Indian Rock

OFF to another field trip for class, yet this was the closest and yet I ended up being late. Unfortunate as it was, because of its location. I drove around for awhile looking for the streets on the directions given. I felt even more so lost when I drove into suburbia. Everything looked as if I was headed towards the wrong direction. I ended up texting a few classmates to make sure i was headed the right way but was hesitant at first because of my tardiness.


Eventually I got them and they told me that I was headed the right way. When I finally arrived to my destination, I noticed this giant rock to my left on the side of the hill. The rock had some graffiti on it and we learned that gangs had significantly tagged it. I eventually was able to sneak in with the rest of the class and grab bits of information as he talked about the plants and wildlife.
From other classmates I learned that some of the plants that were there had certain chemicals in them that kept them protective from other plants. The plants were not surrounded by weeds like any other typical plant. Also I cam to find out the rock was once used as a ritual site for women for fertility.



After the tour, we were able to take photographs on our own and walk around. I walked around the hill and went beside the rock and noticed its foundation and the different plants surrounding it. After, I met along with the other who were in line for a catered meal by our hosts as we looked on and then discussed among other classmates about the visit and catching up on other information from the tour.

Frames

Rincon Indian Reservation

I had no idea what I was going to be in store for this next trip at Rincon. I had been given the opportunity to do a video instead of taking pictures of the site of other students working in the field. As I arrived there were tools available as the purpose of this trip was to have a 'hands on' experience. It was very gratifying to see everyone working together as groups were assigned. As students from our Advance Digital class collaborated with the other class - it was nice to see the teamwork between the two as others would be alongside planning out where to plant and so forth. As everyone was being disbursed using the plot of land they had and how to execute the plants they wanted, they put them in various spots, digging and putting the plants while in the pots to measure up how big of a hole they needed. As I was filming, it was good to see a teamwork of students, taking turns digging, taking plants out of pots, photographing one another and so forth.

After I had a good amount of footage of everyone working together, I had an interview with our hostess, Kristie Orosco. She is a alumni of CSUSM and talked about how she had taken the class before. She touched on how the native culture was and their beliefs and as well as talking about the plants and about the surrounding area. Also, she went on and talked about how people get a different view compared to the assumptions that people normally have. Also. she went on and talked about how she had been very excited to have students help out as it is not a common opportunity for most.

Pechanga Indian Reservation

ANOTHER first time visitor. Apparently these field trips had been a trend for me, going to new places. Although, Pechanga to me has been mostly known as a Casino, it was fun to see what was in stored. Luckily the day before, I had to go up to Temecula, the very same exit. I felt much more comfortable going over to a place I had been compared to the last couple of places I had been previously. As the meeting spot was to be the Pechanga gas station, I could hear the wind blowing through my window, I opened the door to find it was nothing short of cold. I waited among other students at the station as the wind blew. After about 20 minutes of waiting, we finally went aboard a shuttle and were on our way to the nursery.

On the first stop, it literally was the middle of nowhere. Me and a couple of students were wondering why we were stopping to later have our host, WIllie Pink ask us if we wanted to see a Great Oak Tree. At first I did not catch what he said and I saw everyone walking inside this giant shrub. As I walked in, I stood in awe seeing this awesomely huge tree. He explained to us that the tree had been there for hundreds of years. It was just amazing to see this huge tree in the middle of nowhere, completely covered by its numerous branches. It also showed how some of the branches had been under the ground because of some floodings. It was utterly amazing and started the day out good.

We then re-boarded the shuttle to our next destination. Then we went on to a pond like area where Willie talked about the surroundings we were looking at. He explained how it was created by some students. By the pond were various rocks and a small hut that was a container for acorns. After some of that explanation, we went onto a trail where we came across some huts. My mind though about how it would have been in the past with many huts as if I were in a small village. Willie explained that the huts were for camps that take place every year. He also stated that they were only up for a certain amount of time because of the material, they do not last every year without daily maintenance.

As we proceeded in a circle and took various pictures of all that surrounded us, Willie pulled out a knife and showed us how to make an arrow shaft from plants. He shared some interesting facts, that arrowheads are stone and wooden, but we do not find wooden ones as often because they do not often survive. Towards the end of the tour he showed us more about the culture, he showed us a house they were trying to build, then some sounds on a rock by hitting it in various spots. We also came across a portion that showed how they had meals together and how they prepped them.. He shared that they celebrated Thanksgiving, but instead of turkeys, they would bury hams and have them cooked that way.


During this last portion, many of us students were ready to get on board the shuttle to head back as it was cold. Lastly we stopped over at the nursery and they showed us how they planted various plants and regrew them. They had their own little greenhouse as well. Finally at the end of the trip, we got dropped off into the parking lot and were done for the day. The trip exceeded my expectation, learning some new facts about the people and imagining what their weather must have been like.

Wild Animal Park

THE first thing that came to mind about this, "Really they have plants there?" I had never been to the park as I have lived in San Diego for the most of my life. I was excited to see the new things with the animals and yes of course the plants. I arrived a little late, past 10:00 hoping that everyone would go in a little later, just because thats how things normally happen. I remember getting a text message saying "hurry up" as I was waiting in line wondering if I had to pay for parking. Finally upon arrival, we still waited for an additional 15 minutes for others to arrive. Once everyone was there, we took a path towards the native plant selection. Our guide, Maren, took us on a side trip, over to the elephants, where a female was in labor, and had been in labor for several days. Surprisingly, not too many people were around, I'm guessing they thought the same as me, if it's been a couple of days, what are the odds that it will happen now. Funny enough, I found out a week and a half later, she had the baby at least a week after our visit.

As we faced the garden, Maren had given us a semi brief summary about why the garden was created. She talked about it was to help educate us about what the native plants because we are taught many different things that do not coincide with the natives. Also she had explained about how these plants were very important resources for the natives in San Diego. As we finally walked inside and along the trail, Maren had explained some plants and pointed them out and their uses. About halfway through the trail, as I and some other students had stopped taking pictures, we had noticed a man who was following us. Unsure at the time, we thought he was a student from the other class, or that he was some man trying to get more information about the plants. Little did we know that this man was another worker, Bryan. He shared about the issues that they deal with regarding the plants, such as the San Diego fires and our humidity during the summers. He also explained that the native plants were much more tolerant against the fires but because of the other non-native plants brought in for the animals they can become a larger problem.

After our lesson about some history about the plants and those in its surroundings, we were released to take pictures of what we wanted and able to go on out our own pace. This was good in the fun of just looking around without having to worry about others hurrying me around or feeling as if I needed to catch up. The experience was a fun trip. Afterwards I went on to look at the animal exhibits and take advantage of my first time at the park.

Quail Botanical Gardens

THE first trip I took for my own field trip, I decided to go to Quail Botanical Gardens in Encinitas. On my way there, I wasn't quite sure if that was the place that I had previously been to with a friend. I remember my past experience there was not the most pleasant as I had no idea what I was expecting. My friend who loves his plants needed someone to go with to look at various plants that were hybrids and palms and so forth. The garden is known to have an assortment of plants from across the globe, so all in all, it made a impact on me and plants.
This time, my trip was the complete opposite. I was only there for native plants to California.

There were various plants, as I first walked in, to be greeted by a very large Torrey Pine. As I was walking around, memories from the last time I had been there crossed my mind as I was searching for the native plants. I asked a lady at a kiosk if there were natives, she said yes, but did not specifically tell me where they were located. So I journeyed around the garden coming across various plants and flowers from across the world.
I remember just walking through South America, then Asia, Africa, and so on. After about 45 minutes of walking around I found a map. Unfortunately the handouts they give you at the beginning do not have maps. I was a bit frustrated, but at the same time finally relieved to find the map so I can do what I came for, the native plants. Finally walking up the hill on this chilly morning, I walked in towards the natives. There were various plants, ferns, and so on. The various plants I saw were very different in comparison to the others that I had seen earlier in the day. I noticed that our natives looked a little boring and dry. Not to say that I don't like them, but they just were not as appealing, to be quite frank if I had seen something rare, I would not have noticed because all of our native plants look all too similar to me. The plants were fun to look at, it was different as there was no guide telling me what I was looking at, but a different experience does not necessarily mean a bad one.

Quiz #1

This picture is my favorite because it shows the contrasts between the two different pictures.

Tierra Miguel Farms - Feb 23, 2008

FOR my first field trip for my Adv Digital Art class I was going to the Tierra Miguel Farm. I left home anticipating what I would see and be out in the fields rather than just sitting in front of a computer screen. What too was on my mind hoping to see colorful plants due to the rain which rarely ever shows up in San Diego.

So, while driving on the freeway I just imagined what it was I would be seeing, if it was to be a typical farm like I see in movies or if it would be more like just flowers and so on. As I finally reached the 15/76 junction I reset my odometer right after exiting to calculate how much further I would have to drive before turning Right. Its usually something that I do when going to a new area and following directions - least I wanted was to miss my turn, especially on a 2 lane road without a turnout for miles and miles. The way to Tierra Miguel had windy roads, it was a fun ride until I got stuck behind some industrial truck that was driving 30mph. After about 10 minutes the truck turned out I was closer to the Farm. I finally arrived unsurely where I was, but just went with instinct and direction to make the immediate left with numerous cars parked outside.

Upon arrival, no one was in sight, so I just walked inside and there was a presentation about to begin. All the students were in their chairs as I looked for familiar faces to make sure I was at the right place. There was a woman who began to speak about the history of Tierra Miguel Farms. She gave so many important facts that made agriculture in San Diego quite interesting. I found the facts about San Diego being one of the biggest places for small farms fascinating and hard to find.

After the presentation we finally got a chance to walk the farm and take a look for ourselves and see what the farm had. They told us that they grew various types of veggies, for example the classics: beets, broccoli, carrots, strawberries and so forth.

It was interesting to just walk around and see just the plantation of veggies in their natural form. As I was looking at some of them I was wondering at first why they all looked like they were dead, most of them had lost pigments and were brown or gray like.

As we took a tour, walking through most of the crops, we noticed they had already been cropped and were able to pick some ourselves. The farm was I think 5,000 square feet, so it was fairly large. There were tons of trees and plants growing in all directions. The view throughout the farm was amazing, as it was in the middle of nowhere, there were mountains on one side, a helicopter that flew around watching over the area keeping an eye on the fields as well.

As we continue on our tour walking and seeing crops our guide let us pick and grab at plants that were around. About half of the class would grab some of the crops and eat them and give them a taste.

As the sunlight was coming to an end, and walking among the different fields of various plants the trip was coming to a close and we were on our way back home after learning so much information about the Tierra Miguel Farms, the agriculture industry and how the market works. It was really an interesting visit and would possibly go back to visit and check out what else they have to offer in the next upcoming months.

Sally Mann

Sally Mann has some interesting concepts on photography which is not the central focus. Although she has been known for her more controversial photographs, such as her children nude, she takes some vivid images - particularly death. Usually when a photographer goes on a photo shoot their goal is to create the best portraits possible after numerous amounts of photographs - and usually in the end, we enjoy the ones we initially did not like. Also what I did learned from her is the example of taking pictures of various landscapes and making them have a retro look using a sepia tone or black and white and changing the lighting structures and so forth. It gives a oldies film look to it, or scenes from an older movie. I found her desire for the project about death and life to be different. She said something that caught my attention, 'that American's do not like the concept of death, leave it in the nursing homes...' This caught me off guard because its true, and the fact that she was working with death was different than what we normally see.

Edward Burtynsky

Burtynsky is an interesting artist. He uses photography to capture the images of areas we never see. He photographs places and literally, 'captures' the moment things we take for granted. I enjoyed seeing some of his pieces such as places that look like landfills because of so much congestion. He does it in a way that makes such busyness into beauty. He creates things to look very beautiful because of the uniformity - at least from what I've noticed. The ordinary becomes a little un-ordinary because we look at things in a different way. Sometimes looking at his photos of regular things reminds me of the movie 'One Hour Photo' where in the end, you see plain objects but realize the beauty in it.