Blog | Jakob Berr Photography

After four months as editing interns with ZUMAPRESS, the time has come for Beth and I to move on to new horizons. My summer internship with the Denver Post will start on June 6, which left us enough time to embark on a roadtrip and visit some of the most beautiful parts of the West Coast.

I was hoping to blog about this trip more regularly and more often, but internet access and the time to edit pictures and prepare blog posts are hard to come by when the road is your home. Currently, we are stranded in a cheap motel in a not-so-good area of Fresno, Calif., after the mountains in Yosemite and Los Padres National Forest ate up the breaks of my car. Since no mechanic is open on Memorial Day, we had no choice but to wait until tomorrow – which finally gives me a chance to post the first chapter of the Big Trip: San Clemente to Big Sur.

Over the next couple of days, I will post several more chapters of the trip, so please check back soon!

Originally, we planned to drive the Pacific Coast Highway all the way to Big Sur. A couple of weeks before we left, however, a rock slide rendered parts of the road impassable and forced us to take a little detour through the Santa Lucia Mountains. We didn’t know it at the time, but this turned out to be a beautiful stroke of luck.

The detour took us along the Nacimiento-Fergusson Road through the Ventana Wilderness of Los Padres National Forest. The pass winds up to a total elevation of 2780 ft., where the low-hanging clouds coming in from the Pacific engulf the mountains in an almost magical fog penetrated by soft sunlight. This unique topography and climate have given birth to a stunning and unique ecosystem: Literally out of the blue you turn around a corner and drive from an arid, montane chaparral into a rain forest-like woodland where huge, ancient redwood trees grow out of sight into the soft, grey silence of the clouds.

Driving on the US-101 N near San Miguel, Calif., May 18, 2011.

Clouds move into a valley in the Santa Lucia Mountains at Los Padres National Forest.

Nacimiento-Fergusson Road winds up into the clouds engulfing the Santa Lucia Mountains.

We got a little carried away by the fairy-tale mood of the scenery...

A trail head leads from Nacimiente-Fergusson Road into the fog.

Redwoods grow along Nacimiento-Fergusson Road as it winds down toward the Pacific Coast.

The Pacific Coast near Lucia, Calif.

Fueling up the car at probably one of the most beautiful gas stations in the world near Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park.

After setting up camp in a grove of huge Redwood trees at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, we got a chance for a dress rehearsal for the backpacking trip to Yosemite: Our first dinner of the camping stove, consisting of couscous, dried tomatoes and dried mushrooms. Delicious...

While I’m at it, I might as well put up some of the other pictures that I’ve shot recently and never posted. Last week, my cousin Max was at a conference in San Francisco and – without knowing that I live in the suburbs of L.A. – decided to rent a Harley with matte-black finish and ride it down to Los Angeles. He jokingly told me to drive the 2,000 miles or so from Missouri to come and see him, and was quite surprised when I told him that I was already there.

We used the opportunity to get together for the first time in about three years and went on a camping trip to Joshua Tree National Park. I should probably mention that Max is somewhat crazy – he is one of those guys who jump off 100-feet cliffs on their skis. He also loves to be photographed, especially when he chews tooth picks on his Harley. And since I like taking pictures, I ended up hanging out of the window of my car taking pictures of Max while Beth was driving all the way to Joshua Tree.

Photographing a moving object from another moving object was new to me and quite a lot of fun. I ended up taking about 1,000 pictures of Max over the two days that we were out there (ridiculous, I know), but the two photos in set below are the ones that stood out most to me.

National Park Boulevard in Joshua Tree National Park, Calif., May 7, 2011.

Max rides his Harley Davidson on the I-10 near Palm Desert, Calif., May 5, 2011.

Taking a break at the Lookout Road House on the Ortega Highway near Lake Elsinore, Calif., May 5, 2011.

A Joshua Tree stands in front of some of the granite formations that are the hallmark of Joshua Tree National Park.

Max rides his Harley Davidson down Pinto Basin Road toward the Cholla Cactus Garden at Joshua Tree National Park, Calif., May 6, 2011.

Just a quick post with a shot from the beach that I took some days ago.

This weekend is the Anahaim Comic Con – a convention of Sci Fi, comic and fantasy fans, artists and producers. I went there to shoot yesterday, and it was a pretty amazing experience. Overweight batmans posing for pictures with kids, tired Dumbledores in a coffee shop, baby Supermans with their parents – you name it, the Comic Con has it. Here are some of my selects from the day. As always, I’m happy to hear your thoughts!

Cat 'Shaolin Punk' Parsons, of the OC Roller Girls Roller Derby team, fixes her make-up at the Wizard Mountain Comic Con at the Anaheim Convention Center, April 30, 2011.

Donning a mask with Twilight character Jacob Black's face, J.R. Hipolito, center left, plays against Darren Newton during a promotion of the video game Marvel Vs. Capcom III at the 7evens Gaming stand.

From left, Adam, 9, Allison, 6, and Anakin Bautista, all of Lynwood, Calif., pose for a portrait with Batman (a.k.a. John Whitt, of Minneapolis, Minn) at the Anaheim Comic Con. "I like to meet the movie stars and the action figures," said Angel Bautista (not pictured), the children's father.

Visitors of the Wizard World Comic Con take pictures of cosutmed superheroes.

Comic books are displayed for sale.

Shaunn Lawrence, left, of Los Angeles, takes a break in his $1,200-Dumbledore costume. Lawrence, a professional costumer for 33 years, made the costume himself after taking measurements and sketches off the original during an exhibition at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Beverly Hills. "I had to use cotton gloves when I did it," he said.

Autumn Will, left, as 'Giganta,' and her boyfriend Cesar Vargas, as 'The Flash,' pose for a portrait at the Wizard World Comic Con at the Anaheim Convention Center.