More than a decade ago, I spent some time in Santa Cruz along with the rest of Automattic for the Grand Meetup that year. I’ve already posted a few sunrise photos on the beach, but these photos of surfers riding the waves have been in my TODO folder for a long time.

Chicago in 2005 was a city in flux, and nowhere was that more obvious than at the Trump Tower construction site, right on the banks of the Chicago River. I was walking at the edge of the site and took a bunch of photos, some of which I’ve posted over the years. What you see…

I last visited Chicago in 2005, when I took this photo of the Wrigley Building, and this “We’re glad you’re here!” banner. Did you know the clock faces of the Wrigley Building are each almost 6m in diameter? The two towers of the building were completed just over 100 years ago!

In 2019, Lulu was this beautiful blue VW bus and was a photo studio on the final night of the Automattic Grand Meetup in Florida that year.

The setting sun caught between the supports of Ventura Pier in California.

Visiting the Mural Room in the Courthouse of Santa Barbara was a treat I was not expecting. The murals depict the history of the region, sometimes inaccurately, as they include Peter Pan, Robin Hood and Errol Flynn!

Santa Monica Pier stretches out into the sea, but halfway out is a funfair including a roller coaster and ferris wheel, of all things. On a sunny day it’s a sight to behold. The place is thronged with people too!

When I walked past this little dog and snapped a photo of him with my phone, I didn’t realise I was photographing a celebrity dog. Thanks to Google Images, I found out the dog is Ali the Rasta Dog on Instagram. I’m not a fan of dressing dogs up in clothes, unless it’s cold out,…

The waves roll in on the beach at Ventura Beach while the pier extends out into the sea. The pier was damaged in storms and closed in early 2023, but still made for a great subject at sunset. I have so many photos of this pier from that night. I’ll be posting photos of it…

This is something you won’t see often in The Truman Show, it’s an empty street. It’s not the same road as the one with the traffic jam in the movie, but it’s similar. It’s surreal walking around the town of Seaside in Florida after seeing The Truman Show.

A mural on a wall in Santa Barbara shows George Floyd, and his words, “PLEASE, I CAN’T BREATHE”. The mural was painted by Griffin Lounsbury and Chad (Chadillac Green) Westmoreland. Here’s an article about the mural by a local newspaper.

I had no idea what make this car was when it drove past, but Google Images says it’s probably a Cadillac of some sort from the 1960s. It looked beautiful, whatever it was, and the guy driving knew it too.