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Santa Paula
August 2009
Santa Paula is an interesting
town that I always seemed to be passing through, without spending any time
to see the town. The last time I was up there I grabbed a few photos of
"The Warning" (which I'll show below), and that led to an
interest in learning more about this place.
One of my friends told me about an Italian motorcycle
exhibit at the California Oil Museum in Santa Paula, and I had originally planned to
ride up there over the weekend to see it. Dave (another good friend)
wanted to go, but he already had plans for the weekend. He asked if
we could go during the week. Hey, no
problem, I'll just go twice. So, we decided to
drive up midweek to see to Santa Paula and take in the motorcycle
exhibit.
Dave is a very sharp guy and I
knew the few hours we'd spend in his 5-Series UberMobile would make for
interesting conversation on cameras, canines, cartridges, compadres,
cycles, and maybe even a little politics.
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| This is the photo that started
it all. It's "The Warning," and it is explained here. These
two motor cops were Santa Paula's version of Paul Revere (the real one,
not the rock star). Read the story after you read through this page.
In researching the story behind this photo,
I made a good friend when I met fellow writer Peggy Kelly. She's doing a book
on one of the motor officers shown here. We met Peggy for lunch on
this trip. |
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This is the California Oil Museum in Santa
Paula. It's a fascinating place about the history of oil in the
Santa Paula area. The people who run it are real nice.
We felt at home as soon as we walked in.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. We
arrived before the museum opened, so we set out in search of the perfect
cup of coffee. Found it, too.
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| Dave and I stopped for a cup of
coffee at the Santa Paula Coffee Company on Main Street. It was
great. I don't know if it tasted even better because Dave was
buying. I just know it was good.
This is the flyer for the motorcycle
exhibit that I saw in the Santa Paula Coffee Company.
How could you not love an Italian
motorcycle called the Volare? It sounds like the song.
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So we walked along Main Street
on our way to the coffee shop,
and we saw that the town has these wonderful murals. All over.
We didn't see them all, either. One of the locals saw us taking
pictures and told us there were more a block over. Next
time. It's worth another trip.
This is Santa Paula's Main Street in
1910.
Check out the bicycles.
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| A close up of the bikes in the
above photo.
Dave and I both shoot with Nikons. I
mostly used my 12-24 Tokina lens with a polarizer, which is a great
combination.
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Another mural in Santa Paula.
These murals are all over town. |
| And another, showing a class in
early Santa Paula. |
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Santa Paula is cool town with a
real main street and real stores. It's what you'd imagine a small
town would be, except you don't have to imagine it. It's real.
This is Betty Boop, a figure from my
childhood. She used to be a cartoon character. I grabbed this
shot in one of the stores along Main Street. Old Betty was inside
one of the store windows. You can grab these kinds of photos by
resting the lens right on the window to hold the camera steady.
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Even the store signs were
nicely-done murals.
This one caught my eye. I had to
angle the camera up to get it, but PhotoShop lets you skew the photo to
get everything back in alignment.
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| A restaurant mural. These
digital images are cool, but the actual murals are much more
exciting. Check out the detail in the close-up shots below. |
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A close-up from the above mural.
The artists did a magnificent job with these. |
| Another close up. Amazing
work. |
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The movie theater. This
one is great, too. |
| This interesting mural was on
one of the side streets. I shot this several times from several
angles. I liked this photo the best. The polarizer
really kicks up the colors.
There was a building across the street with
large windows that made for some interesting reflections, as you'll later.
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The Tasmanian Devil. This
is another cartoon character from my childhood. |
| My friend Dave, as I was taking
a photo along Main Street.
He's a Tasmanian Devil, too.
Especially in the corners on a high
performance motorcycle.
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| Ornamental iron on a store front
in Santa Paula. |
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After our coffee, we went into
the California Oil Museum.
The exhibit was great, and Dave and I had
the run of the place.
The Museum people came along and told us we
could move things around to get better photos.
This is a Moto Guzzi Daytona 1000 on display in the motorcycle
exhibit. I felt like eating pasta with marinara sauce when I saw
this one.
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| An early Ducati single-
cylinder.
When I was teenager we
actually felt sorry for anybody who had a Ducati. Hondas and
Triumphs were considered desirable; Ducatis were bikes that only strange people
rode.
Today, Ducati is considered one of the best
sports bikes in the world. |
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This, to me, is one of the most
interesting motorcycles.
It is a Bianchi.
I thought I knew a lot about motorcycles,
but I never know Bianchi made them. Bianchi doesn't make motorcycles anymore, but they make some of the best bicycles in the world
(I have two of them). The signature color for a Bianchi bicycle is
Celeste green, which is this motorcycle's color.
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| An early single-cylinder MV
Agusta, with a Gilera in the background.
Check out the Earles front forks on the MV
Agusta.
MV still makes high-end
sportsbikes.
Gilera is no more.
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| This is a more recent MV
Agusta. They are very expensive and very exotic motorcycles. |
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Another Moto Guzzi 1000cc
Daytona. Moto Guzzi is still in business, but they are a niche
manufacturer. They only make a few thousand motorcycles each year. |
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The California Oil Museum is pretty cool,
too. Union Oil started in Santa Paula. I never heard of
Gilmore gasoline, but the logo is interesting. This was on an early
gas pump on display in the museum. |
| Dave and I taking advantage of
the D200's self timer. |
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| A bank door in Santa Paula. |
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This was one of my last
shots. It's from that mural I showed earlier on this
page. This is a reflected image. I'm shooting into a window
that's reflecting both me and the image behind me.
There's a lot of glare I'm fighting here...
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| So, that's it for the Santa
Paula visit. We met Peggy at a great Irish pub (Garman's) right next
to the Santa Paula Times offices on Main Street. The fish and chips
were awesome. Dave had the Reuben, and it looked pretty good,
too. Peggy had the Irish stew and it similarly looked great.
The bread pudding is worth a trip up there all by itself. Santa
Paula is just off the 126, and it's only an hour from Los Angeles.
It's a neat, friendly, and interesting little town that hasn't turned into
a kitschy tourist place. The California Oil Museum is great, the
restaurants all looked interesting, and the place is just plain fun.
The roads north of there (CA 150 intersects the town) are scenic and
twisty, and the photo ops in and out of town just don't end. And if
you're ever up there, don't forget to stop at "The
Warning." It really is quite a story. |
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