Photography In Black And White

 

"The Friendship Embrace"

March 21st, 2007

San Francisco, California

"When you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in black and white, you photograph their souls."

~Ted Grant

I took this photo back in March of 2007. I haven't posted it before because, as a rule, I feel like it would be improper to steal one's moments. I do take the pictures, obviously, but usually it is for my own education about doing spontaneous photography. When I do a photo like this one, nine out of ten times I am a passenger in a car, and an opportunity will present itself. Like this one did! I have always liked this picture, because the gentleman in the photo knew I was taking the photo, and seemed quite okay with it... flattered almost!

But I never posted it until today.

I think it deserves to be seen.

Mood: Creative

~Me :)

A Photo A Day For 6 Months: Day 50~ RRC-Keys

"No one can drive us crazy unless we give them the keys."


~Doug Horton


RRC: Keys Hosted by Karen, of the blog, Outpost Mavarin






The current challenge subject for the Round Robin Photo Challenge is "KEYS." It's an ironic subject, because for the last month or so it has been a subject that has played LOUDLY for Alan and I. Keys to our cottage, keys to our cars, keys to our fence, keys keys keys. I was going to tackle this assignment by posting a little about all the different KEY situations we have found ourselves in, but at the last minute I decided to choose one situation to share. The quote above serves all the situations, and I know that someday it will all seem funny, but I am preferring not to dwell... for now.


So, how about we talk about my car Lilith...


 


We bought Lilith in late September of 2006. My old car Angelica, aka a 2001 Saturn SL1 had lived a good life, but was now ready to move on to her final resting place. Alan's car, was also tired from having served him well, so off we went to the Saturn dealership to find two new rides.


We both chose 2007 Saturn IONs. Alan chose a gold one, and I picked one in Cypress green. Well, actually, I had chosen a candy apple red one, but after further consideration finally took the green one. I love the color of my car. In the sun it is either green or gold or a combination of both when the sun hits it just right. Lilith is a confortable car, and we were both happy, until 3 weeks after my warrentie expired... and you guessed it... Lilith broke down.


The estimate was about $4000. It was two years after I bought her. She had 3 more years of car payments. And it was going to cost $4000 to get her running again. $$#@*&^! Coincidentally, Gov. Schwarzenegger had just decided to furlough state employees by taking 3 days pay out of their checks per month, and Elvis was becoming ill. It was a perfect storm of stupid. So, Alan and I made the decision to continue to make the car payments, and deal with Elvis's illness. The car is not a living, breathing thing, but my boy was.


So, though all the various ins and outs of the last few years. Alan and I are once again on an upswing. Don't get me wrong, we don't have endless piles of cash lying around, but we were able to get my car fixed, finally, about a month ago.Now, how does a key fit into all this... well... you see... Lilith ran well... for about a month, and then suddenly a couple weeks ago, the mechanism that the key fits into got stuck. We couldn't get the key out of the car. UGGGGGGGG! No worries, 2 days and $400 later, she is driving like a dream. Half waking NIGHTMARE and half SURREALIST COMEDY.

 

In that Lilith wasn't driven for 4 out of the last 6 years, she drives like a brand new car. And that's great because I always loved her, and while she might be a 2007, she is a gal with low miles. LOL. I am a happy camper. I wouldn't have wanted to get rid of her, and she should have a few more really good years left in her. She only has 30,000 miles on her, and besides, she takes me to see beautiful things like Golden Gate Park and the Monarchs in Pacific Grove. I love my car. She's my Lilith. So the key you see above... that is the key to a lot of happiness.






Although I did read not too long ago that the Saturn ION is one of the worst cars ever made. But I don't think I will dwell on it. LOL.


~Me :)

** Today's APAD Link...
JR
http://jrclinephotography.blogspot.com/2012/06/apadf6-50-51.html
 
**If you would like to see what the other Robins came up with for the challenge, just click here.

The Last Sunset Of 2007

"We will open the book: It's pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and it's first chapter is New Year's Day."

-Edith Lovejoy Pierce

This was the view this evening, from up here on Grizzly Peak Boulevard. The lights in San Francisco hadn't even come on yet, so I thought it would be the best picture I could show you of the last sunset over San Francisco for 2007. It's time to tell the year goodnight... and thank you! :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Note: Please click on the photo to see it in a larger version. :)

-OndineMonet
"The Last Sunset of 2007"
Grizzly Peak Boulevard
Berkeley, California
December 31st, 2007
5:05 PM

My Favorite Duh Moment Of 2007

"Humor is vague, runaway stuff that hisses around the fissures and crevices of the mind, like some sort of loose psychic gas."

-Jonathan Miller

2007 brought me many different kinds of moments, some poignant, some sad, some infuriating, some absurd, but thankfully, none of my many moments even can close to being as abstract and bizarre as the moment you will see in the above YouTube video. Here is my favorite "Duh" moment of 2007, as experienced by Miss Teen South Carolina, Caitlin Upton. So tell me, why do you suppose some Americans can't find the U.S.A on a world map? Ummm... could it be their tiara's are on too tight?

You can read her explanation for her answer right here.

-OndineMonet

Round Robin Challenge: Going, Going, Gone

"Don't count every hour in the day, make every hour in the day count."

-Unknown

Going Going Gone. Where has 2007 gone? LOL. When this year began, I couldn't wait for it to be over with. I was sad, and not feeling very creative, but eventually I found my way again, despite little sorrows along the way, like finding out that both Elvis and I have diabetes. Sigh. I should have known better then to try and fight the plans life makes for us without our permission, that's just what life does. I moves us ahead whether we want to go or not. All in all, when I think about 2007 on the whole, it hasn't been so bad. In fact, I think I have made my peace with the year, and I am ready, and looking forward to 2008. There are some good things coming I think... if nothing else, there is a national election to look forward to. Just that alone makes me smile. Tee Hee. Bye Bye Bush!

As a way to illustrate my year, and how it moved along through my time and creativity, I have created a round up of what I saw. Time flies whether we are having fun or not, so it's best to grab every moment of it, and save it if possible, to remind us that nothing last forever, so take nothing for granted. :) Thank you, Nancy, for submitting the awesome challenge!

January... A Little Bit Of Autumn In Winter!

February... The Queen Mary 2 As It Passed Under The Golden Gate

March... Pink Blooms In Golden Gate Park

April... Snowy Egret Wading in The Monterey Bay

May... A Dramatic Rose

June... The Beach In Pacifica

July... Mist And Painted Lady Butterflies In Half Moon Bay

August... My Favorite Rose... Love's Promise

September... The Sunset Reflects The Smoke In The Air After The California Wildfires

October... A Quiet Day Where The Ghost Of The "Blue Lady" Haunts

November... A Snowy Egret Wades Near Some Oil In The San Francisco Bay, Near Emeryville, California

December... Autumn Again Inspires Me...Even In Winter

Be sure to check out all the entries by the Round Robins. Just follow the links below. You can play along too. Just drop by the official Round Robin blog and leave us your complete information. If you can't join us this time, maybe you can sometime in the future. We will announce our next challenge this Sunday!

Linking List

Nancy... Nancy Luvs Pix
POSTED!

Steven... (sometimes) photoblog
POSTED!

Carly... Ellipsis
POSTED!

Lisa... Lisa's Chaos
POSTED!

Karen... Outpost Mavarin
POSTED!

Sandra... Strong Chemistry
POSTED!

Kim... Nekked Lizard's Adventures
POSTED!

Julie... Julie's Web Journal
POSTED!

Gattina... Keyhole Pictures
POSTED!

Janet... Fond Of Photography
POSTED!

Chrissea... Chris-seas Corner
POSTED!

Suzanne... Living... Suzanne R's Life
POSTED!

-OndineMonet
"The Watched Clock"
Lafayette, California
December 28, 2007
Late Afternoon

Watching The Tree

"People in suburbia see trees differently than foresters do. They cherish every one. It us useless to speak of the probability that a certain tree will die when the tree is in someones backyard. You are talking about a personal asset, a friend, a monument, not about board feet of lumber."

-Roger Swain

I think I have already fallen in love with this tree. It is so pretty. I found it in my new favorite haunt, Tilden Park, in the Padre picnic area. Last year I found an absolutely gorgeous tree in Cull Canyon, and I tracked it's progress through most of the winter. Autumn in California, didn't seem to end in December. The Cull Canyon tree had autumn leaves well into March. It was like autumn had somehow refused to give up. On one hand, I found it so soothing to be able to take a short drive to the canyon, and be instantly near my favorite season, especially just after the first of the year, when nothing seemed like it was going right. I went there often, to get away from my own thoughts, and to get lost in my photography. Before I knew it, spring had arrived, and the last of those autumn leaves had finally fallen.

I can't believe 2007 has moved as fast as it has, considering how January never seemed to end. I was really sad when 2007 began, and now, despite everything that has happened this year, I am feeling very nearly back to normal. Sometimes, when your heart is so broken it is in shards, you really do just need to stop looking at how long it is taking to heal, and just focus on each day just as it comes, with no expectations. Earlier this year I talked a little about how much I had hated this year, and how I wouldn't miss it when the new year comes, but now I can look back, and I see all that pain with such clarity. Like when you have cried and cried, and then when you are all cried out, and you take a deep breath, and suddenly... you just feel relieved. Yes, that is my mindset now. Relieved. Grief has 5 stages, Denial, Bargaining, Sadness, Anger, and finally... Acceptance. The nice thing about acceptance, is that it is what lasts forever, not the sadness.

My 2006 Trees

"The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity, and some see scarce see nature at ll. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself."

-William Blake, 1779, The Letters

-OndineMonet
Cull Canyon Park/Tilden Park
Castro Valley/Berkeley
Late Autumn/Early Winter 2006

My 30-Minute Rule

"The individual woman is required... a thousand times a day to choose either to accept her appointed role and thereby rescue her good disposition out of the wreckage of her self-respect, or else follow an independent line of behavior and rescue her self-respect out of the wreckage of her good disposition."

-Jeannette Rankin

For the most part I am a pretty flexible, but ever since the good old days of dating, I have had a rule that once applied to all my boyfriends, but which now applies to everyone. It's simple. If I have an appointment with you, I ask that you show up on time. If you can't be on time, because lets face it, sometimes things happen, that's fine, but in that case, I ask you to get to the meeting, or at least call me, within 30 minutes. Period. I think in the year 2007, we have enough availability to phones, that there should be no reason to be late for an appointment, without being able to at least call the other person and explain our circumstances. Sound reasonable? It's easier now, then it was in 1987, to get in touch with someone, and I think I was being reasonable back then.

So, if I am waiting for you, and you don't show up, I will leave, and go onto other things, in the hopes that you are perfectly healthy, but otherwise engaged. Gone are the days where I sit by the phone, wait in the rain, or hope on a star that someone will show up when they promise to. I expect folks to keep their promises and their word. Sometimes in life we have to compromise, but we never have to compromise ourselves. For anyone. If we set a precedent for being treated with disrespect, we should expect to be treated that way from that point after. Sigh. Sometimes stuff happens. I had an appointment to meet someone this past week, and they didn't show up... or call. So, after 30 minutes I left, and drove back across the bay, back home to Berkeley. Frazzled.

It didn't help my mood, to come home to an email that implied that the confusion was partly my fault. As it turns out, after looking up the address where we were supposed to meet in the, San Francisco Merchants Directory, I found out I was 100% correct on the directions I had provided. Sigh. Being 100% correct, doesn't happen often. I wanted to send a really immature email and say... "Here... see... YOU WERE WRONG." But really, what would that have accomplished? In the end... things would still be what they are now. A really nice opportunity left hopeless. Sometimes being right, doesn't help matters one little bit.

By the way, this was the third time this same person had messed up what time we were supposed to meet. The first time I waited by the phone for a phone conference, they didn't call when they said they would. We rescheduled. The second meeting, they said they would call at 12:00, they called 20 minutes early.Then we had this third meeting, which was supposed to be in person. Oh well, I guess they just missed the opportunity to meet and know the wonder that is me. :( It must be the year... I blame it on 2007. This simply isn't my year. Can it be over now?

You tell me. Do you have a rule, for expecting folks to be on time? Do you go about your business if they don't show up? How long do you wait for someone, if you have a set time to meet? Is it just as rude to show up early for an appointment, as it is to show up late? If someone sets a pattern with being irresponsible with time, do you grin and take it, or do you eventually say something? Opinions please.

-OndineMonet