The Edge of The Earth

This is the view of the north side of Box Springs Mountain in Riverside, taken from Blue Mountain. I like this photo because I look at the clouds below the mountain top and I think that I'm looking out over the edge of the world. The dirt roads you see leading up the mountain are the ones we use to get to our radio site at the top. 

Our Sheriff's Helicopter

I got back to work today from lunch and one of the deputies from the project I'm working on was standing outside. I asked him what he was waiting for and he told me one of the Sheriff's helicopters was going to land in the parking lot here at work. So I grabbed the camera and got to watch as this helicopter landed there right in front of me. I have always had a fascination with helicopters and used to fly radio controlled ones back in England. I also got the chance to fly a real one with a friend of mine who was getting his commercial helicopter pilots license. He took me for a 3 hour flight around the English countryside and then asked me if I wanted to try it and so I got to fly a helicopter. The strange thing is that a radio controlled one is controlled the same way as a real one, except for one difference. The real one was easier to fly. 

The Fashion Show

This is The Fashion Show Mall in Las Vegas, just across the street from The Wynn Hotel. I took this photo late one night after watching the show Jersey Boys. I remember back in early 2003 going to Las Vegas with my best friend Stephen and my neighbor Keith from Big Bear. You never realize what a best friend really is until you pick up the phone to talk to them, feeling a bit down and they hop on a flight from England a week later to come and cheer you up. That's what Stephen did for me and I will never forget that. The reason this photo makes me think about that time is because this building was being built that week when Stephen arrived. We decided to go to Vegas to have some drinks and show Stephen around. It was a fun night, we drank and played blackjack until 6:00am the next day.

Crestmore Manor

Crestmore Manor is the headquarters of the Riverside County Parks Department. It is one of the most beautiful buildings that I have seen in Riverside. The first time I went there was for a meeting with the Parks Dept. IT people to discuss some of the network connectivity needs and from that moment on I saw their building and knew that one day I would have to photograph it. It reminded me of the buildings you see on the North East Coast or even back in some parts of England. Last week we had our departments Christmas Team Meeting in the Carriage House at Crestmore Manor, so I decided this was an ideal opportunity for some photographs. 

Lake Elsinore

This is Lake Elsinore, taken from Elsinore Peak which is South West high above the lake. Lake Elsinore has the distinction of being the largest natural lake in Southern California. The City of Lake Elsinore was first incorporated into San Diego County in 1888 and became part of Riverside County upon its creation in 1893 but was inhabited well before then. This area was very popular with the Los Angeles rich and famous in the 1920's, many of whom owned second homes by the lake. During my divorce from my ex wife, I lived at my good friend Eduardo's house in Lake Elsinore. Apparently his house was owned by Béla Lugosi, who was the actor that played Count Dracula in the 1930 film called Dracula.

Thirst for Knowledge

Not long after taking the photo of Mt. Baldy from the patio area at work, I had to take a trip up to one of our new radio sites (still under construction) called Blue Mountain. I thought it would be another good photo-op and as we took the steep muddy road up the mountain; I saw the clouds. I thought about just how long I had been waiting for a day that didn't have a straight blue sky. It was perfect. A pure blue sky makes any photo uninteresting and it creates issues when using the HDR technique, so clouds are a welcome break from the norm of Southern California. 

One of the things that has come out of taking photographs, publishing them on a website and adding some notes about them has been the things that I have learned about the areas and places I have lived, worked in and visited. I have always had a thirst for knowledge (especially useless information, which my head is full of) and I just love to learn. So, by doing something as simple as taking a photo I have learned some amazing things.  For example, take the photograph above; in the foreground is the Colton cement plant and the cement pile that you see is all that is left of Mount Slover. Cement began to be extracted from the mountain in 1894 and is still being extracted today. Of course there is not a lot left of Mount Slover anymore. I used to drive past Mount Slover everyday (before even knowing its name or history) and never paid any attention to it but I did always wondered how big the hill used to be before they started extracting cement.  Mt. Slover has been flying the Colton Liberty Flag (an American flag) continuously since July 4th 1917, to mark the entry of the USA into WWI.  It was one of only three locations in the USA permitted to fly the flag at night.

So, I now have some more useless information in my head and now that you have read this, you have some too! You just never know what you'll learn until you look.

Mt. Baldy Panorama

I got out of my car in the parking lot at just before 7am yesterday morning and began walking to the office front door when I saw the snow covered mountain of Mt. Baldy, all lit up from the rising sun. I looked at my colleague David and said "I need to go and grab my camera and get a photo of that view!" So I did and I headed to the patio area at our office that looks over the City of Riverside and on towards Mt. Baldy. I took my usual amount of HDR photos and decided that an HDR panorama photo was worth a try. I threw the 3 HDR photos into Photoshop, let it work it's magic and out came an HDR panorama of Mt. Baldy and everything in between there and my office. The view was spectacular and hopefully I'll give all you people, that have never come to visit Southern California, an idea of just how beautiful it is here, especially after a snow storm.

By the way Mt. Baldy's real name is Mount San Antonio and is just over 10,000ft high. The name Baldy actually comes from the fact that the summit has an absence of trees around it. If you would like to see the larger version just click on the photo above.

Castle Glen

Yesterdays photos were taken from the end of the street of the middle row of houses in the photograph above. This is Castle Glen Estates and it is a relatively new area of home building in Big Bear Lake. When I first lived in Big Bear 10 years ago it was just a hill with some trees and bushes.  Now, it's a whole area of very expensive houses. The frozen lake you see in front is Baker Pond and only 4 years ago it was almost completely dry but during the course of one hard winter it filled back up.

Life As A Fire Hydrant

Today I thought I'd give you all one of those "Choice" days. So above is the color version of a fire hydrant that is at the end of a street in Castle Glen Estates in Big Bear Lake. I think this little guy probably has one of the best views that any fire hydrant could ever wish for. Of course he does have some disadvantages too, one being just how cold and windy it is from that view point during the winter months. On top of that he was just recovering from the first winter storm to hit Big Bear and as you can see in the distance the next one is fast approaching, up over the dam and along the lake towards him. I can not even describe just how clear, sunny and absolutely bitterly cold it was in Big Bear last week when I took this photograph, but hey I was there to take photos and have fun, so what the heck!

And so on to the second photograph. This one is the same photo just with the fire hydrant left in color and the rest converted into black & white. As always click on the photo if you want to see a larger version. Also feel free to use any of these photos free of charge for non-commercial use.

The Rusty Car

Everytime I have driven up to our Box Springs radio site, I have passed this rusty, burned-out car. Earlier this week as I was driving down from the site, I thought I'd stop and take a photo (or 3) of it. I have no idea how long it's been there or how it got there but I'm sure it will be there for the next 20 years too.