California 395

An image that fits nicely into my “Roadside Meditations” series/book but I never paid much attention to it until today despite making it in June of last year. Funny how that works. If you live in Southern California and like the mountains, then the 395 is part of your life. I’ve personally been traveling this road for 12+ years now and always find something new to love about it. Normally that comes with the changing light as is the case with this image. If memory serves, I was in the middle of doing an 8.5 hour drive from Tahoe to San Diego when this scene presented itself and forced me to pull over. Something about the light, lines, color, and textures that really add up.

American Road

Despite the pandemic I’ve still been able to spend a solid amount of time on the road over this past year. Especially since August, making several trips out to Colorado, then the last one out to Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. Very grateful for that. During the meat of the lockdown cabin fever definitely became a thing, at which point I realized it was the longest stretch of time I had spent in San Diego since moving here back in whatever year that was. 2008-ish? That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but there also isn’t a ton here to scratch my many itches. If anything it reaffirmed how much I value time on the road. It’s really special being out there. Last November I made this image outside of Moab, Utah. A place I’d highly recommend to anyone who has never been and wants to feel like you’re on another planet. Like almost every halfway decent image of mine, it took walking away for a while to realize what it was. Once it really sunk in though I became very proud of it. 6 months ago I wouldn’t have had the eye or ability to create an image like this. It tells me that I’m not only advancing as a photographer, but also that my style is changing a bit. Without a doubt my best fine art photograph of 2020.

Click here to see more of my America series.