This block of neo-gothic dormitories at Trinity College was, I discovered last week, not just the place where I spent several of my own years; it was also home to my father-in-law 40 years earlier.
Maximum Effort 2024
I recently moved into a new office with a huge, boring, blank wall totally ready for a huge, interesting, dramatic landscape. That naturally meant returning to one of my favorite land/cityscapes, this view of Oakland, Berkeley, San Francisco, and Marin from sabbatical in 2017. For an image I expect to stare at for years to come, I really pulled out the stops in terms of producing the best possible image. Click through to Flickr to zoom in and get all of the details!
The Man Relaxing in an Amsterdam House Boat
Amid the historic architecture, the riot of midsummer greenery, and the chaos of boats on the canals of Amsterdam, I appreciated the stillness and calm of the man relaxing in the window.
Chevy vs… Acura?
Though not perhaps the traditional matchup for either Chevrolet or Acura, this pair dueled through a #GRIDLIFE Touring Car race in a surprisingly even duel.
Netherlands Island
The Netherlands’ relationship with water and land is such a long and complicated one. This site, Ommermars Natuurspeeltuin (which I believe translates to “nature playground”—Dutch speakers, get in the comments!), feels like it might be prepared to cast some sort of deep, ancient magic to influence that relationship.
Connecticut’s Marine Layer
This is a sight I haven’t seen since I lived in the Bay Area: a layer of low-lying clouds caused by a temperature inversion that look remarkably like the marine layer. Though I know the origins aren’t the same in the Central Valley of Connecticut, that mix of perfectly clear sky and rolling clouds brought me back in time and made rising at dawn worth it.
Lunch on an Amsterdam Canal
I was semi-impressed to see the pigeons waiting patiently far away from this lunch-enjoyer in Amsterdam, but then I saw the green writing as his feet. While I’m sure that simple graffiti or utility markings are the true meaning of the lines, I like to imagine instead that they represent some kind of arcane invocation that protects his sandwich from avian interference.
Dutch Paradise Boating
This bucolic Dutch morning puts me most in mind of Iain M. Banks’s science fiction utopias. That may sound “out of pocket,” but allow me to explain: His far-future settings often feature people who are choosing intentionally charming but low-tech lives doing what they enjoy in beautiful settings. These boaters traveling down the Vechte feel part of the same vein. Though they live in one of the most advanced countries on Earth, they can still choose relatively simple experiences and ways of living.
Watching Drifting from a Hill
Though the drifting was spectacular, the #GRIDLIFE spectators provided some fascinating compositions of their own. Standing atop this hill by a rally-specced Porsche, the crowd looks like generals overseeing a battlefield.
Drifting Audi
This was the full width of the drifting shot I captured of this Audi—so large, so fast, so drifty that it’s exploding out of the frame. Though I was originally going to delete the shot, there’s something about the “exit stage right” energy of the unintentional crop that I can’t ignore it.
Verdant Campus Ready for Return
Students have returned to campus and summer winds to a close; our campus is so green and full of life!
Geoff Case Coaching
At CSI Ommen, Geoff Case coaches through a warm-up for the jumpers.
Leave the Excavation to the Professionals
Drifting is an activity best left to professionals, but no professional is perfect—this BMW is doing some earth moving of its own in plain view of a true earthmover.
Newly Constructed Canyon
The deep artificial canyon between the two buildings of 55 Elm is deeply shadowed as late afternoon shades into evening.
Decaseconds 