This weekend was spent relaxing in a desolate cursed land in California’s Colorado desert. This is the kind of place you come to when you want adventure, danger, campfires, target practice with bows, sketchy burger joints, quality time with your closest friends and some gritty sand particles in your hair. The Salton Sea is 34 miles long and has remnants of what used to be a very booming vegas-esque vacation town (Frank Sinatra often visit the Salton Sea back in the day).

This trip has become an annual tradition among friends. Headed up by husband & wife duo Eric & Heather Trine. Whoever ends up coming on this trip is sure to get their money’s worth.

Per usual, I’ll use my pictures (And some Michelle took w/my camera) to tell the story of our trip.

Enjoy!

(Winn, Lindye ,Heather & I cutting up veggies for “Hobo Stew”)

(Michelle took this-Love it)

(I LOVE this scene)

(Dave Hill is a minor)

(Curtis & Laura made torches)

(Me slinging arrows into beer can targets)

(Jeantel)

(campfire)

(Jeantel)

(Eric doing his version of a tribal/cirque du soleil dance over a lit torch)

(Danny Simon & Eric Trine sword fighting in the woods with fire)

(Hobo stew being cooked on hot coals)

I love this Artist’s work. Found on The Coolhunter.net

Francoise Nielly is her name.

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I have been fortunate this last week with some time off. (besides a constant flow of editing wedding photos)  Playing sports (Basketball & Tennis) with friends (& brother Josiah) Had a first ever Brothers Lippke triple date (watched “Taking Woodstock” ate the best Thai Food in LA TOI THAI) Attended a wedding (DW & Karissa Ferrell) Cooked dinner a few times, relaxed on the beach, shopped for a new suit and new bowtie and just overall had a mini vacation. I’ve loved it, but I’ve also realized that you, my readers are probably getting sick of seeing that sweet tribute to Adam’s blog (Loose Luggage) AKA double tribute to me. Haha.

So here is my tribute to some other blogs/sites that I love reading.

Enjoy!

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Fashionation Blog-

I love when this blog lets you vote on which style you find more attractive. Can you guess which one I chose?

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Steve McCurry has a blog!

One of my alltime favorite photographers has a blog now, careful though, you will invest hours reading his stories…dangerous when you have things to do. I love the image above. He’s always capturing the most amazing moments. I wonder what its like to travel with him?

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I was browsing a great wedding blog called Green Wedding Shoes

When I found Quinn and Jon’s wedding published on there! Wildness when you know people on a blog, but you had nothing to do with their wedding, its really quite bizarre. I love their style, Vern and Melinda Moen’s car is pretty amazing too.

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I still want this bike. Anyone out there want to sell me one?

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I would ride that bike and be inspired by this man’s style- VIA The Sartorialist

(Scott Henning at the Salton Sea)

Etrine.com just did his 2nd “Scott Links” blog post and its filled with good things. Thanks Eric and more importantly, thanks Scott for keeping the good links alive…

Highlight: MUSTACHE COMIC VIDEO

Now back to work for me!

]]> http://www.samuellippke.com/blog/talent-plug/feed 1 http://www.samuellippke.com/blog/buskerfest-coldwarkids-streets-of-lb http://www.samuellippke.com/blog/buskerfest-coldwarkids-streets-of-lb#comments Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:55:44 +0000 Samuellippke http://www.samuellippke.com/blog/?p=2306

Downtown Long Beach’s art district shut down its streets to vehicles and opened it up to some music craving residents and neighbors.

Buskerfest is a miniature musical festival with a number of bands participating to open for the headlining Cold War Kids.

Each person that attends gets 9 wooden nickles, each nickle is one vote and the band that recieves the most wooden nickles opens for the headlining band.

I put my wooden nickles on “Matt Death and the new intellectuals” They are amazing musicians and Matt Wignall (lead singer) is one of my favorite people in the world. Unfortunately they didn’t have enough votes and a band called “Pawn Shop Kings” ended up opening for the Cold War Kids for a great show. Here are some images from the whole night.

Highlights include: Shooting from the roof,biking with the guys, The Pike afterwards, Seeing E&H Trine,Dave Hill,Scott Henning,David Tosti,Matt Wignall, Colin, Alex Minjares ,Steve Sheldon, Nicoel and Tim, Caitlin Cutt and the rest of the Grace Brethren crew. I hope DTLB and the art district put on another one of these shows. Huge props to CWK’s for playing a free show.

(Matt Death and the New Intellectuals- Keslie and Bek blowing the cazoo’s)

(Evan Trine and his pretty girl – Matt Wignall rocking the megafone)

(Nathan Willet snaps an iPhone picture of the youngest Matt Death Member)

(The montage set: The Willett’s, a pair of legs,Crowd shot from the roof and Lindsey Jaggers along with Colin Dobrin.)

(Nicoel,Tim and the wooden Nickles)

(The faces of Long Beach- (Clockwise) Desiree Giatan, David Maust (& son) Danny Simon, Scott Henning all attended the festival.)

(Cold War Kids from the roof and on stage shot of Drummer Matt Aveiro)

(Crowd shot I think I might blow up huge, since I can see some familiar faces. Nathan Willett in Action, Pedals from the show.)

(LB Hipsters, Nathan Huesmann, Sam & Crystal, Alex at
The Pike)

See my Column on LBpost.com >HERE<

(Can you see Mike and Russell from LB post in the background of that shot? Coincidence!)

]]> http://www.samuellippke.com/blog/buskerfest-coldwarkids-streets-of-lb/feed 5 http://www.samuellippke.com/blog/when-im-not-shooting http://www.samuellippke.com/blog/when-im-not-shooting#comments Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:16:22 +0000 admin http://www.samuellippke.com/blog/?p=1847 This is what I like to do

Bass Lake California. Danny Simon

2 days spent in:

74º F water.

93º F Air

Friends, power boats,House on the lake, not to mention food provided by Eric’s parents!?

I was so fortunate to be apart of this trip. Although I could only stay for 2 nights, it was a much needed get away. Heather & Eric hosted some friends for a few days and the ones that made the trek out were well taken care of.

I’m still sore from tubing and waverunning, but my mind was partially cleared of any stress… something about being in nature, being dangerous and being with likeminded brothers help me recenter focus.

I’m getting ready to do nearly the same drive again tomorrow up to Colombia County for 4th of July and a 50th Birthday party for Audrey’s uncle.

For now, here are some images that will hopefully inspire you to stop work and do some adventuring.

Also HUGE props to Denny and Mary, you need to hold parent siminars. I guess that what you did in a way… all of us will hopefully be parents someday… I just hope I can make my kids and their friends feel so at home and priviledged.

(Jonnie Russell and his stew)

Whats better then camping? Camping with a group of friends of course. (There are a few things better then camping with friends, but I’ll get into that in another post… hint copy and paste on the iPhone)

Highlights from this camping trip include but aren’t limited to:

10. Free Hot Showers!

9. “John Daniel’s”

8. Samuel’s Homemade guacamole and jalapenos

7.Shirtless Wood chopping sessions

6. Sleeping under the stars. (I slept above the picnic tables on the roof)

5.Sleeping through the park ranger’s “Put your hands where I can see them” Scare

4.The Scott & Gin night

3.My mummy bag protecting me from the harsh desert nights wind.

2.Counting the amount of 60′s glasses and vans

1. Hobostew making

Pictures as promised.

(Moonlight+Headlights)

(Chopping up ingredients for HoboStew)

(Onions and garlic 2 key ingredients)

(Nicole,Desiree and Heather)

(The men around the fire. Scott Henning,Dave Hill, Vern Moen and Danny Simon)

(Vern Moen)

(Perfect coals and our hobo stew)

(Danny Simon)

(The site)

(Taking it all in. Photo: Evan Trine)

(Leonard Knight and our crew)

(about 200,000 gallons of paint Leonard estimates)

Salvation mountain is what happens when a man (Leonard Knight) has a vision to bring a message to the whole world. “God is Love” shouts this painted mountain outside of Niland,California. The hillside is covered by hay bails and plywood molded into shapes and letters, then painted over hundreds of times with acrylic paint by Leonard and the occasional volunteer.

Visiting Leonard and his mountain was an amazing experience for myself and our group. So much passion, so much purpose and an extreme amount of clarity when it comes to his relationship with God. Leonard constantly gave thanks to God for the ability to keep doing what he loves. He also expressed amazement with having salvation mountain in a few “Worldwide Movies” one includes “Into the Wild” (which is STILL on my to watch list)

Here are images from Leonard’s impromptu tour.

(Jonnie Russell inside the hay bale and paint igloo)

(Sarah and Allison in front of Salvation Mountain)

(Quyen Trinh climbing the mountain)

(Our crew, with Eric Trine in the lead)

(At the top)

(The view)

(Scott Henning; probably imagining himself doing backflips off the cliff)

(The crew with Leonard Knight at his mountain)

(Desiree got a puzzle from Leonard)

(Jonnie,Noel,Desiree,Dave and Heather getting ready to leave the mountain)

Next post: Camping

(Eric Trine out for a stroll)

As you probably saw from my “teaser” post, I spent the weekend with a group of friends out in California’s most romantic dessert, more importantly the most envied spot of the olden days. The Salton Sea.

These pictures are a journey through this abandoned storm battered California Desert.

Shooting at this location was tough for me. I felt extremely cliche photographing something that has been photographed soooo many times before me. Never was it a goal of mine to photograph at this location, but as I began shooting I realized my goal: Not to photograph this desolate zone, but to document the interaction between human’s and this cursed land. And here my story begins.

(Jonnie Russell and Noel Sumner)

(Jonnie’s Boot and a salt preserved fish carcass.)

(Heather Trine,Desiree Giatan and Quyen Trinh)

(Scott Henning and Dave Hill try to escape a most certain splashing)

(Arrow Session)

(Jonathan Sklar making it happen on the make shift arrow range.)

(Chad Sheby and the Sheby dogs.)

(The Drunken bone head motocross guy post lame attempt to get out. Pre-Spilling gas in the pool.)

(Evan Trine got the “Bone Head Motocross Guy” on video I think)

(Eric Trine about to show off his vintage skate tricks, his wife heather (my best friend) looks on)

(I got the balls to jump in the 10′ pool with my camera to document these crazy Trine Brothers)

(Evan doing work.)

(a few 10 year old pro skaters took over the pool)

(Caught without the camera)

(next post: “Salvation Mountain”)

(Scott Henning everyone!)

I just got back from the Salton Sea.

It was a sweet. I was able to spend some good times with talented people such as Dave Hill, Scott Henning,Eric Trine, Heather Trine, Desiree Gaitan and Kevin Sheby.

The trip was good, I spent the drive with Scott and Dave, drinking redbull and talking relationships.

The campsight at the salton sea is pretty nice, but if you were alone it would be lame. The people I was with made it fun.

Here are some images from the trip. More to come tomorrow.

(Kevin  Sheby on Salvation Mountian)

(Leonard Knight giving us the simple words “God loves you, why complicate it”)

(Exploring at Salvation Mountain)

(The whole crew at Salvation Mountain with Leonard Knight.)

(Bow and Arrow Practice.)

(I’m shooting an arrow: Eric Trine Looks on. By:Jonnie Russell)