big sur

A Spontaneous Excursion Up Pacific Coast Highway - Part 4: From Big Sur To Barbeque

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A Spontaneous Excursion Up Pacific Coast Highway - Part 4: From Big Sur To Barbeque

I woke up this morning a bit ragged. Today it was much harder to open the eyes, due in no small part to the fact that I was planning on making the drive back from Big Sur to Los Angeles. As I was unzipping my tent and cursing under my breath that I couldn't at least indulge in a cup of coffee on my final morning here due to the fire ban, there comes my aunt, as if on cue, straight out of the bushes at the other end of the campground, holding bright sunny fresh to-go cups of coffee! Boom!

She had made her way into town to come back and make our day! I took it as a sign. 

There was no way I was leaving today.

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A Spontaneous Excursion Up Pacific Coast Highway - Part 3: More Big Sur

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A Spontaneous Excursion Up Pacific Coast Highway - Part 3: More Big Sur

he next few days in Big Sur were nothing short of magical. We woke up the following morning, our first in Big Sur, and figured the most logical thing to do would be to hit the beach. And, well, who are we to argue logic? The universe led us down the 3/4 or so mile hiking path from the campsite, through a covered canopy of trees that straddles the Big Sur River, all the way down to the quaint cove that makes up Andrew Molera State Beach. We spent several hours here sunning, swimming, playing, fighting off the seagulls that boldly flew off with half our food, and watching the surfers slowly but surely converge at Molera Point as they anticipated the swells from Hurricane Marie, the category 4 that had hit Baja California earlier that day, to come ashore any moment. And boy did they!

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A Spontaneous Excursion Up Pacific Coast Highway - Part 2: Big Sur

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A Spontaneous Excursion Up Pacific Coast Highway - Part 2: Big Sur

So after the kayak melee in Morro Bay, it was time for Stephen Chiang, the photographer I was assisting, and I to drive up north to San Francisco for the job the next morning. Put two photographers in a car, give them the choice between A. a straight and direct, but boring route, and B. a windy, curvy, 2-hours-longer scenic route through Big Sur, and, well, you can guess which one they’re going to choose 11 times out of 10. So up the curvy Pacific Coast Highway we went, absolutely one of the most beautiful and scenic drives in the country.

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A Spontaneous Excursion Up Pacific Coast Highway - Part 1: Morro Bay

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A Spontaneous Excursion Up Pacific Coast Highway - Part 1: Morro Bay

It began as a work trip. Well, sort of. I’m finding more and more and more these days I’ll fish for any excuse to leave Los Angeles...just the thought alone gets me excited. So when Stephen Chiang, a photographer friend that I occasionally assist mentioned he needed an assistant for a gig in San Francisco, I jumped at it. When he mentioned it would begin with a night of camping in Morro Bay State Park, and end with 4 nights of camping in Big Sur, that wasn’t just the icing on the cake, that WAS the cake.

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The Power Of Serendipity - A Lesson Learned

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The Power Of Serendipity - A Lesson Learned

It might be a little bizarre that I was booked to shoot three professional NFL football players from the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders, yet my two favorite shots of the job had absolutely nothing to do with the job itself.

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The Undeniable Importance of 'Me Time.'

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San Francisco Bay Bridge So yesterday I posted about my whirlwind experiences shooting a few well-known personalities and their closets. Today I'm posting about me.

Through the whole experience shooting Kyle Williams and Rod Streater in San Francisco, I also knew it was going to be an exercise in something I've been focusing on making a priority over the past few years…whether it's for a few minutes, a few hours, or a few days - meditation, a hike, stopping for a few deep breaths, whatever - making it a point to always find time for myself. I've so often times in the past lost vision of why I was doing what I was doing…the passion…and it's been nothing sort of soul-murder, leading to derailment of my original vision and purpose and intended paths, some that have lasted for years. For this reason, it's become a priority to always make sure to do something to try to keep that vision at the forefront. Especially in the midst of running from one house to another to another location to another and between cancellations and reschedulings and all the psychotica that comes with being in the midst of a commercial shoot along with portrait and closet shoots for 4 professional athletes in 3 days, where it can be easy to lose track of why you love doing this to begin with. So on the final evening of a 3 day excursion to San Francisco, I took a couple midnight hours to hang out on San Francisco's Embarcadero overlooking the new Bay Bridge light show. Snapped away and came away with a couple that satisfied the soul.

But even past this, I decided to extend the 'me time' through the next day. Figured Jennifer from WhoHasItApp could use a break from her devices that she's insanely married to (iPad, iPhone, even a Blackberry, all at once) and since I had yet to make my yearly excursion to Big Sur along the coast (and knew there was no reception there), I made up my mind that I'd force one upon her and we'd make our way back to Lalaland via Pacific Coast Highway. And, well, that's never a bad idea. Sure, it adds an extra few hours to the trip, but a few hours is nothing compared to the benefits it provides the mind.

We got to drive through the redwoods, see the waves crash against the coastline from 2000-foot cliffside vantage points that most see only in pictures and films, the elephant seals at San Simeon were out basking in full force, stopped for some insanely mouth-watering barbeque at Alex's in Pismo Beach, which I'd HIGHLY recommend...it was perfect. Well, almost. While I'd love to say it was all good, there was a moment when the government shutdown madness truly got personal, and that's when I slowed down to show Jennifer the best campsite in California...and we ran across this:

Kirk Creek, Big Sur, California. Campground. Wasim Muklashy Photography.

Again, the silver lining...even Mama Nature needs her downtime.

Anyhow, below is a gallery of some of those 'myself time' images. Hope you enjoy.

Ok then, so the final episodes of the "3 National Parks, 3 States, 2 Weeks, 1 Crap Bag" series coming soon…I promise…Thanks for waiting, thanks for reading, and thanks so much for all the wonderful comments that have accompanied these posts both here and on my Google Plus page. It's been a fantastic experience so far and you all have a huge hand in pushing me to keep on keeping on. I only hope that some of my posts resonate enough to help you do the same.

What Do Gretchen Rossi, Stacey Dash, Rod Streater, Terrelle Pryor, & Kyle Williams Have in Common? Me snooping around in their closets. Huh? Uh Yeah...

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Stacey_Dash_WhoHasItApp_Wasim Muklashy Photography Ok, here's another short break from the National Park series…it's been a bizarre unexpected whirlwind of a past couple of weeks so just have to get it out of my system. It started with a referral and a test shoot, and all of a sudden, I find myself in the homes of Kyle Williams of the San Francisco 49ers, Rod Streater and Terrelle Pryor of the Oakland Raiders, Stacey Dash, and Gretchen Rossi shooting portraits of them and everything in their closets. Huh? Uh…yeah…so it's the pretty brilliant brainchild of one Jennifer Colli. She came up with the idea and put it into motion and, well, hot damn took off with it. 

Basically, it's an app called WhoHasItApp. You can check out well-known personalities' closets, see what they have, and if you like it, click! Boom! It's yours. Even out of print stuff, if they get enough people to like the bugger, then through deals with the clothing companies, they'll reprint those particular items. It's brilliant madness, but madness nonetheless. Anyway, being the absolute ignoramus on fashion that I am (talk black t-shirts and you'll be talking the extent of my fashion language), I was just geeking out on the fact that although I had no idea who they are, I get to shoot these people that a lot of people seem to know. Kinda neat to be able to add 6 well known personalities to my portfolio in the course of two weeks - a concept that would seem nutty anywhere outside of this already nutty town. Granted I only had a few minutes with each, but was able to pull off a few that I was happy with. Anyhow, below are a few of my favorite shots from the past couple weeks…

Also, tomorrow, I'll post a few images that have nothing to do with the gig itself, but that came out of the same trip. More along the lines of what you're used to from me (hint: we drove the Pacific Coast Highway through Big Sur to get back from San Francisco to Los Angeles...).