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some of my favorite posts

Pismo Beach

by Kaylah Stroup

I’m throwing it back to last month’s road trip again today. After driving the extraterrestrial highway, visiting Tonopah Cemetery, making friends with a jackrabbit, and getting  our fill of the desert (that’s not really a thing. I could never get my fill of the desert!) we headed to the coast. Two years back we drove a portion of the Pacific Coast Highway and I LOVED IT.  This year we wanted to see even more of it. Luck was not in our favor though. Huge chunks were closed meaning we had to start a lot further down the coast than orginally planned.

It wasn’t long after leaving our hotel room in Paso Robles that I spotted the pier at Pismo Beach. The day previous I had been so excited to see the ocean but felt a little letdown with what we had seen. I was desperate to find somewhere nice to dip my toes in the water. Pismo Beach was one of those names that sounded familiar so I suggested we stop, just to check it out real quick.

This “real quick” pit stop turned into an hour and a half – if not longer – of me frolicking in the ocean, taking photos of birds, and searching for sand dollars. It was the best. To say I loved Pismo Beach would be an understatement. It was exactly what I needed right then.

beachcombing, sand dollar

One of the biggest highlights for me at Pismo Beach, other than finding sand dollars galore, was photographing birds. I had recently fallen head over heels in love with Jeff’s 70-200mm lens. (Huge bonus to falling in love with someone who shoots the same brand of camera as you – you can share all your equipment!) I hadn’t really played with it too much before this trip but the shots of the jackrabbit convinced me this lens was something I should really experiment with more often. It’s massive, and kind of a pain in the butt to lug around but so worth it. Being able to shoot animals close up like this without disturbing them is so much fun. I took SO many shots, it was hard to choose which ones to include in this post. I’m particularly excited about the one above because I’m a sucker for reflections. The first photo in this post ranks among my favorites as well. I like that upon first glance its hard to tell how many birds are really in the shot because of the reflection.

The man in the photo above had kind of been hanging around me while I was photographing birds. Eventually Jeff came over my way and when I turned around he was talking to the guy. After they were done I mosied over to Jeff to see what they were talking about. He handed me a film canister and inside were two super tiny sand dollars. I looked over to the stranger to see him smiling back at us. Its so wonderful that there are people out there who do things solely to make others smile. I didn’t even realize that you could find sand dollars that small. They’re one of the very few things I brought home with me from the trip. Thank you, kind stranger!

tiny sand dollars, pismo beach

See that dog? He was running back to his dad after greeting his mom who had just got back in from surfing. It was so darn sweet. I cried…

Until next time, Pismo Beach!
xoxo

Check out more of my road trip adventures under the ‘travel‘ tag.

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found on the beach

by Kaylah Stroup

beach plastic, rainbow trash, lake erie, wendy park

This is a little bit different than my normal found on the beach arrangements. There weren’t too many large items on the beach to be picked up. Woo! The city does a decent job of keeping larger debris off the beach during the warm months. They use a backhoe to push everything to one end where they then scoop it all into a huge dumpster (…that lives on the beach.) It’s better than nothing, and it definitely makes the beach look a lot nicer.

Even with the big pieces of trash gone, tiny pieces of plastic will always be a problem. It mixes in the with sand and is essentially impossible to clean up. Approximately 60 billion pounds of nurdles are manufactured in the US each year. (How many nurdles in a pound? 25,000!!!) Nurdles are small plastic pellets that make nearly all of our plastic products. Accidental spills, and deliberate dumping mean that tons of them end up in the water, on our shores, and in the bellies of marine animals. This isn’t just Lake Erie, it’s everywhere!

nurdles, beach trash, beach plastic, rainbow trash, lake erie, wendy park

You can regularly spot lots of nurdles in my beach photos. Lots of whats in the photos in this post is just random pieces of plastic that have broken off of other things but if you look closely in the yellow and orange section you’ll spot lots of them. Tan ones, which don’t work so well in my little rainbow arrangement, pose the biggest threat since they look a lot like plankton to animals. Its a HUGE issue thats only getting worse as we rely more and more on one-time use items.

I’m not telling you this because I’ve quit using plastic and want to make you feel guilty. I’m just as much to blame as everyone else. I didn’t start picking up trash on the beach because I wanted to help the environment. I started because I like arranging things, and finding “treasure”. The beach just ended up being a great place for me to find things to photograph. I feel a bit guilty when anyone pats me on the back for helping clean the beaches because I know deep down picking up plastic army men and other interesting items doesn’t really help much of anything.

beach plastic, rainbow trash, lake erie, wendy park, flotsam army

The amount of time I’ve spent on the beach, seeing what a mess we humans are making of it, has definitely made me stop to think about what I can do to help. I could go on and on listing off shocking statistics but honestly, I don’t think anything will effect you that way that seeing it in person would. I encourage you to get out and check out your local beaches. Start by familiarizing yourself with the issue… and maybe try using a reusable shopping bag. We’ve made a huge mess but if we all pitch in we can help clean it up before its too late.
xoxo

Check out more ‘found on the beach” posts here!
If you’d like to read more about nurdles check out some of these links from across the internet – plastic pollution: nurdles, this incredibly informative video (highly recommended) and this article on the BBC.
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International Car Forest of the Last Church

by Kaylah Stroup

The International Car Forest of the Last Church. This was one of the very few things I had found and plotted out before we flew out of Cleveland, and I was so excited to see it!

My normal vacation planning method goes as follows;

  1. Find something I want to visit.
  2. Locate said item on map.
  3. Zoom out and take note of surrounding cities.
  4. Look up surrounding cities on the Roadside America app.

So I started with The Seven Magic Mountains, found a town called Goldfield nearby, and basically felt like I hit the jackpot when I looked it up. Not only is it super close to Tonopah where I’d visit one of the most interesting cemeteries, there is also a field full of half buried cars located right outside of town. Jeff and I have actually been trying to get to Amarillo, Texas for a while now to visit Cadillac Ranch. Cadillac Ranch is an art installation where there are a bunch of Cadillacs buried nose first in the ground. We just haven’t made it into Texas yet! The International Car Forest of the Last Chuch seemed like it’d be a solid alternative.

goldfield, nevada, cars, public art

It seemed that there were a few roads leading to the car forest, all of which are rough and dirt. We didn’t realize there were multiple roads in though. We just took the first one we found… and it was ROUGH. Steep hills that were basically in the shape of the letter M threatened the front end of our silly little rental car. We contemplated parking and just hiking in but I was feeling a little lazy and kept insisting we drive on. Eventually the “road” straightened out and we were able to see the extent of the car forest. It was pretty darn incredible!

Over forty cars, trucks, and buses are planted around the property. Each one uniquely decorated with spray paint, stickers, and in the case of the car below, tinier cars! I know this sort of thing doesn’t appeal to everyone but to me this is essentially the holy grail of roadside attractions! It’s weird, there was no one around, and it makes no sense at all – I’m all about it!!!

International Car Forest of the Last Church, owl graffiti, nevada cars buried in the ground

What was your favorite part of the International Car Forest of the Last Church, Kaylah? I was hoping you’d ask because I most certainly had a favorite part. The cars were really awesome. I don’t have to tell you guys how much I adore things like this. My favorite part hopped out of a small hole beside the first car I squatted down to take photos of though. It was a jackrabbit. I’ve spotted them a handful of times on our previous trips out west. They’re so darn quick that I usually just seem a glimpse of them. This guy though? He was clearly a model. He let me get super close, and just chilled while I snapped a million photos of him. I was shooting with Jeff’s 70-200mm lens (now my second favorite lens!) I could not be any happier with my photos! It was so darn exciting how willing this little dude was to get his photo taken.

I spend the first half our time at the car forest shooting the jackrabbit. I eventually realized that Jeff was way far away and that I should probably catch up so I happily moved on, satisfied with my shots. After I shot all the cars I ended up back near where the jackrabbit lived since it was on the way to our car. Jeff was still shooting, which is weird because he’s always done before me, but luck was on my side because guess who popped back out of their hole! So, I got to shoot some more photos. My favorite of the bunch is the first one in this post. It might even be one of my favorites from the whole trip!

jack rabbit, rabbit, hare

Check out these other posts from 2017’s road trip out west:
Seven Magic Mountains
Extraterrestrial Highway
Tonopah Cemetery
It’s the little things (sunset at the Salton Sea)
4th annual road trip out west recap

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abandoned hospital

by Kaylah Stroup

Over the weekend my buds and I made plans to wake up early and explore an abandoned hospital. Waking up at 4:45 am is never really all that fun but I can definitely make exceptions when it comes to this stuff. Jeff and I had actually checked out the hospital a week or two prior, popping inside briefly to take some photos. We spent less than an hour and left  feeling like we hadn’t seen even a portion of the building. It’s certainly not the largest abandoned hospital I’ve been in. Most of the equipment, furniture, and other odds and ends from inside have already been removed. Still, there is so much to see.

On my second trip there, I shot haphazardly never once actually setting up my tripod. For some reason I wasn’t feeling it. I guess I just didn’t see anything that was begging to be photographed despite the fact I had wanted so badly to get back to this hospital.

It was kind of a surprise when I got home, sorted my photos and ended up finding so many that I really really liked. The only problem was that my normal editing process, which is extremely simple and quick, wasn’t working. The shots were great but my editing wasn’t doing them justice.

I decided to just throw caution to the wind. I began fooling around with different looks and eventually ended up with what you see here. These are so far from my regular editing style yet I’m completely in love. This building is absolutely wrecked. It’s soggy. Scrappers have stolen any and everything of value. There’s no saving it now, especially in the neighborhood its in. I feel like these photos really convey that. They definitely give you a glimpse of just how grimy it is inside.

sunny abandoned building, curtains, broken window abandoned hospital

If you haven’t gotten your fill of dilapidated buildings – check out the tag “abandoned” for more posts!

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Its the little things…

by Kaylah Stroup

sunset at the Salton Sea. May 18, 2017

I’ve mentioned a few times here on the blog how I’m basically the most sensitive person ever. I cry easy… and at essentially everything. Along with cute animals, the one thing that always gets the waterworks started is trying to explain how much I love something. For example when I start talking about how much I love my bike, and how free I feel riding – I always cry. I can’t help it. I wish I didn’t work that way, I feel like such a weenie, but whatcha gonna do? I’m easily overwhelmed with emotion.

Last year’s road trip basically as soon as we got into the car I started to cry a little. I just felt so happy to be there, so at peace. This year I managed to hold off until editing my photos. The other night I’m sitting here at my desk, going through photos from the trip, when all of a sudden my chin starts to quiver. Then I notice it’s getting a little harder to see… because I’m stinken crying over how much these trips Jeff and I take together mean. Theres no possible way for me to even begin to describe how much I love being in the desert with him. To be honest, I don’t even understand it. We’re getting dirty, sunburnt, eating like crap, and spending too much time sitting in the car but somehow it means the world to me. I’m ready to go back already!

This year we opted to sleep in the car a few of the nights in order to save a bit of money, and because it makes it so much easier to catch sunrise and sunset when you have nowhere to be. It’s not the coziest but honestly, I really really love doing it. I don’t think it would really work as well anywhere other than in the middle of nowhere.

On this particular day, after poking around some beaches along the coast in the morning we headed to the Salton Sea to catch sunset. We had visited here a few years back but once again, its one of those places that is special to me for no good reason. We were having trouble finding somewhere nice to pull over and enjoy the sunset so we ended up stopping at an abandoned building. One we had actually stopped at three years ago! This wasn’t the sunset I was planning on capturing, with beautiful reflections on the water… It was even better. It was a very ~us~ sunset. I didn’t capture any award winning photos that night but I feel like I managed to steal a little piece of that sunset to hoard away and look back on.

salton sea, abandoned building,

above photo by Jeff.

I hope we end up here again in another few years.
xoxo

Ps. In case you were wondering, I was definitely crying writing this. Please tell me I’m not the only crybaby out there.

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Tonopah Cemetery

by Kaylah Stroup

I’ve always had this vision of what a cemetery in the desert looks like. I imagine its filled with cowboys. Its definitely dusty there. The headstones probably aren’t anything like the ones I’m used to in the northeastern side of the United States. Mountains in the background are a must. Aside from cowboys, Tonopah Cemetery hit all the marks. It was everything I had ever dreamed of. It was dusty, there were mountains, and this cemetery was like nowhere I have ever been before!

Founded in 1901, this cemetery was only active for a mere ten years before the number of dead outgrew the small plot of land. Just over 450 people are buried here, more than a few of which fell victim to the  “Tonopah Plague” in 1902. It was actually just pnemonia but it claimed the lives of at least 30 people from the small town and caused a mass exodus. Another big reason people ended up here? The Belmont Mine fire which was clearly marked on many of the headstones.

Tonopah Cemetery almost feels like a fake cemetery, like something someone would set up in their yard for Halloween. So many of the headstones just listed the name and cause of death. I’ve never seen anywhere where so few had the date of birth and death. The unique choice of grave marking materials only added to the cemetery’s appeal. I counted less than five traditional granite headstones.The majority were wood. I even saw what appeared to be a table leg being used!

weird headstone, unique, cemetery, tonopah nevada, cemetery headstone, cemetery, tonopah cemetery, nevada tonopah cemetery, headstone, cemetery

Oh, I’m saving the best part for last! This cemetery? It’s right next door to a clown themed motel. Despite what a very funny polariod of me as a child at the circus would have you believe, I’m not afraid of clowns. As much as I’d love to write an article like the forty others I found while doing some post-vacation research about how this is “the creepiest place EVER” I didn’t think anything about Tonopah Cemetery or its surroundings was creepy. Unique? Absolutely! I’ll be the first to admit that its kind of funny but honestly there was nothing spooky about it.

Jeffrey isn’t a motel staying kind of guy or I gladly would have shelled out the $42.50 to spend the night, just to add it to my list of experiences. Instead, in a normal Kaylah fashion, I darted around the cemetery excitedly taking photos, trying to capture all that I was seeing, and then we moved on to the next town.
tonopah, neveda, creepy motel, cemeteryclown motel, cemetery

I’ve visited a lot of cemeteries but Tonopah Cemetery easily ranks among the best. Tonopah, Nevada seemed like rad, albeit very tiny, town. If you’re out aimlessly wandering, definitely check it out.

xoxo

PS. For more of my favorite cemeteries, check out this list.

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seven magic mountains

by Kaylah Stroup

colorful rocks, las vegas, desert

The very first stop (after late night tacos + coffee in Los Angeles) on 2017’s road trip out west was the Seven Magic Mountains. I’m going to assume if you use instagram, you’ve probably seen one… or fifty billion photos of these incredibly colorful boulders.

This art installation in the middle of the desert opened up in May of 2016 and from the second I saw it I was in love. Less than a year prior we had driven around the same area and I was disappointed to have been so close but missed out. Why couldn’t they have been there then?!

Eventually, as time passed, my intrigue grew to disinterest as I saw photo after photo after photo pop up on social media. Gosh, I hate to even admit that. It sounds so bitter but it’s at least a little bit understandable, right? Every photo I saw showed the “mountains” surrounded by people. It looked so crowded. It just didn’t seem like somewhere very enjoyable. Part of what I love so much about our trips to the desert is that it’s kind of a solitary thing. The places we go just seem so far off the grid, so untouched and untainted. It’s an escape of sorts.

Still, I couldn’t resist the lure of these wildly colorful things in the middle of the desert. I had to see them with my own eyes. We drove through the night, stopped to sleep a bit at a rest area, and arrived at the Seven Magic Mountains as the sun came up. To my surprise, there wasn’t a soul around. We had the whole place to ourselves. It. was. magical! Seriously, an amazing way to start the trip.

moon, magic mountains, desert art sunrise, desert art, las vegas, 7 magic mountains las vegas art, roadside attraction

Normally I get my film hand checked at airport security since it shouldn’t be X-rayed. This year I didn’t have room in my carry on-to take my land camera which already had film in it. I just decided to toss it in my checked bag and hope for the best. I was pleased to see that the resulting damage was actually a pretty cool looking effect.

They’re only going to be on display for two years so I’m super happy I finally got the chance to see them. I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed it even a fraction of the amount I did if it had been as busy as it always looks in photos but the Seven Magic Mountains are definitely worth waking up super early for!

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project 365 : days 142 – 148

by Kaylah Stroup

142 : 365 I am obsessed with this photo of Professor. He’s such a beautiful little baby.

143 : 365 An air plant and some land camera photos from vacation. Definitely still feel like I’m coming down from the vacation high.

PS. If you’re looking for film for your land camera, you can find it here.

144 : 365 Skeleton toe socks and a spooky little kitten.

145 : 365 Things that live on the table beside my desk.

146 : 365 Post Critical Mass ice cream date with my brother and his family at Mason’s Creamery. I got an affogato, as per usual.

147 : 365 Saturday shenanigans.

abandoned cleveland, abandoned factory

148 : 365 Squid and Professor tolerate each other – no more, no less. In all the years they’ve been living together I’ve never seen them cuddling together but y’all this sure as heck looks like progress!!!

Happy Monday! Hope your week is off to a wonderful start.
xoxo

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where I work

by Kaylah Stroup

It’s office tour time!!

I’ve been living in my ~new~ apartment for nearly six months now. Wait. How has it been that long already?! This whole time I’ve been promising room tours and sharing teaser photos. I know it’s not that big of a deal and as much as I love doing it, sharing photos your home is kind of scary. It’s just this sacred space that I spend a great deal of time, that I’ve saved money to decorate, and that I take such great pride. I like to do my best to make sure everything is just right before shooting each room but it seems like there is always something left I want to do. Well, I’m fiiiiinally ready to show off my office. There was a whole series of things I wanted to do after posting that peek of it back in February. Slowly but surely I crossed them all off until the only thing that remained was getting a massive frame for the print on my wall. I was stressing that it would cost a fortune but I ended up finding a decent one on amazon, and I had a gift card – score!

If you’ve been reading for any period of time, and have seen my other room tours from previous apartments, you should already know that I stink at these. I tend to concentrate on details more than the big picture which isn’t always the best when trying to show off a room. My office is packed full of fun details I adore though so that’s what you’re getting here today…

home tour, office tour, blogger, blog, office, you go girl, you go girl print, you go girl graffiti artist

Like I said, there are tons of tiny details I love in this room, like the silly face planters below, but my pride and joy is the massive Hugo Girl/You Go Girl print. If you recall, on my Christmas list this year was a print from my favorite graffiti artist. At the time, they didn’t have an online presence, and I couldn’t find aaaanywhere to purchase their work. From my embarrassingly extensive googling I gathered that they possibly lived in New Orleans, and definitely had lots of work down there. I was super stoked to hunt down anything I could to take photos of while we were on vacation. I found a bunch of their stickers – all of which I pointed out to Jeff with GREAT enthusiasm, as well as a few pieces on walls. While walking down Royal Street, peeking in all the shop windows, I spotted two huge YGG prints in Glitter Box. I freaked. They were closed at the time so we basically just circled the block a million times until I was able to dart in, awkwardly point at the wall, and spit out “I’m buying that, please.”  They even offered to ship it home for me! It’s been hanging since then by two binder clips and some tacks so I’m pumped to finally have it framed.

blogging office, office tour, ygg, you go girl, tooth print, grid memo board

sources –
photo shelves
desk
clear office chair
keyboard decals
face planter
pen set
bookshelf
globe mirror
arrow photo holder
spine candle
You Go Girl candle
full sized skeleton
Light up arrow was from Target – similar
Rug is from TJ Maxx.
Grid memo board is a repurposed dog crate (read more here!)
Large witchy hand print is by HugoGirl, found at Glitter Box.

 

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