The Dam Construction

If you remember a couple of days ago I posted a photograph taken from Lakeview Point of the dam at Big Bear Lake and the crane doing the construction work. Well when I finally arrived at the dam I had to stop and jump out of the car to see what was going on. I peeked over the side of the dam and this is the scene that greeted me. I am just amazed at how much construction equipment is in the bottom of the creek. Also this is the view of the dam I never bothered to look at before, so i found it kind of interesting.

Some Plastic Roses & A Teddy Bear

It amazes me what you can find laying in rocks at the side of the road. Yesterday at work Ben, a colleague at work and I took a trip to Elsinore Peak to check on some work that had recently been done. On the way back along the Forest Service road I saw a windsock on the edge of the mountain of thought it would make a great photograph. As I wandered around to find that ideal spot I found these plastic roses with a teddy bear wrapped in cellophane. So I decided to use some artistic impression and move them to on top of the rocks and take this photograph. When I was done I then pushed the plastic stem into the ground, standing the roses upright and giving teddy a view of the area. I have no idea why they were there, there was no cross or anything like that, but I'm sure someone had their reasons......

Lakeview Point

While my parents were visiting this past September, I took them to Big Bear to enjoy the scenery. We stopped at Lakeview Point to enjoy the distant view of the lake.  Imagine my surprise then when we saw one of those cranes that build high rise buildings amongst the trees by the dam. At first, I couldn't figure out what it was for. Then I remembered hearing talk about the replacement of the bridge that crosses the dam.  Once we drove down to the dam, we stopped and I went and peered over the edge to find a whole building site down there at the bottom.

More Snow

I have a friend back in England that just loves snow and mountains, so today I thought I'd dedicate this photo to her (Kirsty Ward), even though it appears they're getting plenty of snow of their own in the UK right now. Kirsty told me how she loves my photos of snow and mountains and wanted to see more. SO I told her I would dedicate the next one to her. This is Big Bear Lake on a chilly morning a few days after this snow fell.

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.