I got nuthin'

I knew I would finally get to this point, where I couldn't think of a single thing to blog about.  At the risk of sounding repetitive, the only thing going on in my life right now is my final paper for grad school.  It is consuming my waking and sleeping thoughts, to the point where I've become totally boring because I can't think or talk about anything else.  On the positive side, my dear husband, who is also getting his Master's degree this month, has planned a getaway for us this weekend which I have rented a fabulous new lens for and which I am going to try to enjoy as much as possible, even though it means I probably won't get much sleep for the rest of the weekend.  Wish me luck!!

Little cat feet

One of my favorite poems is almost not a poem at all.  Carl Sandburg wrote it in 1913 and included it in a collection that he called "Chicago Poems".  It's one of the first poems that I learned and has always made me think of San Francisco with warmth and love, even though the fog itself can be cold and wet.

The fog comes in
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

Wednesday reflections

Every Sunday morning we have this routine.  We go somewhere for breakfast, then we gas up the car, then we go to the supermarket.  Pandora, who usually loves to get out and do things and go places, dislikes the supermarket intensely because the floors are very slippery and she has trouble keeping her legs under her.  Not the best situation for a guide dog.  I took this a couple of weeks ago when I was waiting to pick up a couple of lattes from Peet's.  I was scanning the bakery case for Cake Wrecks (you know, just in case!) and I happened to turn around and there she was, sprawled out on the floor and looking very unhappy!  She's a little braver about it now, but secretly I think she wishes she could just stay in the car.

Is it, can it be spring yet?

If there's one thing I really love to do, it's go for walks around a neighborhood and see what kind of photos I can get.  When the weather's not good, I like to go to the store and get a bunch of flowers to practice on.  I did that the other day and came up with this one.  Totally not what I had in mind, but I love it so much, I had a canvas made of it.

Here's the original

And here's how the canvas came out

I'm pretty excited about how it came out, since it's the first photo I've tried to enlarge beyond 8x10.  Now I just have to figure out where to hang it.  



Monday, Monday

"Can't trust that day
Monday, Monday, sometimes it just turns out that way"

It's another grey, gloomy, rainy Monday here in the City by the Bay, so I went back into the archives to find a skywatch photo from a much prettier day.  Sometimes the clouds over Park Street are just wonderful.

Happy Easter!

Easter Sunday has always marked the real beginning of Spring for me, maybe because I grew up in New York State, and Easter was the first holiday of the year that was celebrated with spring-like things, like flowers and pastel colored eggs.  My mom always did Easter baskets for us, and we would color eggs every year.  Mom used to poke little holes in the top and bottom of the egg and blow out all the white and the yolk.  Then she would color it, thread a pipe cleaner through the hole at the top, and hang it on a branch that she had brought in from the yard.  Maybe some day I'll do that too.

Happy Easter, everyone!

Procrastinating...

I would love to be doing almost anything other than writing my case study but since that's the top priority right now, I guess I'll have to post and run.  Today is Saturday, the day set aside for local colors and flavors.  Yesterday, I walked to my dentist's office and back and I think I got some cute shots along the way.  I love Alameda!

Happy Friday!

It's finally the weekend (almost).  I'm stuck inside writing my final paper for grad school but I walked to and from my dentist appointment this morning and got a few shots along the way.  Now I'm stuck inside for the rest of the weekend.  Hope y'all have fun!

I love cats!

We have two young cats, Crockett and Toby, who are constantly following each other around.  Crockett, the orange one, is about two, we think, and Toby, the black and white one, is about 11 months.  Toby was a feral kitten who was rescued from the streets of Oakland by a dear friend of mine who fostered him and socialized him for a couple of months.  When it came time to find him a forever home, she called us, because she knew that Toby and Crockett would become great friends.  And so they have.

Shadows

Most good photographers say, don't shoot in bright sunlight, it's too harsh, the contrasts are too great, you won't be able to get the light balanced just right.  I completely agree with that except for one thing: I love shadows.  I love the patterns they make on the walls or the streets or the sidewalks and I love the different shades you get depending on how far away the subject is from where the shadow is being cast.  That said, here are a couple of my favorite shadow shots from our December trip to Mazatlan.  Which by the way is where I wish I was right now.

Ready for Spring?

I have a lot of online friends who live in the Midwest and back East and I know they're all sick of the snow and waiting for spring to come.  Out here, spring supposedly comes when it stops raining, so I guess the weather's been teasing us for what, two months now?  Anyway, here are a couple of my favorite harbingers of spring.

Two in a row!

We've had some freakishly weird weather in the Bay Area in the last couple of weeks.  Rain, hail, and even some snow.  I caught this at lunchtime last week. It didn't last long, but it was lovely while it was here.

Two months later....

Okay, now that grad school is "almost" over (yee-ha!!), it's time to get this blog on the road.  I've been collecting photographs from all over the Bay Area since January, and I really want to use this blog to showcase some of what I've learned.  So, with a nod to Lily Hydrangea, the Long Island (NY) Daily Photographer, here's my plan for the rest of the year and maybe beyond.

Mondays - skywatch
Tuesdays - flora
Wednesdays - shadows and reflections
Thursdays - fauna
Fridays - colors of the rainbow
Saturdays - local colors and flavors
Sundays - whatever I feel like

So, since today is Sunday and I can post whatever I want, I choose a self-portrait of sorts, with a little help from our own Pandora, the wonder guide dog.  Enjoy!