A rose garden and a beach.

Last Saturday I went to the Berkeley Rose Garden. There are so many gardens in the world, it's easy to get your hopes up only to have them dashed by, say, a random proliferation of local leaf plants that all pretty much look the same.

Not so with Berkeley's rose garden. It is built in an open coliseum shape and instead of rows of people, it is rows and rows of the most gorgeous roses of what must be every variety known to man. The ones I visited were bred specially for Mother's Day, so it was important to get out there to see them before they passed on.

Anyway, these are immediately some of my favorite flower photos ever. (There are a lot, but stay tuned for the beach below!)

























Let me tell you a little something about Ocean Beach.

First, it took over two hours to get there. It is along the coast of San Francisco, and all I had to do was take the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) to Embarcadero Street, and then hop on the underground Muni line (N Judah) and sail on toward the beach.

Well, first there was a massive backup on the Muni track which delayed everyone for at least half an hour - that's how long I stood there, at least. Then the pleasant four stops and then smooth sailing to the beach detailed on the bus maps is a LIE. The bus must have stopped at every street corner. Which meant like forty stops.

Then when I got to the beach, I was prepared for it to be chilly. But not for the wind. No. Not for the wind.

I keep drawing comparisons in my mind to some lifeless planet thousands of light years away, where all of the beaches are super cold and the wind is gale-force and never, EVER stops. That, my friends, is Ocean Beach.

I was there for the sunset (even though, alas, there were no clouds). I had bought a beach blanket beforehand, all happily, and couldn't even use it because the wind would have taken it five miles down the beach in about 0.78 seconds. I brought my tripod - not fun on a over-packed bus! - and didn't even use it. Couldn't take my mind off of the awful, awful conditions long enough to care about using it.

Then you add the sea spray and sand that is whipped up by these tropical storm-force winds. Looking back toward the dunes, there was literally a pale beige haze. My glasses were obviously ridiculous. I had to hide my camera in my jacket to keep the lenses relatively clear. And when I gave up sitting on the hard-packed sand, I just stood, facing away from the ocean and the huge, unforgiving sun, and just meditated the time away. I finally left at eight o'clock.





But you can't tell any of that from the photos.

Next stop - the number one national park in the country!!

California, here I am.

Don't hate me, but I've been here for almost a week. Just now posting. Okay, go ahead. Throw those tomatoes.

If there's one thing I can say about myself as a person, it's that I'm pretty fearless when it comes to going it alone during travel. The day after I arrived in Berkeley, I took a short day trip to Mill Valley, CA to visit the giant redwoods in the John Muir Woods, a national monument. (Think of it as a state park, Teddy Roosevelt style) It also helps to have a good GPS system, too, so you spend less time craning your neck and saying, "Oh, that was Algonquin Way."

As you probably know, giant redwoods are the largest living things, so much that I honestly think their name should be capitalized. They are the trees that three our four people linked togehter (or more) couldn't hug, and they create an amazing canopy of leaves that fosters the growth of shade-loving plants along the forest floor such as redwood sorrel, moss, and sword ferns. Redwood Creek runs through the woods, almost bisecting it, and when I was there Sunday the water was a nice medium between a gush and a trickle.

Okay, enough about all that. The photos.











The next day, I learned how to use the Bay Area's transit and streetcar system and got myself (in the sad, steady rain) to Aquarium of the Bay at Pier 39 in San Francisco. What's the big attraction there, you ask? Hmm, not the touch pools...not the sharks....no, it's --

The jellies.









They are truly some of the most fascinating creatures in the entire ocean; I also think anemones are fascinating and of course there are many other strange and confounding creatures in the deep. BUT, just to watch the jellies float and flow, wondering what their purpose is beyond survival and the food chain, it keeps you glued to them for a long time.

The Aquarium has a long tube as well, although it is harder to photograph through its warped glass, so not much to show from that. However, an enormous school of fish - tuna or sardines or something - formed right above me at one point and created the most phenomenal swirling vortex; I got it on video, but it was extremely difficult to photograph. Maybe one day I'll learn how to post a video, because I'm telling you, it was just about a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Well, I'm here for two more weeks! Which means lots more photos to come. =)

Silence.

So, wow, I haven't posted in a while! A friend very gently pointed that out to me, LOL. Well, I've been busy working (pretty much every day) and getting ready to spend almost a month on the West Coast. The good news is I'll have lots of new photos to talk about, and of course if you click on my Flickr photostream link on the right you can get quicker visual updates on the places I've been.

In the meantime, I should probably finish posting photos from Texas....

Forest Park.

Yesterday there was actually a break in the rain, and my friend was in town and had her camera, so we went to Forest Park and took some pictures. Forest Park is a big place and it is mostly just greenery - no gardens or anything, so I always wondered why people wanted to photograph there...but, if you look in unusual places, you can find things.









About the raindrops shot - I've talked about the "macro" setting on most cameras (symbolized by a flower), which lets you get pretty close to things but doesn't, obviously, function as well as a specific macro lens. But if you want to simulate a macro shot, just make sure that you get as close as you can focus, and that the picture has very good clarity (as clear as you can get it, which is made easier with a tripod, which I didn't have on me yesterday). That way you will be able to crop the photo and sharpen it in post-processing.

When you do major cropping like this, it drastically reduces the size of the file, meaning you won't ever be able to make good quality large prints, but it's still something that's nice to know how to do while you're waiting on the money to actually purchase a macro lens. :-)

A blackout, a freakout, and the zoo (again).

My laptop is temporarily out of commission as, due to manufacturer error, the screen has gone dark. Everything works fine...just can't see anything. So I'm posting this on a little netbook borrowed from my dad. Can't tell you how nice it will be to know, in a couple of days, that my photo editing resources are once again accessible!

Also, I'm thisclose to booking a flight to....Oakland, California! (Paid for, obviously, you know I'm broke) The lady who currently employs me wants me to help out with her archives that are two thousand miles away, so yes, it is highly possible that one day soon, this blog will be classed up with dreamy photographs of the beach and the Golden Gate Bridge. (Or whatever it's called. You know. The one in San Francisco) Eeek!

Lastly, yes, I went to the zoo again last week. But this time there were beautiful leaves on the trees and the temperature was a marvelously perfect 68 degrees. Hardly a trace of wind, either. Lovely, lovely day to be there (especially with kids in school!).

So sit back and enjoy the view. I think I'm getting better at this. Oh, and if you're tired of the animals, hold on to the end - the zoo also had....tulips!!

So, is there such as thing as animal portraiture? If so, I think I'd like to do that.









Of course, I could catch you in a bad way.



That will never fail to make me laugh. Moving on!







(He's alive, I promise)

I still need someone to explain the turkeys (?) let loose to wander.



I caught the tigers in stalking mode.



And, as promised, the gorgeous tulips.









It was a lovely, lovely day. =)

Marshall, TX.

While driving through the small town of Marshall, Texas last month, I passed by two buildings that stood side-by-side and knew immediately I had to turn around and capture them. One was condemned, the other long shuttered.







I passed so many wonderfully dilapidated buildings during my trip, but didn't have the time to stop for them like I did this. Guess I'll be building my crazy old buildings collection slowwwwly but surely.

(The "watermark" is still me, just from my side business. These were already prepared for Flickr so I didn't start from scratch)

Spring.

Spring is here. Really here. No more snow, just blues skies, cloudbursts, and blooming. Lots and lots of dogwoods blooming...









And magnolias, and orchids, and many colorful blooms of which I do not know their name. :)









Mind the ducks...

Pelican Island, which you may recall, is showing off the true beauty of the last of winter through vibrant browns and blues and whites, a perfect contrast between earth and sky.





And on the other end, spring sunsets are ablaze. (Not like our awful, boring summer sunsets)





Spring is here!

What in the world am I doing?

Worse than not posting, I've been neglectful of other blogs, and I really, really plan on getting over to them this week and doing my civic duty.

However, I have also been taking pictures and dreaming of getting them up here on the blog. I still have plenty of photos from the trip to post, but first, I'm planning an extravaganza - an ode to spring. This is the snowiest winter I can remember, and we are all soooo ready for greenery and tree blossoms and birdsong and warm evenings...ahhh. I've been out and about capturing all the newness, and you will see it all here shortly! Hold your breath!