There are days that a photographer just can’t catch a break.  Isn’t it like that for everybody though?  I mean, Murphy’s Law works overtime for a photographer.

Like right on a deadline. Such was the case today.  I was assigned to shoot a picture of Konocti Harbor Inn, which is in the process of being sold,  on the shores of Clear Lake Friday afternoon (C’mon, who doesn’t have a wild story or two about KHI?).  I used to take tennis lessons at the resort when I was a kid.  My dad would gas up the family boat on the dock at KHI on one of our fruitless fishing expeditions.  Miniature golfed there a few times, busted a gut when Dana Carvey performed in the indoor theater and have generally photographed its decline over the last several years.

Today (Friday) we were not granted access in to the locked gates at the resort.  The security guards gave me numbers to call and I did, but never got a call back.  Not wanting to leave empty-handed  (read: image-less) I tried several different angles above fences, through trees and generally struck out.

Not giving up, I drove the periphery of the area.  After a couple of hours, I found a very nice gentleman who loaned me a canoe and a paddle.  “I’ll see you in a about 30 minutes,” I said,  paddling away from the dock.  Well, I pretty much misjudged the distance, which turned out to be about three miles.  Clear Lake has a very big shoreline, you know, and if I wasn’t so flippin’ old, I would have remembered that fact.  It was a lot less effort in my dad’s boat.

Fighting the wake of a boat and skier who continued to do water donuts most of the way on “Le Tour of Clear Lake” I managed to make it to the resort dry, cameras intact.

A little maneuvering and I had my photographs.  Was it hot in Sonoma County Friday?  Well, it was hot up there.  Sun beating down, I gunned it back.  Normally a nice west wind pops up on the lake in the afternoon, cooling us nautical types off.  Not this day!  The wind was from the east and as offshore winds go, it was just plain hot. After about an hour I was back, shirt drenched in sweat.

It’s okay though, because Murphy didn’t get the best of me. Not today anyway.

The boat slips are gone from the lake side of Konocti Harbor Inn on Clear Lake near Buckingham Park, Friday Sept. 6, 2013. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2013

The boat slips are gone from the lake side of Konocti Harbor Inn on Clear Lake near Buckingham Park, Friday Sept. 6, 2013. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2013

The boat slips are gone and entrances from the water to Konocti Harbor Inn on Clear Lake near Buckingham Park are closed off, Friday Sept. 6, 2013. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2013

 

I'm a ramblin' paddler.

-Kent Porter

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