6:30 AM

Two Canon G9 photos.

First: Back to Mr. Obama. On my way over to Starbucks, I tried the old balance-the-camera-on-the-parking-meter routine. Not perfectly successful—a little camera blur. But still.

Next: early morning coffee in Monterey. I went ahead and set the ISO to 800 & took a few pix whilst consuming my scone and coffee.

Image very noisy . . . I ran it through some noise-reduction software, which reduces the noise but gives it a kind of plasticy look.

Photos: Obama & Homeless Guy—Los Angeles, 2009; Early Morning Coffee—Monterey, 2009

Tibet

A themed blog post.

Top photo was taken in San Francisco March 10, during a pro-Tibet, anti-Chinese occupation demonstration.

Next photo is a mural of the Dalai Lama (surrounded by Chinese soldiers) that I found in a back alley in Los Angeles last week. After some research I’ve determined that it was done by the artist known as "Mear One;" you can watch a video of him creating the mural on YouTube.

Photos: Demonstration—San Francisco, 2009; Dalai Lama Mural—Los Angeles, 2009

Sunrise #2 / Quarterly Contact Sheet Time

I’ve been going through thousands of pix for my quarterly printing-out of contact sheets.

Deleting quite a few, of course. But every now and then, something comes along that had gotten overlooked.

This photo, for example. I posted a Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge sunrise photo earlier, but somehow I never opened this image in Photoshop. So now, Sunrise #2.

Photo: Sunrise #2—Sacramento Wildlife Refuge, 2009

Ministerios & La Yalalteca

Two more from the Pico expedition.

Digital black and white conversions sometimes look just a little bit off, since there’s no hint of film grain. Of course, one could always add-in some "grain" using Photoshop, but that seems to be backwards somehow.

After all, pre-digital we spent countless hours experimenting with various developers in an effort to reduce grain.

Photos: Ministerios—Los Angeles, 2009; La Yalalteca—Los Angeles, 2009

Carniceria

On Pico, the camera pointing towards a mirror, therefore a self-portrait as well.

And, for extra points, there’s Joe off to the left. (Click on image to enlarge.)

Photo: Carniceria—Los Angeles, 2009

Pico Boulevard

I’ve posted Pico shots before, but this is the east side of West Pico, if you know what I mean.

When I mentioned to Joe Grant that I was looking for some more black and white Hispanic-themed photos for my Muerte Con Queso project, he kindly drove me over to the area around Pico and Western for some pix.

The Tejate shot was taken out the window of his very cool Scion!

I kind of like that method . . . having someone drive you around while you snap pix out the passenger window.

Photos: Tejate—Los Angeles, 2009; Pollos El Brasero—Los Angeles, 2009

Aggravating

Wait a minute, guys.

This machine is using my blog template!

The horror!

Mount Tamalpais & Seminary

. . . with the San Francisco Theological Seminary in the foreground.

Another photo of the same subject was posted in October.

You would think that such a spectacular view would have its own designated pullout.

You would think that there might be a little interpretive sign.

But you would be wrong.

This viewpoint—and there is only this viewpoint—exists high above the insanely busy "Hub" in San Anselmo. It’s found next to a chainlink fence after a hike past low-rent apartments up a crumbling asphalt road. And then it’s a bit of a struggle to avoid the telephone wires.

Photo: San Francisco Theological Seminary—Marin County, 2009

Grapevine Sunrise

The good news was that I reached the Vista del Lago viewpoint just as the sunrise colors were reaching their peak.

The bad news was that I had been taking some low light pix the previous evening, had set the ISO to 800, and forgot to turn it back down to 200.

So: some noisy sunrise pix.

Photos: Sunrise, Grapevine Highway #1—Los Angeles County, 2009; Sunrise, Grapevine Highway #2—Los Angeles County, 2009

Economy Fine Food

Alas, I never had the chance to eat there. Or should we say, I never created the occasion to eat there. The loss is mine.

As was written of San Francisco’s 7th Street:

Blown-apart VFW cripples, mendicants, slobberers, whores. A slattern wheels down 7th toward Market, clutching a roll of carpet under her arm. Ming Kee Thrift Store. Used and New Household Equipment. George’s Newsstand, Books, Magazines. (Smut.) Economy Fine Food, Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Anytime.

—Andrey Slivka

Photo: Economy Fine Food—San Francisco, 2000

Déjà vu All Over Again

I visited the Silver Pavilion (Ginkaku-ji) in Japan back in the 60’s: I had routed myself through Japan as I returned to the U.S. from Okinawa.

I’ve posted one of my photos from that trip previously, here. (See below, as well.) Man Sweeping—Kyoto.

So it was that as Hali and I approached the entrance to Ginkaku-ji last year I suddenly halted, struck by the similarity between memory and reality as I came upon the same scene I had observed over 40 years ago.

But there wasn’t anyone sweeping! Keeping this in mind I continued to look for a man sweeping pix, finally finding one. I wonder if it's the same guy.

Photos: Ginkaku-ji Entrance—Kyoto, 2008; Man Sweeping—Kyoto, 2008; Man Sweeping—Kyoto, 1966

Melrose Avenue #6: Im Creepin & Flasher

Yawn.

I think that this will be the last Melrose Avenue post for a while.

At least for a week.

Photos: Im Creepin—Los Angeles, 2009; Flasher—Los Angeles, 2009

Bay Bridge Reflected

Self-portrait, with the Bay Bridge doing a convenient little jump in order to avoid my head.

Photo: Bay Bridge Self Portrait—San Francisco, 2009

Nagano Evening Scene

This was the countryside leaving Nagano.

It was towards the end of the day. We had utilized all our energy reaching the snow monkeys: now we were on our way back to our hotel. As the train snaked its way out of Nagano it paused for a moment. I looked out the window at the panorama, got out my camera and took this photograph.

Here we have a landscape where people are living, working, playing, observed for one instant in time. Novels could be written. Movies could be made.

Then the train started back up and the evening scene was gone.

Photo: Landscape Outside Nagano—Japan, 2008

Oakland Railroad Yard

Another early digital photo. I had the smallish Olympus with me as I was riding BART to El Cerrito. The train kept starting and stopping, much to my gratification: it gave me a chance to photograph this railroad yard that normally got whizzed by.

I had to clone out an errant telephone pole, not very skillfully I suppose. I know that I wasn’t using adjustment layers back then.

Photo: Railroad Yard—Oakland, 2004

Early Digital

I was so impressed with Hali’s small Nikon Coolpix that I bought an Olympus C-4000 at Costco on May 5, 2004.

4 megapixels. $249.99.

I immediately started taking the Olympus with me to work, replacing the Leica Minilux film camera—which went onto the shelf, where it resides today.

Here’s a shot from May, 2004, taken from the Larkspur to SF ferry one early morning.

Yes, "It looks like a painting!"

Photo: Ripples—Marin County, 2004

Melrose Avenue #5: Girl & Mannequins

As has been said before, Mike’s world is a happy, idealized world filled with pretty colors and geometrical compositions.

Photos: Girl (Poster), Melrose Avenue—Los Angeles, 2009; Mannequins, Melrose Avenue—Los Angeles, 2009

Rain Drops

I was wandering around Sausalito just after it had rained, looking at the boats, taking some pix, when I came upon a wooden planter box with some palm trees.

I noticed that they had planted various succulents at the base of the palm trees so I got, you know, really close and made some exposures. Black and white, but not, alas, 100% depth of field. (Hand held)

Photo: Succulent & Rain Drops—Marin County, 2009

Melrose Avenue #4: Melrose & Stanley

Stanley Avenue is one of the little residential side streets off of Melrose. Venturing into these neighborhoods one finds nicely landscaped (for the most part) houses and bungalows.

Photos: Melrose & Stanley—Los Angeles, 2009; House on Stanley—Los Angeles, 2009

Shinbashi Pedestrian Overcrossing

The Shinbashi neighborhood has plenty of pedestrian overcrossings and underground walkways. Hali and I were navigating one such bridge on the outskirts of the Ginza District when we hit a gap in the crowds. I took this photo after noticing a reflective window opposite us.

Photo: Shinbashi Overcrossing—Tokyo, 2008