2009: The Year in Pictures

I just did an expanded version of this on my personal blog and thought I’d share some of my favorite shots from this year on KB as well. But I’m paring it down quite a bit here and adding some details. (I tried to narrow it down to 24, like two shots per month, but couldn’t quite do it.)

These aren’t in any kind of ranked order. They’re actually in the order I took them throughout the year. Most of the titles come from song lyrics. Extra points if you can identify them.

1. Never – Niland, CA

If you’ve never heard of the Salton Sea or Salvation Mountain in particular, you should google it sometime. Watch some youtube footage. Really fascinating place.


2. Doomed to crumble unless we grow – Valley of Fire, NV

One of my favorite places on earth.

3. Life is Beautiful – Hollywood, CA

I took this without looking through the viewfinder, so I was happy that it came out so well. These “Life is Beautiful” stencils were popping up all over LA. You can read more about the graffiti artist, Mr. Brainwash, here, and see more of his art here.

4. She’s calling you – Somewhere near Death Valley, CA

I took this from the back seat of a minivan that was going about 60 mph. The strange color tone is the result of shooting through tinted windows. Total fluke that it came out at all.

5. I’ll take a vodka float – Westminster, CA

When I moved to California I expected there to be health food stores on every corner. Instead, there’s liquor stores and donut stores on every corner. And I’m not exaggerating. Some intersections near where I live have two liquor stores. This shot is a Polaroid. And yes, this liquor store sells ice cream.

6. I seem to think I don’t belong here – Los Angeles Public Library, downtown Los Angeles, CA

The Los Angeles Public Library is a special place. Kind of hard to describe. But a cool place to hang out and explore.

7. Living close to your fears – Downtown Los Angeles, CA

This was taken on the sidewalk near the library. Some equipment for a film shoot—they were filming an Audi commercial. These are lights.

8. love bible love – Niland, CA

Another shot from Salvation Mountain, this may be my fave shot of the year.

9. Goodbye is just what you do – Los Angeles Public Library, downtown Los Angeles, CA

I think a lot of homeless people spend their days at the library downtown. Not that this guy is homeless. But I saw something on TV once about it. There was an interview with a teenage girl who had to move to a homeless shelter near Skid Row with her mother, and the library was her refuge.

10. An outlaw or a leader – Downtown Huntington Beach, CA

I saw the graphic on this shop door and told one of the teenagers I was with to go stand there facing the wall. My son’s friend knew immediately what I was after and jumped over and posed for me. What I love about this shot is the two drinks on the garbage can. He set his drink there, and there was already one there.

11. Bursting at the seams – Downtown Huntington Beach, CA

Gotta love lens flare on the Vivitar Ultrawide and Slim. Nothing else like it.

12. Leaving - Downtown Los Angeles, CA

I didn’t intend for this weird light leak/lens flare to happen on this shot, but I’m really happy that it did.

13. Footsteps – Huntington Beach, CA

This was taken at the swap meet down the road from where I live. Every time I go, I look around at all the Asians and Latinos and think, These are my people.

14. If I could open my arms – San Pedro, CA

This is the Korean Friendship Bell in San Pedro. It stands on a hill overlooking the ocean—that’s water you can see beyond the grass on the right. Worth looking at large, because the thing I love most about it is the way the woman is standing.

15. I don’t recall a single care – Costa Mesa, CA

Nothing as fun as a county fair at the end of summer.

16. Grieving for the loss of heaven – Huntington Beach, CA

My other fave shot of the year. My youngest son and I were riding bikes down to a photo lab, so I could pick up some film, and I spotted this flower on the sidewalk on the way there. I noted where it was so I could get a picture of it on the way back. On the way home, I purposely stopped my bike in a place that I thought would prevent my son from coming along behind me and running over the flower. He managed to do it anyway.

But he only hit one petal, so no harm done.

17. You should be in my space – Westminster, CA

This was taken with a Holga, which is a plastic toy camera with a very inaccurate viewfinder. I aimed the viewfinder exactly above the sign, so all I saw was blank sky in the frame. Pure guesswork, but it came out perfect.

If you’re wondering, the rest of the sign says “Sunny Tires Club.” It’s an auto repair place.

18. It’s just you, me and this wire – Westminster, CA

I wish I could remember exactly where I took this, because I want to go back and take pictures of these wires with different cameras. Sometimes I think all of southern California can be summed up in two words—wires and concrete.

19. It’s all over now – Westminster, CA

In case you were wondering where they got to. The caskets are over that way.

20. Was this your celebrated summer? – Newport Beach, CA

The Balboa Pier. Funny how deserted the beach can be in the winter.

21. Everything sleeps beneath – Huntington Beach, CA

One of my first experiments with double exposures. The graves at this pet cemetery were decorated for Halloween.

22. I flew beyond the sun before it was time – Huntington Beach, CA

I made my son model for me on this one. There’s a block of concrete in a deserted spot that the local kids decorate with graffiti. Deserted spots are hard to come by around here. Well, it’s actually not deserted—it’s in a big field next to a park. But the city doesn’t maintain it. People use the field to ride their horses and horse buggies—it’s right next to a horse stabling place.

23. What’s the point with a love that makes you hate and kill for. – Yermo, CA

These creatures are part of a truck stop roadside attraction in Yermo, CA. King Kong and a diner-saur.

24. Sit back and breathe – Santa Ana, CA

I discovered this empty lot in a nearby town covered in graffiti. You will only spot it if you go down a small alley. I took my husband there this day and there was a person listening to headphones and reading a newspaper, relaxing. It was the day after Thanksgiving. Take a better look.

25. Let the broken sky break above our heads – Downtown Los Angeles, CA

The heap on the left is a homeless person and his shopping cart. He was sleeping next to a library on Los Angeles St. near the Toy District of downtown. (This area is actually Little Tokyo, I think. Whichever, it’s pretty close to Skid Row.) In the background on the right is a church.

26. Window shopping – Beverly Hills, CA

This is a shop on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, CA. There are plexiglass windows on the floor with mannequin displays in them.

The young girl on the right was checking them out. Her and her father were wearing the nicest clothes I’ve ever seen. I’m thinking her outfit probably cost more than I usually have in the bank.

I took this the same day I took the shot above of the homeless person.

27. May grief fall away like leaves from the trees – Rialto, CA

Leaves on a sidewalk (top frame) and on a lawn (bottom frame). A rainy day in Rialto.

28. When death sleeps, it dreams of you – Agua Mansa Pioneer Cemetery, Colton, CA

I came across this old pioneer cemetery one day while exploring in San Bernadino County. Just about all of the graves that had these above-ground concrete things (what do you call them?) had been broken like this. Like someone had hit them with a sledgehammer. Inside all you could see was dirt. Animals have dug holes all over this graveyard, many right in front of headstones. Really creepy.

29. I love to feel the rain on my face – Rialto, CA

It kind of cracks me up when people in southern Cali see leaves on the ground and say, "See! California has fall!" (The season.) I took this picture in December.