Another ExFloration on Black

Just a quick post of a recent floral creation that turned out alright enough . . .

ExFlorations - Late-Winter Mission Efflorescence

A re-used image from this past March with a new word in the caption  . . . . .

Imaging - Mission San Fernando

Electronic images of or associated with Mission San Fernando Rey de España, (my work place in Southern California), can be found across a wide swath of sites, collections, and other online resources. Beginning with the c.1880 work of Carleton E. Watkins, this original San Fernando Valley locale has long been a popular destination for photographers and other visitors whose imaging efforts have persevered and proliferated. One of the more robust and most accessible digital archives of Mission San Fernando photographs can be rediscovered within the Seaver Center Collection.  The following are a few selections from this wonderfully public and historic accumulation via the excellent Natural History Museum of Los Angeles website.

"Maps - Missions of California - San Fernando. Survey of lands by Henry Hancock in February, 1860. Lands confirmed to J.S. Alemany, Bishop. Tract contains 76 84/100 acres."  The original of this document pre-dates the Mission San Fernando 'photographic' era.

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"San Fernando Mission. 5x7 Glass neg renumbered" While this description is fairly typical of many online collections or catalogs, this is actually one of the better electronic reproductions from the initial set of Mission San Fernando photographs done by Watkins c.1880.  This and the other four or five images that comprise the original sub-collection created by the illustrious San Francisco-based photographer have been widely distributed, copied and collected, but rarely acknowledged with proper credit.

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"Mission San Fernando. Man, children & baby carriage; horse in background. 5x7 Glass Neg. renumbered"  Another typically poor attempt to describe an original C.E. Watkins image from his c.1880 visit to San Fernando.  It is highly likely that Watkins trained in to the newly-opened San Fernando station, and made his way to the Mission site (a distance of about 1½ miles) via horse and buggy with an assistant and a comparatively large cargo of equipment.  This is an historically significant image because it was the first to illustrate the iconic, 21-arch Convento building which was completed c.1820 and remains extant, as well as being perhaps one of the very few, (or only), photographs of the original Mission workshop buildings with the roofs still intact and the walkway columns still standing.

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"California - San Fernando Mission 1903--California-Los Angeles County-Los Angeles -Los Angeles -Mission San Fernando, Rey de Espana ---View down the front corridor of San Fernando Mission. Titled 'Through the Arches of a Corridor in San Fernando Mission' and included in the Frederic Hamer Maude (1858-1959) Collection, ca.1890-1920."  An exceptional collection by an important photographer, the catalog entries and descriptions of Maude's contributions to the institutional memory of Mission San Fernando are documented much better than those of C. Watkins. This perspective from within the archway looks generally eastward, and includes an original fountain and a long-gone structure that were both within the area that was redeveloped in the mid-1920s into Brand Park (Memory Garden).

ExFlorations - Fall Colors

Gathered digital color while strolling around the grounds of Mission San Fernando on Nov. 12th:

Local History and Biography - Thomas E. Leavey (Part II)

     The following images are the second half of a two-part article regarding the life and times of Thomas E. Leavey published by the Humboldt County Historical Society earlier this year. Beginning in 2008, I organized and managed the Thomas E. Leavey Archives. This biographical narrative was intended as a summation of those efforts.

Local History and Biography - Thomas E. Leavey (Part I)

     The following images are the first half of a two-part article regarding the life and times of Thomas E. Leavey published by the Humboldt County Historical Society earlier this year.  Beginning in 2008, I organized and managed the Thomas E. Leavey Archives.  This biographical narrative was intended as a summation of those efforts.

Outdoor Excursions in So. Cal.

The following images originated on a hike and exploration within the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve which is located in the San Fernando Valley.  They belie the fact that this [water reclamation] site is adjacent to one of the all-time busiest freeway inter-changes (the junction of The 101 and The 405) in the U.S.:

Given that it really hasn't rained in So. Cal. since last March, most of the parks and open spaces are dry, dusty, trashed, and lacking greenery, so these images are a bit deceptive in portraying a more lush landscape. Nonetheless, there were a lot of waterfowl and this spot is known as a migration rest area around this time of year. Finally, my energetic little grand-daughter, Camila A.B., has been developing into quite the fellow adventurer as she's now able to keep up and go exploring with me on frequent outdoor excursions.

Exflorations - Repeat from 2013

Liked the original of this image 
enough to post variations on it 
repeatedly via various s/n apps.

San Fernando Valley 

Bird of Paradise

Winter, 2013

Local History & Historians - Know Your Own Backyard

Three late-19th Century Images of Residences in Los Angeles

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     For no reasons other than I like these particular photographs and local architectural history in general, the following three images represent varying residential architectural styles popular in Los Angeles in the late-1890s.  At some date in the near future I'd like to add a few of my own photographs to this little selection.

Exflorations - Pala Rey Paleta

Fooling around a bit with my digital flower collection - this image was collected at a site in northern San Diego County, California in January, 2009 and was edited just now . . . . .

ExFlorations - Gramercy Place Symmetry

Here's an original image I captured 10/05/2014 whilst on a morning hike through my neighborhood.  The long, hot, dry, extended summer weather here in Los Angeles has taken a heavy toll on local flora.  Though the strong have survived, they look like they've taken a quite a beating.  The weak, with few options, have withered and wilted with the slightest promise that they'll return another day.

Imaging - Religious Architecture

Sometimes it's fun for me to revert back to my standard history major training of comparing and contrasting for the purpose of study or appreciation.  Following is a 1920s aerial view image of Mission San Fernando which is located on the northern fringe of the San Fernando Valley in the suburban area north of Los Angeles in Southern California:

The long Covento building at the bottom-right portion of the image looks much same today, and Brand Park / Memory Garden, (which was recently developed in this photograph), still has most of its original features. A host of major changes to the Mission church and grounds and have taken place over the last 90 years. As it's shown above, this dilapidated structure was the third (and by far the largest) church built on the site and was completed prior to 1810.  Several major renovation projects had taken place before the entire church was demolished and duplicated in the early 1970s following the great Sylmar Earthquake of 1971 that irrevocably damaged the ancient house of worship.  The 'L-shaped' row of workshops and facilities that now include the popular gift shop were reconstructed c.1950, and were extended from the church towards the Convento as well as towards the center-right edge of the photograph.  That extensive construction project (initial funding was provided through the Hearst Foundation) also redeveloped the Mission quadrangle, added a still extant caretaker and maintenance shed, and preceded the extensive modern development of the surrounding areas including the new San Fernando Mission Cemetery and campus facilities for the Our Lady Queen of Angels Seminary that now house Alemany High School.  The modest two-story building that houses our Archival Center was completed in 1981 and lies between the Church and the Convento, adjacent to the long-gone orange grove in the left-center section of the image. These days, the extensive landscaping is lush and green.

And, lastly, a link to a recent aerial view that illuminates just how much change the built environment in the immediate vicinity has experienced over the course of the last 90 years.

Imaging - Religious Architecture (Ross G. Montgomery / Introduction)

Visiting again the topic of 'Religious Architecture' but with an additional element in that this post will introduce Ross G. Montgomery. He was a Los Angeles-based architect with a catalog of work that spanned roughly a half-century between 1911 and 1961.  He was also the subject of a graduate thesis project that I completed at C.S.U.N. in 2005. In addition, since Montgomery did most of his work for the local Catholic community, my ongoing work at the Archival Center for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has provided an opportunity to further my standing as an authority on this subject.  The idea here is to share a series of professional and biographical illuminations that will eventually form a complete story of Montgomery's life, times, and work.

St. John's Seminary Campus - Camarillo, California / c.1942

Unquestionably, this was among the most significant design project completed by Ross G. Montgomery and his associate William F. Mullay during their longstanding connection to the administration of Archbishop John J. Cantwell.  Groundbreaking ceremonies for the Seminary took place in May, 1938, and the campus facilities were  elaborately dedicated in October, 1940.  The image below, (courtesy of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles Archives), was created after construction of the episcopal residence (upper-right portion of the image) was completed in 1941.  Also notable is the Doheny Memorial Library (upper-left portion of the image) that was designed by the well-known architect, Wallace Neff,  and is the only architectural element of the original campus history not attributable to the office of Montgomery and Mullay.

Fast-forward seventy-plus years and St. John's Seminary's original 100-acre campus has been divvied up by a number of developments that have included the construction of college facilities in the 1960s, and, more recently, the Blessed Junipero Serra parish Catholic church.  The following c.2005 images (courtesy of Tom Zimmerman) were created during a summer field trip to the Seminary to tour the grounds and review the institution's archives.

 Main Entrance at St. John's Seminary / Photo by Tom Zimmerman (c)2005

Main Chapel at St. John's Seminary / Photo by Tom Zimmerman (c)2005

ExFlorations - K-Town Palm Blossoms

This image was gathered on a little urban hike through a local neighborhood last Sunday. These exquisite flowers were notice-able from at least a block away blooming on a small palm-like tree along a sidewalk outside a humble residential building.

Imaging - Religious Architecture

The Los Angeles Conservancy website has a nice piece on a local and historical structure that caught my eye many years ago when my wife waitressed at the nearby Sizzler Restaurant that's still open on the southeast corner of 4th and Vermont. Eventually, I walked through the neighborhood and got a nice set of images that included the following:

Joohyang Presbyterian Church - Los Angeles / Jim A. Beardsley (c) 2012

The history-relaxed text from the above-inserted link reads:

"Korean Philadelphia Presbyterian Church; 1926; 407 S. New Hampshire Avenue; Los Angeles, CA.

Located north of Wilshire on New Hampshire Avenue, this Romanesque-style building with Byzantine and Moorish elements was built as a synagogue for Los Angeles' oldest Conservative Jewish congregation.

Architect S. Tilden Norton had built the congregation's previous temple downtown (where they had resided for fifteen years), as well as contributing to the designs for the nearby Wilshire Boulevard Temple.

The grand arch on the front of the building is in low-relief yet highly ornamental, offering a dominant focal point for the simple massing of the building.

The interior is dramatically illuminated by a large oculus (or circular skylight) in the dome. It was a filming location for 1927's The Jazz Singer.

Following the westward migration of Los Angeles' Jewish population, the Temple Sinai moved into a new building in Westwood in 1961. The Temple Sinai East, as the Wilshire Center building then became known, was sold more than a decade later. It now serves as the Korean Philadelphia Presbyterian Church."

Sinai Temple - Westwood (Los Angeles, California) / Jim A. Beardsley (c) 2013

Local History & Historians - Know Your Own Backyard

Jim A. Beardsley (c)2008

Jim A. Beardsley (c)2010

In today's media there's a really nice piece on my favorite local venue - the Wiltern Theater.  A few blocks from where I live, it's within easy walking distance from my apartment and surrounded by the thriving K-Town scene.  Last Saturday night, I attended and participated in a rockin' and rollin' show there featuring a local group, The Dustbowl Revival, and headlined by an excellent foursome of young musicians/performers from back East, Lake Street Dive.  The historic venue and and a live show once again made for a great night out.

Here's a link to the article from the Ticketmaster Blog and a couple of images from the locally archived Los Angeles Public Library photograph collections:

Looking east through intersection of Wilshire Blvd. and Western Ave. c.1930s

Looking west through intersection of Wilshire Blvd. and Western Ave. c.1980s