The Life in My Years

An anthology of life

“Renowned Bay Area wildlife photographer robbed of camera at gunpoint outside of Oakland park.” That was the headline of a story in the June 5th edition of The San Francisco Chronicle. I was initially made aware of this story while watching the local television news (link here). Stories of photographers getting relieved of their prized, …

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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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Cora posed the question sometime during Thanksgiving weekend. It was the never before posed query that put normalcy into doubt. “Are we getting a tree this year?” She might just as well have asked if we planned on breathing. I’d actually been asking myself the same question since the holiday season began, sometime back in …

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This week’s Lens Artists Challenge, selected by Sofia is Urban Environments (click on the link for Sofia’s take and other takes on Urban Environments). Urban environments? Well you’ve got your New York; your Boston; your Montreal; your Las Vegas; and your Los Angeles. All swell towns in their own right, and I’ve been to ‘em …

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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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Anne Sandler hosts this week’s Lens Artists Challenge and has chosen the topic, Local Vistas. I live in Hercules, California, between a range of hills (and the rest of America) to the east and San Francisco to the west. Hercules is what you might call bland suburbia. Strip malls, tract housing and a city council’s …

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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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I was browsing some interesting photo blog posts and, while I wasn’t particularly lost I did find a provocative challenge – lost. Debbye Smythe hosts the the Sunday One Word Challenge and one could get lost in all the possibilities. And so….. I hear the word lost quite often in our house. One of my …

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