The Life in My Years

An anthology of life

This week’s Lens Artists Challenge hosted by Biasini is Communication. My first inclination was to pass. How do you photograph communication? Turns out there are countless ways. The faces of children speak to us in their innocent and genuine way. Below my grandchildren Sophia and her cousin Jackson communicate the joy of a pool day.  …

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Featured image: San Francisco’s famous Painted Ladies as seen from Alamo Square.  It’s not a difficult thing to find colorful buildings in the San Francisco Bay Area. A drive down Highway 80 from home brings me to Oakland’s Chinatown where the buildings are alive with murals.  Below the mural on a city owned building is …

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Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge for this first week of September is Commercial Buildings and Store Fronts. One of my favorite places in San Francisco is Chinatown. There are two major streets through Chinatown. Grant Ave. which I try to avoid, is where the souvenir shops peddle threadbare t-shirts, postcards and plastic Buddhas. Stockton Street is …

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This week’s Fun Foto Challenge is anything to do with boats. Happily boats and ships are favorite subjects so I have some archives to fall back on. Thank you to Cee for this week’s topic. To view her gallery and those of other contributors please follow the link  to visit Cee’s site.  Emeryville, California. The …

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This week’s Lens-Artist Photo Challenge comes from Ann-Christine who suggests that we find images with delicate colors in celebration of Spring. While sunrise and sunset often treat the viewer to brilliant, bright and vibrant views, dawn and dusk can also deliver the softest hues. Below are two views of nearby San Pablo Bay at sunset. …

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It isn’t the end of days but, as the bard Robert Zimmerman (aka Bob Dylan) wrote, The Times They Are a-Changin. I’ve published one piece about the coronavirus and have begun another but I can’t seem to keep up with the a-changin’ times. What was relevant two weeks ago is ancient history.  Hell what was …

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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. They might be a combination of some or all three. My impressions aren’t always paeans to San Francisco; it’s a …

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Ramshackle looking cafe/diners dotted the area.  Places like Susie’s, family owned and looking sketchy on the outside and maybe a little greasy on the inside offered simple fare and good service

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.  They might be a combination of some or all three.  My impressions won’t necessarily be paeans to San Francisco; it’s …

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The City doesn’t beckon us back; we simply waiver and then cave.  And so a few short months later I’d fallen in love again.  That’s how it goes.  It’s love/hate/love. 

Red is a strong, happy, optimistic color, and I like having fun with it, you know? Like, when colors clash – I love that strangeness. ~ Victoria Beckham This weeks’ Lens Artist Photo Challenge is….wait for it…. find the red. Lens Artist challenge # 81  from Patti challenges us to a scavenger hunt for red. …

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I’m ending the year with my very first photo challenge entry, Patti’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #77, Favorite Photos of 2019. There’s not much rhyme or reason to my selections. As I scroll through a year of photos I’m not looking for anything in particular; just that brief recognition that something in the image strikes me. …

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I was feeding the parking meter at the corner of Spear and Howard Streets in San Francisco’s south of Market area when Cora pointed up at one of the many high rise buildings going up in the area. “Look at that building.” Following her finger I gazed up at a strange twisted tower. It looked …

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It’s the thirtieth day of November. We’re on the back side of autumn and moving headlong into winter. I could just as easily have phrased it as being on the home stretch but that assumes something pleasant at the end, a finish line, a goal. Autumn doesn’t captivate me like it does others. I find …

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It’s chilly today. Let me qualify that, it’s in the low 50’s, which for me is chilly. I realize that I’ll get no sympathy from those who are bundling up to go out in the snow. When I took a trip to the San Francisco Botanical Garden it was an unseasonably hot day. The Giants …

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Friday Fotos took a week off and is feeling very refreshed. This week FF decided to dig into the archives to come up with a medley of images from the past. Green Apple Books In the heart of San Francisco’s bustling, eclectic Clement Street on the city’s western end is Green Apple Books, a venerable, …

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On a winter night in the 1970’s, Ross Alley was a dark, dank place pocked with ruts and potholes filled with rainwater that reflected the few dim lights in its close confines. Here the bustle of Chinatown was muted

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.  They might be a combination of some or all three.  My impressions won’t necessarily be paeans to San Francisco; it’s …

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