Blog | Jakob Berr Photography

We finally reached Denver after an adventurous last leg of our roadtrip. Once we got our brakes fixed in Fresno, we continued to the Grand Canyon – only to realize that the car was now permanently overheating. On the first day after we got back on the road, we managed to drive a whopping 300 miles in ten hours – with cooling stops every 50 miles or so. The following days were better, but only after we began stockpiling large water canisters in the car, driving uphill at a dizzying 15 mph and crossing the Arizona and New Mexico desert with the heat on full to help cool down the engine.

Yesterday, 2,711 miles after we left San Clemente, we arrived at our new place in Arvada, a suburb of Denver. A few hours later, we ran into a wonderful gentleman named Eric Wilper whose bike broke down right where we made a cooling stop during a test drive to see if a new radiator cap would fix the overheating problem (it didn’t). He happened to be an avid hobby mechanic, and after we gave him a ride home, he helped us out in turn by exchanging the thermostat of the Aerostar during a 2-hour operation. What a warm welcome to beautiful Colorado!

But to cut a long story short, we now have internet access again, and I can finally post the second chapter of our Big Trip: Big Sur.

After we woke up Thursday morning in the shade of giant old redwoods at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, we started exploring the beautifully rugged coastline between McWay Cove and Point Sur. We happened to be there at the perfect time. Spring had just arrived and the wildflowers were in full bloom. Add to that the spectacular scenery of the Santa Lucia mountain range rapidly falling of into the roaring Pacific, and you have the recipe for possibly one of the most beautiful places on earth…

Please note: I tried my best to identify the wildflowers in the following pictures correctly. However, I am not an expert. If you notice any inaccuracies, please leave a comment at the end of this post!

Mountains and ocean meet to create the unique scenery of McWay Cove at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park in Big Sur, Calif., May 19, 2011.

California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica ssp. californica) lines the entrance road of Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park.

A park visitor walks through the Overlook Trail pedestrian tunnel at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park.

Island False Bindweed (Calystegia Macrostegia) grows on the cliffs of Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park.

Sea and sky meet at the Pacific Coast of Big Sur.

Waves crash through an opening in the rocks at Pfeiffer Beach in Big Sur.

An unidentified wildflower blooms at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park.

The sun breaks through the clouds at Point Sur.

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.

I love shooting with my Leica, but it does have some downsides. One of them is that you can’t do any macro photography – at least not with the lenses that I have.

A while ago, my friend Valerie Mosley posted photographs she took with a so-called poor man’s macro (holding another lens in front of the lens on your camera). At the time, I didn’t think that I could do that with my rangefinder. Since you’re not able to see what the camera sees through the lens, it’s kind of impossible to focus on such a small scale.

During a hike on the San Juan loop trail at the Cleveland National Forest today though, Beth suggested that we try it. And – much to my surprise – after some initial feebling around, we were able to get some really nice results. Here are some of my favorites: