It’s an odd place to find beauty. Gutters are usually the conduits of unwanted odds and ends. They can become pretty nasty. But once in awhile a treasure is found there. In this case the treasure consists of colors and textures expressed through leaves, asphalt, concrete and mildew.

Light and shadow define form.

I love road trips. I frequently will take off in my Jeep with my camera and see where I end up. Most of the time I stay fairly local, because I live and work in an area surrounded by the Santa Monica Mountains; near beaches, harbors, ranches, farmland and shopping malls.

Just down the hill, nestled at the edge of the Oxnard plain is the former Camarillo psychiatric hospital facility –  now the home of California State University, Channel Islands, or CSUCI (we affectionately call it “C-Sucky”).

So on one recent Sunday afternoon I found myself patrolling the campus with my camera. The winter sun was beginning to lower in the sky, casting long, cool shadows which stood out in great contrast to the warm light hitting the stucco walls of the buildings. I had to capture it.

St. Maximilian Kolbe Church, Westlake Village, CA.
I was on location at this client’s campus doing some photography for a brochure I was designing. I liked the way the light and shadows were delineating the forms, and the shape of the bench against the wall.