Blog

Cataviña Desert – Baja | Pons Brooks Comet Photo Trip

Posted on April 10, 2024April 10, 2024William Bay

The Cataviña Desert in Baja California, Mexico is one of my favorite places in the entire world. It’s such a unique desert with unique plants and geology. The surreal Boojum and Elephant trees dot the landscape along with the more familiar desert plants like Ocotillo, Fire Barrel cacti, and Cardón cacti (which resembles the Saguaros of the Sonorran Desert, but reach even higher into the sky). One of the other unique aspects of the Cataviña is it’s isolation provides for incredible dark skies. Perfect for astrophotography. And when I heard Pons-Brooks Comet was making once-in-seventy year appearance I knew exactly […]

Lightgathering 2021 | Salton Sea

Posted on October 29, 2021January 17, 2024William Bay

I’ve written before about the group of wise and experienced photographers called Lightgathering that get together on a yearly basis. The same group that has adopted me as one of their own. Unfortunately with Covid, there wasn’t a Lightgathering in 2020, and 2019 was held here in San Diego, and I was playing host more than shooting. Now that we are in a post-ish Covid world, with vaccines, and no more stay-at home orders, we were excited to hold another Lightgathering. This year it was decided to meet at the Salton Sea, despite it only being 2 hours from me, […]

A Tale of Two Berms

Posted on May 13, 2019January 17, 2024William Bay and Isidro Barragan

If you’ve seen one of my prior posts about Nemotodes freely migrating across the border via the Tijuana River Channel, you may have seen my photos of the failed berm that the United States International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) put in place in the Spring of 2018. Now, let’s be clear. As it did before, an earthen damn will erode and scour away with even a slight trickle. Not only is this not an ineffective solution, but it actually causes additional problems when the berm gets washed away, releasing more sediment that clogs the estuary.But, the with the IBWC […]

Clean Border Water Now | March for Clean Water

Posted on April 16, 2019January 17, 2024William Bay and Isidro Barragan

Saturday April 13th, Imperial Beach and South Bay locals gathered with signs and prepared chants in IB at the pier plaza. Surfrider and Clean Border Water Now was holding its third annual March for Clean Water. It was only a day after finding out that 120-130 gallons of raw sewage spilled into the beach at La Jolla’s Windansea beach. 130 gallons is a drop in the bucket compared to Imperial Beach, where we measure the constant inundation of raw sewage and chemicals in the millions of gallons. It’s not a contest La Jolla! IB’s got you beat. The March, organized […]

Of Nematodes, and Tijuana River Valley Pollution

Posted on March 12, 2019March 12, 2019William Bay and Isidro Barragan

Looking along the border fence from Pedwest towards Playas with the Tijuana River Estuary on the US side to the right.

There is a major concern about what can, and can’t be brought across the border when you walk or drive into the United States. But the USDA, and the US Government doesn’t seem to have a problem turning a blind eye to the millions of gallons of raw sewage that carries among other things, E. Coli, chloroform, uranium, and hexavalent chromium (you know that stuff Erin Brockovich got famous for exposing in Hinkley). It’s a nightmarish soup of human waste, industrial and agricultural that flows freely into the US, just meters away from the Border Patrol checkpoint. No passport needed. […]

Bonneville to California

Posted on December 21, 2018February 4, 2019William Bay

Black and white photo of Tufas at South Tufa Mono Lake.

This is #4 in a 4-Parter. Click here for Yesterday’s Bonneville was surely the highlight for me on this trip. And while I was cold, and my back was twisted in shapes it shouldn’t be, there was still so much ground to cover. The next three days I’d travel through a snowy Nevada, have Steve McQueen’s starter go out on me in Tonopah, drive through the Eastern Sierras, see the Tufas of Mono Lake, and finally limp into the driveway at my good friend Teresa K‘s house, where I stayed with her and her family for a couple days. It was […]

Salt Lake City to Bonneville (I sped of course!)

Posted on December 20, 2018February 4, 2019William Bay

This is #3 in a 4-Parter. Click here for Yesterday’s. I was out to attempt the ground speed record for “Nissan Xterras with a big ass paddleboard affixed to the roof-rack”. I’m fairly certain there’s a class for that. I also feel it’s important to remind you, dear reader, that I still have not used the paddleboard on my trip. It’s really been nothing more than a conversation starter, and a MPG reducer. So I gunned out of SLC after a big hug from Em. I was determined to get to the Flats with some good light left in the day, […]

St George to Salt Lake City (via Nevada)

Posted on December 19, 2018February 4, 2019William Bay

This is #2 in a 4-Parter. Click here for Yesterday’s Everyone from Lightgathering had said their goodbyes Saturday night. So Sunday was “get-outta-town” day. I still had a few errands to run. Primarily to throw away my leaky sieve of a tent, and swiss cheese excuse of an air mattress, in a St George Wendy’s parking lot dumpster. And if you read my last post… You may remember that I never mentioned replacing the passenger side window in Steve McQueen (that’s my Xterra’s name). …That’s because I hadn’t. But through a parts website, I found that there was a junkyard in […]

Lightgathering 2018 | St George

Posted on December 18, 2018December 21, 2018William Bay

Years ago, a photography mentor of mine connected me with a small group of photographers that have been meeting informally once a year since 1973, to photograph, and continue their lifelong friendships. They call themselves Lightgathering, and they’re an old school bunch, with a few having assisted Ansel Adams during his summer workshops. I’ve only been to a couple, with the last being around 2002, but I love going to these, because there’s a tremendous amount of photographic knowledge I get to soak up. And this year, I was committed to getting back. It was held in St George, Utah […]

#Follow #Friday #Five| Volume 6

Posted on February 2, 2018William Bay

I’m feeling much better this week, and I’m excited to deliver a full five again. There is no theme, just some solid photography that I’ve been enjoying, and I hope you do too! Juan María Rodríguez ( @juanmarirodriguez ) We’re starting this week’s Five with a pair that formulate incredible color imagery. Because, I personally shoot mainly black and white, people are surprised to hear of my immense appreciation for color. I love color photography. But the color must earn its keep in a photograph. A strong photo with weak color (that’s not to say subtle or pastel – there’s […]