I'm Waiting...

Birds are smart !!!

Mothers and Daughters

Sitting in my car, this pair walked by.  The little girl wanted to be in her mom's arms.  She picked up the girl and walked on.  They weren't looking at anything in particular.  Just the looks on their faces - a look of contentment and happiness can make your day.

A Hair Tale...

There's a TV Commercial for the US Postal Service - "...all this stuff to make coffee".  That thought came to my mind when I saw all this stuff on my hairdresser's work table.  Just thought the colors and shapes were interesting.

A Touch of Sinatra...

The hat, a man's wrist watch and bracelet.  Just seems to work well with her.

Frosty's Going Fishin'...

You too...

Work with steaming crabs long enough and you too can have a bright orange thumb.

Special...

This beats any high tech do dad that I could have received or bought.  It falls in line with my thing about simple pleasures.  Easily tops one of most thoughtful presents ever !

Merry Christmas...

Serious...

Simple, right to the point and looks damn serious.  Book covers no longer has the sense of quality about them.  Today's books have the look of a billboard.  Granted - to stand out from the rest.... but just like album covers, a certain amount of care, craftsmanship, art and professionalism once was the name of the game.

Memory Lane...

The iconic yellow bag with the red letters.  Bring up Tower Records in a conversation and you hear stories about how a portion of their lives were spent in the stores.  There was a time where stores closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years.  Tower was always open and typically were jammed pack.  It was a place to take a date when you were just killing time together.  It was a place of wonder, excitement, adventures, etc...  It was more than just a store - 234 stores in 9 countries and millions of people experienced it.

Vapor...

Books and a Rant...

Technology is wonderful.  A whole world of knowledge is available at your fingertips.
Hell, I love the amazing things technology can do.

However, there's nothing more satsifying than getting information from a book.

We have too many people caught up in the technological gee-wiz and are quickly becoming slaves and idiots to machines.  Anyone remember how to use a card catalog in a library?

For the younger viewers.... a card catalog is like a search function on the web.  It's used to find information in a library.  A library is a building that housed books and other....

Do yourself and your kids a favor.  Take that stupid electronic device away from them once in a while and teach them to use their brain.  You can teach a Monkey or Pavlov's Dog how to interact with a machine.  Being good at using a machine is NO indication of inteligence.

If you want to be seen...

You certainly aren't going to miss seeing him on a bike.  I would give him the nickname Starbucks.

Always discovering...

A bit different posting tonight.  

Earlier in the week, a friend asked me to take a few shots for him.  Not the shots below.  One beautiful thing about doing something that you have interest or love is that you will push yourself to learn, discover or re-learn things related to your interest.

Smaller sensor camera tend to have the inability to produce wonderful bokeh (shallow depth of field).

Thus, I wanted to try some stuff and here's the results.  

 Shot with the Polaroid 110a.  Wanted to see how it would handle depth of field.  Verdict... OK.  It's a Polaroid.  At least a rangefinder Polaroid.

Shot with the Nikon D3S and a 50mm 1.4G.
Verdict - much better.  Full frame sensor.  Still the best "Swiss Army Knife" when it comes to cameras.  As long as your body can handle it.

Shot with the Olympus OMD and 20mm (40mm equiv) f/1.7
Verdict - not much bokeh here.  It's a small wide angle lens.  Crisp, clean and nice but not much on the subject isolation.

Shot with the Olympus OMD and 45mm f/1.8
Verdict - much better, no wonder this lens is good

Shot with the Olympus OMD and 75mm f/1.8
Verdict - I love this lens !!

So... what did I learn?
The bigger sensor does make a difference when it comes to getting a bokeh and shallow depth of field.

Zoom lenses are wonderful - no wonder the favorite portrait lenses are typically long focal ranges (85mm+)

Make up any lack of shallow depth of field with focal range OR just shoot with larger sensor cameras.  Nikon, make me a pro body full frame DSLR with the 24 megapixel sensor, high ISO and 9fps.

End of discovery.

Happy Holidays...

Taking a break...

Just playing with the new lens from a distance.

STUPID !!!

It's cold, wet and tons of bad drivers on the road.  This moron, with his macho extended cab pickup, which was empty, put his dog in the bed.  This jerk get's the STUPID AWARD of the day !

I've got my eyes on you...

Wait... I hear voices

The one thing you can't say about Giants pitcher Brian Wilson is that he's not unique.

The Sidewalks are paved with gold...

Perhaps that myth our ancestors were told wasn't exactly a lie.

What the???

Sun fighting with Clouds...

Geometry...

All those wonderful shapes and textures.  Take each item and make it a math problem.  At least math would be fun.

Falling Water...

I Hear Music...

Either making it yourself OR through your earphones.

How fitting...

Right across the street from Old Saint Mary's Church in San Francisco.

A Bowl of Fruit...

Everyone... with the holidays among us and with temptation everywhere - which I am guility of pushing and consuming - try to take time an enjoy some healthy foods too!

Goat Story...

My hillside was full of goats this afternoon.  The city finally got smart and instead of fighting fires on this hill every year... make some goats happy with a lot of ground to feed on.

Same shot but with the new 75mm (150mm equiv.) f/1.8 M.Zuiko

Line Up...

Nice and Neat rows ready for next season.

Not Natural...

100% Made by Humans

Smoochin'...

Ah... to be young and in love.

A Dirt Road...

Trees to my left... Vineyard to my right... a path down the center.

Eyes of the Crusher...

Wonderful statue of the Grape Crusher in Napa Valley.

Forgotten...

Sad that this bunch may not make it to a bottle.  It's cells will help nurture mother earth and the next generation of grapes will inherit.

Left Behind...

The harvest almost over, this bunch was left behind.  Perhaps to someday help the next harvest.

Colors...

The days grow short.  The nights are longer.  The Autumn Leaves.

Earth tones...

Vineyards...

Recently harvested for some future vintage.  Isn't nature wonderful !

Looking out...

... at the world around her.

Parade Fun...

More from the World Series Celebration parade.  People having fun and being very friendly.

Police Academy...

Remember that scene in the movie Police Academy where the cadets were brought in for crowd control.  Here are the real ones.  Where's Mahoney??

Tell me again?

"... where's that person I'm suppose to slay?"

Shooter...

A Man and a Woman...

A caption anyone?

Sleep Walker...