The fountain in front of the Terrace Theater in Long Beach, taken late in the afternoon last October during a day at Long Beach Comic-Con.
Category: Parallel Lines
Heron in Flight
I took a zillion photos of this bird as it stood around, and then tried to track it as it took off. Amazingly, I managed to capture this image.
This was at the Rainbow Lagoon in Long Beach during Long Beach Comic Con last fall. LBCC was one of two successors to the canceled Wizard World Los Angeles convention, last held in 2008. The other was Wizard World’s Anaheim Comic Con, held for the first time last week. You can read my writeup of Long Beach 2009 and my report on Anaheim 2010 at K-Squared Ramblings, and see my convention photos at Flickr.
Maxfield Parrish Sky
Maxfield Parrish Sky, originally uploaded by Kelson.
One night last October, I stepped out of the office building and felt like I’d stepped into a Maxfield Parrish painting. The whole sky looked like this. (Or at least the half that was visible.) It literally stopped me in my tracks.
I spent the next 15 minutes walking around the parking lot, watching the lighting on the clouds change as the sun set and taking pictures.
Nighttime Fair From Above
OC Fair from Above at Night, originally uploaded by Kelson.
Looking down at the carnival area of the 2009 Orange County Fair from the top of the Ferris wheel. This was the end of a busy afternoon and evening at the fair that encompassed “Weird Al” Yankovic’s 3-D brain, a concert, and the horrifying realization that at the fair, people will fry anything. Is the world ready for the Zucchini Weenie?
Angels Flight: Below the Tracks
Below the Tracks, originally uploaded by Kelson.
A historic Los Angeles landmark, Angels Flight, from a less traditional perspective. The inclined railway on Bunker Hill was closed at the time I took this photo in 2006, but reopened last week.
Marriott Towers and Pool
The Marriott Hotel in Downtown San Diego, right next to the convention center.
Hotel reservations for Comic-Con International go on sale at 9:00 Pacific time tomorrow morning. For the last several years, demand for hotel rooms has been so high that hours spent redialing a phone or trying to get into the website have been typical. The travel agents have set up an entirely new procedure to counteract it. I’ve posted some thoughts on the change over at K-Squared Ramblings.
I guess we’ll see tomorrow how well it works.
Update: Better than I expected, at least for the first part. Here are my thoughts on how the process worked.
Update 2: The request may have gone smoothly, but the rest of the day turned out to be an exercise in frustration.
Update 3: I’ve posted some tips on how to get a hotel for Comic-Con if you couldn’t get one through the convention.
More Bars in More Places
San Diego, looking down Pacific Highway toward Harbor from the Holiday Inn on the Bay. The tall blocky building at the end, with the peaked roofs, is the Manchester Grand Hyatt. The shorter one is the Embassy Suites. I believe the taller buildings are all high-rise condos.
This was taken last year during Comic-Con International. It seems appropriate that I’ve worked up to this point in my photoblogging project, since hotel rooms for this year’s con go on sale Thursday at 9:00.
Update: I’ve posted some tips on how to get a hotel for Comic-Con.
Gleaming Towers
Gleaming Towers, originally uploaded by Kelson.
Sunlight reflects off the US Bank tower and another skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles, with AT&T offices in the foreground.
Juniper Flame
Juniper Flame, originally uploaded by Kelson.
Somehow I never notice this when I’m driving past, but it’s hard to miss on foot.
Cactus in Bloom
Cactus in Bloom, originally uploaded by Kelson.
Taken in Old Town San Diego. More photos from this trip at Flickr.
Layered Hill
Santiago Canyon Layers, originally uploaded by Kelson.
Looking roughly north from Santiago Canyon Road, somewhere between Irvine Lake and Silverado Canyon. I think this was near the point where the road passes over the creek.
In the larger image size, you can see that the rock layers in the hill at the center are tilted diagonally.
Christmas Tree & Dome
South Coast Plaza Christmas Tree, originally uploaded by Kelson.
One of at least three major displays at South Coast Plaza, basically anywhere major corridors cross. This three-story-high tree points to a stained glass dome in the ceiling.
Santa Ana Mountains Snow
Santa Ana Mountains Snow – Quail Hill View, originally uploaded by Kelson.
Monday’s storm didn’t leave much snow on Saddleback (though the San Gabriel Mountains were pretty well covered), but it’s been cold enough that I half-suspect this weekend’s storm will leave a bit more.
So here are a couple of views of the Santa Ana Mountains and the Irvine Spectrum from last December, seen from Quail Hill. The first was taken the morning after the storm ended. The second was taken the following day at lunchtime. I’ve also got a full panorama taken at the same time as the first photo.
Santa Ana Mountains Snow – Quail Hill Revisited, originally uploaded by Kelson.
San Gabriel Snow
San Gabriel Snow (Section 1), originally uploaded by Kelson.
I haven’t had a chance to post any of the photos I took of the mountains after Monday’s storm, so here’s one from last December. It was taken at the end of the Warner Ave. exit from Jamboree near The District on the former grounds of MCAS Tustin in Tustin, California. This is a small section of a larger panorama of the San Gabriel Mountains.
Woodbridge Snow View
Woodbridge Snow View 1, originally uploaded by Kelson.
View of the Santa Ana Mountains from Irvine, with Woodbridge lake in the foreground. Taken December of last year.
Strawberry Flower
Strawberry Flower, originally uploaded by Kelson.
My wife and I stopped at a nursery to pick up a sage plant this weekend, and there was a shelf of strawberries with one solitary flower.
I have no idea how I managed to get something this sharp with my phone!
Crystal Court Twilight
Here’s a flashback to another Friday the 13th, three years ago. That evening, my wife and I went to the nearest Borders to pick up The End of Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events and Neil Gaiman’s new short story collection, Fragile Things. We ended up crossing the bridge over to the main section of the mall, turned around, and saw an amazing twilight display with clouds silhouetted against the blue.
We stopped to take pictures. We weren’t the only ones.
Perhaps an hour later, the rainstorm arrived.
Neptune Pool (Hearst Castle)
The main outdoor swimming pool at Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California. Taken on a tour last February.
This was at least the third time I’ve been to Hearst Castle, and the second time as an adult. I vaguely remember visiting when I was eight, or ten, or somewhere around that age. Years later, in 2008, my wife and I planned a trip to San Francisco and decided to do it in stages, including a stopover at Hearst Castle. We only had time for one of the four tours, so when we planned another trip this year, we made sure to include another stop in San Simeon. This time we had a little more sense of how much time was involved, and managed to fit in two of the remaining tours.
At some point, we need to head back during spring or summer when they’re running the garden tour.
Morning Glories
Morning Glories, originally uploaded by Kelson.
Last year my wife and I found some morning glories growing in our backyard, and decided to train them with twine to grow along the back wall. They did phenomenally well…and then produced a zillion seed pods, reminding us that they’re often classified as weeds.
They’re gone now.