Website nearly up and running...

Hi all,

My website is nearly up and running. The final animation was completed today and was sent in to be uploaded. It looks great. The logo looks brilliant and I think makes the website really have a great deal more personality. I am really excited to have it all come together. It's always a weird feeling when you have many people working on the same project who do not communicate with each other. Never really know how it will turn out. I have also heard some great news. 6 of my photos have been selected to appear on the walls of my building (see www.insidea.com). There will be three per floor with one I think being panoramic. This is really exciting and hopefully will be the kick start of it all.

In addition to all that, I will be having my first gallery in a restaurant (middle floor) which has hosted many of the upcoming artists in Jersey City. I believe the grand opening will be sometime within the next 2 months and will remain there for a while. Will keep you up to date on when that is happening.

Exciting stuff.......

Yosemite Falls, Death Valley

Some videos from California

Made it to Fly Geyser

Well, I did end up staying in the cafe from 6ish am till 10.30 am waiting for this Bill Spoo guy to ask permission to go on his land. I was getting pretty frustrated that he was not turning up and the waitress just told me to go and jump the fence....."plenty of people do it"....she said. Well I did not drive 350 miles  for nothing so I decided to go and jump the fence. I drove the 30 miles to get to it and you can see it from the road but barely as there are some trees in the way. Once i got there I saw that there were already some people there which I was pretty happy about as I thought that when they leave they can leave the key with me and I would drop it off at Gerlach later. 

Well I waited about an hour for them to finish, they got in their car and started to drive towards the gate. Great!!! I will finally see this thing and not trespass. Just before the gate, apparently there is another road which they took and went the complete other direction. I wanted to scream so loud. After calming down, I saw a farm in the distance and went there to see if maybe they had a key, seeing that they live so close to it. The guy was so cool but no key. He also told me to jump over and they he did it all the time. The worst thing that could happen was to get arrested.....not too bad. Well by gosh I decided to do it. I got all geared up, tripod in hand and jumped the fence. My heart was pounding. I felt so naughty. Its a 1/2 mile walk to it and then finally I was there. The first thing that hit me was how small it was. In the other photos I saw it looks massive but it's about man height. 

Then the colors hit me. It is so amazing. Greens, yellows, blues, reds all falling into each other. The way the water spouts is really cool too. It just come out where it can at all these weird angles and as it comes out it turns to steam so it is covered in this eerie mist. I snapped as many as I could but was too scared to use my tripod so the shots did not really get the attention I usually give. I was really nervous that the sheriff who apparently patrols the area a lot was going to take me away and I would miss my flight back. Thankfully I got away in time. It was such an experience and it was totally worth it. Would do it again any day. Then went back to San Francisco and the final read was 2176 miles in 5 days! Pictures to follow.

Now that I have some time....

This trip has been so cool so far and I have done and seen some really cool stuff, some that I have wanted to see for a really long time. I really liked Yosemite but I think I prefer Zion National Park. I was so impressed with Death Valley. I went there with very little knowledge except that it is really  really hot (second highest temperature recorded 134F) and it certainly was. It was roasting but what was really cool was the things to see. The rock formations are amongst the best that I have ever seen and there is so much variety. From the sand dunes at the south east entrance to Mosaic Canyon, to the Point and Devils Golfcourse and Badwater and Racetrack Playa, it is officially my second favorite Park that I have seen in the USA. Check out the video of Racetrack Playa. Well it took forever to get to this place. Death Valley is massive, about the size of Belgium I think. As a result of the only hotel at the Visitor Center being full I had to stay in this little town called Beatty in Nevada, about 50 miles through the middle of nowhere. Whenever i would drive to get there as I stayed there two nights, I would drive these miles at like 9pm and I would not see one other car. Scary as hell as if I broke down, I dont know what I would have done. Cry....a lot!

Anyway, so to get to Racetrack Playa, I left at 7am and drove the 50 miles to the main road junction, then drove another 20 miles to the nearest petrol station as I knew that I needed a full tank for this trip. Then drive the 20 back and join another road for about 100 miles. Once I did that, I took a left on another road going to this Crater - thats another 30 miles. Once you get to the Crater it gets interesting as the road to the Racetrack is on gravel and not just any gravel, the worst kind of gravel road as it had bumps and holes everywhere and very sharp rocks. It was highly recommended to only use a 4X4 but I did not listen. It is only 27 miles to the Playa but I am really not exaggerating when I say that it took me 2 1/2 hours as I could only go about 10 miles an hour. If my tires burst which apparently happens a lot I would be dead. The temp by now (as it was probably about 11am) was getting easily above 110F and on this glorious journey I did not see another car, either behind me or coming the other way. You really are alone in the middle of nowhere. Anyway I finally made it and it was totally worth it. Would do it all over again. Oh and then when I was done with that I had to do the entire journey from the morning back and then another 100 miles to just get out of the park. Once I was out of the park then I had another 300 miles or so to get to Mono Lake which I made there by 7.30pm. That was a lot of driving but totally worth it and so beautiful. This is how Dre does his vacations!!!!

 

1756 miles and counting....Gerlach, Nevada.

Hi all. I finally have a moment to update my blog. I am sorry it has taken so long. I am currently in a tiny town called Gerlach in Nevada....population 186 apparently and I think they are being optimistic frankly. I was on my way to San Fran from Lake Tahoe and then I had a sudden change of heart and decided to go another 190 miles to see the Fly Geyser. I have wanted to see this for so long and I cannot believe I am actually here. It was one of the scariest drives of my life to get here. About 80 miles from the nearest place and it was late and started to snow, sleet, rain and hail and it went pitch black so quickly. Well i finally made it and found the supposed Bruno's Bar where you need to find this elusive guy who owns the farmland that the geyser is actually on and as soon as I walked in the whole bar just stopped, just like the movies, the music skipped a beat. You have to understand that I was the only one without a cowboy hat or boots. It is an interesting place let me tell you that. They are so friendly though. Anyway I got some food and a beer and got a room on the edge of town with miles of dark desert around me......oh and i was the only guest. 

The motel was like a military barrack and i was alone. I did not sleep at all but ended up watching what I think is every episode of Law and Order....as there was only one channel. So I get up at 6.00am, after the alarm goes off (dont know why I had an alarm set up in the first place) and go to Bruno's Breakfast Saloon to wait for this Bill Spoo to come and have his coffee. I have been waiting for 2 hours now and no sign. I need his permission to go on his property or else he can shoot me if I trespass. We will have to see if I will make it at all as I need to drive the 7 hours to San Francisco today....keep you posted but please keep your fingers crossed as I really want to see this bloody geyser.....