As a young man growing up in Idaho the desert south of Boise held mystery and adventure. These days I go out there whenever possible which is not very often. I can’t explore like I did in the old days so I’ve distilled all of my old haunts to my favorite place called “Cloverdale”
Drive past the golf courses, cross the train tracks to the end of Cloverdale road. It’s fairly uninteresting to most everyone I take out there but I don’t care. It’s still my favorite place in the desert.
This is the exact vehicle that I drove as a teenager. My dad wisely restored it about 10 years ago. He repainted it the original color and put a new engine in it.
It used to take my friend Brent Coburn and I on many nightime hunting trips “spotlighting” for rabbits. It’s a despicable thing. You drive around at night with a spotlight and shoot at any varmit that looks at the light souce.
We drove around the desert all night shooting, listening to Led Zeppelin and talking. It was great. I’d never do it again but I’d not trade those memories for anything.
- Rain in the valley 20 miles to the North
Lucky for me the weather put on a show. The rain was pouring to the North. It was dry where we were. Until it rained. Then the van got stuck in two huge “wistlepig” holes and my brother Josh came out and saved us. Thanks Josh.
Jack had one pair of pants for our visit to Idaho. He wore shorts every day in San Clemente. We’ve since purchased several pairs so he does not freeze this winter. We live in actual weather now.
A wistlepig is a ground squirrel. Joe is my Brother. Ashlyn is his daughter.
I took the kids for a walk and they immediately started digging in the dirt for little rocks. The ground was soft. They could dig with their fingers without any trouble. Their instinct to gather is strong.
Jon Ball 
Do you shoot both film and digital, or just one or the other?
I shoot film for everything, pretty much. I have a couple of portrait products that I shoot digital with. I have gone full circle. I shot all digital from the years 2003 to 2006 and of course shot only film before that. I love the way film renders skin tones, shadow detail and the color pallette generally. I forgot how beautiful it was until I went back to it in 2006. It’s very sweet stuff.
I do like the immediate nature of digital but like something that is tangible, like negatives and film. It is expensive to shoot which isn’t fun but I still do it.
Everything on the blog is film based shot throught either my Rolleiflex or a 35mm slr.
[…] was both our family vehicle and my personal Recreational Vehicle. A great photograph of the Van is here. My buddy Brent and I had removed it earlier to create some clear floorspace for our […]