I have regretfully fallen a little behind on my blog, but I will forgive myself since I have been so busy! The past few days have been pretty nuts. The bad stuff first: my supplies took forever, there was a very assholic "manager" at the UPS who threatened to reject my packages, after informing me there would be an extra fee on top of shipping fees. I, however, was proactive and had UPS intercept the driver and have the stuff sent to Kala instead, which delayed it another day but prevented extra charges.
The next day, my hard drive just up and died. Kaput. VERY BAD TIMING! I spent a couple of days getting that semi-resolved. Basically I got a new hard drive, kept the old one so I can get the data later.
I finally was able to get started on my work, doing a bit of scanning and editing. Unfortunately, I will have to redo all the work for the two portrait commissions I had finished. But it won't take long now since I have done it once.
I can't remember which day it was, but a few days ago I went by the BART to a town called Lafayette, which is North East of Oakland. It was my first time actually riding the BART, and it was pretty cool, to get somewhere so fast and cheap! I was looking for a trail head that I found online, but I never could find it. It was pretty hot that day, and very sunny! I thought I would die before I reached anything worthwhile, but I knew I HAD to shoot that day, come hell or high water. At least so I had a start.
So I rode around until I saw a sign for the Lafayette Reservoir, and decided, what the hell, I will go check that out! So I rode down to the opening, and started up the hill. Little did I know it was a pretty damn good hike just up to the reservoir itself. I basically stopped every 20 feet or so to rest and drink. Halfway up that hill, I stopped in some shade to eat my lunch and breathe. I felt like such a wuss, but I was not giving up. I definitely had the wrong shoes on for this adventure, but no way I was turning back. I don't know if you are getting this, but I was not giving up!
Once I got to the reservoir, I decided to ditch the bike, seeing that the hike would continue since I was planning to shoot in the woods. I locked it up, leaving my drink in the drink holder and not noticing until I got pretty high up. I did stop to take several pictures of the water and the mountains from that view, and I have to say, it was breathtaking.
I hiked up the trail, looking for a secluded but beautiful place to shoot, that wouldn't be too far off the path in case I was bit my a spider or snake, or attacked by something. I once almost fell off the side of a small cliff, and immediately became covered from foot to waist in those little burr things. I was getting pretty frustrated because every time I started shooting, a gaggle of hikers came by talking really loudly and at one point someone screamed "whooooooo",in the same way you might hear someone scream at a concert when they are really getting into the show. I felt it was uncalled for and messing with my groove, and of course everyone should have been quiet and stayed away. They were not screaming at me by the way, it came from far off. Just to clear that up.
I decided to leave my first site and found this WONDERFULLY magical tree with moss all over it and started shooting there. It was a little more secluded there and I wasn't leaving that spot. I actually hope to go back soon. I was terribly hungry, hot, and in a lot of pain from the hike and climbing all over the tree, but I was, say it with me, *determined!* So I stayed until I at least felt like I had a few images I could work with, and then headed back.
Though I felt exhausted and painfully sore and smelly, I also felt good that I stuck to it and didn't give in to my frustrations. So I will stop there so I can put some pictures here and start a new entry with the next days.
Oh yea, I saw wild turkeys on the trail.
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