Life is good
Photography
Gemini Bridges (MOAB)
Nov 9th
Free camping at Moab? You bet. Gemini Bridges was totally empty when we were there in July. Fantastic free camping. The only requirement from the BLM office is that you bring with you a camping toilet. I’m not sure what the actual canyon is called (Gooney Bird Canyon maybe), but we got some fantastic sunsets. Did my best to get it on Google Maps.
Photo: Click for larger size.
View Gemini Bridges in a larger map
California Camping – The Anza Borego
Apr 10th
I’ve been meaning to add this to my blog for quite a while now. If you’re looking for great camping spots in California, the Anza Berego is fantastic. There’s free camping within a certain distance from the road, and they ask you to re-use spots. This was the view from our first spot.

If I remember correctly, they also allow fires in a container (they’re still digging up ash from 100s of years ago, so it sticks around). Pack it out you know. At anyrate, this was probably the greatest camping spot we’ve found so far in California. Beautiful place, lots of wildlife, and so quiet. And if you’re looking for adventure, well there’s always Mt. Pinyon. There’s a sign on this road saying “4×4 Recommended”. Hah! Reading the web on it later, a lot of folks claim you can’t even do it with a stock 4×4. We did it when I Suzuki was still stock, although I couldn’t open my door by the end of it. You can check out those pics here but we stopped taking photos when we thought the truck was going to roll. There are better pics here (you’ll see the one fellah dropped the one wheel too much). I think the funniest part of the Mt Pinyon pass is that some of the climbs were too steep to do with all our stuff in the truck. I actually had to unpack all our shit, hike it up, and then drive up. I’ve just lifted the suspension and put in a new transfer case with lower gear ratios from Calmini.
If you like the quiet and the outdoors, and don’t mind free camping (there are paid campsites too), you’ll love the Anza. We did.
Image Stabilizer — Fantastic and less than a dollar
Jan 27th
I recently tried out this trick for image stabilization. Particularly with my 300mm lens, I find shake to be a big problem. This article is well worth the read. The only modification I made is to make the cord twice as long and loop it around my shoe: that way, I can modify the length according to my position. The whole washer thing is too much of a constraint.
