Yashmat United: El Camino Mission Submission

Monday, January 21, 2013

El Camino Mission Submission

Before I start in with my subject for today, I would like to recommend a great blog for my fellow craft beer enthusiasts. Terms of Enbeerment. He gives reviews on new and different styles of beers as well as breweries and special events. Thanks!.

I'm still waiting on developing my three rolls of film from my most recent project And I thought I would let you all in a sneak peek at some of the places I visited on my little trip after Christmas.

One of the most important issues when setting up a project is to be specific. By specific I mean the lowest common denominator with your subject. I didn't really understand this point that my teacher tried to make when I was taking my portfolio class, and that ultimately led to my failing the class. It was a horrible failure, too. One that made me not want to return to the photo department of that school.

When I decided to take a mini vacation, I was thinking of all the different places I could afford to travel to. Las Vegas was my first choice, but then I thought about trying to find something to do there and realized how bad of an idea that was. Then, I thought back to my time in my portfolio class and remembered that I wanted to do something involving El Camino Real. Now that's an idea.

I scoured the internet for information on this incredibly old, and mostly forgotten, path and how interesting it would be to drive it. I had never driven past San Jose either, so it would end up being a wonderful experience. The only problem was that it was just to darn broad of a subject.

I went back to the drawing board to be more specific on what I would like to document. Whats interesting, what interests me, and what do I want to get out of this trip. My second thought on a subject was the 21 missions spread out along this beautiful road. Even that was too broad of a subject! Then it hit me. Not in the way where I was walking down the street and I wasn't paying attention and I walked straight into it, but there it was in my picture set from Downtown Anaheim. There is a bell that is a road marker for El Camino Real right in front of the city hall!

Surprisingly, there are very few websites documenting the bell, with information or pictures of the bells at any of the missions. Each mission actually still has its original bell. Well, i think there are a few that don't have the original but they have a different one that was made by Caltrans or Southern California Auto Club in the early to mid 1900s.

Well, enough of my babblings. Here are some of my side shots from my trip. I think I have only about 12 of the missions visible on this set. I was shooting with film so I was more focused on that over taking digital shots. Plus my schedule was VERY tight. I'm amazed I was able to visit as many missions as I did.