Bridge & Sunset

Taken as we were coming back from a shopping expedition at the Ferry Building. I and another fellow with a point and shoot camera were out on the back deck of the ferry, shivering and snapping away.

Photo: Sunset, Golden Gate Bridge—San Francisco, 2009

Blue Escalator

Taken in the Metreon building. For some mysterious reason the shopping center there has never really taken off, in spite of some really cool stuff there when it first opened.

The movie theaters there are booming, however. The day I took this photo, ALL Imax showings of Avatar were sold out. But I didn't care 'cause I don't like Imax.

Photo: Blue Escalator—San Francisco, 2009

Orange Streetcar

Now, I've heard that some of these "vintage" streetcars are simply old SF streetcars repainted so as to resemble other cities' abandoned cars. But I think that some are truly restored streetcars.

Late afternoon, winter solstice: light reflecting from office windows high above.

Photo: Orange Streetcar—San Francisco, 2009

Monday Cat & Phoebe Blogging

Hope we can all see the phoebe on the railing. More on the Marin phoebe population here.

Photo: Cat & Phoebe—Marin County, 2009

Best Seller (Branches & Reflections)

The best selling print this year, by far, was this one. I sold seventeen of them in one form or another (framed, unframed, notecard).

There were five of us walking through a small state park in Rhode Island; we jointly discovered this small pond overhung with autumn leaves. I used the excellent Olympus C-8080 set to take JPEGs; this photo can be, and has been, enlarged to 16x20.

Photo: Branches & Reflections—Rhode Island, 2006

New Labels

I’ve decided to try to categorize the photos that get posted here.

Most are just blog photos, meant to illustrate some point or other, or are maybe just somehow interesting. Others are pretty good, maybe good enough to be put up for sale. And others might be something that would look nice in an exhibition. (Photographs that one might want to have in an exhibit might be ones that will never have any sales value, alas.) Some of these categories might overlap.

So, two new blog labels will be: Photo: (Sales), Photo: (Exhibition).

No "Photo" label will mean that it's a blog photo. Not that that's a bad thing!

We’ll see how it works.

Crafts Fair

The last sales event of the year was the Ecology Center's Crafts Fair in Berkeley. I attended two of these; I couldn't go to one due to rain.

Alas, no real sales action. What was interesting is that—at my booth at least—there didn't appear to be any real Christmas Shoppers. Very little gift-buying! This was contrary to what one might have expected (on the weekend before Christmas.) I sold many notecards, but as I've explained before, in relation to what they can be sold for, notecards are hardly worth the time and effort it takes to produce them. And the folks buying them seemed to be buying the cards for themselves.

Photo: Crafts Fair—Berkeley, 2009

Christmas Decorations

Decorations found at the stable and at a Marin County Christmas Tree lot. I will be busy today trying to recuperate, if you know what I mean, and I think that you do know what I mean.

Photo: Stable Decorations—Marin County, 2009; Decorations—Marin County, 2009

Pigeon & Xmas Lights

Festive tableau seen in the Embarcadero shopping area.

Photo: Pigeon & Xmas Lights—San Francisco, 2009

Clarinetist & Ice Skating

Walking around San Francisco near the Ferry Building in December. The Ferry Building has been seen before, of course. For example, here.

Photos: Clarinetist—San Francisco, 2009; Ice Skating—San Francisco, 2009

Three Major Food Groups

. . . if you know what I mean, and I think that you do know what I mean.

Photo: Food Groups—Marin County, 2009

Insect People / Skateboarder

While I was doing the first Ecology Center Crafts Fair show in Berkeley the Insect People suddenly appeared, supposedly from Cirque du Soleil. Could very well be.

The skateboarder, however, was not interested in the Insect People.

Photos: Insect People—Berkeley, 2009; Skateboarder—Berkeley, 2009

Monday Crow Blogging

Monday crow blogging.

Monday crow and oak branches blogging.

Monday crow, oak branches and moon blogging.

Photo: Crows, Oak Branches & Moon—Marin County, 2009

Autumn Persimmons

Top photo taken in Woodacre, California. Bottom one taken near Hotaka, Japan.

Photos: Persimmons & Fence—Marin County, 2009; Harvesting Persimmons—Japan, 2008

Notecard Display

Please observe my exquisite new tablecloth & my excellent new rotating notecard display rack. And, of course, the ever-popular acrylic business card holder and the 4x6 vertical price list. (I'm working on making my booth more "commercial," whatever that might mean.)

Photo: Notecard Display—San Francisco, 2009

Aki no Ame (Autumn Rain) #9: Self-Portrait with Fruit

Walking around the Ginza district. Thus does the Aki no Ame sequence end. (Ten pix in all, the tenth one, not noted as being part of the series, is here.)

Photo: Self-Portrait with Fruit—Japan, 2008

Early Morning, Point Reyes

Yes. It is a black-tailed deer.

Photos: Black Mountain, Pt. Reyes—Marin County, 2009; Black-Tailed Deer, Pt. Reyes—Marin County, 2009

Cypress Trees (Baker Beach)

Found near Baker Beach. I knew as I was taking them that these pix were going to be black and white (going for that blank-sky look.)

Photos: Cypress Trees #1—San Francisco, 2009; Cypress Trees #2—San Francisco, 2009

Double Vision Happiness / Coffee Break

Walking around near 19th & Geary. First, a closeup of the ads posted in the window, then a long shot from across the street.

Photos: Double Vision Happiness—San Francisco, 2009; Coffee Break—San Francisco, 2009

Monday Cow Blogging

Nice cow. Stood correctly in profile for the photo, then turned for a head-on shot.

Photos: Cow—Marin County, 2009; Cow—Marin County, 2009

Hay Truck

Early morning at the stable, fog just starting to dissipate.

Photo: Hay Truck—Marin County, 2009

Aki no Ame (Autumn Rain) #8: Tokyo Tower

Rain spattering on the window of the hotel; the blurred, damp metropolis with the Tokyo Tower looming in the background.

Photo: Rain on Window—Tokyo, 2008

Crows Landing

Crows Landing Fence - Stanislaus County  2009

A lot of speculation in the blogosphere as to the purpose of the mysterious factory-like building and the tall fence surrounding it just off Crows Landing in Stanislaus County.

The definitive answer seems to be found here: "Ok guys, calm down, the big fence is to keep garbage (papers, cups, plastic, etc) that escapes the primary containment area from blowing out onto the freeway and causing a crash on I-5. If you take note of the fence, it is tall and lanky like one that might surround a golf course driving range. It is clearly *not* a high security perimeter fence. The fence is so tall due to the geographic location of the plant against the hills and the attendant high winds that are often present there. As for barbed/razor wire, I will have look next time I go by, but, I do not recall any but could be mistaken. The facility as previously outlined in earlier postings burns waste and generates electricity which is sold to PG&E."

For a fuller explanation of the facility, check here.

[Update: Some newer (2022) Crows Landing photos have been posted!]

Bay Bridge & Pier

OK, OK. So I tweaked the pix so that the pier and the bridge are parallel.

Photo: Bay Bridge & Pier—San Francisco, 2009

Oak & Hail

A blustery day in Marin yesterday. When I was out at the stable it started to hail, so I got out the camera and took a photo of my favorite oak. I had to take the picture using my right hand while my left hand reached over the camera with my hat to shield the lens from the sun.

So there's camera shake. Still, interesting.

Photo: Oak & Hail—Marin County, 2009

Oak Tree

Three views of the same tree. The top one and the one directly below taken with my new telephoto lens, the fog photo taken with the critically acclaimed 12-60mm lens.

Photos: Oak Tree—Marin County, 2009; Oak & Fog—Marin County, 2009; Horse & Oak—Marin County, 2009

Monday Avocet Blogging

Taken with my new Olympus telephoto at the Corte Madera wetlands. (Across the street from Nordstroms.)

Photo: Avocet—Marin County, 2009

Aki no Ame (Autumn Rain) #7: Man with Umbrella

We set off to see the Meiji Shrine in the rain. The day had started out wet, with the weather steadily growing more intense; luckily I had my umbrella, my Marmot Precip parka, and some Gore-tex hiking shoes, with the Olympus SLR coming in and out of the parka. The low light levels were particularly challenging since higher ISOs on the E-510 tended to become somewhat noisy. This shot is much better in black and white rather than color.

Afterwards there was lunch at an upscale ramen restaurant at the Omotesando Hills complex.

Photo: Man with Umbrella (Meiji Shrine)—Tokyo, 2008

References:

Meiji Shrine Wikipedia

Meiji Shrine mikereport

Omotesando Hills

Berkeley Self-Portrait

Wandering around Berkeley.

Photo: Self-Portrait—Berkeley, 2009

. . . from the archives #55: Peoples Park—Berkeley, 1971

Was it 1971? At first, I didn’t think that I had the date right. According to the Wikipedia entry on People’s Park, National Guard troops first arrived in Berkeley in 1969. But I think that they were still there when I took this photograph in 1971.

And let’s take a moment to consider the impermanence of physical objects. I took several shots of the troops guarding the park with my Nikon F: the negatives are very clearly represented on one of my contact sheets. All park photographs were contained on one strip of film, which is in fact now missing; I first noticed its absence in the 1980s. Not only that, at one point I had several slides showing pitched confrontations: rioters, tear gas . . . everything. And of course the slides are now also gone. I had to resurrect this photograph by scanning an old print I had (luckily) made.

There might be some moral here in discussing the modern disease of backup paranoia involving a full panoply of multiple redundant hard drives. But I’m not sure what the moral might be.

Someday we will have to discuss this.

Photo: People’s Park—Berkeley, 1971

References:

People’s Park Wikipedia entry.

Contact sheets: the mikereport

Backup Wikipedia entry.

Scott Kelby's Backup Strategy.

Aki no Ame (Autumn Rain) #6: Shiodome

Our hotel was located in the Shiodome area of Tokyo, accessible by a short hike from the Shinbashi Station. A relatively new area, filled with elevated train tracks, modern office buildings and pedestrian overcrossings to take photographs from.

Photo: Rain, Shiodome—Tokyo, 2008

Baker Beach

It always seems to me as if it should be "Baker’s Beach." Don’t know why.

I stopped by after delivering a mattress to the Jewish Family Services on Post St. So now we have yet another Golden Gate Bridge photo and another lone fisherman photo.

Photos: Golden Gate Bridge from Baker Beach—San Francisco, 2009; Fisherman—San Francisco, 2009

Aki no Ame (Autumn Rain) #5: Beer Kegs

There’s a multitude of restaurants and bars underneath the arches and overhangs of the Shinbashi Station in Tokyo. I was able to find shelter under one such overhang during a rainy morning while taking photos of restaurant preparations across the street.

Photo: Beer Kegs—Tokyo, 2008

Monday Pelican Blogging

Taken with my new Olympus telephoto at the Corte Madera wetlands. (Across the street from Nordstroms.)

Photo: White Pelicans—Marin County, 2009

Yosemite Autumn

As usual, the best light came in the morning and the afternoon. This "best light rule" is a cliché, but alas, mostly true. Mike took pix of oaks in the meadows in the AM and a postcard view of Cathedral Rocks in the PM.

During the day he dayhiked along the Merced River in the vicinity of Happy Isles, seeing some nice backlit leaves.

Photos: Oak, Autumn—Yosemite, 2009; Cathedral Rocks—Yosemite, 2009; Backlit Leaves—Yosemite, 2009

Poison Oak

Marin's most colorful autumn foliage: the glossy red leaves of poison oak, made even shinier in the rain.

Photo: Poison Oak in Rain—Marin County, 2009

Aki no Ame (Autumn Rain) #4: Dippers

We had scheduled a bicycle tour of Kyoto that started near the train station; fortunately, heavy rain resulted in a much more photo-friendly walking tour. We took a municipal bus to the older section of town and began to walk.

In this most Buddhist of cities, one of the more interesting stops was a Shinto shrine, where I took this photograph of dippers. Our guide demonstrated their use in a purification ritual the details of which I, alas, have forgotten.

Photo: Dippers—Kyoto, 2008

(Dipper information at Japan Society.)

Thanksgiving Day

I started to brine the turkey yesterday; I will be spending some time outside this afternoon with the BBQ.

Photo: Turkeys—Marin County, 2008