherry trees on campus are at about peak blossom, and starting to shed.
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 Nancy Doran sculptures in a row: UCI |
May 16th: Focus stacking on a Sunday afternoon
May 15th: Some snapshots from my morning walks.
April 24-27 - Buffington Pockets
Now fully immunized, Anne and I escaped from covid home-isolation for a long-weekend camping trip. Our destination was Buffington Pockets, a remote backcountry area about 50 miles past Las Vegas. I had not previously visited, but I was attracted by photos on the internet (here and here) illustrating intriguing sandstone features and colors. The pockets lie within the Muddy Mountains, a range of grey limestone peaks interspersed by enormous outcroppings of fossilized sand dunes. The sandstone is part of the same Aztec formation as at the nearby Valley of Fire state park and, although not quite as spectacular as the popular Valley of Fire, a great attraction for us was the remarkably low level of visitation. We encountered only two other people over three days and, found some wonderful camping sites.
We drove along the rough Bitter Springs OHV trail through the mountains, passing through Buffington Pockets, and explored several side trails heading off into canyons and giving access to other sandstone areas with features that very surprisingly between the different outcrops. We first visited the north east area, where the rock is pockmarked by vast numbers of little caves and hollows, featuring many small arches. My favorite, though, was Color Rock Quarry which, as the name suggests, was the site of a small-scale quarrying operation. Unlike the deep red sandstone of the other canyons, the rock here is lighter in shade, often even white, but intricately striped with sinuous bands of pastel colors from yellow to purple. Little remains of the quarrying operation beyond a spectacularly graffitied hut, but along the track at the base of the quarried face several flat rock panels are exposed, displaying the colored striations to best effect.
Buffington Pockets, central and N.E. areas
 Campsite by sandstone cliffs; Buffington Pockets |
Color Rock Quarry
Bolsa Chica - Expecting to photograph birds but finding a seal and a caterpillar
April 21 - A morning walk around UCI
April 18 : More from the Newport Beach sculpture garden
April 18 : A few morning walks through Aldrich Park and around UCI
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April 11 : Mostly trees in bloom in Aldrich Park
April 4 : Looking for birds at Bolsa Chica and finding Caterpillars
April 2 : Early morning walk around UCI
March 30th: Catching up on a few Sunday morning visits to Bolsa Chica
March 2nd : Back to the sculpture garden with a telephoto zoom - mostly abstract shots of stainless steel reflections.
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Feb 22nd : Catching up on a backlog of photos to post.
Newport Beach Sculpture Garden
Desert Garden
Backyard Birds
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Jan 30th : Walks from the UCI Campus
First attempts at short-exposure flash photography of hummingbirds
Jan 16th 2021 : Another Saturday morning walk down to the Newport Beach Civic Center and Sculpture Garden
January 6th 2021: Mostly succulents
A few photos taken during a walk around the east side of the UCI campus on a cold, clear morning after rain.
January 1st 2021: Reflections of UCI
A storm last week with intermittent downpours and sun made for some nice architectural shots of campus buildings reflected in rain puddles.
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