Red Light

Bus shelter at Balboa and Park Presidio, on a damp morning before dawn.

Sun King

At the Musée Carnavalet

How I Spent My Day

I stood on Potrero Hill for nearly six hours today, waiting for this shot. A film crew was in town, shooting a TV pilot for a potential series called Trauma, and word was out that there would be a big explosion on Hwy. 280 sometime this afternoon. The window was supposed to be between 1:00 and 4:00, but it actually happened at just a few minutes before 6:00. Along with another dozen other photographers and videographers or so, I was able to capture this shot after hours of waiting.

Then I was featured on one of the local TV news shows (KRON 4), and misquoted by the local paper. Sheesh.

Shadow Shot Sunday

Free air is human; free water, divine.

It's Shadow Shot Sunday!

Tail

It's another Shadow Shot Sunday (#45).

Lights and Shadows (Shadow Shot Sunday)

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

Distant City

Glimpse of San Francisco from Coyote Ridge in the Marin Headlands.

Vélos!

Travel Thursday: The Big Apple

Mendocino County Fairgrounds in Boonville.

...what, is there some other 'big apple' I don't know about?

Travel Thursday

Traveling on Highway 108 a few days after Christmas, we were headed for a vacation in California's Gold Country. Just past the turnoff for Yosemite and before we reached Jamestown, we saw this abandoned cabin and a few other structures by the side of the road. It was nearly sunset -- The Golden Hour -- and we stopped to shoot a few pictures.

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Les Fleurs

This is my other favorite of the week.

Home Bass

Most every week I have a new favorite picture; this week, I have two. This is one of them.

Deux Cafés

In My Neighborhood

Camera Corner, inspired by a series of security camera shots I saw in one of the galleries downtown over the weekend. This is on the homeless shelter on the corner of Polk and Cedar.

Shadow Shot Sunday: Motel Stairs

Motel staircase in late afternoon sunlight. Happy Shadow Shot Sunday!

Green Screen

It's another Shadow Shot Sunday.

Shadow Shot Sunday

Lake 10,620 in Kid Lakes basin, Monarch Divide, Kings Canyon National Park (the one in California, not the one in Australia).

Shadow Shot Sunday explained here; last week's entries on display here.

Succulent Radio Flyer

I originally posted this shot on Flickr in black and white, but I've come to think that the color version is actually superior.

Not sure why I'm gravitating away from the b&w and toward the color lately, but I undeniably am. Maybe it's just one of those pendulum-swing things.

Water Towers

The second-tallest structure in Modesto, California.

Travel Thursday: Clear Lake, CA

Located north of Napa and the Wine Country, Clear Lake is California's largest freshwater lake. All the usual activities associated with water are found here: boating, fishing, swimming, concerts at Konocti Harbor, meth labs, drowning... but really, it's mostly a nice place to camp and fish and such. There are a number of towns surrounding the lake, like Kelseyville, Lakeport, Lucerne, Finley and Nice. During the summer it's usually crowded with tourists and campers, but in the winter the lodging is cheap and the tourists few. These shots were all taken on a drizzly day in early January at various points around the lake.

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Suspended Chord

Near the Place des Vosges

Sky Warp

The EMP in Seattle, Washington.

Medicine Women

Found in a junk-filled abandoned office near China Basin.

Tenders

At Winter Harbor, Maine

Self-Serve

At 19th & Illinois, San Francisco.

Shadow Shot Sunday: Front Gate

Sometimes the picture comes to you, and all you have to do is open the door.

Shadow Shot Sunday explained here; last week's entries here.

Shadow Shot Sunday

After taking a week off, I'm back in the shadows again. I thought this one was appropriate for the last Shadow Shot Sunday of the winter: melting snow in Westborough, Massachusetts.

SSS explained here; roundup of last week's entries here.

Paris (Side by) Sidewalk

Portrait of the Artist (& Wife) with a Little Too Much to Drink

This photo is my first entry in Shadow Shot Sunday.

Earthtone

Inside the Bunker

Decaying military facility near Point Bonita, Marin Headlands.

Travel Thursday: Sainte-Chappelle, Paris

Located inside the Palais du Justice on the Ile de la Cité, just one short bridge over from Notre Dame, I believe Sainte-Chappelle is the oldest chapel in Paris (c. 1239). The stained glass and Gothic architecture there are just stunning. I remember seeing a woman climb up the stairs to the main chapel on the second floor, walking in and getting the full experience of seeing it for the first time and immediately bursting into tears at the sheer beauty of the place.

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Detail of one of the doors in the main chapel.



Stained glass in the first floor chapel.



All around the second floor, there are depictions of people achieving sainthood in some rather horrific ways.



First floor ceiling.



First floor columns.



Stained glass in the main chapel.

John's Pizza

A New York City landmark. This is yet another black-and-white version of a color shot.

In My Neighborhood

The Bigfoot Lodge, on Polk Street between Sacramento and Clay.

Funhouse Picasso

In the courtyard of the Musée national Picasso Paris

The mirrored wall is part of a temporary installation at the museum. It's called "La Coupure" -- "The Break" -- by Daniel Buren. Above a diagonal line between its upper front corner and its rearward bottom corner, the mirror is black; below the line, it's silver. The mirror runs straight through the building, necessitating cutouts to allow movement between some of the interior galleries. I got some interesting photos of these cutouts, which I'll post another time.

Beneath the fold, there's a more descriptive shot of mine of the front of the installation. And there are more photos and a description in French at this link.

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Art Car

Found this on Balmy Alley just off 24th Street in the Mission District Saturday (and major props to my good friend Marty for pointing it out -- his pictures of this are probably better). The whole alley is lined with murals up and down both sides. My new biggest fan Brock Keeling apparently liked it (and a few other, similar shots) as well.

Red Light

Traffic light at Balboa & Park Presidio, San Francisco.

Electrolyse du Marais

Shadow Shot Sunday: Backyard Bamboo

One left over from the Maui series.

SSS explained here. Last week's entries here.

Tommy's

San Francisco's own College of Tequila.

Travel Thursday: Kid Lakes Basin

The directions are simple: take Highway 180 east from Fresno until the road ends, at a place with the whimsical and imaginative name of Road's End. Hike north on the Copper Creek Trail, 8 miles in and up 5,000', until you get to the top of the ridge. Hang a right off trail to Grouse Lake. Pass the lake and bear right to Mungoat Pass. Pick your way down the cliffy section on the north side of the pass, then follow the wide granite joint down to the lake. And you're there. More...


It isn't really on the way from anywhere to anywhere else. The High Route (which is to the John Muir Trail as the Mineral King Road is to Highway 99) passes northwest of here, on the Glacier Lakes side of the ridge. It isn't on the crest, and the closest peaks (State, Daugherty) aren't destination climbs--they get maybe a half dozen peakbaggers in a busy year. All it is is a perfect little self-contained landscape perched between the Muro Blanco and the peaks of Goat Crest. There's no reason to go there except to go there.






Which is reason enough for me.

Travel Thursday: Maui

I've been to Maui twice now, most recently in November, 2004. These pictures are all from that trip, taken when my PowerShot 50 (or, as Mrs. Generik calls it, my "point and stupid") was still new. Most of these shots were taken on or near Big Beach or along the road to Hana.

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Light and Dark

Rainy windshield early on a Sunday morning.

Crutches

Green

Canyon along the Matt Davis/Coastal Trail on Mt. Tamalpais.