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.

My Friend Steve Davidson

This photo is dedicated to my good friend Steven Davidson. I first met Steve when we were 16 years old and both beginning our careers on the railway on the Youth Training Scheme. We worked 40 hours a week and got paid the US equivalent of $40 a week. The pay sucked but if we worked hard we knew it would lead to a full time job. Both Steve and I wanted to be Train Drivers and both of us interviewed and got offered positions as Train Drivers Assistants at Stratford Depot. Unfortunately, a day after the offer was made a recruiting ban was put on and we never started the jobs. Eventually though, with some perseverance we both finally got our wish and started our train driving (or Footplate as it was known) careers at Waterloo Station, a major London terminus station. I left Waterloo not long after we qualified as Train Driver Assistants to go to Euston Station and Steve stayed at Waterloo. After serving our 2-3 year effective apprenticeships we both qualified as full fledge Train Drivers. Of course eventually I left the railway and moved to the USA, Steve on the other hand is still a driver today at Northampton.

So, anyway, this photo is for you Steve and hopefully you'll find your way over here for a visit and I'll show you what a "Real Train" looks like.

A SoCal Skyline

Southern California is such an amazing place! Where in the world can you live in a desert, while trying to decide; "Should I drive to any one of the MANY amazing beaches, that are within a couple of hours?" or look up towards the snow covered mountains and go skiing? This last weekend just happened to be one of those perfect weekends, it snowed up at the ski resorts and yet it was pretty nice down here. On Monday, I had to take a trip up to Box Springs again for a construction kick-off meeting for work, so like I always do, I took my camera along.  The photograph above was the view from up the top of Box Springs looking North East towards the San Bernardino Mountains, which happened to have a sprinkling of snow from the weekend.

Christmas at The Mission Inn

Today's photo is of the side of the Mission Inn lit up by all the lights for the Festival of Lights. You may remember that I took a photograph of this scene (click here to see it) not so long ago, but without the lights. It was a bit more of a challenge this time because there was so much traffic driving around looking at the lights as well. I hope you enjoy it.

Festival of Lights

Saturday evening I headed down to the Mission Inn in Downtown Riverside. Every year the day after Thanksgiving the owners light up the Mission Inn with Christmas lights and call it The Festival of Lights. I walked around from just before sunset until well after dark to see what photographs I could take. It was a bit of a challenge trying to use a tripod with so many people wandering around, but it was worth it. I'll post a couple more photos over the next couple of days.

Elsinore Peak

I've spoke about it a lot but I've never really shown you what it looks like, but here is Elsinore Peak. This is the view from the road driving up to it. The antenna farm looks like a small copse of trees on a hillside. As you can see Elsinore Peak is pretty busy as it provides a "Gateway" for microwave connections between San Diego, Riverside and Orange Counties. These microwave links provide all sorts of services for radio, telephone and data networks.

Happy Chicken Day

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends and family.  As for all the Brit's; sorry you have to work today and tomorrow, but us here in the USA will be making up for you having to work...by NOT working. For anybody interested in the history of Thanksgiving click here. Anyway, the traditional food here for Thanksgiving is turkey, but seeing as I don't have a photograph of a turkey, a chicken will have to do. In fact it's a Hawaiian chicken. Chickens in Hawaii roam freely around the islands as they have no natural predators to speak of. This one was on the golf course I played at while I was there. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!