Southern California Snow Day?

It's been a while since I've made a post, defintley got to work on posting more regularly!

Anyway, California finally got a brutal storm through the last couple day, rain, snow, and hail. In Southern California, you hear that right. So being an adrenaline junkie as well as an adventure photographer, this was a godsend.  The second the rain ended, I headed straight to the mountains with fellow photographer Prangon (by the way check out the kids work, it's fucking awesome, seriously. IG: @prangonbaroi) 

With morning sunlight pouring into the valley heading towards the mountains, we knew this was gonna be a good day.

We arrived and were greeted by California Highway Patrol blocking the highway, checking for snow chains. Which we had neither, but we had "4 wheel drive and snow tires" (or so we told them) However, once were up there, we realized how gnarly the weather was, it was nothing but ice covered roads, and brutal road conditions, which my little front wheel drive German hatchback took like a champ, surprisingly.

We found a turnout, parked, and loaded up. Snow shoes, jacket, and beanie provided by Poler Stuff, with the camera bag provided by EVOC.

We hiked up the ice covered road until we saw a climb up to a summit, ready for a challenge, we gave it a shot. In knee deep snow, we used broken tree branches as ice picks to climb up to what was essentially a near cliffside. We continued this for quite sometime before we managed to summit the ridgeline, which as you can see in the photos, proved to be worth it...

Get Ready We're Going to Joshua Tree

The news came on our feed; "Meteor Shower Happening August 11-13" "Rare Shower Will be Seen Aug. 11-13". Right away we planned a little impromptu voyage. With Eli's car packed with rad Poler Stuff, energy drinks, and of course the mandatory slingshot we took off.

Our destination; Joshua Tree National Park, a beautiful mountainous desert 4 hours out of LA with nearly astral and asymmetric rock formations which tower over the vast landscape. What turned the rowdy car ride with friends into a silent daze of wonder was the light show put on by the stars and Milky Way as we glided past the looming rocks outside of the campsite. After loading up our backpacks with our essentials we made a short trek to out site, to our surprise it wasn't a flat patch of dirt with a table,but rather a rock. The rock kicked traditional camping aside; the rock had nooks and crannies to rest in, it also had a flat area for our equipment and inclined curves which gave the perfect angle to gaze the stars the best way possible while relaxing.

Shooting stars were in no scarcity as all across the night sky one would appear ever so often, like looking closely into grass for insects, they would appear. With the perfect weather and snakes nowhere near our mats and sleeping bags we had total stoke for the abode of the night. After getting settled we began our midnight exploration of the nearby rock formations which seemed like shadow castles which flickered with every movement of our flashlights. We hopped, climbed, ran, rested, contemplated jumps, until we found a nice spot.

Eli took things one step beyond and shot breathtaking pictures from the peaks of these formations. Using the exposure from our flashlights and some tampering of the settings he manged to catch amazing photographs. Shooting stars would zip above our heads as we climbed and he shot making the exprience that more memorable. After all was said and done we went back to the rock spot and rested, only to spend the remaining hours of the night talking, sharing stories, banter, simply having a good time.

After some failed attempts to sleep we all decided to stay up and watch the sunrise. The stars were slowly being tucked by the blended horizon of the approaching morning sky. Light shined through and above the city-like array of rock formations which we laid by. We dawned with our flashlights in hand, we climbed to rock formation to catch the sun peeping its head over the far-away mountains. It was one hell of an adventure.

Much thanks to Poler for the rad gear! Camp Vibes!  

Chasing Fires in Downtown LA

I had just flew in from Portland and went to go grab ramen with my friend Ashlyn, expecting a very casual day. While we ate she mentioned that a friend of hers who is also a photographer, was in downtown and wanted to meet up to scout rooftops. Always open to adventure, we were all about it. We all met up and started hitting rooftops all over downtown, however when we were atop a structure in the fashion district, something caught my eye. I saw dark, thick smoke in the distance, and almost instantly we knew it was a fire, so we immediately packed up and bolted over to the general area, and what we found was, well I'll let the photos do the talking...