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Apologies for my slacking on the blog.

Morning Stoplight

16th & Cabrillo.

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Shadow Shot Sunday

The entrance to an exhibit hall at the San Mateo County Fair provides some great late-afternoon fodder for Shadow Shot Sunday. To see some of last week's entries, go here.

Our Little Cowboy

Cottage Grove Cemetery, Weldon, CA. I didn't notice at the time that he has the same birthday as my son.

Travel Thursday: Joshua Tree

We got lucky the day we went to Joshua Tree National Monument with our friends Mike and Kris; it was an unseasonably cool 80° out there. Just a few days earlier, it had been 111° in nearby Palm Springs. I just wish we'd had more time to spend there, and that the bees weren't so prevalent nearly everywhere we went.

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Bone

Kern River Preserve near Weldon, CA.

I Was Looking at the Black and White World in My Neighborhood

Another shot of someone who either lives or hangs out in my neighborhood. This was taken at Sutter and Larkin Streets. The first shot I took of this person can be found here.

Tutu Two

Another one from the San Mateo County Fair.

Colored Cups

Mrs. G and I went to the San Mateo County Fair yesterday. It's small and getting smaller; we were able to see pretty much everything at least once (and some things twice) in less than three hours. I did get this shot, however, which is at least one good souvenir.

Jolly Kone Massage

In Bridgeport, CA.

Shadow Shot Sunday: In My Neigborhood

A fire escape on my street makes for some interesting geometry. Must be Shadow Shot Sunday.

Check out some of last week's entries here.

Shadow Shot Sunday

The belladonna lilies are in bloom right now at the corner where I catch the bus every morning. (This shot is from last year; there haven't been any shadows in my neighborhood lately.)

Shadow Shot Sunday explained; choice shots from last week on display here.

Monuments

Parking lot at Glacier Point, Yosemite National Park.

Travel Thursday: Shanghai

Mrs. G and I spent about five days in Shanghai after our initial landing in Beijing. We were all on our own, having no one to translate or show us around (our guide in Beijing, Chris, did not travel with us, and we did not meet up with my brother until we got to Chengdu). Nevertheless, we found the city surprisingly easy to negotiate, the people very friendly and the food better than we'd had in Beijing. We took subway trains and taxi cabs and walked all over, and never felt lost or uncomfortable.

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Valley OTE

Motel sign in Lake Isabella, CA.

Guarding Hope

Stop Messing Around

The Mantra Trailer, seen on Treasure Island yesterday.

Helicopter

East of Bakersfield on 178, where the foothills rise suddenly from the rolling plain and the highway vanishes into the narrow canyon of the Kern River, there's a billboard presenting grim statistics on the river's danger: 268 drowned since 1968.

Up the canyon a ways I stopped for lunch at a riverside picnic area. At first I had the place to myself. Then I heard a helicopter in the distance--spotted it a good ways away, above the ridgeline--and watched as it did a slow pass at a respectable height and headed off in the other direction. And as it circled back and did another pass a little lower. And as it came back, slower this time, dropping to 100' or so above ground level. Looking for something, or someone.

And of course that billboard was at the front of my mind. Why else would a sheriff's helicopter be flying that low above the river? Spotting fires, looking for pot farms, searching for a missing hiker...maybe. Fugitive...unlikely. But there's a limited number of plausible scenarios there.

When I got home a few days later I found the Kern County Sheriff's website and checked their recent news releases. Nothing. There had been a drowning a week earlier, but nothing of note that day. So I have no idea what it was all about, except that apparently it wasn't what I was afraid it was.

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Aspect Ratio

Shadow Shot Sunday

Saw this on a late afternoon at my friend Mike's place in Romoland, Southern California. The late sunlight creating long shadows made me think this might be a good candidate for Shadow Shot Sunday. To see some of last week's SSS images, go here.

Shadow Shot Sunday

Forest near Crescent Meadow, smoky from a nearby fire, seen from Moro Rock in Sequoia National Park.

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

Attack of the Giant Roosters*

I shot this guy the other day in Kernville. Then yesterday, plate of shrimp: a nearly identical bird shows up in my contact stream. So I did a little investigating, and made a chilling discovery: these things are everywhere. Stock item from some fibreglass manufacturer...or fiendish plot to enslave the world? We report; you decide.



*Technically capons, as Dave Van Hulsteyn points out, but 'roosters' just sounded better.

Airstream

Travel Thursday: Bodie

I'm loath to tread on Generik's turf, but...

I went to Bodie planning to shoot a bunch of ghost town shots, classic images of solitude and decay. The traffic backup at the entrance kiosk made me think otherwise. Turns out I had stumbled into the sesquicentennial shindig: people in costume, horses, classic cars, live music, parade, barbecue, pie-eating contests, and all that sort of thing. Generally speaking, a zoo. So that's what I ended up shooting.
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