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| Waves from Above - Point Reyes 2021 |
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| Waves, Cliffs - Point Reyes 2021 |
Top photo taken from an unofficial pull off on the road to Pierce Ranch. Bottom ones taken from McClures Beach. The waves were pretty spectacular!
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| Waves, Two Poles - Point Reyes 2021 |
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| Sun Through Cracks - Point Reyes 2021 |
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| White Buildings - Point Reyes 2021 |
Two more taken with the Olympus.
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| Pelicans - Point Reyes 2021 |
Taken during a camping trip in Point Reyes. The birds weren't that far from the beach, so I could zoom in for some action. I used an Olympus E-M1II with a 14-150mm zoom lens.
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| Ranch Building, Bathtub - Point Reyes 2021 |
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| Ranch Building, Open Entry - Point Reyes 2021 |
Some September, 2021 photos. I had a reservation for a campsite at Coast Camp, made long in advance, and drove out to these ranch buildings before going to the trailhead.
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| Blackberries, Buckeye, Rain - Marin County 2021 |
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| Buckeye, Rain - Marin County 2021 |
Most of the rain photos were taken with an Olympus E-M1II and a 25mm lens, with a rubber lens hood.
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| Coyote Bush, Fence, Rain - Marin County 2021 |
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| Fire Road, Rain - Marin County 2021 |
There was a big "atmospheric river" event last month . . . unusual for that amount of rain to fall so early in the season. All major fires have been fully contained now.
Prospects for winter rain don't look that good though. We'll see.
The rain was so heavy that it caused some major erosion on the upper fire road:
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| Fire Road Erosion - Marin County 2021 |
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| 7-11 (Fairfax) - Marin County 2021 |
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| The Mat (Fairfax) - Marin County 2021 |
Two more morning photos. Taken before the recent time change, so it was very dark.
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| Plymouth (Fairfax) - Marin County 2021 |
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| Plymouth (Fairfax) - Marin County 2021 |
As seen on a recent early morning walk.
I used to drive my father's used 1953 Plymouth to L.A. State College from my home in Hollywood. My route: Melrose Avenue to the Hollywood Freeway on-ramp, thence through the "Stack" to the San Bernardino Freeway and then the school. All this through eyeball-searing, throat-choking smog.
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| 1953 Plymouth |
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| Bay Bridge (New Section) - San Francisco 2021 |
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| Bay Bridge (Old Section) - San Francisco 2021 |
I had thought to bypass construction on San Francisco's 19th Avenue by instead taking the Bay Bridge over to the East Bay . . .
Alas, there had been an accident on the bridge (not uncommon, I think) so traffic was really quite slow.
Driving over the new section of the bridge is like driving through an immense art installation. Too bad you have to pay attention to the traffic.
Below, the new section under construction in 2012, photo taken from the Larkspur Ferry.
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| Bay Bridge (New Section) - San Francisco 2012 |
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| Bay - Monterey County 2021 |
Early morning drive over to the bay for another in the series of photos taken here. Note pelicans in the distance . . . one wonders if they'd be recognizable in a print.
Then over to Plumes for coffee and a muffin. Then the drive home.
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| Pepper Tree - Monterey County 2018 |
I took the above photo of a pepper tree a few years ago using an Olympus camera. I thought it would be interesting to return and see what I could do with a larger Nikon. But just in the few years between visits they had decided to prop the tree up with a large piece of wood!
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| Pepper Tree - Monterey County 2021 |
I've tried removing the prop using Photoshop's Content Aware feature, with decidedly mixed results:
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| Pepper Tree - Monterey County 2021 |
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| Cemetery (Pacific Grove) - Monterey County 2021 |
I had to resort to Google Maps to find this place. No fog this time, as there was when I took the photo below in 1987.
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| Cemetery (Pacific Grove) - Monterey County 1987 |
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| Art Gallery (Carmel) - Monterey County 2021 |
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| Photorealist Painting (Carmel) - Monterey County 2021 |
I wandered around Carmel (actually, Carmel-By-The-Sea) for a short time, too early for the galleries to be open.
I'm always interested in photorealist paintings, as in the above depiction of a grocery store's flower display (as seen through a bunch of reflections). Paintings of mundane scenes seem to be more accepted than would photos of the same scenes.
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| Night Heron (Monterey) - Monterey County 2021 |
I was going to go to the end of the walkway, but this individual persuaded me to stop right where I was. I took some photos with an Olympus 75-300 lens, but for some reason I had set the shutter speed way too high. Those photos didn't work out - too much noise.
This photos was taken with a Nikon Z5 and a 24-200 lens. Had to be cropped a bunch, but overall much nicer.
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| Carmel Mission Courtyard - Monterey County 2021 |
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| Agave - Monterey County 2021 |
I've been inside the Santa Barbara Mission courtyard, but not the one in Carmel. I was able to get a peek from outside this time though. I saw the agave in front of a private residence in the vicinity.
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| Window - Monterey County 2021 |
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| Palm, Tile Roof - Monterey County 2021 |
Peeking over the mission wall, trying to take some photos without construction equipment in them.
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| Serra Shrine - Monterey County 2021 |
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| Serra Info - Monterey County 2021 |
Junipero Serra is a somewhat controversial figure. "Both before and after his canonization, Serra's reputation and missionary work during the Spanish occupation have been condemned by critics, who cite alleged mandatory conversions to Catholicism, followed by abuse of the Native American converts."
SAN RAFAEL (CBS SF) — Five people arrested for damaging and tearing down a statue of Saint Junipero Serra last month at the Mission San Rafael Arcángel now face felony vandalism charges.
The vandals joined a group of 40 to 50 protesters Oct. 12 at Saint Raphael’s Catholic Church at 1104 Fifth Ave in San Rafael. They broke from the group’s planned protest to spray red paint on the statue before pulling it off its pedestal.
Below, detail of the top image:
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| Serra Shrine (Detail) - Monterey County 2021 |
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| St Christopher - Monterey County 2021 |
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| Statue - Monterey County 2009 |
Normally, after coffee I'd head over to Point Lobos. But recently it's just become too crowded for comfort. Besides, I have plenty of Point Lobos photos already. So this time I skipped Point Lobos and instead drove the short distance over to Carmel Mission.
I first visited the Carmel Mission in 2009, taking the photo of the statue seen above. On this last visit in September the whole site was undergoing extensive reconstruction work . . . no sign of the statue, alas.
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| Carmel Valley Coffee - Monterey County 2021 |
After taking some photos down by the bay, I got on Highway 1 and drove over the hill past Carmel to one of my favorite coffee spots. As usual, there's an earlier photo posted on the blog.
It was overcast, but not cold. I found some empty tables outside of a closed pizza restaurant where I could settle in. Photo of my goodies plus a hefty Nikon Z5 taken with an iPhone 7 Plus.
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| Rocks, Bay (Monterey) - Monterey County 2021 |
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| Boats (Monterey) - Monterey County 2021 |
Photos taken with a Nikon Z5. As it happens, I was also using a Nikon back in 2010 - a D90 DSLR. I used that camera to take a more dramatic view of the boats in February of that year.
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| Boats (Monterey) - Monterey County 2010 |
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| Gull (Monterey) - Monterey County 2021 |
Alas, it's very difficult for me to ID the various gulls. Apparently their plumage can vary depending on the season, age of the bird, and so forth.
Anyway, taken early morning down near Monterey Bay with a Nikon Z5. Shutter speed 1/30th second, accounting for the blur in the wings.
