adohertyh

The Old Grid

2017-Jul-192017-Jul-19 adohertyhLeave a comment

My favorite cities are those with borders artificially constrained by water (like San Francisco, Hong Kong, or Manhattan), usually leading to towering structures and high density. San Francisco’s situation was different for a long time; a subset of NIMBY residents (alongside an array of other economic factors) meant that this grid of smaller buildings persists, in spite of housing shortages and corresponding high housing prices. As this slowly changes and the city begins to warm to the idea of new development, this uniform grid of little buildings might someday shift.

Nevada Scale, Large and Small

2017-Jul-17 adohertyh1 Comment

Great expanses of Nevada’s winter landscape look smooth and round: rolling hills and puffy clouds.

Then the landscape tucks in around the Interstate, the chunky details are more apparent. That little fence in the foreground is thoroughly dwarfed by the not-so-distant towers of rock.

Flooded Flats II

2017-Jul-14 adohertyhLeave a comment

Another image from the flooded Bonneville Salt Flats.

Fishing at Picchetti Ranch

2017-Jul-12 adohertyhLeave a comment

Hiking in the hills of Picchetti Ranch in Cupertino, views over Stevens Creek Reservoir and the Bay beyond present a classic Californian landscape. Like a postcard from the mid-twentieth century, the little shape of a kayaking fisherman in the foreground (or the people fishing at the shoreline in the background) shows an ideal Saturday afternoon.

Cloud Stripes

2017-Jul-10 adohertyhLeave a comment

Above the city are layers on layers of different air, varying in composition, temperature, and thus density. At sunset, that makes for lots of scattering and color.

Nevada Valley

2017-Jul-07 adohertyhLeave a comment

Contemplating a drive back across North America, I’m most looking forward to the West. The mildly populated areas (look at the tiny path in the distant center of the image) remind me of the best parts of Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Westerns.

Campanile Near the Solstice

2017-Jul-05 adohertyh1 Comment

With the passing of the Solstice, my sabbatical in Berkeley is coming to an end. My softly nostalgia-tinted reminiscences of the Bay Area are now doubly-glazed: the refried beans, twice-baked potatoes, or biscotti of memory. All three options sound delicious.

Flooded Flats

2017-Jul-03 adohertyhLeave a comment

So flat are the Bonneville Salt Flats that, during the winter months, the region will be covered uniformly by only about one inch of water. This layer is so thin that it can’t support large waves and surface disturbances, resulting in almost perfect reflection of the far-off hills and clouds.

Trucks in Their Respective Expanses

2017-Jun-30 adohertyhLeave a comment

Hundreds of miles apart from each other, I happened upon these two images of vehicles, paired with their owners, otherwise alone in an expanse of western America. On a clear day, the yellow pickup in the image below is almost lost in the brush.

By comparison, this Nevadan Jeep stands out amid the dusting of snow and descending clouds. Even its driver is farther away. The setting is so perfect that it might as well be a Wrangler advertisement.

Hunter

2017-Jun-28 adohertyhLeave a comment

Though English riding has much of its origin in hunts across the fields of rural estates, the sport is just as often trained indoors—particular at spacetime junctures like Salt Lake City on Christmas Eve.

Big Pile

2017-Jun-26 adohertyhLeave a comment

Look at this big hill and tiny fence. Though not its original purpose, I like to imagine that fence as an attempt to hold back the advance of the hill.

Chevrolet in Chinatown

2017-Jun-232017-Jun-22 adohertyhLeave a comment

This image resulted from the process of demonstrating color filters to my coworker. Colors, with black and white? Of course! The rich, dark sky and bright foreground in this picture result from (digitally) applying a red filter. My favorite part of that now-visible foreground is the large Chevrolet pickup, shoehorned into a parking space on a narrow San Francisco street.

Author: adohertyh