Backroads of Central California by Dave Wyman
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Backroads of Central California


During the first weekend in April, our photography group toured the backroads of California, between the towns of San Luis Obispo on the west, and Taft, on the east. In between we viewed and photographed an amazingly diverse terrain, from the vast Carrizo Plain, rent by the San Andreas Earthquake Fault, to the memorial to actor James Dean, whose death in 1955 set off a cultural earthquake.


View other photographs of the weekend from Iris Maybloom , Tim May, Carol Sandgren and Carole Scurlock.


Come join the road trip.

The Carrizo Plain and Soda Lake
I spent a weekend with a small group of photographers exploring a network of backroads in the Coast Ranges of California. For me, the figurative highpoint of the trip came when we walked up a little hill at Carrizo Plain National Monument. The view was beautifully colored by the reflections in Soda Lake of the Temblor Range and by an expansive field of yellow wildflowers at the base of the mountains. The scene was almost painterly, almost other-worldly. But this was only a small portion of what we saw over the course of the trip.
The Los Padres Inn
We began our photography tour at the colorful and comfortable Los Padres Inn, reputedly the second-oldest motel in the city of San Luis Obispo. Each room comes with an attached garage, which is an architectural throw-back to an earlier era of motel design. I made this photograph from a little alcove beneath the stairs to the second floor. The motel is on the northern edge of downtown San Luis Obisopo, which has managed to retain it's quaint and very visually appealing storefront appearance.
The Green Tunnel
Although we had enjoyed substantial sunlight when our group met at the Los Padres Inn, the day turned dark as we headed south of San Luis Obispo, and into the Irish Hills. Despite the lack of light, there were lots of possibilities for photography, including the green canopy that arched over the road.
Simplicity as the Rain Began to Fall
The sky began to weep, but we kept our cameras out a while longer. A muddy puddle along Perfumo Canyon Road contained what appeared to be dark several pieces of algae, which served as anchoring points for blades of grass adorned with silver raindrops.
The Irish Hills
At the end of an afternoon of photography, our group made its way down Perfumo Canyon Road. We were in the middle of Irish Hills, which lie southwest of the city of San Luis Obispo. The landscape, from mid-winter through mid-spring, seems almost as green as the Emerald Isle itself.
Peacock
We all made photographs of the peacocks at the Kelsey Winery, in See Canyon on the south side of the Irish Hills. Here's my take on the subject. The birds seemed to be in constant movement and I had trouble making sharp photographs in the low light of an overcast afternoon.
Thou Shalt Not Shadow Box with the Lord
This is part of a painting as well as the shadow of the top of a boxing trophy, in the window at His Barbar Shop, in Taft, California. To me, there is something incongruous in the iconic juxtoposition of Jesus and a boxer.

To view what the rest of what this photograph is all about, go
here.
Oaks at the Junction
We stopped for a little while at the junction of Highway 58 and Pozo Road, where there is a little country market and some enormous oak trees. I liked the juxtaposition of near and far sujects. A branch that must have grown over the road was missing, but life persists, in the tiny blades of grass sprouting around and out of the amputated limb.
Untidy Tidy Tips
Wildflowers compete with wild grasses on the Carrizo Plain, with the Temblor Mountains in the background.
Abandoned
Happy Goat!
We visited a Nigerian Dwarf Goat ranch deep in the mountains of the Coast Range. This was a very happy goat, the owner's favorite, one of sixty pets. "It's a hobby that got out of hand." the owner told us.
The Flat Top King Has Returned
The sign at His Barbershop in Taft, California.
End of the (Pipe)line.
Somehow this old truck, or what's left of it, traveled from Alaska to the backroads of California, coming to rest near Bitterwater Road. A little bit of Photoshop provides a painterly look.
Forgotten Pump
The old pump sits alongside Bitterwater Road.
The Guardian
A trio of massive Great Pyrenees sheep dogs protect the Nigerian Dwarf Goats we visited along the backroads of California. The dogs are friendly to human visitors as long as the owner of the farm is nearby. This toothy grin seems to sum up the dog's dual personality traits as a potential friend or foe.


There is more to a Great Pyrenees than his teeth. Here is an alternate portrait:

The Window of Broken Daydreams
The view out the window of a long-abandoned one room school house, in the little community of Pozo.
Baby Blue Eyes at Carrizo Plain
As vast as it is at Carrizo Plain, as panoramic the views may be, it's still fun to look at the immediate landscape and see the beauty of nature right beneath our feet.


Alternate PaD:

Water Works
Rain courses though the Irish Hills, spilling into little streams like this in See Canyon. A one second exposure insured a sense of movement in the water.


Alternate PaD:

Country Store
An old country store sits at the junction of Higway 58 and Pozo Road.
Schoolhouse Blues
The one-room schoolhouse at Pozo is in ruins.
Left Leaning
Tidy Tips
We stopped for a few minutes near the junction of Highway 58 and Shell Road.
The landscape was carpeted with Tidy Tips and Goldfields.
Hummer
Photographed on the front porch of a farmstead in Santa Margarita, California.
Nigerian Dwarf Goat
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