Well! I had quite the adventure in Seattle this past month, and I'll be putting some photos up from that trip ASAP. If you want to see the dedicated sites for my two big projects there, you can check out the very humble "All In A Day's (Sex) Work" Tumblr, (or "like" it on FB!) and the "Burlesque Me, Baby!" blog (or "like" it on FB!). In the meantime, We'll start out today's photo tour with my (Instagram-I hate trying to shoot DSLR out airplane windows) flight from Seattle to Las Vegas.
My flight had a layover in San Francisco, so we basically flew down the I-5 corridor (which, in case anyone was wondering, is waaaaay better than driving it). Below, Right: I'm pretty sure that's Yreka.
Central Coast California is one of my favorite regions in the US. The coastline's just out-of-this-world.
I'm told this is the San Andreas Fault (thank you, Twitter helpers!):
And the Salt Flats (which are being reclaimed as wetland, so go see them while you can!):
There was some pretty awesome, dramatic aerial scenery between San Francisco and Vegas. I was lucky to have a nice, clear, daytime flight. I've driven this route once, and I'd love to do it again because it's lovely, but the aerial route is better.
This may be the coolest Instagram I've ever taken. Holy shit. Say what you will about micro-format photography; this looks great.
Starts looking like a sci-fi movie in 3...
2...
1...
I was only in Nevada for a few days, but I managed to make it to two fantastic national parks. First up, Valley of Fire. I was overall unsatisfied with my experience there, because I didn't realize how big and stupidly gorgeous the park was, and arrived with only a couple of hours before sunset. If you go, plan to be there all day. Also be prepared to feel like an asshole, and to feel as though nature is laughing at the sheer arrogance you display by even picking up a camera to try and capture the beauty of the area.
Before even entering the park, one of my travel companions spotted a ram jumping around on the rocks, so we stopped to revel in his mad hopping-on-rocks skills for a minute when I noticed a cave up at the top of the rock face. I jumped out of the car and started climbing. Side note: My tendency to jump out of vehicles in the desert and go running up huge hills toward mysterious caves is why I die first in EVERY movie.
Once we were inside, there was just not enough time in the day to see half of what we wanted to see. Valley of Fire definitely warrants another trip.
Here's a couple favorites from just hiking around the very first section of the park:
We chose to hike in to the White Domes for sunset, and got there literally right at sunset. The hike in was a pain in the ass in converse (all sand. Again, wearing converse to go hike enormous sandstone formations = I die first in every movie), but traffic was blessedly sparse and it was worth every miserable, exfoliating step.
Below: Crazy layered rock:
The next day, my companions and I headed out to Red Rocks Canyon. I am significantly happier with the photos I got there. Also, I got to hop around on rocks again like a mountain goat, which I really, really enjoy.
Red Rocks has a much friendlier, more interactive welcome center. the shot above is of honeybee wings through a microscope. The info center also hosts a couple of pretty cool lizards and has a really great, not-overly-kitschy gift shop.
Above: Absolutely magnificent feats of nature.
Below: What in the fucking fuck? That's disgusting. Who do y'all think you are, Seattle?
Just TRY and say that doesn't look like bacon to you.
"The Land Before Time", anyone?
Below: This is in my top 3 favorites from the whole trip. That orangey-red is really challenging to capture correctly, and exceptionally difficult to not oversaturate when you shoot HDR.
The sun was starting to dip when we crawled out of the rocks to hit the other side of the park, so I stopped to give the desert some attention:
The other side of the park was more relaxed with a more open landscape, but equally beautiful. I scurried to the top of the biggest rock I could make it to and checked it out as dusk started to fall.
Below: I wanted to get up to the top of the rock on the left, but I realized that it would be reeeeally too hard to get down from there in the dark. I make okay decisions from time-to-time. ;-)
I flew from Vegas to Oakland, CA the next day. I'm in Oakland for "All In A Day's (Sex) Work" and "Burlesque Me, Baby!" until Tuesday, then it's down to LA!
Below: View of the Vegas Strip from the plane.
