Eat. Pray. Love. Salt.

I was planning on reminiscing about my last day with the Ocean Salmon Project in Shelter Cove, and how a year ago, I emerged there from a camping trip that would eventually bring about my move to northern Cali. Instead, a 2-mile side-track to Garberville on the way to Shelter Cove revealed a small treasure trove of pictures.

Your typical ice cream toppings.

I looked up the movie “Salt”. It’s about an alleged Russian spy. How appropriate. Angelina Jolie. Julia Roberts. Perhaps I should be able to tell them apart. Or, combining the two movies together, and the leading actresses, and throwing in refined sugar for good measure, would’ve made for a more interesting plot. At least less chicky.

Treats is the ice cream parlor. The only place in town to get a milk shake or ice cream. Or so I’ve been told anyway, by folks in Redway, two miles away. That’s what brought me to Garberville this time. “Treats for everyone”, to quote Kate.

What can I say about the income tax + guns shop? It also houses a visitors center and a pot accessories shop. Thus the formula: pot + guns – taxes = happy tourists.

Come April, you have choice.

]]> http://www.mihaelblikshteyn.com/blog/2010/09/eat-pray-love-salt-garberville-california/feed/ 0 http://www.mihaelblikshteyn.com/blog/2010/09/eat-pray-love-salt-garberville-california/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BeastsAndBotanicals/~3/Btxv3Lfoqdo/ http://www.mihaelblikshteyn.com/blog/2010/08/birds-that-fish/#comments Thu, 26 Aug 2010 04:58:46 +0000 Mihael Blikshteyn http://www.mihaelblikshteyn.com/blog/?p=284

I feel like I am cheating posting another photo of a Brown Pelican, especially that my dedicated Brown Pelican posting was only a month away. But I am a bit overwhelmed, and my anticipated posting on the Klamath River Yoruk tribe commercial fishery will have to wait till next week. To tie the post together, here’s a photo of an osprey looking for fish.

I’ve been pondering lately the fate of the guy who is trying to escape the tsunami on the ubiquitous tsunami warning signs up and down the Pacific coast. Truth be told, the wave looks more like a sneaker wave than a full-blown tsunami. Still, I find it unsettling to have him be put in such a perilous situation for our benefit. Does he have family? How high is the hill? Will he escape?

I’ve also added several new products to the float wrap and postcard sections of the store.

During my move to northern California a few months back, I stopped by the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, Oregon. It is one of my favorite public aquariums by far, although I haven’t made it to the Monterey Bay Aquarium yet, and I hear it’s quite nice. It was a January morning with very few visitors, so I had the aquarium mostly to myself.

A large display with Sea nettles captivated me. It was very meditative watching slow-moving jellyfish in a dimly-lit room. For these shots, I post-edited the images, desaturating the deep-blue color of illuminated water, emphasizing shapes and colors of the jellyfish.

This past weekend, my friend Chelsea and I met up for a short camping trip along the California North Coast, starting in Fort Bragg and ending in San Francisco. Stopping by a boutique store in Fort Bragg, Chelsea found a golden “space” suite, and after some persuasion, it was hers. An outfit like that (a “daily wear”, she called it) begged for a beach photo shoot.

It’s always a treat and a challenge to work with Chelsea. In her previous life in Anchorage, Alaska, she did a brief stint as a professionally-trained model. However, once in the wilds of nature, her inner energy keeps her hopping, like a chickadee, making it almost impossible to have her pose. After a couple of years of photographing her, I came to the conclusion that the only way to get interesting images with my friend is to just let her do her thing and be ready with my camera.

We found an interesting rocky outcropping on one of the beaches between Fort Bragg and Fort Ross. The tricky part was lightning and reflectiveness of the outfit. It was around 2 pm, not the best time for such a session, so I decided to go with the more “Mars” feeling of the images with a powerful flash and exposure compensation. The images are minimally post-processed.

I took these photos of my grandma (“babushka” in Russian, emphasis on the first syllable) 3 years ago. She is turning 93 this November. In bright mind, she still lectures me every time we talk on the phone on my life’s choices, and like with any Jewish grandma, it usually boils down to what I should eat, emphasizing that my mostly vegetarian diet and lack of soup consumption is slowly killing me.

She was born on November 7, 1917. A year before World War I ended. Those of you familiar with the Soviet history will recognize that it was also the date of the October Soviet Revolution, which brought about the civil war and, five years later, formation of the Soviet Union. The official Soviet version of events says an assault led by Vladmir Lenin was launched at 9:45 p.m. signaled by a blank shot from the cruiser Aurora in St. Petersburg. We like to joke in the family that it was the sound of the shot that made my grandma’s mom give birth on that date. Ironically, when we all emigrated from the Soviet Union at the very beginning of 1992, my grandma in tow (or, was it me in tow?), the Soviet Union fell apart. Is it just possible that my grandma was that invisible glue that kept the whole country together for 80 years?

It’s hard to miss these peculiar brown birds gliding, in small groups, above braking waves of the ocean edge, disappearing into the fog. The Brown Pelican is the smallest of the 8 species of Pelecanus. It’s mesmerizing to watch them glide 30 feet above the surface looking for aggregations of small fish, bomb-diving for them, once spotted, head straight down, wings half-stretched, often disappearing completely under the surface.

I’ve noticed that a feeding pelican is often accompanied by a single sea gull that follows the pelican around, landing a foot away when the pelican emerges with its mouth full of fish, the gull hoping for the spills. Just like the best place to see the Bald Eagles in Alaska is around municipal dumps, a good place to watch pelicans in coastal California is around newly-returned charter boats filleting fish and throwing guts overboard.

Last week, I opened two retail locations in northern California that showcase a complete selection of my postcards and a number of my favorite photographs as Float Wraps – ready-to-hang prints wrapped around masonite. I will also be adding several new photographic products over the next month. If you’re driving on Highway 101, you will pass through Orick – a small town half-way between Arcata and Crescent City, stop by Burl Bill’s – the last gift shop on the left of the highway if you’re heading north. In Eureka, my showcase space is in Rustic West Trading Co. at 339 2nd Street (Corner of Second and E Streets) in historic Old Town. The Orick location has more of the Redwoods and Roosevelt Elk emphasis, while the downtown Eureka store features more of the local landmark photography. See you there!

A small but dedicated group has sprung up in Humboldt. They show up on beaches, early in the morning, rakers in hand, ready to leave their mark. They take nothing but pictures. They avoid leaving footprints. What they do leave in the wet sand are geometric figures, some quite large. They make labyrinths for themselves and others to enjoy. Inevitably, the tide comes in, burying their creations.

To join or observe, or see many other photos, check them out on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=106161612764020