Sunset – Page 17 – Decaseconds

Gathering to Watch from the Lab

2017-Dec-20 adohertyhLeave a comment

Students from Berkeley’s campus climb as high up the hill as they can to watch the sunset behind San Francisco and the Golden Gate, but the barbed wire fence of the Department of Energy National Lab makes for a cut-off point. Far on the other side is Grizzly Peak: another great view, but one without the immediacy of this particular spot. Inside the perimeter of the lab, I had the opportunity to experience a set of perspectives both scientific and literal that are beyond the scope of everyday Berkeley life.

Natural and Artificial Clouds

2017-Dec-152017-Dec-15 adohertyhLeave a comment

Behind San Francisco are clouds both natural (horizontal) and the product of human craft (the vertical spiral).

Quitting Time at the Lab

2017-Dec-13 adohertyh3 Comments

Snow covered northern New York this week, and the temperature rests in the single degrees Fahrenheit; now is an excellent time to look back at the warm eternal-summer glow of California. Particularly in contrast to the >60-hour-per-week graduate students down on campus, the “standard” workweek of staff at Berkeley Lab was a remarkably normal trend. At the end of the day, with that sunset light arriving, the workers who keep the physical plant running come outside into the evening breeze and head home.

Snakeskin Building

2017-Nov-292017-Nov-29 adohertyhLeave a comment

Though not the building’s official name, I think “snakeskin” is the correct way to describe the tile pattern on the side of this new addition to Portland’s Pearl District.

Golden Gate in Summer

2017-Nov-24 adohertyh3 Comments

I love finding the little details in epic landscapes that provide the sense of human scale and presence. (It’s a bit like a photographic “Where’s Waldo?”) In the lower center of this image, at the left edge of the Berkeley Marina, you can see light tiny lights of the restaurant where diners look out over the Bay and the sunset.

Island Gradient

2017-Nov-172017-Nov-17 adohertyhLeave a comment

There’s this perfect moment during a summer sunset in the Bay Area, as darkness falls and the flawless gradient fades through oranges to purples, when the lights haven’t quite come on yet. Marin is dark, Angel Island is silhouetted, and the world is seems to revert to an uninhabited state.

Blade Running the Port of Oakland

2017-Nov-13 adohertyhLeave a comment

The Bay Area is already the setting for numerous cyberpunk adventures (like William Gibson’s classic Virtual Light—ironically set on the now-dismantled Bay Bridge in the “future” of 2006); applying a little Blade Runner grime to the present-day Port of Oakland and the towers across the Bay seems very appropriate.

California Convertible at Midsummer

2017-Nov-102017-Nov-10 adohertyhLeave a comment

Our first snow of the year arrived last night, so I thought now was a perfect time to look back on summer nights with convertible German sports cars and Bay Area sunsets.

Summer Camp ’17

2017-Nov-03 adohertyhLeave a comment

I never went to summer camp as a child, but I have to imagine that the experience was a bit like sabbatical in the Bay Area: Warm days spent on rewarding activities in a beautiful place.

Little Lights in Strawberry Canyon

2017-Oct-23 adohertyhLeave a comment

Beyond the bustle of the East Bay at rush hour, the preserved wooded hills of Strawberry Canyon seem so quiet.

San Francisco: Texture and Geometry

2017-Oct-162017-Oct-16 adohertyhLeave a comment

Beautiful San Francisco and its changing, growing skyline are the site of some incredible sunsets. This image from earlier in the spring features a sunset of mostly naturally induced colors, but the fires threatening the Bay Area at the moment are producing a much more intense set of hues.

Skies Presage Storm

2017-Oct-11 adohertyhLeave a comment

Small-town America seems even smaller in the face of an epic sunset and the thunderstorm it presaged.

Bunker Hill and Bridge

2017-Sep-22 adohertyhLeave a comment

Two structures (ship and bridge) designed to cross water, though over very different length scales. The two-centuries-old advances in metallurgy that allow for steel production at this huge scale still amazes me.

The Old Part of Campus

2017-Sep-13 adohertyhLeave a comment

Though St. Lawrence has its share of modern buildings (including my own), it’s the old part of campus (buildings like Piskor and Sykes Halls) that best captures the Harry Potter vibe of small liberal arts colleges in the Northeast.

Guest House

2017-Sep-04 adohertyhLeave a comment

Scientists and engineers travel to Berkeley Lab from around the world to collaborate and research together. Though that’s a semi-permanent move for some (like me), it can also mean a hotel-length stay for others. In those cases, the lab has this charming guest house were visitors can rest between experiments.