The Life in My Years

An anthology of life

This week, Anne, author of the site, Slow Shutter Speed is leading the Lens Artists Photo Challenge with the topic, Monochrome. Love it. For most of my photographic life, I’ve stuck with color photography. Why black and white when you can see life and things as they are. Oh, what a fool I was. A …

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Suburbia. But for a few short years of life in San Francisco, I’ve lived in its suburbs for most of my life. That’s where I still live and will probably remain until I’m planted. The city? People love it or hate it. The country? It’s either Shangri-la or backwards, antiquated, and too conservative. Suburbia? What …

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Banner photo: Shipshewana, Indiana Dan, author of the site, Departing in Five Minutes, leads this week’s Lens Artists Challenge, and he’s selected the topic, Unbound: Escaping Your Confines And Seeing The World. Once again, I’m combining the Lens Artist Challenge with my Monthly Monochrome series. Dan writes, “From a day trip to a road trip …

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If I were asked to describe the face of Spain in two words I would offer, “joyful,” and “lighthearted.” During three weeks of traveling throughout the country, whether it was in the metropolis of Barcelona or stopping for an hour in little Plasencia, I rarely saw anger or gloom or pessimism. Okay, sure, there was …

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Anne, of Slow Shutter Speed may have been reading my mind when she came up with this week’s topic for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. For months I’ve been rat holing my photos of buildings, all the while meaning to incorporate them into a Monthly Monochrome post. This week, Anne chose the topic — Buildings. Maybe …

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This week John, of Journeys with Johnbo, leads the Lens Artists Photo Challenge with his topic, The Road Most Often Taken. John is speaking metaphorically. He writes, “I want you to think of your favorite type or style of photography as the road you’ve chosen to take most often.” Quite honestly I’ve been all over …

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Posted in concert with this week’s Lens-Artists Challenge. The subject for this week’s Lens Artist Challenge is “Alone Time.” Host, Ann-Christine, begins her piece, “Alone time means time spent by an individual or a couple apart from others.” Some people choose nature to find their alone time. I do. Some take a drive. I’ve certainly …

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Being October, and being that Halloween is less than two weeks away, it’s only appropriate to add another graveyard episode to the Monthly Monochrome series (for the previous charnel chapter click this link). As I indicated in my previous graveyard post, a graveyard can be a cemetery, but a cemetery can’t be a graveyard until …

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“Sign, sign Everywhere a sign Blockin’ out the scenery Breakin’ my mind Do this, don’t do that Can’t you read the sign?” Songwriter: Les Emmerson Released in 1970 by The Five Man Electrical Band. The Monthly Monochrome for August celebrates the sign, one of the most excellent of photo subjects. Why such high praise for …

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Banner photo. The Downtown skyline taken from The Embarcadero. If you ever have the opportunity to ramble the city sidewalks (assuming you have a city that’s handy ), look around you. No, not for muggers. Okay, yeah always keep an eye out for sketchy fellow citizens, but also keep your eyes open for the varied …

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I almost never visit a cemetery, but I can’t pass up a forsaken, decaying old graveyard or boneyard. What’s the difference you ask? Three different words that all seemingly mean the same thing. Merriam-Webster defines them all succinctly as “a burial ground.” That’s far too simple. A graveyard can be a cemetery, but a cemetery …

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Monthly Monochrome: Reviving a once a month short venture into the world of monochrome photography. (Tragic events in mid-May superseded publication of this piece) When we think of monochrome, what first comes to mind? Black and white – of course. Stands to reason since that’s what we usually see represented as monochrome. Monochrome can actually …

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The fish house The carcass of the Nantucket Restaurant lies at water’s edge on the northwest corner of Crockett. The Nantucket was a local seafood joint, one of those simple, honest, unpretentious places that offered an easy atmosphere, neighborly service and a good meal at a fair price.  The best thing on the menu was …

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Crockett, California (known to locals as Sugar City) can be a hard place to figure. At a glance you might take it for a Rust Belt community of the Midwest, sitting on the shore of one of America’s great rivers. There’s a factory, the big old brick C&H Sugar refinery that sits on the edge …

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Fort Point is one of San Francisco’s often overlooked jewels. Built between 1853 and 1861 to guard the inlet to San Francisco Bay, the fort, surrounded by water on three sides, rests on the southern shore of the Golden Gate. While it is a historic fort, one doesn’t have to be a history buff to …

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Anyone who’s visited San Francisco, since 1972 has seen the Transamerica Pyramid, one of The City’s most iconic structures. I was in my teens when the building design was unveiled and quickly met with derision from the media and from public officials. It was criticized as something that would be more appropriate on the Las …

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The Bay Area awoke to a New Year that was bright, beautiful, crisp and clean. We took a walk at Crissy Field where the Golden Gate Bridge is in full view. During our walk we came upon a beached boat with no apparent owner besides nature to do it’s inevitable work. I took a few …

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