ExFlorations - Palm Trees with a Historical Twist

Some of the earliest Franciscan padres of the Mission Era in California were behind the process of bringing the original [non-native] palm trees to Southern California areas that included what is now the San Fernando Valley.  It's reasonable to believe that the pair of palm trees seen in the images below were transplanted into the original olive orchard at Mission San Fernando prior to 1830. While the perspective of each image varies, the subject palm trees were located just inside the adobe walls that originally surrounded the orchard and they can be pinpointed by their orientation to the northwest corner of the ancient church structure.

This c.1890-1900 photograph was taken within the old olive orchard and shows the surrounding adobe wall when it was still mostly intact.  The original, Mission-era olive trees had long since been chopped down to [roughly] six-foot stumps, and those that survived had regrown as seen in the examples on the left and right.  The subject pair of palm trees stand just within the wall, and appear to be in good shape.  In the background, the west elevation and northwest corner of the c.1804 Mission San Fernando church are visible.

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This early aerial photograph was taken shortly after the initial (mid-1920s) development of  Brand Park and Memory Garden on the south side of the ex-Mission property directly across the boulevard from the large, two-story Convento building.  The outline of the old olive orchard and the pair of aged palm trees (behind and to the left of the dilapidated church) are clearly seen in the upper, center portion of the image.

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This aerial photograph was taken on May 3, 1955 following both a major restoration project at the Mission, and construction of the adjacent Our Lady Queen of Angels Junior Seminary facilities which were eventually redeveloped into the Bishop Alemany High School campus and a regional archdiocesan office. A rough outline of the original olive orchard (sans its encompassing wall) is still discernible near the center of the image. Although only one of the ancient palms northwest of the church is clearly visible on the outskirts of the new Catholic cemetery, it is quite possible that both of the subject pair had survived to this point. Further development of the cemetery included removing the obscure, historic palms trees and transplanting modern replacements.

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ExFlorations - Flowers and Bugs

Just a quick trio of images created in Spring '14.  As is the case with all of my pictures, these are not professional examples. One could find lots of similar and better shots online, but I like them and I liked making them.

Imaging - Religious Architecture

Something quick to post at the end of the work-week, but an image I've liked ever since I created it over six years ago. A photogenic subject and good exposure are closely associated with timing; both are factors that have as much fundamental bearing on an image as anything else. The architecture at San Luis Rey has some really interesting history behind it, but that'll have to be a story for another day.

Church Tower at Mission San Luis Rey de Francia - Oceanside, California

Jim A. Beardsley (c)2007 

ExFlorations - SFValley Swirls @51

From a series of off-kilter images that were recorded on my birthday in 2010 within the confines of a suburban backyard at Sylmar, California, these selections vary from a usual practice of restricting editing or enhancing so as to more truly replicate natural colors, shapes and textures.  Here abstract forms and contrasts are played upon through a process of combining extreme colorization with thematic formatting.

Valley Swirls @51 #8 / Jim A. Beardsley (c)2010

Valley Swirls @51 #7 / Jim A. Beardsley (c)2010

Valley Swirls @51 #4 / Jim A. Beardsley (c)2010

ExFlorations - A Rose for Friday

An edited version of a San Fernando Valley Spring blossom

Memory Garden Tinted Rose / Jim A. Beardsley (c)2014

ExFlorations - Pseudo 4th Finale

Bringing back an early-Spring bloom from my local 'hood.' The processed image sort of reminded me of fireworks in a floral sense.  Now, it reminds me of another 4th-of-July that has come and gone. "Good riddance to bad rubbish " . . . . . just blogging about a once-favored holiday that seems to have gone awry.

Pseudo 4th Finale / Jim A. Beardsley (c) 2014

ExFlorations - Memorial Park Yellow

A Spring '14 bloom scene at Will Rogers Memorial Park in Beverly Hills, California.  This was an image I liked as soon as I saw it, but it took a little while to get around to editing, etc.

Memorial Park Yellow / Jim A. Beardsley (c)2014

Imaging - Religious Architecture

Here's a look at another stone-built church image to wrap up a 4th of July holiday-shortened work-week. Located within this large city (or is it a suburb of L.A.?) that's teeming with interesting religious and historic architecture, this Gothic Revival-styled house of worship was designed by Johnson, Kaufman and Coate, Architects and was dedicated in 1924. The architectural and artistic stories behind these picturesque elevations are well-documented and accessible online through the good work and courtesy of the All Saints Church (© 2014 all rights reserved) community.

All Saints Episcopal Church at Pasadena, California / Jim A. Beardsley (c)2010

The lead designer of All Saints church, Reginald Davis Johnson (1882 - 1952), was the son of the Reverend Joseph Horsfall Johnson who was the first Episcopal bishop in Los Angeles between 1896 and 1928.  As a highly accomplished architect in Southern California, Reginald was instrumental in bringing a good number of building projects under his father's jurisdiction to fruition.  Besides several Episcopal churches mostly built in the 1920s, Johnson and/or his association with architects Roland Coate and Gordon Kaufman were responsible for a wide array of noteworthy buildings such as the Hale Solar Laboratory in Pasadena, the Santa Barbara Biltmore Hotel, the c.1927 Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, and the St. Paul Episcopal Cathedral that towered over the Downtown L.A. intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Figueroa Street between 1924 and 1980. The historically understated All Souls Chapel at Good Samaritan Hospital (both structures were designed by Johnson, et al. to face away from the street) was basically just a scaled-down version of the previously built St. Paul Cathedral that had been sited a few blocks away on the northeast corner of Wilshire and Figueroa.

All Souls Chapel at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles / Jim A. Beardsley (c) 2012

Imaging - Religious Architecture

This is another favored image of a local / regional, old, stone-constructed church / chapel with a good bit of history behind its hallowed river rock walls. As an added bonus to my gratification, a digital copy of this photograph is being utilized [with permission] on a L.A. Conservancy website page concerning Irwindale.

Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Mission Church at Irwindale (fka) / Jim A. Beardsley (c) 2012

A humble group of community volunteers began building this church in 1917. As it was recorded by Father Anthony Z. Marigo in a 1969 publication: "The younger men carried rocks and sand from the [nearby San Gabriel] River by donkies [sic] and horses. The adults . . . as builders, did the digging, kept the lines straight, particularly the corners, and tried to give the church architectural lines....It was the job of the women to make tamales and coffee for the workers....Finally, all of the children sold tickets for a raffle which entitled them to buy a few sacks of cement for the work. They used to work an average of two hours per day, usually in the evenings and all day on Saturday."

In 1919, the Mission was dedicated with a solemn ceremony notwithstanding its dirt floor, hand-made altar, or borrowed candles and linens. After years of inattention on the part of the [then and former] Diocese of Monterey and Los Angeles, by 1940 visiting priests were being supplied for the religious services of locals who otherwise had to make their ways to Azusa. In 1957, two priests from the Verona Fathers order based in northern Italy arrived in Irwindale to manage the Mission. By 1964, when it was elevated to parish status, Our Lady of Guadalupe was flourishing at its peak of popularity. However, the small chapel's role as a parish center turned out to be short-lived after it was quickly replaced by a new, large Catholic church a little over a mile away. Thereafter the picturesque facility was used only as a site for ceremonial events such as weddings or funerals. Interestingly, the last Catholic service held at the Mission was a memorial Mass for Father Marigo, (the site's historian), who passed away in August, 1988.  In 1990, this historically-significant building and its adjacent property were purchased by the City of Irwindale from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles for $270K . Since then, the City has been offering to rent out the Guadalupe Mission Historical Site for special events but apparently hasn't had the site officially designated as a historical landmark, resource, or point of interest.

Imaging - Religious Architecture

An array of extant stone buildings are among my favorite local and historic structures, and some of the various churches or chapels within that sub-group of my ongoing image collection warrant special attention. This type of enduring architecture speaks to the axiom that all history is local.  It also reminds me once again that there are usually some noteworthy stories lurking just behind the pictures.

All Souls Chapel at Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles / Jim A. Beardsley (c) 2007

The cornerstone for this original chapel at the [New] Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles was laid during an 'imposing ceremony' on November 2, 1902, and construction was completed in 1903. The Gothic design of the 65-foot tower and ornate decor was reportedly inspired by an ancient parochial church located in the rural district of Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, England which has long been associated with Thomas Grey and his well-known prose "Elegy in a Country Churchyard."  The chapel plans were also used in the design of the 'Little Church of the Flowers' that Dr. Hubert Eaton had built c.1923 at his Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. 

(Postcard image pinned by Gloria Judson and accessed onJuly 1, 2014)