For a variety of reasons, my travel has been curtailed quite a bit this year, and I was looking forward to getting out to California, one of my favorite places in the country to photograph. The variety of landscapes in this one state are absolutely astounding, from coastal beauty by the Pacific Ocean to desert scenes, the mountains of the Sierras, and everything in between. You are never at a loss for images when traveling in California. So i was quite psyched to be out there and my cameras were salivating at what my be awaiting. When I landed, however, I was greeted by squalls off the Pacific and a very rainy, grey, initial day that did start to clear by the second day. During my third day, however, while photographing at Point Lobos, one of the favorite haunts of the masters, Edward and Brett Weston, the wheels came off and I had to be hospitalized for two days for an electrical problem with my pacemaker. I have had a pacemaker for 14 years (actually, this was my second one) and it has been a terrific boon to me for a complex cardiac issue. This time, however, I had a pacemaker failure that needed immediate attention, and it wound up earning me 2 1/2 days in the hospital until the device could be replaced and I could be watched overnight after it was changed.
Needless to say, my trip ran into a host of problems once that emerged as an issue, and I never really got back on track, even though I felt entirely well. It was just one of those bumps in the road that can smack you in the back of the head when you least expect it and derail even the most noble of efforts. Fortunately, California will be there for the foreseeable future, and I know that I will be back again sometime soon. I did manage to escape with a few decent images that I will be posting on the website for people to see. Here is one that I liked a lot from Muir Woods National Monument.
Redwoods and Stream, Muir Woods National Monument 2026