Category: Random

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Las Vegas Workshop

Posted on January 31, 2011October 16, 2016William Bay

My journeys into the desert are usually one of solace and being one with nature. This last trip was quite different. I was asked by the Vegas Pictage User Group to speak to them about WordPress and Search Engine Optimization for photographers. WordPress and S.E.O. are a couple topics I’ve been speaking about more and more. It’s really been so much fun teaching and sharing this kind of knowledge with others. I feel like the whole thing is snowballing into something really great and a wonderful expression that I enjoy more and more. As I move into creating a new […]

Photographic Humble Pie

Posted on January 14, 2011October 7, 2016William Bay

I’m feeling a little down this week. I submitted a couple photos in our local PPSDC Print Competition on Tuesday night, and both my images tanked. I guess I’m just a little unsure of what will actually do well, or if my style of photography can ever do well in competition. It’s a little discouraging when I consider submitting prints to National PPA or WPPI print competitions. This first image was taken from this really great [intlink id=”san-diego-engagement-photography-imperial-beach-windansea” type=”post”]engagement session here in San Diego[/intlink]. The other image was from a [intlink id=”wedding-ramona-private-estate” type=”post”]wedding in Ramona[/intlink] a few years back. Another photographer […]

365 has turned into 52

Posted on January 7, 2011October 7, 2016William Bay

A month ago I announced that I would be doing a 365 day project. Well, after giving it some thought and looking at my schedule for the year, I’ve decided to bring it to a more do-able project. So instead of everyday, I’ll be posting at least once a week. 365 dropped down top 52. What is on the books for 2011? 2011 is lining up to be a great year, and I’m excited about the opportunities that are lining up. I am in the process of forming an Internet Marketing and Development company. As some of you may know, […]

New Design Coming, and a Personal Challenge

Posted on November 17, 2010October 7, 2016William Bay

The Design I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about who I am as a photographer lately and I’ve come to the conclusion that my current site doesn’t reflect what my photography is about. The current design has been up for almost 2 years now and that also has me clamoring for a redesign. As of now, I have a very close friend of mine working on a new logo, and I’m in the process of a complete website redesign. The redesign will be a ground up, everything: logo, look and feel, navigation, the photography displayed. It will all be […]

Come See Me Talk About WordPress

Posted on November 15, 2010October 7, 2016William Bay

I’m very excited to be putting together my very first speaking gig. I will be speaking to the Professional Photographers of San Diego County on December 7th from 9am-5pm. I’ll be covering a lot of information about blogging in general, how to get started, the benefits to WordPress as your blogging and website engine, search engine optimization, and quite a bit more. I will also provide a critique and comment period on the attendees websites and how they can improve their site, blog and search engine rankings with easy tweaks. Whether you are a wedding photographer, portrait photographer or anything else, […]