Berkeley is an eclectic, bizarre place to look at homes. This particular alleyway, with its Middle-Earth-esque Old-World charm, it less than a block from UCB’s campus.
Roses are, well… sort of pink
Nestled away in the hills of Berkeley is the spectacular UC Botanical Garden. It contains a truly impressive collection of plants from around the world and is host to a wide variety of other critters. It turns out to be a very nice place to spend an afternoon (and I’ll definitely have to come back, I don’t think I caught everything!) to boot! This shot is from their collection of old roses.
Civ Gradient
I often talk about the “civilization gradient:” the distance required to go from high-density urban land all the way to empty, rural space. Depending on when a given area modernized and switched from, say, horses to cars, this distance can vary drastically. In “older” parts of the US, like the east coast, the gradient was largely established by feasible distances for travel by horse. On the west coast, an area largely developed after the advent of the car, this distance is usually much longer. The best exception to this is the Bay Area, where various parks around the “lip” of the Bay’s “bowl” effectively compress the distance.
In today’s photo, the whole array of Bay Area landscape is visible: the forests and trails along the peak, the industrial buildings of Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, the quasi-sprawl of Berkeley and Emeryville, and the full urban metropolis of San Francisco at the edge of the clouds.
Grizzly Sunset
The Sun never quite cooperates, even when it’s at its loveliest. Winter means stark sunsets behind the Golden Gate Bridge or San Francisco itself; summer typically means only foggy nights. This was a rare occasion with broad cloud-wings in the upper atmosphere, but in early summer, the Sun drops behind the hills to the north.
Stumped
There are few better spots to catch a sunset from in the bay area than Grizzly Peak in the Oakland/Berkeley hills. When the sun’s going down, drive on up and stand on a stump to catch a glimpse of the show that is the evening sky.
Afternoon in (Horse) Paradise
At Gracelynd Hill, outside Santa Barbara, the late afternoon sun tickles the long grass in horse paddocks. If I were a horse, I suspect that an afternoon in the warm sun with an hillside’s worth of food would be a pretty paradisiacal place.
Dragonfly
The other day during a weekend grilling session on a beautiful day in the bay area I looked over and caught a glimpse of this super cool dragonfly chilling on a bamboo stalk. After snapping a few shots with my iPhone, I realized it wasn’t going anywhere so I grabbed my camera and tripod and grabbed some shots.
Guest Post: Ghostly Seagulls
Today’s guest post comes courtesy of Zack Mensinger.
The meetings of rivers or creeks with the ocean are high on my list of favorite things to explore. There’s so much in the meeting of those fresh and salty bodies. When that combination happens along a small beach that you can easily explore and photograph, the possibilities can be nearly endless! In this particular setting, Limekiln Creek in Big Sur meets the Pacific Ocean in a swirling mix of flowing water and waves. Watching how the waves vortex around the flowing water of the creek can be almost hypnotic. Add in the great river rocks, the changing sand, sunset backdrop, and ever-present groups of seagulls and you have a great setting for photography where the timeless nature of the earth and ocean combines with the ever-changing nature of the same setting.
Cup ‘o’ Joe
The enchanting lights and old quasi-industrial look of SOMA under the Bay Bridge capture the feel of San Francisco to me: the relationship with the bay, the sense of history-but-not-quite, and the constant crush of traffic just beneath it.
Purple Flower
The signs of spring abound.
Forest Floor
Tiny forest clearings feel like carefully decorated rooms to me: the carpet of springy fallen needles, the towering pillars of redwood trees, the edges bordered by ferns, and the minimalist furniture of moss-encrusted stumps. With the sonic environment of raindrops dripping gently through the limbs, the combination made a particularly relaxing effect.
Lit Bridge
It’s no Golden Gate Bridge, but the bay bridge lit up at night is a pretty spectacular sight with the water lit up beneath it.
Outbuilding in Red
In the dead of winter, the rocks and trees and streams of northwestern Connecticut are a textured but monotone canvas. In this photograph, I’ve only exaggerated the stark difference between the dormant surroundings and the bright red of the small barn-like structure perched at the creekside.
The Nonconformist
The sequoia trees of Muir Woods stand straight and proud (just like that Neil Young song), but not every tree is so cooperative. Leaning at a jaunty angle and encrusted with moss and wee ferns, this nonconformist of a tree doesn’t have time for any of the “straight up” nonsense.
Golden Bricks
The glorious Beaux-Arts Classical Revival style of the Hearst Memorial Mining Building stands out among the sometimes-utilitarian University of California, Berkeley. That the building was renovated in the past ten years (but in a way that leaves this lovely lobby unmolested) thrills me. From a crassly photographic perspective, however, I’m most in love with the golden bricks in lovely geometric patterns, and the complementary color of the ironwork.
Decaseconds 