I don’t think I’ve previously published these, if I have, you’ll have to excuse me. These are from when we went to Colorado to house-sit; at the end of that trip we rented an AirBnB in Breckenridge and drove up. There was a light snowstorm that started coming down as we left Denver; coming over the pass felt a little hairy, but not nearly as bad as it looks. I’ve certainly driven in worse conditions.
Some Oklahoma friends came and met us in Denver, and drove up as well. This was our substitute trip for what would have been a euro vacation for Sophia’s birthday; we’d planned on a big trip that year because we hadn’t been able to go anywhere more foreign than NYC in 2019. We all isolated for two weeks and got negative tests, we were so careful. There were a lot of unknowns for us; at the time, I don’t think we knew even that fomite transmission had been mostly ruled out. Vaccines were sometime in the future, if at all. In any case, we did it, because the risk of not going was on balance worse than staying put. I think a lot of people reached that point some time last year.
People are bad at assessing risk and at the same time there comes a point when abstinence isn’t an option, you just figure out what the best mitigation strategies are to do what needs to be done, and go with that. I don’t know why I feel the need to justify myself, a lot of people were doing a lot worse than isolating in various places away from home last fall. So I’ll stop.
And anyway. Mountains. Incredible snow-capped peaks.
We were there before the lifts were officially open, so it was quiet, just us and the snow.
Posted on 2021-10-07T07:12:24Z GMT
I think the San Pablo project is over, or at least dormant; I think about it now in the past tense, and the best ideas I’ve had for the work in the last while was to do something else, branched off from the set of rules that was the project, more or less. I don’t think I’ve got a book’s worth of photos; I don’t even know if I’ve got a small gallery show. I need to sort of take a look and see what there is.
This was a night where we went out to get burgers, at a place called Al’s that google tells me is still in business. I found out earlier today the bowling alley, Albany Bowl, is closed. This was almost two years ago, so I’m not super surprised. The whole deal with bowling is being inside, and there’s not a lot of that going around. At least restaurants were able to do takeout/delivery and go less into debt staying open.
Anyway, still working through the backlog. I’m bouncing around a bit because there are actually several backlogs, as it turns out, with photos from lots of different things that happened, that I edited and then sat on, for whatever reason. They’re good photos, Bront, so I’m going to go ahead and put them here. That’s what blogs are for.
Posted on 2021-08-10T07:53:08Z GMT
I think these are going to be in random order again, posting from my ipad so it’s a little different. i’m not gonna worry about it. Two nice portraits, taking hanging out on Kawan and Carlee’s porch last January, which I somehow still hadn’t gotten to. Plus the light on the clouds, also his porch. Then, finally, the new span of the bay bridge, seen from the nice little overlook at the end of the cycle/pedestrian walkway. It’s a good bit of exercise to get out there on the bike.
To everyone who’s photo I’ve taken over the last several months, they’re coming. Probably out of order, probably long overdue, but they’re coming.
Posted on 2021-07-29T07:40:38Z GMT
Holdup. Wait. Stop. Lemme back up. For years, my friend Joseph has been talking about this great place he knew, out where his friend, Jack, had a piece of mostly undeveloped land in the delta, which is what locals call the area east of where the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers come together. The first time I heard about this was probably two years ago? Everybody liked the idea of throwing a party out there, maybe a small festival, camping, cooking out. Starlight, loud music, good friends, swim in the river during the day, that sort of thing. I think the plan at the time was to make it happen the next summer.
We all know what happened instead, the next summer.
This summer, though, the year of our lord 2021, the stars aligned; everyone was able to get vaccinated, Jack’s place was still standing, and he’d even put in some improvements. Solar, a shower, tomato plants that weren’t quite ripe (but growing like crazy in that heat). The place is about two hours from our house, not including waiting on the car ferry to the island. Jack had also mowed down the field around his little shack/deck arrangement where most of the action was focused, so there were nice spots for all of us to pitch our tents.
We camped, we swam in the delta, we partied. The pictures cover that probably better than I could with a long essay about it, so I’m going to let them.
Edit to add: this was, without doubt, the healing moment I needed after 18 months of pandemic lockdown. Thanks Jack, Joseph, Austin, Benny, Hannah, Carla, Mike, Chris, and of course, Sophie, for coming together and making it happen.
Posted on 2021-07-28T02:49:59Z GMT
been a while since I did this, things started happening and they didn’t stop this time. The backog, as it stands, is at 450 pictures, maybe 7 months of shooting around. That’s a loose edit, mind; if I post half of those I’ll be surprised.
These are from a trip out to Roy’s Redwoods back in January, to hang out with Damaris and see the camera spike I made her in action. The spike is basically a 12” stainless steel rod, sharpened at one end, and with a 1/4-20 threaded hole at the other. Also, it has a handle for stepping on, to stick it in the ground. It allows a photographer to get very close to the ground very easily, especially when combined with a compact ball head. If anyone else wants one, now that I have my lathe making one is actually super easy. this one involved a really sketch setup in the drill press, and grinding the point.
There’s something about those woods in the winter, when everything is alive and moving, that is really kind of magical. I went there weekend before last with another friend (pictures TK in probably another 6 months at this rate), and it was great? a nice nature hike. Green and cool and everything you want. But during the winter, when it’s still wet, maybe even raining on you while you’re there? Magical.
Of course, part of it is the sort of “not hiking” hiking Damaris does. It’s very slow; you go a few feet, stop, set up your camera, take pictures of something else, rinse, repeat, until you get tired of it or it’s lunchtime or whatever. How to do Nothing vibes. Stopping and noticing what’s under a log. Putting it back carefully, so whoever lives there isn’t too disturbed.
The photos are once again in random order, and I can’t bring myself to care. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Posted on 2021-07-21T05:32:00Z GMT
