Rainbow

Today, Garvin and I drove to Deborah's house to film some basket weavers. We were fortunate enough to also be able to photograph some of the many native plants that reside in her garden. It was an awesome day learning about basket weaving, but also getting away from the bustle of city noise. It was a very relaxing day.

Del Dios Highway

This afternoon I drove down the Del Dios Highway, a lil past the Lake Hodges Dam, parked on the left, wore sturdy shoes, and hiked the steep trail. Got a few shots, but the sun went down fast, and the clouds came in quick. Was an awesome experience being on the hillside with so many beautiful little blooms, all alone. It was awesome... and the poppy's are starting to drop their petals, so get out there quick because they'll be gone in a matter of days.

Borrego Springs

Sunday, my folks and I drove the long drive out to Borrego springs to see the wildflowers. Having not recently done so, I was amazed by the variety of flowers in bloom. In my enthusiasm, I shot in camera raw and quickly filled up the 2Gb SD card. :( I had to delete duplicates of the same plants in order to get as many different flowers photographed as possible. I did a small panorama set-up but mostly just featured the flowers. We went to a small Mexican restaurant to finish off our awesome day. The weather was perfect, a slight breeze and sun shining. This was an exceptional day and I really enjoyed myself.

Pechanga

Today we went to Pechanga... Got a few shots, but not that many :(

Apparently I'm highly sensitive to Poison Oak.......

The last week of my life has been quite interesting. I've spent more time sleeping than awake. It all started on Sunday afternoon, the 17th of February. My lovely girlfriend Chelsea (pictured below) and I decided to take a walk on the horse trails behind her neighborhood in Jeffery's Ranch. As is my nature, I coerced her to wander off into the bushes because a small creek was flowing. We found a really cool area with wild mushrooms, plenty of loral sumac and wild cucumber. I was telling her all kinds of facts about native plants I had been learning. Anyway, as we made our way back to the established trail, I pointed out to her what looked like a large patch of poison oak. I of course, stayed clear, and showed her how to identify the plant (leaves of 3, leave it be..) for the future. Having lots of experience with being in poison oak environments, I had no second thought that I may have come in contact. Well... it was Monday afternoon, and I was driving with the fabulous Gavin Barnes, and Jessica Prinz when I noticed a sore on my chin. Thinking of it as a menacing blemish, I of course picked and prodded at it, however, it did nothing but ooze. Later that evening, as it became a much larger sore I started to get suspicious. Well.. I woke up the next morning with a swollen chin and the area around my right temple was extremely swollen. I didn't go to work, nor any of my normal routines, and have spent the 7 proceeding days with a swollen, soar covered, insanely itching face and body. It covers both of my fore-arms heavily, my chest in scatters, and at 2 different points, my right eye was swollen shut. I have some pictures below for those that wish and I honestly don't mind admitting that I look scary. After all, the clerks at my local 7-11 had no problem (seeing me normally on a daily basis), saying "What the *&^$ happened to your face?" Anyway, thank you doctor Ryan of Tri-City urgent care for an oral steroid and anti-biotics for the secondary infection I accrued, I am on my way to recovery. I have learned one very important lesson; when there is the SLIGHTEST chance of exposure to poison oak, wash yourself and any clothes. That is all. I may or may not be in class this week >.<

Rincon

Today, we ventured into the wash-area on the Rincon Reservation. I lugged out the panorama tripod and attempted my first even "official panorama." I went for the full 360 which was a bad idea because I didn't have the manual settings adjusted properly to get an even shot, but I cropped it and took out a piece of which I'm moderately satisfied. I retook the same pano with a darker exposure to practice dual exposures.. I have yet to combine the two images, so the one pictured, is of the foreground focus. I was moderately unimpressed with the selection of plants to document. Possibly because of following our trip to Indian rock where there's a wealth of variety. Nevertheless, I did find a few natives, and some interesting compositions to photograph.

Indian Rock

Today, we visited Indian Rock, in Vista, Ca. I didn't end up having my camera with me, so rather than let that deter me from learning and experiencing... I took 3 pages of notes, scrambling rapidly to keep up with our enthusiastic speakers. What they had to say was very in depth and amazing that there is so much to know about 1 single subject. i.e. California native plants. If you were to walk up to a random person and ask them what their knowledge of such things is, it would be similar to if you asked someone if they knew how "super-glue" was made (what's in it).Anyway, I was absolutely amazed at the depth of knowledge of these people, particularly Greg Rubin. 1 crazy fact I'd like to mention after looking back over my notes, is that in every square foot of ground, there lies 10,000 dormant weed seeds... Yikes, no wonder we're inundated with weed cover. Anyway, what I did end up doing is taking some pressings. Something I've done much in the past with flowers and such, but decided to do some with plants that could afford a piece to be plucked, or in the case of the Lupen, a plant that had been marred by the trafficking of feet. I really enjoyed using the scanner as a HUGE camera to zoom in and really get an image of the textures within the plants, not just the plants.