Orchid Gallery Winter 2013

"When two friends understand each other totally, the words are soft like an orchid's perfume."

~Unknown

In yesterday's blog post I mentioned that Alan and I spent the day, earlier this week, at the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park. The conservatory is one of my favorite places to spend time, no matter what time of year we are experiencing, but I think visiting during winter is the best time. Just when all the trees, and gardens of sticks, start getting to me, I know the conservatory will be bursting with color from the gorgeous orchids they have on display. The orchids on this past visit were stunning! I couldn't possibly choose a favorite, but I do admit, the vanilla orchids inspire me to come home and whip up a little homemade vanilla ice cream. Yum. :)

Conservatory OF Flowers
Golden Gate Park
San Francisco
February 5th 2013



Ahhh... all that color is so beautiful! Spring will be here soon, and that is when Golden Gate Park really comes alive with color. Its beautiful everywhere you look! :) I have some photos of different types of flowers from different parts of the conservatory, but I will share them in a future post.

Stay Tuned!

~Mood: Happy :)

~Me :)

Prelude To A Tulip

"If flowers were boogers, I'd pick a few big ones and flick them on your grave."

~Jarod Kintz, It Occurred To Me

LOL. I love that quote and couldn't resist using it for this post. There were exactly two choices yesterday for a photo outing jaunt. Visiting Golden Gate Park, and taking advantage of the free day at the Conservatory of Flowers and the DeYoung museum, or attend one of the free Jell-O Pudding cup giveaways being offered by the Jell-0 company, to lift the spirits of 49er fans, still sad about the team losing the Super Bowl last Sunday. Guess which outing I opted for?

Hey, it's not that I don't find pudding all kinds of nifty. I do. And while I prefer rice pudding to chocolate pudding, it's not like I haven't been know to indulge from time to time. I just found the whole thing in really bad taste. First of all, we 49er fans don't need to climb into a pudding cup to ease our collective football depression. All we really need to do is to get on with the rest our lives, well the next two seasons worth anyway, and before we know it, we will be right back at September, and the beginning of the 2013-2014 football season. No pudding required. Or needed.

And second... pudding? I would have thought an Oscar Meyer hot dog giveaway would have been more appropriate? Or maybe a BBQ tri-tip sandwich, maybe a sourdough? Perhaps even just a nice, plain sourdough bread loaf? After all, we San Franciscans are known for our sourdough! But... pudding? Really? I checked different websites when I got home, and it seems the giveaway didn't away didn't go as smooth as chocolate pudding. It turned out exactly as I thought it might. I wonder whose bright idea that was?

Ho-Hum.

Anyway... on to Golden Gate Park.

Free day at the Conservatory of Flowers was wonderful as always. Amazingly lovely orchids, and a pretty great new train exhibition. It has been a couple years since I have visited the conservatory, so it was nice to be able to visit there. I have a nice collection of orchids photographs that I will be posting in the coming days, but this post is all about the small hints of spring I found dotting the park here and there. I also found some solid yellow daffodils, which always makes me smile. The yellow is so vibrant and mood lifting. It's a nice prelude to the gorgeous tulips that can be found at the Queen Wilhelmina Windmill Garden. Oh my, I can't wait!

California Poppys...







I will post the orchid gallery later this week.

Stay Tuned.

"If our destiny stems from our name, then I weep for the flower named Wilt."

~Jarod Kintz, It Occurred to Me

San Francisco Weekly (The Snitch Blog)
Loser Pudding: Jell-O Dispensaries, Ronnie Lott Given the Bums Rush

Mood: Happy :)

~Me :)

But Is It Art?

"I want to meet a guy named Art. I'd take him to a museum, hang him on the wall, criticize him, and leave."

~Jarod Kintz, I Want

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

~Ansel Adams

LOL. The other day, while creating photographic art with my camera, I accidentally took a picture of my hand. It was irritating at the time, but when I got home and uploaded my photos from that day for editing, I kinda got a laugh at how the hand shot looked. I liked the colors, and the way they were placed, so I decided to play around a bit with my editing program just to see what I could come up with, you know, in an abstract way. LOL. I deepened the colors. Turned up the contrast. Added some texture, and finally placed it in a black and white frame, and above is the end result.

I call it... "Finger Painting." LOL.

But tell me... Is it art? :)

"We have art in order not to die of the truth."

~Friedrich Nietzsche

Mood: Silly

~Me :)

Sunsets, Cell Phones And Food Poisoning Oh My

"You know, a cell phone's like a guy; if you don't plug him in every night, charge him good, you got nothing at all."

~Catherine Coulter, Tail Spin

 

Above you see the last of the early February sunset photos that I photographed from Grizzly Peak Boulevard. I think it's appropriate to post now, in that we have just seen the sun set on yet another football season. Oh my, and what a game Super Bowl XLVII was! There was winners (Ravens 34)  and losers (49ERS 31) Beyonce didn't lip sync, and no one would have noticed if she had. There was a blackout in one half of the stadium, courtesy of bad infrastructure, the hotness of Beyonce or perhaps it was... maybe... Al Gore producing the show? Nah. You know Al Gore wasn't producing the show, that was something I said off the cuff to Keith Olbermann that made him laugh. Yep, Keith Olbermann saw my tiny joke and laughed. My work on earth is done! LOL.

 

Life is funny that way sometimes.

As fun as it was to know that the awesome Keith Olbermann saw my who-ville Tweet, I actually also made contact with another awesome person, and hopefully brought a smile to her face. One of my favorite actresses from the now defunct, but about to rise like a Phoenix back to life, One Life To Live, Farah Fath, who played GiGi Morasco. It seems that she is experiencing a bout of food poisoning, and asked how long it could last. I responded that in my case it was 6 hours. Then I offered the advice of... Never eat Thanksgiving in June, or date a guy who has a serial poisoner for a mother. Honestly, a life experienced based on a true story. Well, she favorited that Tweet, and it made me feel good to think I may have brought her a grin. LOL. I like to make people smile. But just think, if I hadn't been poisoned by my boyfriend's mom, I couldn't have brought her that little grin!

 

Life is funny that way sometimes.

I have a big package coming to me later today. It's a brand new cell phone. My former cell phone is on it's last legs, after having served me well for 3 years. I loved my HTC Aria, but it was time. But I am not crying too much, as the Aria and I will remain close, as it will live on as a back-up camera and video device. I can't let go. I never could. I have found a new use for all my old cell phones. I just can't let go. Each phone has a memory attached to it. The last conversation with someone I loved dearly. A great email with a friend that I have stored in the memory. I am way too sentimental I suppose, but I come by it honestly! My birthday is June 29th, and that makes me a hopelessly romantic Cancer the Crab! What can I do, it's written in the stars!

Life is funny that way sometimes.

All Most The Cells Of My Life...
(Not including my slide phone and my basic 1998 model Nokia Archaic :)




Life is funny that way sometimes.

I like being one small tweet in the Universe. I don't need the whole world, just a camera, a really good sunset, and my sense of humor and my thumbs. That last part will make sense to anyone who was a fan of the Dick Van Dyke show. Humor... know it... use it!

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

The City Of Red And Gold... Good Luck San Francisco 49ERS!

"The reason women don't play football is because eleven of them would rather wear the same outfit in public."

~Phyllis Diller



Are we in the San Francisco Bay Area excited about the Super Bowl? YOU BET! Not only is San Francisco City Hall all dressed up in the red and gold, but so is the sky above us! It's been a long time since the 49ers have been in the Super Bowl, their last time was on January 29th 1995, when they beat the San Diego Chargers 49 - 26. That Sunday, all those years ago, is also the last time Alan and I have been able to watch the big game together! He usually works two shifts on Sunday's, so it is a real treat to be able to have him home for the game, and a little half time fun. I am a happy girl! Now, lets see if I have everything...

Chips? Check.
Dip Fixings? Check.
Cheese Tray? Check.
Hot Wings? Check.
7 Layer Dip? Check.

Yep, I have it all ready to go!

 

Go 49ers! I mean GO 49ERS!

Mood: Excited!
~Me :)

Red Sky At Night Sailor's Delight

"Dusk is just an illusion because the sun is either above the horizon or below it. And that means that day and night are linked in a way that few things are. There cannot be one without the other yet they cannot exist at the same time. How would it feel I remember wondering to be always together yet forever apart?"

~Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook

Since the beginning of the year, I have been working on photographing the stunning winter sunsets the Bay Area has been having, from as many different perspectives as possible. The view from different parks, and ridges. Sometimes I have tried to work with natural filtering, such as when I am in one of the canyons in the East Bay, and each turn throws a different small slope in front of the sunset just over the hills. All of those areas give me a wild variety of color and shadow, as each place lends it's own unique perspective, because of height, and natural filtering such as trees or slant of the road. It's a challenge, but it gives a weary photographer like me, a lot of satisfaction to work, sometimes really hard, to end the day with a sunset photo that I am proud of, and more importantly, one I will remember long after the photo is taken. I hope you will remember the sunsets as well!

Enjoy!

Sunset Gallery
February 1st, 2013
Grizzly Peak Blvd
Berkeley, California









 







"Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It's not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it's a day you've had everything to do and you've done it."

~Margaret Thatcher

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Beyond The Sea

"This afternoon knows what the morning never suspected."

~Swedish Proverb

I have become quite fond of the light between 3:00 PM and 6:00 PM. In that 3 hour window there is a lot of unique lighting opportunities. And I find that I need to put a little more thought and planning into how colors look different than they would... say... in the early morning hours. I have found that sometimes I simply can't get the end result I am looking for. Maybe because the sun is about to set, so I feel rushed. Or maybe it's simply the way the sun looks when it seems content and sleepy. It's soft and lovely, but all too often I feel like I am missing something if I devote my whole time and attention to achieving what I see as the photograph, rather than seeing, feeling, experiencing and appreciating the scene in front of me for personal reasons. I am not sure. All I know is, at the moment, I am comfortable with doing most of my photography in the afternoon, at least for now, because I am learning new things, about photography, and also about myself personally, insights which I am pretty sure don't exist during the morning hours.

When it comes to photography, I am pleased to say, I never stop learning.

Facing East...
 

Little Known Fact About Me...

I have "Beyond The Sea" by Bobby Darin on all of my play lists.

 

Mood: Reflective

~Me :)

Looking Back At January 2013

"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are"

~Anias Nin

Did it seem to you like January was NEVER GOING TO END? Or was that just me? It's not like I hate January or anything, I don't, in fact, this January afforded me a lot of time with the cameras. That is never a bad thing. It's just that the month seemed long. I don't know, it's probably that it has 31 days or something, but hey, that fact will make February with 28 days seem like a week. Right? Well, lets aim for that anyway. LOL.

As of this week, we are officially in the middle of winter, and so far is hasn't been super cold winter as winters go. I would really love to see another big blast of winter come rolling through. Something with hard driving rain, or maybe a snow flurry or two. If it doesn't happen in the first part of February, it more than likely won't happen, and I will be stuck with the days not only getting longer, but filled with depressingly bright sunshine.

Sigh. Sunshine is so common, now rain and snow, that is where shadows and and filtered lighting make things really interesting. LOL. Oh well, when I look back at what I accomplished with the camera in January, I am satisfied with what I did. You can't really ask for more than that! Right?











On To February!

:)

Mood: Encouraged

~Me

The 29th Sunset

Time is free, but it's priceless
You can't own it, but you can use it.
You can't keep it, but you can spend it.
Once you've lost it, you can never get it back.

~Harvey MacKay

Yeah, I know, it's another January sunset, but there will never be another one like this one. Every sunset is a fingerprint of the day that I had. Good, bad, or otherwise, along comes a sunset and suddenly I am distracted by the unique fleeting moments of light. It's my favorite way to live in the moment.

A January Sunset With More Sky...


A January Sunset With Less Sky...


And Now... Gin Wigmore "Don't Stop"

 

Take nothing for granted.

Mood: Calm

~Me :)