The Life in My Years

Lens-Artists Challenge # 388: 8000 Miles in 10 Images

Paul

March 9, 2026

How do you render over 8000 road miles down to a small handful of photos?

That’s the challenge presented by Ann-Christine. To describe a trip in 5 to 10 images.

May 2021. COVID was just barely loosening its grip, enough that people were starting to come out of hibernation. My daughter and her two children were living with my wife Cora and I. Maybe it was the stress of the pandemic along with the home confinement that started the argument between my daughter and I, that compelled me to decide, “I need to get away.” It took less than a week for me to put together an itinerary that covered sixteen states.

Cora and I packed two suitcases, a cooler, our dog Lexi, and her dog bed into a rental van and hit the road, southbound from San Francisco to pick up iconic and quirky Route 66.

Established in 1926 as the highway to get from Chicago to Southern California, Route 66 was a nearly 2500 mile long ribbon of promise for Americans looking to achieve the dream of owning their own business. For a while the dream had been fulfilled, until the 1950s when a new Interstate Highway system bypassed a number of the towns and businesses along what had been known as the Mother Road.

Grand Canyon
From Flagstaff, Arizona we took a brief detour from Route 66 to see the Grand Canyon. While the view is indescribably spectacular, my lasting memory is seeing tears of wonder in Cora’s eyes as she looked out over the rim.

The Boat, The Beach, and The Bridge. Make Up a Story.

Paul

6 comments

March 5, 2026

It was during COVID times, when the options for escaping home confinement were few and far between. Anything indoors besides home, not so sweet home, was closed. The San Francisco streets were mostly deserted, so much so that coyotes were making themselves at home downtown.

Crissy Field Beach, on the shore of San Francisco Bay was wide open. Or maybe I should say “wide” and “open.”

It was in early January, following days of rain that I staged my own breakout and went for a walk on the rain soaked beach. The day was less than idea. In one direction, Alcatraz was invisible behind a gray mask of fog. One could only assume that the Rock was in its proper place in the middle of the bay. In the other direction the Golden Gate Bridge wore a wispy gown. In normal times one might complain. In COVID times you took what you could get.

It was less a walk than alternately splashing through the little puddles and weaving around the ponds of rainwater and tidal bay water. A romping Old English Sheepdog, who had a bath in his future, seemed to be looking for the biggest puddles slosh through.

And then there was this boat. Seemed serviceable, if beaten by both time and weather. A rope tied to the bow tethered the little craft to – nothing. Looking at the boat one could make up any number of stories. Before 1963, it could have been the subject of an escape from Alcatraz story. For me it presented an interesting photo opportunity.

I returned the next day. The weather had improved enough that the bay had shaken off its shroud and a few people had taken their sailboats out. The little beached boat was still there except the rope that had tethered the boat to nothing had been cut.

So, what was the story behind the little boat?

Beats me. Make up your own.

Saturday February 28, 2026.

Paul

6 comments

March 2, 2026

In Washington Square Park the street bound are unfurling from their makeshift bedding, rubbing beards, stretching and shielding the morning sun from their eyes. Dogs are fetching balls on the green and in the shadow of St. Peter and Paul Church the Chinese matrons in colorful garb are practicing their Tai Chi.

At venerable Original Joe’s the morning crew is busy wiping down the outside tables getting ready for the Saturday crowds. Same at The Little Red Window. Same at Tony’s Pizza. Same at Mario’s Bohemian Cigar Store.

At Victoria Pastry the sun baked outdoor tables are all taken.

Liguria Bakery started selling their focaccia at 7:30. Ninety minutes later the sign on the door says, Sold Out. You don’t go to Liguria at 8 on Saturday morning expecting to bring the family a slab of rosemary-garlic focaccia unless you’re into receiving verbal flagellation, “What do you mean, they’re broke? You useless fuck. You couldn’t get your ass out of bed earlier to get in line at 7:00?”

Already approaching 70 degrees (21 C. in the civilized world) life here in San Francisco’s North Beach is good. Very good.

On the other side of the world?

Not so much.

My San Francisco: The Black and White of It

Paul

10 comments

February 25, 2026

My San Francisco is a series of posts that describes my own personal relationship with The City. My San Francisco pieces might be photo essays; they might be life stories, or they could be commentaries. My impressions aren’t always paeans to San Francisco; it’s a beautiful city, but like any beautiful city, it has its dark side and its ugly stories. These pieces will always have one common theme; they are expressions of my personal San Francisco experience.

“To some extent, the cult surrounding black-and-white photography is based on nostalgia” – René Burri

Maybe Monsieur Burri has a point. I originally shot the image below from Embarcadero Center, looking up Pine Street. In color. I sort of despised it and so it languished in the archives for ages until I started dabbling in monochrome. On a whim I edited the image into monochrome and the first thought that came to mind is that it reminded me of something that I might have seen in an ad in the San Francisco Chronicle, circa 1959. I don’t love it, but I do like the nostalgic newsy feel about it.

Maybe my attraction to noir fiction, the dark, brooding crime stories starring anti-hero, hard boiled gumshoe detectives, is also nostalgia based. And so I guess it’s only natural that I gravitate to shooting photos in alleys and darkening the mood of the images. The image below was taken in an alley near San Francisco’s Financial District.

The image below of Jaspar Street creates a far different mood in the color version, in which the buildings at the end are quite colorful in pink and green pastels.

Lens-Artists Challenge #386: The Power of Juxtaposition

Paul

18 comments

February 21, 2026

juxtaposition
noun
jux·ta·po·si·tion ˌjək-stə-pə-ˈzi-shən

: the act or an instance of placing two or more things side by side often to compare or contrast or to create an interesting effect.

This week Patti challenges us to find images that invite the viewer to weigh objects in a photo against each other.

Banner photo: The juxtaposition of colors in a mustard field near Half Moon Bay, California.

In most cities it’s not hard to find examples of old versus new. In the image below the Golden Gate Bridge looms over Civil War era, Fort Point.

Below, an 18th century gravestone in St. Matthew’s Anglican Cemetery in Quebec City, Canada sits next to diners enjoying their meals at a bistro. Old and new. Alive and, well, not so much.

Below: In Krakow I found this interesting building that combined both old and new, as well as distressed on top of renovated.

The image below, taken from California Street illustrates the juxtaposition of old (the brick building in the lower right), the new (a mid 20th century building), and the newest (the Salesforce Tower). The image also shows San Francisco’s cultural history.

My San Francisco: Year of the Horse

Paul

9 comments

February 17, 2026

Banner photo: A Chinatown shop displays horses in celebration.

Today begins the Year of the Horse. I celebrate each Lunar New Year season by visiting Chinatown in San Francisco, a place that holds many lifetime memories.

Colorful, vibrant, bustling, ever changing yet at the same time never changing Chinatown is one of my go to places for photography.

On historic old Ross Alley I found young lion dancers preparing for the festivities.

Scene on the Streets: A Nation Divided

Paul

10 comments

February 13, 2026

The signs of uncertain times.

“. . . when a people or family so divide, it never fails to be against themselves.” ~ Federalist No. 4, John Jay. November 7, 1787.

” However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion. ” ~ George Washington’s Farewell Address. September 17, 1796.

“There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.” ~ John Adams in a letter to Jonathan Jackson on October 2, 1780.

Somewhere in Southeast Oregon. “Let’s go Brandon” became a euphemism for “Fuck Joe Biden.”

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” ~ Abraham Lincoln. June 16, 1858.

“Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” asked Elizabeth Willing Powel of Benjamin Franklin, as the Constitutional Convention adjourned.

“A republic, if you can keep it,” replied Dr. Franklin. September 17, 1787.

Regardless of party or ideology, the question hangs.

Can we keep it?

Lens Artists Photo Challenge: What Astonishes You

Paul

10 comments

February 8, 2026

Banner photo: Austrian National Library Vienna. I’m astonished by man’s perpetual search for knowledge.

This week’s Lens Artist Challenge is almost limitless in possibilities. During my travels I’ve been astonished by nature’s handiwork and by the creations of man.

The natural power of water

The tranquility of water created by man

Lens Artists Photo Challenge #381: Minimalism in Black-and-White

Paul

16 comments

January 21, 2026

Every now and again a Lens Artists Challenge beckons and this most recent challenge hollered, “come on down.”

Over the past few years I’ve become so captivated by black and white or, monochrome that when I compose an image I try to image what it will look like in monochrome.

My banner photo was taken at the Südtiroler Platz-Hauptbahnhof station, in Vienna. I shot this image very early on a Sunday morning while the usual hordes of people were enjoying sleeping in.

Vienna is known for it’s grand Baroque buildings but there is some magnificent modern architecture, particularly at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. Yeah, well, the photo below was not taken there because a rent-a-cop at the university asked me not to take photos. My sense is that the architect would not be pleased with someone banning photos of his work. The building below is the OBB building across the street from Hauptbanhof station.

The tallest building in San Francisco is the much maligned Salesforce Tower. A small fraction of that building is pictured below.

Below is the once maligned and now mostly beloved TransAmerica Pyramid in San Francisco. When the Pyramid was proposed the San Francisco public was in alternate states of embarrassment and outrage. All (well, almost all) is forgiven now that it’s become an iconic part of the San Francisco skyline.

Sadr City Comes to Main Street

Paul

9 comments

January 18, 2026

“I was in cities, you know, of, you know, fifty to a hundred thousand in Iraq surrounded by insurgents. And we Marines, well trained Marines, did not act the way that they’re doing, the way they’re treating other fellow Americans right now.”

“They’re using tactics that, you know, we didn’t even use in Iraq in urban areas to basically suppress and make the people feel like they’re under attack.” ~ Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego, who deployed to Iraq with Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines.

Most Americans have seen it played out in one form or another. Whether it was in photos, news footage, or in a documentary, Americans have seen United States soldiers in tactical gear poised in front of a door in an Iraqi city. The names are etched in America’s bloody history; Baghdad (Sadr City), Ramadi, Fallujah, Mosul. One man in front, tense and primed to break down the door, his team crouched behind, weapons at the ready. The door is breached, and the soldiers burst through the entrance in a lethal dance, every move choreographed hundreds of times in training and actual combat. The inhabitants either act with deadly resistance or in overwhelmed terror. The scenes were played out over and over again, a loop of America’s endless, senseless war in Iraq. The operative word is

war.

With the dawning of 2026 a horrified nation is once again watching Americans in tactical gear, carrying long guns breaching doors and waging war. Only this time it isn’t in some obscure city in the Middle East. This time the city under siege is Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States of America. The regime calls it law enforcement but make no mistake, the operative work is

war.

on its own citizens.

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