What a busy week it’s been. I haven’t had much time for photos or blogging. I did grab this shot on Halloween before the trick-or-treat madness started. I don’t bike much these days, but really want to get started again. I seem to always hurt myself when I try to exercise, but hopefully I can get back into it soon.
I’ve also posted couple of more shots on Zooomr:
Fence with steam rising - Fall Series
I actually took this the morning we headed out for Yosemite, but it got lost in all pictures of Half Dome and El Capitan. I was putting the bike rack on the car and saw the steam rising from the fence, filtering the the sunlight. I ran inside and grabbed by camera to take some pictures. It was actually a really wet morning. There had been a heavy dew that night, so everything was really wet, and cold. The sun had only been up a little while, but was warming the fence. The steam didn’t last long and it was really cool to watch. I just wanted to capture that moment. One of those things that make you stop and savor the moment.
Enjoy.
I went into the little town of Penngrove for lunch yesterday and stopped by the park to take pictures. The park is one of the few with old, metal playground equipment, the kind all parks had when I was a kid. We’ve taken the kids there a few times, and they always have fun.
It’s not a fancy, shinny new park, but it has a lot of heart and character. You can easily imagine generations of kids playing there. I can easily picture kids from any time in the last 60 years swinging and sliding and laughing here. While the new playground equipment offers twisty slides, climbing walls, and rubber coated steps, they just lack character.
Shooting Date: 9/25/2007 12:48:40
Shutter Speed: 1/125Sec.
Aperture Value: F3.5
ISO Speed:200
Lens: EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6
Focal Length: 18.0 mm
I took several other shots that I posted on Zooomr, here are a few:
Today I was having lunch with my wife downtown while the kids were at school, and I saw this 20ish guy with a Canon T70 camera. I asked him about the camera and we struck up a quick conversation on photography. Turns out he’s taking black and white photography class at the local Junior College and using his parents old 35mm film camera. I blogged about the photography I did back in college using my T70 and even posted a picture of my camera on Zooomr.
He probably wasn’t born when I got my camera, and said he thought his parents got his camera before he was born. My old T70 is broken and had been stored in the attic until a couple of weeks ago when I decided to use my 50mm lens for Poor Man’s Macro shots. I had also had the 75-200mm lens pictured here. Since I wasn’t using it anymore I offered it to the him for free. He was extremely grateful and shocked. This evening I dropped the lens off to him at work (he works in grocery store that I had to go to anyway). He still couldn’t quite believe his good fortune.
I was happy to give him the lens. It was doing me no good and he will put it to good use. He seems to really enjoy photography, and is wondering if he can make a career of it. Maybe someday he’ll be a famous photographer and I can say I helped him get started. I was also touched by his response. He was genuinely thankful and excited. A lot of kids I’ve seen around have a sense off entitlement, like the world owes them something. Not this young man. He’s working hard, going to college, and loves photography.
So here’s to Steven, a budding young photographer using recycled equipment to shoot black and white film. I can’t wait to see his work.
This will be a quick post, trying to maintain the shot a day idea (although it has been a very long time since I’ve posted on consecutive days.)
Yesterday I went out to Point Bonita in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area with my family to hike around and shoot some pictures. We followed that up with dinner at Joe’s Taco Lounge in Mill Valley. Joe’s is the best Taco Lounge around. To this day I have not found a better chicken burrito. The decor of the place really makes the experience. The walls are lined with hot sauce, as shown in the image above. There’s also plenty of religious artwork and icons as well. It’s only a couple of miles of 101, so stop by if you get the chance.
Tonight I plan on getting up to shoot the eclipse, but have splitting headache at the moment, so I’m playing it by ear.
Shot Details:
Taken August 26, 2007
Mill Valley, CA
Aperture: 4.5
Shutter Speed: 1/100
ISO: 800
Last weekend my family went out and picked some blackberries, so I made a pie. It was a good pie, especially with vanilla ice cream. It was decent year for blackberries, even with the low rainfall. The berries weren’t as big as I’ve seen them in the past, but were sweet. Picking blackberries is somewhat of a labor of love. It takes a quite a while to get enough berries for a pie and your hands end up stained and cut from the thorns. But then, there’s nothing like a warm blackberry pie.
Blackberry picking is somewhat of a ritual for us every year. We make a point of picking as much as we can, but as the years go by, summer gets busier so we don’t get out to pick as much as we used to. But we do get fresh berries every year. I’m hoping to get out again soon to pick more berries and make another pie. We’ll see.
I saw this flag by the side of the road as I drove to work last week. I didn’t have my camera, and figured it would be gone the next time I drove by. It wasn’t. It laid there for several days. I finally stopped to take a picture and collect the flag. I don’t know how long it had been there, but it was pretty battered and dirty. It had obviously been there a while.
I was surprised to see it there to begin with, and even more surprised it stayed for so long next to a busy road. I don’t consider myself overly patriotic, but I still thought someone should have picked up the flag. It is a symbol of our country, and whether or not you agree with the policies of our current administration, I think most Americans at least have a fundamental respect for the ideals of our Constitution and the Bill of Rights (even if our current Administration doesn’t seem to respect either) and what the flag represents. It does not represent policy or a political party or misguided trust in a power addled president. It represents hope and freedom and opportunity and justice for all people - regardless of where they come from, what they believe, or who they fall in love with.
I thought it incredibly sad and ironic that hundreds of people drove by this flag, tossed by the side of the road along with fast food containers and cigarette butts, but no one thought to pick it up. I wonder how many of these people think it a crime to burn the flag as form of expression. I guess if people don’t care enough to stop and pick up a flag, then they can’t be expected to speak up for what the flag represents. I’m not even sure I should have taken a picture, but that’s what I do, and the scene touched me.
People fought and died for this country, then others fought and died for rights everyone deserves. Now, in our modern times, people can’t even show a small sign of respect. It makes me sad. I hope that shows in the shot.
My daughters convinced me that a puppy was a good idea, turns out it was. This is Molly, our new Golden Retriever puppy, on her first day at our home. She’s 8 weeks old now, but we’ve been visiting her since she was a few days old. She really is a treat and the kids just adore her, maybe a little too much at times.
Our 10 year old dog, Penny, has taken it pretty well. She let the puppy know who’s boss, but seems to like Molly and is even interested in her when she doesn’t know we’re watching. The puppy is very respectful of Penny. Molly tries to play with Penny, but isn’t obnoxious about it and backs off if Penny if looks at her crossly. I think Penny would like to play, but she’s getting old and her hips don’t really let her jump around.
The cats, on the other hand, hate Molly. Blueberry, our 4 year old female cat, barfed on our bed yesterday to show her disapproval. Sparkle, the boy cat, just stays upstairs. They’ll adjust, eventually.
So far Molly’s only had one accident in the house and sleeps through the night. After two days we haven’t lost any shoes, but I’m sure it’s coming. The kids have all summer to enjoy their new friend. It makes me happy to see them having such a good time.
“I thinking of scratching your eyes out if you take one more picture.” is what I think she’s thinking about.
As cats go, ours is pretty cool. She likes us and likes to be around us, which is not always normal for cats. She doesn’t want to be with the kids too much, but often sits on my lap while I sit at the computer and would sleep on my wife’s head at night if we let her stay in. For this shot she was perched on the back of the couch (another favorite spot) and didn’t seem to like me taking her picture. She’s cat and I buy the food, so she can just deal with it. Her name is Blueberry.
Blueberrry’s world is about to be turned upside down. We are getting a golden retriever puppy in two weeks. We’ll see how much she likes us then. We already have a dog, who the cat doesn’t mind at all, but puppies are very different from 10 year old dogs. Somehow I doubt I’ll be lucky enough to get a picture of the Blueberry and the puppy together.
If the cat could tell I converted this shot she would probably be mad because you can’t see her fabulous colors. Maybe some other day, Blueberry.
Dyeing Hosted on ZooomrThis probably should have been posted right after Easter, but I had a couple of other shots I wanted to get up first. Every year for Easter we head up to our parents’ houses. At my in-laws, the kids dye eggs outside on the deck where they can make a mess with little impact. This year, as with most, hands as well as eggs got dyed. It took a few days for the dye to come off my daughter’s hands.
The eggs came out quite nicely. The hands were almost black by the end.
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