Hike to Photo

I can’t for the life of me figure out why there is never any parking on the streets around corporate campuses. I have to shoot a fair amount of building mugs and signage when companies report their quarterly earnings and I always end up having to park really far away or illegally in some private parking lot. I mean seriously, would it hurt to have one little strip of parking, maybe a meter. Make some money for the city.

Take today for example. I was down in Palo Alto doing a sign shot for the story about Hewlett-Packard’s plans to cut 24,600 jobs over the next three years. After the hour-long drive, I made it to the HP headquarters, spotted my sign and then started looking for a place to park. No Parking signs lined the streets surrounding the campus. I drove around the block, well past the HP property, still no parking. I keep going and have now made a complete 1-1/2 mile loop back to where I started. Not a legal parking spot in sight.
For some reason I thought I might find something if I go in the opposite direction. That didn’t really pan out either. I headed south until I found a park with a public parking lot that was free. The only problem is that I am about a mile away from the sign I need to shoot. Thinking I can do better than this, I pass the parking lot and continue driving towards HP in hopes that a parking spot will magically appear on some side street that I might have missed. No such luck.

I head back to the parking lot and park my car there. I strap on my cameras and start walking. The blocks are long. My cameras keep firing as the shutter button hits my hips and ass. I now have a good collection of my legs and feet. I t took about 10 minutes to get to the sign. I shoot it in every possible way just to get the most out of my hike. I stand there for a good 15 minutes waiting for something to happen or for someone to walk by the sign. Luckily, a guy rode by on his bike. That was the pinnacle of excitement. I walked around the perimeter of the campus hoping to see something of interest. Not a thing. After working the signs for close to 35 minutes, I started to trek back towards my car passing all of the neatly lanscaped office parks. How do they keep their lawns so nice? The photo essay on my legs and feet continued.