All posts filed under: California

Just in Time

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California / Flower / Hummingbirds / Photo Log / Photography

May 14, 2020 — The Back Yard, Silicon Valley, California Every April/May I engage in the Hummingbird Ritual. It’s a simple ritual, mostly involving standing around with a heavy camera/lens combo waiting for hummingbirds to feed on echium blooms. This requires four ingredients: Me, Heavy camera/lens, Purple echium blooms, and a Hummingbird. Thing is, despite shelter-in-place, my schedule has been less than accommodating, which has effectively removed the “me” ingredient for several weeks. When I […]

The Pacific, Living up to its Name

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California / Inspiration / Photo Log / Photography / Seascapes

May 12, 2020 — San Mateo County Coast, California Driving has always been allowed in California. There is simply nowhere worthwhile to park. All state beach (meaning “beach”) parking has been blocked. But there had been rain (finally) and the sky promised to be interesting, I drove to the coast to try my luck. I was expecting reasonably good surf for wave photos. Six to nine feet was the forecast. I was pumped. The very […]

Chewy — Beach Boy

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California / Inspiration / Photography

Various Dates — Various Beaches in San Mateo and Sonoma Counties, California Labs and poodles are both water dogs, so you would imagine that a labradoodle like Chewy would love the water. Kind of. He loved the beach. That’s for sure. We didn’t let him swim in the ocean because much of our coast has a murderous undertow. You go out. You don’t come back in. But he loved to run on the beach and […]

Chewy — Walkies and a Midnight Misadventure

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California / Inspiration / Photo Log / Photography / Positivity

December 1, 2014 — Los Gatos Greek Trail, Los Gatos, California “Walkies” is more of a British expression than an Americanism, so we caught on late. It’s a perfect word. We learned it from Wallace and Gromit and adopted it immediately. So did Chewy. He adopted it so well that we had to resort to using other expressions when simply planning a day — perambulate, circumnavigate the block, mosey, constitutional, hike — to prevent him […]

Chewy — Hairy Noon and Night

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California / Inspiration / Photography

May 21, 2005 — The Driveway Chewy was an accidental labradoodle. Love child of a lab and a poodle who were left to do their own thing. That made him, in breederspeak, an F-1. That means that in a litter, there is an even chance of the offspring having fur from the lab, wiry hair from the poodle, or fleecy hair from the poodle’s line. Chewy had fleecy hair. The best. Fur sheds and with […]

Chewy — Introduction

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California / Inspiration / Photo Log / Photography

November 4, 2004 — Fremont Older Open Space Preserve, Cupertino, California We first saw a labradoodle in Castine, Maine on the Fourth of July, 2003. Sort of goofy looking and elegant at the same time. Jet black. Affectionate and intelligent. Patient. Gentle. Full of energy and mellow at the same time. What kind of dog is this? Labradoodle. Mix of standard poodle and lab. I was scratching the back of her head — base of […]

Light on the Horizon

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California / Impressionism / Inspiration / Photo Log / Photography / Positivity / Seascapes

January 23, 2017 — Sonoma County Coast, California Rescued from the archives. I think the thing that appeals to me about glints of light on horizons is that I would prefer to think that there is a glint of light on the horizon — no matter how distant the horizon may be. And there is, provided it is we as individuals who supply the light — no matter how distant the horizon may be. I’ll […]

Seurat/Rothko

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Abstract / California / Impressionism / Inspiration / Photo Log / Photography / Seascapes / Sunset

April 15, 2015 — Windy Hill, Woodside, California I was going to post something else today, but a look at an Instagram post by Óli Haukur inspired me to show this instead. Oli made the point that most photography instructors stress low ISO settings for low noise and therefore “best” image quality. Image quality these days seems to be based solely on low noise and extreme sharpness. His opinion is that, based on these criteria, […]

Texture and Tone. Alone.

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Abstract / California / Impressionism / Inspiration / Photo Log / Photography / Seascapes

January 10, 2016 — Marin County coast, California Many years ago — longer ago by far than when this picture was shot — someone close to me was enthralled by music that was extremely minimalist, consisting almost entirely of texture and tone. Very little form, rhythm, or melody. Only texture and tone. Although I can’t really say I liked it, I had an appreciation for what he was hearing because he and I are cut […]

Scale

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California / Inspiration / Landscape / Monochrome / Photo Log / Photography / Seascapes

February 9, 2020 — East Bay Hills, California The San Francisco Bay Area abounds with breathtaking views. The views from the hills across the Bay from San Francisco are among the best — looking straight back across the Bay. The Golden Gate Bridge is an impressive feat of engineering and construction. When it was built in 1937, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. It has since been surpassed, but the main span […]