Blog + Video: Stop and Smell the Flowers

While driving up highway 101 last week I stopped to get some inspiration from the Redwoods and soothing ocean air in Sam H. Boardman State Park. It was just what I needed after two months working in San Francisco. Energized, I spent the day capturing images and driving… mostly driving.

Lady Bird Johnson describes the experience of walking through the Redwoods perfectly: “our problems seemed to fall into perspective and I think every one of us walked out a little more serene, and happier.” The setting: ocean mist, morning sunlight, and vibrant wildlife relaxes the mind and eases tension in the body. If you think this sounds crazy- just look to Japan’s newest national holiday: “Mountain Day.” The campaign to have a Mountain Day was a longstanding cause for hiking and mountain-related groups, who wanted to celebrate Japan’s terrain and its connection to the nation’s geography and culture(Source). Japan, which has issues with people being overworked and not claiming their leave, hopes Mountain Day will inspire folks to take longer vacations and increase its birth rate. It could also add about ¥820 billion(~$7 billion) in spending across the tourism, leisure, hospitality, transportation and retail industries (Source). Maybe it’s time for the US to take a page from Japan’s book?

One clip that didn’t make the cut was reflecting on my mindset towards road trips, travel, and life in general. Whereas the Kyle of three years ago would be anxious to get from point A to point B as fast as possible, today, my attitude has shifted(I think for the better). Sometimes, as my friend Edan always says, “Sometimes, you’ve got to stop and smell the flowers.” — see the video here:

This video is testing S Log2 for the first time. Learning how to color correct and grade footage takes a little patience… As I continue to build my portfolio of creative work I am going to make more of these short 30-45 second clips to improve my editing and work on specific techniques.

To round out the life update, the documentary film I was/am working on is titled, Tony Foster, Journeys; Tony, an English painter and environmental activist travels by foot, raft or canoe to the most remote areas of the world, making water color paintings in response to what he finds. Often spending 2-3 weeks in one location, he endures the elements and challenges of wilderness expedition to paint his journeys. As we face ongoing threats to waterways, public and wild land we are desperately in need of arguments that reach across the political divide. The very beginning of the National Park System can be largely attributed to the work of several artists who documented the West’s beautiful landscapes. Tony is the perfect messenger; he has spent the last 35 years fighting for the preservation of wild land through the wet end of paintbrush, and will not stop now.

The Foster Art and Wilderness Foundation, an organization and gallery dedicated to Tony Foster’s work is located in Palo Alto, CA. The gallery absolutely blew me away. Tony’s works are a combination of written notes and physical artifacts, which makes his work unique. You can see the texture of the sand and the color of the dirt Tony painted on… I felt as if I was sitting right there in the scene, just outside the frame of the painting.

Thanks for reading. I’m off to the mountains for the weekend!