HDR Photography
This past weekend we shot some photos down in Half Moon Bay on the beach, but as compelling as the beach and bay were, I really thought one of the hotels overlooking the ocean was great. Seated behind a small dune, this place reminds me of places my family used to stay as a kid on the Washington and Oregon coasts.
When I last visited Palm Desert, I found a variety of very strange things. (Some of which I’ve posted about before.) This particular lagoon stores water to keep the dust in the show rings down. I was just astonished to find it; wandering around in the desert, I saw no indication of its existence. When I saw the gorgeous turquoise of the reservoir, and the way the netting reflected off the water, I felt like I’d found an oasis.
Sometimes I forget how awesome real ocean surf is.
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.
I previously posted a narrower shot of this heavily-graffitied gun battery in the Marin Headlands. It really is incredible how much time and effort have gone into layering art on top of a concrete structure that began as so monolithic and practical. Adding in the encroaching pine needles makes for one Hell of a juxtaposition.
This weekend, Brendan and I blitzed down to Half Moon Bay (or just north of it) to catch the sunset. The beach was arched and curving from the local currents, the waves were seriously up, and I got the camera on the tripod just in time to catch today’s shot.
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).
My last trip to La Jolla, CA gave me a chance to shoot from the summit of Mt. Soledad. I’m continually astonished by the degree to which nature has been remodeled by the folks who settled California.
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.
My time at San Diego’s Westgate hotel really was delightful. As I described previously, the environs are beautifully refined by the standards of West Coast lodging. Every wall was clad in these wonderfully-texted wallpapers, and every door used (instead of a keycard) the most fascinating electronic keys. It all felt Byzantine and sophisticated and antique.
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.
Just after New Year’s Day, I had the chance to visit the beautiful Legion of Honor fine art museum in San Francisco. Though the museum itself is full of totally stunning works, perhaps the local architecture is even more stunning. The mix of natural and man-made elements in the setting feels so totally elegant.
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.
Brendan and I don’t talk much about graduate school (in part because who wants to hear us complain?), but it still has a big impact on how we view the world. Long hours in windowless lab spaces make us really appreciate how amazing it is to feel the sun on your face.
There’s a particular balcony on the seventh floor of Tan Kah Kee Hall that has a clear and unrestricted view of nearly the entire San Francisco bay, and stepping out onto that balcony after spending all day down in lab can be utterly overwhelming. I think this picture really captures that feeling of the sun on my face at the end of a long, and the incredible relief that brings.
I spent last week trapped in the San Diego convention center for the national meeting of the American Chemical Society. I say, “trapped,” not because the meeting wasn’t interesting (it was), but rather because convention centers give me precisely the feeling of being in an airport without every having the chance to actually leave. The same cheapy-modern design, the same overpriced food, and the same sense of being surrounded by other people who are just as unfamiliar with their environment as you are. It’s all a bit alienating.
Still, the “Historic” Gaslamp District (Come see the 2002 Borders building, a relic of a bygone era!) can be reasonably photogenic at sunset. The area around the convention center, much like Miami, is overfilled with palm trees that always feel a bit odd in comparison with the native plants. In spite of all that, the sun reflecting silhouettes off the polished glass facade of a building makes for a gorgeous skyline.
Decaseconds 