A Few Of My Favorites...

 

"You don't make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, all the books you have read, the music you have heard, and people you have loved."

~Ansel Adams

Photography means a lot to me, but I sometimes sacrifice the quality of my photos, so I can get a picture in the moment. Bird photos sometimes have to be taken, before you think about whether the opportunity will be for the art, or whether it will be to build your yearly bird list. I try really hard to bring the two together, but oh boy, there are challenges. Weather. Birds that seem to fly at the speed of sound. I am getting older, so I am having a bit of a tremor in my hands, which might be from arthritis. There are a lot of factors. But here I want to share the ones I got right, or at least, okay. There is a lot of emotion here. They reflect happiness, sadness, serenity, wonder. It has been quite a year, filled with, you know LIFE. Each year I try to get a photo good enough to enter into the Audubon Photography Contest. Hopefully, 2026 will be my year!

My Year End Favorites

Oh Hi Doggie

 

"His beard was all colors, a grove of trees in autumn, deep brown and fire-orange and wine-red, an untrimmed tangle across the lower half of his face. His cheeks were apple-red. He looked like a friend; like someone you had known all your life."

~Neil Gaiman

Fragile Things: Short Fiction And Wonders

 

It was a day. Yesterday we spent the whole day in search of birds in Bodega Bay. First, however, we were treated to the sights along the way in Napa, Sonoma and Solono counties. Just little roadside oddities and small bites of Northern California Americana. It felt nice to be back in some of my old stomping grounds. We will visit more now I think. It's best to not plan this stuff too far in advance. Just flow with the rustling leaves.

 

 

~Me

Art About Town: San Leandro... "Truth Is Beauty"

 

"Eleanor was right. She never looked nice.

 She looked like art, and art wasn't supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something."

 

~Rainbow Powell

Eleanor & Park

 

I have been wanting to photograph the beautiful piece of art, since it was installed at the San Leandro Tech Campus, way back in 2016! But, you know how 2016 went, so you understand why it was so difficult to make my way to the Bay Area to photograph any art, let alone this particular piece. Fast forward, and here we are in 2021 and things are looking up now. With the (knock wood) sale of the house, the future looks a lot brighter. I am planning on getting a car soon. If all goes well, it will be in less than a week, and there will be money this year for vacation, so hopefully I will be able to photograph as much art as I want, in as many different cities as possible. Art and birds. Those two subjects are my favorite photographic escapes. Oops, lets not forget autumn. Oh boy... I give up. There is just too much beauty in the world to actually play favorites. Right?

 

 We will see where this autumn takes us!

 

"Truth Is Art"

By Marco Cochrane

San Leandro Tech Campus

San Leandro, California

(Learn More Here)

 

Mid-Century... Vacation Motor Lodge

 "You were born to do so much more than to pay bills and die."

~Unknown

If photography has taught me anything, it's that there is life beyond the moments of despair that tend to creep into our lives. I can get lost for a little while. I love that a single moment in time, can live in so many different existences around me. In that moment, I can be in my own world photographing a gorgeous Anna's hummingbird, while a few hundred miles away someone could be checking into the Vacation Motor Lodge, in Reno Nevada. Photography is allowing me to step out of this overwhelming pain I am in right now. I need that. I need to see what might be happening today, or even a few days from now, while I am depressed, so I can see beyond it. Time is an issue, as is money to do so. There is yard photography, but I hurt my foot, so there's that. Things are tough right now, but when I can, I can lose myself in a simpler time. I just wish I could do it more often.

 

There will be leaves soon.

 

Right?

 

 

 

 ~Me

Stockton, Ca

September 6th, 2021

 

 

 

 

Roadside Ameica Attraction #1: A&W Restaurants

 

"I haven't had a very good day. I think I might still be hung over,

 and everyone's dead and my root beer's gone."

 

~Holly Black

The Coldest Girl In Coldtown

 

 

Aren't they awesome? As it turns out, I live just a hop and a skip from fast food history! In this case, A&W history! The very first A&W was opened in Lodi, California, as a roadside restaurant on June 20th 1919. And, did you know that that A&W invented the bacon cheeseburger? It's true. As it turns out, they enjoyed a lot of cool firsts! Another cool fact is that the night they opened, the entire town was partying, celebrating with a Homecoming parade, the return of local soldiers who had been serving in World War I! The very first A&W root beer was served that night at the parade. A&W has always been my favorite root beer brand, and I used to be somewhat addicted to the Mama Bear burger when I was a kid, but I never heard of, or really considered, how they got their start! I like learning the origins of products. Some have such cool backstories and origins.

Its kind of strange, my dad grew up in Lodi, but he never shared about A&W's beginnings, it's the kind of trivia he loved to share. He was only a year old when the restaurant got it's start, so perhaps it wasn't a big deal, or maybe it was one of those things one takes for granted growing up. I know there is a lot to love about Berkeley, and the East Bay in general, and I failed to photograph or share when it came to my blog. I totally took my hometown for granted, especially from a creative point of view. It's a shame I did that, so I hope to do better about featuring the cool parts about living in the San Joaquin Valley, because there is a lot here to explore. I miss dad a lot, there is so much I wish I could talk to him about, but it's the cool stuff I miss sharing with him the most.

We shared a love of politics. But things are so awful right now that I am done with that. It used to make me feel closer to him, but now it just makes every day bleed the truly awful into the next. I think he would have thrown his hands up too. He was a smart guy. He knew when things can't be fixed... you move on. Finding something cool to photograph in his hometown made me feel close to him too. He would have approved I think. And as it turns out, there is a lot out here to help me heal from the massive panic I felt over the move from the Bay Area, and I am looking forward to photographing all of it!

I found out about the A&W statues by reading the Roadside America site. If you are unfamiliar with it, it's a website that has a nice list of attractions and cool sights in each state. I have a list of places to visit in 2021, because I can do my photography, without worrying about the spread of Covid-19. I am still staying home, as directed by Governor Newsom, but when I feel the walls closing in, I have some destinations close by that don't necessitate my being in a big crowd. I have mixed feelings about it. Staying home isn't a lot to ask of us, and at the same time, getting fresh air, and some time to concentrate on something other than all the doom of a pandemic, makes it all easier to take. 

Anyway, like "Rooty", the official mascot of A&W, I have been in hibernation, but it's time to come back out of the cave. I had a ball photographing these awesome statues. They can be found at one of the franchise stores that opened up in 1963, and they are on permanent display there. Sadly, the original A&W restaurant, which was at, 13 N. Pine street, no longer exists, but there is a plaque in the cement, marking the precise spot where the restaurant once stood. I am hoping to get up to Lodi this weekend to see it. If I do, I will update this post to include it. 

Stay tuned. There is a lot more to see.

A&W's History

It All Started With A Roadside Stand...

 

Roadside America

Birthplace Of A&W Root Beer

 

 Thrillist

14 Things You Didn't Know About A&W Restaurants

 

 

 

 

Her Happiest Season

 "Autumn was her happiest season. There was an expectancy about it's sounds and shapes: the distant thunk pomp of leather and young bodies on the practice field near her house made her think of bands and cold Coca-Cola, parched peanuts and the sight of people's breath in the air. There was even something to look forward to when school started... renewals of old feuds and friendships, weeks of learning again what one half forgot in the long summer. Fall was hot... supper time with everything to eat one missed in the morning when too sleepy to enjoy it."

~Harper Lee

Go Set A Watchman

Look at that sunset. I took that photo, as the sun was setting over the Altamont Pass, at the end of a very good day. It was December 5th, a beautiful day, that had all of the gifts autumn could possibly provide. We were on our way home from the Bay Area, after a long day out, and I was tired from the day, which is a good thing, but I just had to have that sunset. Spending a day with the camera makes me happy, but spending the day with the camera, and returning home tired from it, makes me ecstatic! It means I saw beauty, and even if I only manage to refill my file only a bit, I am usually happy, because it means I took my time and really put thought into my surroundings. 

 

You would think that would be a given... right? Well, yes and no. Sometimes I just can't break through my own relentless head noise. And sometimes the ambient light looks one way in the car, and another way at curbside or even deep on the rice patties, depending on if I am photographing some curbside art, autumn leaves, or Sandhill Cranes. Photography is never the same twice. You can prep in a general sense, but I can't count the number of times I have packed all my requirement. Light meters. Tripods. Cameras. Headed for a location, only to find that I had to fight some unforeseen circumstance, be it natural or man-made. Self made catastrophes happen too, like forgetting my small wallet that contains extra SD cards. That's happened an embarrassing amount of times. That's the difference between an amateur and pro, I guess. But, even with all of the work, mental and physical, it's worth it, no matter what season we are in!

Every year I photograph somewhere between 100 and 500 autumn leaves. About 91 become, Leaves Of The Day, and the remaining are used in other projects, while some are never featured anywhere. Last year was a really difficult year for my project. I couldn't find much color during autumn, in fact most of it took place during winter of this year. It was such a difficult year I wasn't sure we would get through it, but we did, and I was glad I had saved some leaves back in case. This year was a much different story, and I have decided that beginning this year, I will share as many of the unused leaves as possible, because like the featured ones, they are what the life of the year was about. California lost so many trees in 2020, to wildfires, or drought conditions. Climate Change is affecting and diminishing the  color and life of California. It's painful to watch. I don't know what the state will look like in 10 years. It may look more like autumn in upstate New York, which would be amazing, or it could be treeless, I don't know, but one thing is for sure, the state is going through big changes, so the history of autumn 2020 means a lot to me. It is my happiest season.

The Leaves Of Autumn 2020

And Today's Featured Leaf Of The Day

#87

~Carly

Stockton, California

December 17th 2020