Back to the lake!

Well, I’ve had a little more down time with this project (and photography in general) than anticipated, but it’s given me plenty of time to think about what I want to accomplish in this next phase of the Owens Lake Project.

The last few years have involved an unexpected career change, a move to northern California, and a complete shutdown of this website for the past year thanks to a hacking attack. That last event was finally resolved last week and I’m excited to be up and running, and with a site redesign to boot. It’s good to be back!

The Owens Trails project, part of LADWP’s Owens Lake Master Project (no relation at all to my documentary project, despite the very similar name), was officially opened to the public over six years ago along with six specially landscaped and maintained bird habitats or “guilds:” diving waterbird habitat, breeding shorebird habitat, breeding waterfowl habitat, alkali meadow habitat, migrating shorebird habitat, and migrating waterfowl habitat.

It’s time to take a look at how those habitats have matured–and time to expand the OLP to include all the wildlife at home on the lake, not just the birds. It’s long been a goal of mine to set up remote trail cameras at locations on the lake to capture (or try to, anyway) everything from coyotes to desert kit foxes to kangaroo rats. Oh, and more birds, too.

I’m also in the early stages of outlining a limited-run podcast on the history of the lake and the timeline that got us where we are today. I look forward to interviewing a number of people who are connected to the lake in various ways, so stay tuned for that.

And finally, the culmination of the Owens Lake Project will be a book that contains all of the history, all of the photos–all of the things that inspired me to undertake this project and the sights I’ve captured along this fascinating journey. That’s the most distant goal as of now, but will get more attention once I have the podcast underway. Since this next phase will require some specialized equipment (trail cams, etc.), I’ll be seeking funding from different sources, including right here. I’ll post to let you know all the details once I have specifics, and how you can help.

Along with the site redesign I’m also reactivating the social media platforms for the project, which you can follow by clicking the icons at the top of this page. I’m excited to be writing about the Owens Lake again and visiting the lake soon to spend some quality time photographing and walking the Owens Trails.