Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Snow

Road Closed - Alpine County  2013

Mike and Hali decided to drive up Highway 4 to the road closure, just before Lake Alpine. And, as they drove, it started to snow. In California snow is - usually - an interesting and unique phenomenon, so they were quite pleased. There were parking restrictions in effect, so no time to tarry. Just a quick stroll and some pix.

Monday, April 29, 2013

Monday Squirrel Blogging

Squirrel - Calaveras County  2013

Seen on a hike. Managed to be perfectly still; other squirrels were chittering and complaining, but not this one. Emitted a very slight chirk every now and then, otherwise, quiet. Very alert, of course.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Hell's Kitchen

Boulders, Overcast - Sierra Nevada  2013

Don't know if I've mentioned this, but the early settlers who named the various geological feature in the Sierra were really enamoured of, well . . . hell and the devil.

Devil's Postpile. Devil's Bathtub. Devil's Peak. Devil's Punchbowl.

And here we have Hell's Kitchen. Hali and I visited it early Saturday morning, overcast. Earlier shot here.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Murphys Sightems

Native Sons - Murphys  2013

Limo - Murphys  2013

Seen in the gold rush town of Murphys, now the Carmel of the Sierra.

Photo note: there was an orange traffic cone in front of the motorcycle in the top photo. Part of it was easy enough to clone out, but the part in front of the motorcycle's front wheel . . . not so easy.

Friday, April 26, 2013

Pine Needle

Pine Needle - Calaveras County  2013

As mentioned yesterday, pine needles had been falling during the winter, some coming to rest hooked onto existing tree branches. Nice pattern.

BTW, the camera really didn't want to focus that closely. I had to turn off the autofocus and switch to manual focus. Huh.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

At The Cabin

Pine Needles - Calaveras County  2013

Juniper Branch - Calaveras County  2013

The cabin near Arnold hadn't been occupied for a while, so there were a lot of pine needles, etc. scattered about in random pictorial arrangements.

Earlier cabin photo.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Oak Trees, Foothills

Oak Trees (Foothills) - Sierra Nevada  2013

Taken while parked on the side of Highway 4. Some high clouds created nice even illumination.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

San Joaquin Valley

Fields & Clouds - San Joaquin County  2013

Mike and Hali took a mini-vacation earlier this month staying in the small mountain town of Arnold. The weather cooperated on the drive there, producing these very nice clouds near Farmington.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Monday Gull Blogging

Gull, Bay Bridge - San Francisco  2009
Taken with my Olympus C-8080. Took great pictures, but had build quality issues.


Sunday, April 21, 2013

Golden Gate Bridge

Golden Gate Bridge - San Francisco  2005

. . . as seen from the Marin County Larkspur Ferry on my afternoon commute, in January, 2005.

Taken with my first digital camera, a 4-megapixel Olympus point and shoot.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Valley Sightems 2

Fence Posts - Marin County  2013

Tarp - Marin County  2013

Black and white seems suited to Saturday posts. Don't know why.

Friday, April 19, 2013

Valley Sightems 1

Ranch Buildings, Rain - Marin County  2013

Luv It - Marin County  2013

. . . San Geronimo Valley, that is, in central Marin County.

Top: Photo taken in the rain. Neat.

Bottom: Photo taken on a Tuffy walk.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Flowers, Berkeley

Orchids - Berkeley  2013

Flowers - Berkeley  2013

Seen at Margaret's house in Berkeley. Don't know what kind of flowers those are in the bottom photo.

Update: Tech whiz cleek has identified the flowers as "Senetti Pericallis" using Google Image Search! Wow!

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Flowers, San Francisco

Flowers on Steps - San Francisco  2013


Painted Flowers - San Francisco  2013

Real flowers on the steps. Painted flowers seen on Lombard Street.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

SOMA Sightems

Knowledge, Susie's - San Francisco  2013

Airplane - San Francisco  2013

The mural was on the blog in February. However, the top photo captures not only the mural, but also Susie's Cafe!

Both photos taken on a recent late Saturday afternoon, just before it started raining.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Monday Dog Blogging

Dog & Owner, Bicycle Repair Shop - San Francisco  2013

Late Saturday evening, south of Market. A small bicycle repair shop still open.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

SF Skyline, from Sausalito

Boat, Skyline - Marin County  2013

Taken in color, of course, but much nicer in black and white.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Barbershop

Barbershop - Marin County  2013
In Sausalito.

There was part of a parked car in the lower left hand corner; I used the clone tool in Photoshop to erase it.

Also: shot was taken at an angle, so the perspective is a little off . . . I guess that you could correct it in Photoshop, but . . .

Friday, April 12, 2013

Art Galleries (San Francisco)

Sculpture #1 - San Francisco  2013

Sculpture #2 - San Francisco  2013

On Geary Street, downtown, during the rain. Took these with the m43 Panasonic 20mm prime lens. Nice little lens!

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Colibri

Carnitas (Colibri) - San Francisco  2013

Menu (Colibri) - San Francisco  2013

We had dinner the other day at Colibri, a Mexican restaurant on Geary St., right opposite the Curran Theater. It was good! Yelp people don't like their guacamole/chip options, but since we didn't order that, we were satisfied.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Dumpsters

Dumpster - San Francisco 2013

Dumpsters - Sausalito  2013

In San Francisco and Sausalito.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Road, Mt Tamalpais (HDR)

Road, Mt. Tamalpais - Marin County  2013
Traffic, Whites Hill - Marin County  2013

In the CS6 HDR drop-down menu there's a "Photorealist" option. Think I used it for the top photo.

And then, as long as I had the camera on a tripod, I took a "blurred traffic" photo.

Monday, April 8, 2013

Monday Crow Blogging

Crows - Marin County  2013

Crows hanging out at the Golden Gate Bridge overlook in Marin County.

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Mt. Tamalpais, Indian Paintbrush

Indian Paintbrush, Mt. Tamalpais - Marin County  2013

Indian Paintbrush - Marin County  2013

Taken during a recent hike on the Loma Alta fire road.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Loma Alta Bicyclist



Bicyclist, Mt. Tamalpais - Marin County  2013
Early morning on the Loma Alta Fire Road. I was there to experiment with tripod pix, but didn't need it for this shot.

Friday, April 5, 2013

Golden Gate Bridge 2

Golden Gate Bridge #3 - Marin County  2013

People at Viewpoint - Marin County  2013


Telephoto shot for that jammed-together look.

Visitors using on-site binoculars.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Golden Gate Bridge 1

Golden Gate Bridge #1 - Marin County  2013

Golden Gate Bridge #2 - Marin County  2013

. . . as seen from the Marin County viewpoint. Taken on separate days.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Skyline

San Francisco Skyline - Marin County  2013

Driving into Marin County from San Francisco there's a nice viewpoint of the SF skyline and the Golden Gate Bridge. Very crowded on the weekends . . . best to avoid it then.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

. . . from the archives #77: Shoe Kare (Mr. Mike), Los Angeles, 1973

Shoe Kare (Mr. Mike) - Los Angeles  1973

Taken 40 years ago, the same year that I took the Do Not Enter photo in Pasadena: a good year for billboard pix. I used a Nikon F and Panatomic-X film for both photos.

Mr. Mike Shoe Kare was located on a nondescript section of La Cienega Blvd and hasn't been seen for quite a number of years.

From the last paragraphs of the mystery novel Muerte Con Queso:

We had to raise our voices to be heard over the traffic’s loud blur on La Cienega. As he juggled the Cokes my father looked at me out of the corner of his eye. “And, she was a good-looking blonde,” he observed. “But even with Mrs. Albert’s interest in your negatives, it seems to me that it still took you a long time to figure out that you were being used as a decoy—that she and Danny Perez had killed Frank Albert.”

“Uh, right,” I admitted. “That little twist took me considerably longer. High heels have a tendency to fog my brain.”

The passing trucks stirred and mixed the essence of Los Angeles: oil slicks and gasoline fumes, bits and pieces of corrugated cardboard, tattered newspapers and crumpled paper cups. While we waited to cross at the seedy intersection I stared vacantly at the billboards dominating the view. Perched atop the street’s anonymous small shops and offices, far above the fumes and debris, they seemed to represent a strange kind of wished-for California promise, the unattainable ideal that had corrupted Clare Albert and Danny Perez. Suddenly alert, I gazed up at those gigantic images of booze, cars and women, those L.A. visions of paradise. I wished I’d brought my camera.

Monday, April 1, 2013

Monday Dog Blogging

Dog, No Treats - Sausalito  2012

Dog & Girl - Corte Madera  2013


Marin dogs. Top photo: dog, hoping for a treat. Alas, no treat was forthcoming.

Bottom: dog outside, girl inside. At the Verizon store.