Southest Harbor, Maine

Sorry, but I don't have a lot of new photos these days except of birds.

Dont Try

This is a truck parked at 14th and Balboa. I have no idea what its story is. More pics below the fold...
More...

Martini Monday

Which, just for a change of pace, is a Cosmopolitan this week.

Brown Canyon

The summer version of a landscape I shot previously in February.

Shadow Shot Sunday

Early morning at Dante's View, a mile (and then some) above Death Valley.

Want to play along? Here are the rules. And here is this week's shadow shot from Harriet, plus a selection of last week's from others.

Travel Thursday: Tuttle, California

Heading east from Merced on 140, out past the city limits, past the Wilson Substation, in a location you probably have no idea is named Tuttle¹, you see it, an improbably imposing² obelisk in the middle of farmland nowhere. Lots of people wonder; very few, I think, stop to assuage their curiosity.

What it is is the final resting place of local rancher George Hicks Fancher, 1828 - 1900. (Fancher the Rancher, his friends may well have called him.) I couldn't find much of anything about the guy, but I did learn that his oversized tombstone was the subject of a lawsuit. Fancher's will set aside $25,000 for burial and a "monument"; his heirs wanted to spend a measly $2,000 on the gravestone and build a library with the rest. The court ruled, in effect, that monument means monument. So the children of Tuttle went without books (I guess), and Yosemite travelers gained an enigma to entertain them on the long flat stretch of highway.



¹Named for AT&SF executive R. H. Tuttle.
²68 feet tall.

Travel Thursday: Twin Lakes

Saturday morning Mrs. G and I are heading off for the first of our annual two weeks at Twin Lakes (the second will be in September), near Bridgeport, to do some fishing, some relaxing and general recharging of the spiritual batteries. I'm looking forward to trout dinners, nights around the campfire with good friends and the 4th of July in Bridgeport, with fireworks behind the courthouse.

More...

In My Neighborhood

Motel windows on Larkin Street between Geary and O'Farrell.

SF MOMA

Adirondack Crabapple Blooms

Martini Monday

Hey look, mister - we serve hard drinks in here for men who want to get drunk fast, and we don't need any characters around to give the joint "atmosphere".

Shadow Shot Sunday: Ghost Town Shadow

One more from the Bodie collection that I thought might be good for Shadow Shot Sunday. You can see some of last week's SSS entries here.

In My Neighborhood

Paintbrush, buckwheat, lupine, yarrow (not in bloom), and (I think) monkey flower above Sutro Baths. This is one of a number of areas in the Presidio and GGNRA where the Park Service is trying to re-establish native plants--quite successfully, it seems. It's a striking contrast with the other side of the path, where it's all nasturtium, ice plant, radish, tree mallow, and such--all introduced species.

Travel Thursday: Bodie, California

Once a booming gold mining center with a large population, Bodie is now a ghost town maintained by the Park Service in a state of arrested decay. It sits at the end of a 13-mile mostly-paved road off Highway 395, nestled in the Sierra over 8000 feet above sea level. The sprawling collection of ramshackle buildings dating back to the mid-1800s, abandoned cars, buggies, mining equipment and other sundry detritus makes it a photographer's paradise.

More...

Call Box

Cop/fire call box on Point Lobos between Louie's and the Cliff House.

A Cloud Over Baseball

(A few pictures for Donna, who, I believe, likes clouds.)

Mrs. Generik and I are Giants fans and season ticket holders at AT&T Park. We sit upstairs, where the view can be both dramatic and distracting. Last Friday night was especially nice in that regard, with some incredible clouds and sunset color. I spent the better part of two innings looking through my viewfinder rather than paying attention to the action on the field. (The game itself was a masterpiece, too, though --Tim Lincecum pitched a complete game shutout in all of 2 hours and 2 minutes.)

I think these look better bigger, so you might want to click back to the Flickr pages for them and check out the larger size.

More...

Martini Monday

Martini (and, in the supporting cast, a glass of red wine) at Kuleto's off Union Square.

A Museum-Quality Shadow

At Musée national Picasso Paris

Meanwhile it's a beautiful Shadow Shot Sunday here in suburban Pennsylvania.

Shadow Shot Sunday: Sepia Skull

Saw this display at the Union Street Fair last weekend. The bright sunlight of that day makes this a good candidate for Shadow Shot Sunday, don't you think?

Check out some of last week's SSS entries here.

Shadow Shot Sunday

Light fixture in our living room, catching the last bit of evening sun.

Shadow Shot Sunday explained; this week's edition here.

In My Neighborhood

St. John's Russian Orthodox Cathedral, 26th & Geary. (And yes, I was inspired to post this by Generik's pics.)

Travel Thursday: Sergeyev Possad

Sergeyev Possad (also sp. Sergiyev Posad), known as Zagorsk before the 1917 revolution, is a town built around a complex of churches that arose over the centuries surrounding a 14th century monastery. We spent about half a day looking at the churches before heading off to the country and our friend Valodya's dacha.

More...