everyday observations of regular people the journal of john ratcliffe-lee.

i don’t often take the time to analyze my photography. i feel, even art in general, sometimes doesn’t lend itself well to generous piles of metaphors, associations, affiliations, and the such. why? personal opinion, simply. the beauty about this life is our freedom, in every sense of the word, to consume our existence as we see fit. however, i’m reserving this passage for a brief step outside my self-imposed lines.

i have a lot of ground to cover. between driving the majestic el camino real, a family wedding on my father’s side, and skipping an annual tradition; my life has turned into that famous poem by mr. frost.

that’s me (and alex), looking chipper as ever, at my cousin chris lum’s wedding. the morning after that picture, i was flying across the country back home to new jersey. thinking i had reached my traveling limit for the week, i decided to stay home and not continue on to vermont with the rest of the family. it’s been the first time, in recent memory, that i’ve not been at basin harbor club for the independence day holiday. in retrospect, i should’ve stuck it out and gone. yes, traveling up the west coast with your family in an RV, inside of a week, is exhausting (to say the least), but not a good reason to miss out on even more family tradition. especially when you have no real plans, and the perception of things you need to get done, keeping you home.

all set to spend a wonderful weekend with kate (which still happened, btw), a chance e-mail turned my immediate “life plans” upside down. wishing i could go into more detail now, trust me that i will at a more prudent time. back to that wonderful weekend..kate came up and we spent saturday doing some shopping and then the sate fair that night. having not gone to a fair in a while, i was excited (as was she). what wasn’t exciting was how much fairs cost these days. haha. $3 to park, $9 to get in, $20 for rides, and the rest of whatever we had on us went to that infamous fair food. while i wasn’t griping at the massive amounts of people and money running away from my wallet, i had some kick-ass fresh lemonade, fried oreos, and shish-ka-bob (sp?). kate picked up a turkey leg and munched on that while we walked around.

we ended up going through a few fun houses, driving some bumper cars, and going on the SCRAMBLER! i spent most of the time wishing i had more money so i could taste more of the food offerings. although, my waistline is thanking my wallet for how that worked out. after seeing the smallest horse alive, kate also developed a new-found affinity for carnival sideshow freaks. upon leaving, i thought to myself that a good idea for a blog would be writing about carnival food (regional and not). or maybe just carnivals/fairs in general? a quick search for “carnival food blog” didn’t turn up much. if i ever quit my impending day job, this could be opportunity knocking. again, in unison, my waistline & wallet emphatically hope otherwise.

now, for the conclusion of my west coast travels. as i said, the part of el camino real i drove was absolutely amazing. even though i was driving a 31-foot RV, i could’ve been driving a garbage truck and still enjoyed the experience equally as much. after my dad drove from los angeles to lompoch (i later learned, from people sitting at our wedding table, that lompoch is close to the neverland ranch), i stepped into the captain’s seat and proceeded to immensely enjoy the ride. with the exceptions of a few directional hiccups pulling into a foggy san francisco, i spent the next few days enjoying the sights and sounds. san francisco’s rv “resort” wasn’t quite as nice as malibu’s, but that is to be understood. i took a morning off from sightseeing while katie and my parents went to fisherman’s warf, attempting to get tickets to an alcatraz tour. no such luck. that evening, my dad, alex, and i crossed the bay bridge into orinda and had dinner with our cousin and family.

the next day was fully spent in san francisco. after ordering way too much food (typical) at dim sum, i walked around china town while my family picked up one of my brother’s friends. marek is in san fran for the same ballet program my brother would’ve been doing had he not opted to get surgery on his foot. from the corner of grant & pine, we went to fisherman’s warf. highlights included the “world famous bush man 007,” in and out burger, ghirardelli chocolate factory, pier 39, etc. a quick trip over the golden gate bridge and down into sausalito provided most of the photos you see below.

saturday, july 1st, was the wedding. i’m glad i got to see a good portion of my dad’s side of the family. most i had not seen since my early childhood. the wedding itself was short, and contemporary, but beautiful at the same time. having never been to a west coast wedding, the whole entire culture surrounding it was quite different than the east coast. as we all know, different can be refreshing and that’s exactly what this whole entire trip was.

a note about the above photo, my great-grandmother and grandmother lived in this apartment building. and you thought i was trying to be funny.

a note about those “self-imposed lines,” i’ve figured out why i still shoot in black & white from time to time: it’s romantic. you’re telling a story without forcing reaction (providing color). the mind fills in these shades of grey with the brightest hues one could ever imagine. the contrast in the very first photo of this entry is very telling of my life as of late, how can a ledge be bigger than the golden gate bridge? it all depends on how you look at it. how life comes at you in it’s different waves. nothing is ever the same.

see what i mean? i tried to make proper sense of my art and failed miserably. i should’ve just told you that i didn’t use my d70 in san fran b/c i refused to look at all the blemishes showing up in my photos due to a dirty sensor (which since then has been cleaned).

in conclusion, to see and read more from the trip, check out my sister’s journal.

i don’t often take the time to analyze my photography. i feel, even art in general, sometimes doesn’t lend itself well to generous piles of metaphors, associations, affiliations, and the such. why? personal opinion, simply.