Sometimes I forget how awesome real ocean surf is.
Author: emceehammr
Chemical Researcher in East Tennessee.
Ocean Sunset
Captured at the same beach as the shot posted earlier this week though from a slightly different perspective this time. Here you can get a better look at the waterway connecting with the ocean. I think that the steep bank above the waterway creates a cool looking effect, distorting the sense of scale.
Succulents
Succulent plants, like the rather sizeable one pictured here (I believe it is some sort of agave? I’m no botanist), abound in suburban Berkeley. Sometimes they even compete with passersby for sidewalk space, as is the case for this ones’ partner (not pictured) and evidently, based on the evidence of pruning, this one in the not too distant past. They sort of look alien in the otherwise temperate-appearing trappings of the bay area (the previously mentioned palm trees aside).
Wonderfully Detailed House
In Berkeley there are some truly spectacular houses. This one is just up the street from my apartment, and has always caught my eye, mostly because it sticks out like a sore thumb, being flanked by sort of bland apartment buildings. With the coloring and the detailing over the front porch this house always reminds me of a flowering thistle or a flowering artichoke.
Evergreen
If my last post represented what I find foreign about Berkeley today’s post represents what I find comforting and familiar. UC Berkeley’s campus is full of beautiful evergreens like these, with the result that large portions of the campus remind me a lot of my home in the PNW.
Berkeley: Tropical Paradise?
Growing up in the good ol’ PNW I didn’t see many palm trees except on TV and in Movies so it was a little weird for me when I suddenly found myself in a place where they were landscaping staples (though I suppose not as much as they are in southern California). Whenever I see a palm tree (like this one in downtown Berkeley) it tends to remind me how tropical it ISN’T in the bay area, as if these trees which I associate with warm beaches are mocking me.
Larrabee State Park
While I’m on a nostalgia kick, here’s a shot from Larrabee State Park just outside Bellingham. In the north cascades and their foothills has got to be my favorite place to be.
Bellingham Bay
This photo pretty much sums up what I like about Bellingham, WA and Western Washington University.
Ship leaving through the Golden Gate
Another in the series of shots of the Golden Gate Bridge, I wanted to capture this ship leaving the San Francisco bay. I was only marginally successful but I am pleased with the sense of motion captured, if nothing else.
Calf
The previously featured Robert Sibley Regional Volcanic Preserve is apparently home to a small herd of cattle. This came as some surprise to us while were having a stroll through the park when we came upon a small pen filled with cattle and their calves, including this one who came around to figure out what we were all about.
Duck Pond
Another shot from Robert Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve, there was a small pond up on a hill overlooking some pastures and the freeway running through the east bay hills. Though they seemed reluctant to be caught on camera there were actually a pair of ducks swimming around this small, overgrown pond.
Early bloomers
Compared to my home in the Pacific Northwest things bloom mighty early here in California. These magnolias (I think?) caught my eye on a stroll through campus and so I thought I would capture a couple of the early bloomers.
Purple Shrub
This shot is amazing if only because I was able to combine three exposures of this plant taken on a day with intermittent gusts of wind which have the effect of blowing flowers like these around, typically foiling any attempt at blending multiple exposures.
Yellow Shrub
This shot comes from Robert Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve.
Maintenance Building Detail
This shot comes again from the Maintenance Building over the Caldecott Tunnel. It was a gray day and the building is all gray so I decided to play with some HDR in black and white.
Decaseconds 