A few months ago I saw an article posted about a tiny desert town in Inyo County, called Keeler. Twenty minutes later, I had picked up my friend Justin, his guitar, and was gassing up the car for a 3 hour trip up “The 395” (one of my favorite California highways). We did this trip knowing we’d only have about 20 minutes of last light to explore … but I do random things like that, so this was nothing new. 

Justin’s a musician so he brought his guitar and serenaded me with his hybrid punk-country sounds as I photographed for an album cover that doesn’t actually exist. Here are a few of my favorites. 

Sitting at around 3000 ft elevation, this 1.3 square mile town has a population around 66 human souls; not exactly a bustling metropolis. The entire time we were there, we didn’t see a single person. We did, however, hear a dog barking and child laughing off in the distance. This would be fine, except that it kept happening over and over as if it were on some sort of pre-recorded track. Creepy? Yah! A bit. 

Anyway, here are a few “portraits” of this town that feels like it’s straight out of a Tom Waits song.

A few favorites from a recent photoshoot at a very cold shoreline with Nebula (https://www.instagram.com/nebula.bee/).  I know what you’re thinking, “Was it really that cold?” Well, let’s just say the snow is not photoshopped :). My friends are gangsta!

Funny aside: My mom (who is a big fan of my work [if you’re reading this, thanks, mom]) recently asked me if all these people are just running around naked/frozen the whole time we’re up in the mountains. The answer is a big NO! While it certainly might get a bit chilly during the brief moments of shooting, the reality is, I have a lot of goofy outtake photos testing lighting/location, etc. Basically, a lot of fun moments like this:

Ok, one last thing …. for good measure. Since there’s still a large part of me that is a landscape photographer, I often take photos at these locations, but without the human element. Here’s one of those :) (If you’re bored, feel free to go follow my landscape only account on Instagram: instagram.com/not_currently)

Today’s election is a very historic day for a very fractured nation. I’m not sure what will come of the next 4 years. I’m fearful, yet trying to remain optimistic.