HDR Photography
Today’s photograph is from two years ago, and what was once my mundane walk home has now become a totally alien scene of science fiction flora and architecture. The overwhelming light of the windows and the sharp geometries imposed by noise reduction algorithms really add to the effect.
Nostalgia views the world from a distance but with specific acuity. A view from Grizzly Peak of the Berkeley Marina might look like a warm, buzzy vision of NorCal, but with my own memories I attribute specific instances and moments to every aspect of the landscape: Kites flying over Caesar Chavez Park. Stories of a ferry to San Francisco that once ran from the decaying jetty. Learning to sail on the tiny boats on the “left” side of the peninsula. Sailing from the Marina to Angel Island, crewing a professor’s 40-foot sailboat. Finding a place to live, driving up and down University Ave. from the hotel to the hills. Crossing the highway on the bicycle bridge for a long, flat, sunny ride along the shore. All of that experience is encoded into the image, but I’ll always be the only person with the key to decrypt it.
From near Mile Rock Beach in San Francisco.
Shot of Mile Rock Beach on a typical San Francisco summer day.
In Berkeley, Artichokes are grown as decorative plants and so these bright purple blooms are not an uncommon sight. Seems like a waste to me, though.
The remains of the once impressive Sutro Baths. All that stands are ruins, but it’s pretty impressive to compare what once was to the current state of the place looking out over the ocean.
Summer is the season of endless construction in Berkeley.
Statue located outside the graduate assembly on UC Berkeley’s campus.
One of the forks of Strawberry Creek running through UC Berkeley’s campus.
A statue of legendary Cal football coach Pappy Waldorf on Cal’s campus.
An example of Berkeley’s lush suburban vegetation.
Sculpture installation in the reflecting pool on the Hearst mining circle on UC Berkeley’s campus.
Berkeley, despite have very little success in the sport of football, has more than one monument to the sport. The sport as it is played at Berkeley is a little sad but the statues are pretty interesting to look at.
Yet another image from Muir Woods: when you’re faced with such beauty, how do you say something that hasn’t been said before? Maybe some pictures don’t need text accompaniment.
Berkeley is a pretty surreal place; as I process that, I thought my 400th post on Decaseconds might be a great time to really show it. The yellows of the birch tree are so sharp on a foggy fall morning, amid the hard, stained concrete of the past and the high-tech Li Ka Shing Building (one of my first-ever posts) materials. Visual contrast, both literal and metaphorical, align with the conceptual contrast of a place that prides itself on being countercultural while also being the birthplace of many of the technologies and ideas that make our modern culture possible.
Decaseconds 