Category: Leica

Photo by Joe WilcoxMar 3, 20228:49 pm

How About ‘U’ for Unaffordable

Hours following a routine visit to the ophthalmologist and dilation, my pupils are still huge and so my vision remains wonky. I can’t imagine what the Featured Image really looks like. Perhaps you can tell me. I stood in the middle of Park Blvd and used Leica Q2 to make the moment on Feb. 23, 2022. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/640 sec, 28mm; 9:30 a.m. PST.

The sign is situated between Adams and Madison, and viewpoint is towards the latter. Around the turn of the last century, Bentley Ostrich Farm relocated to the district—hence the birds on the poles. During the same era, street cars served the community, and some of them were housed and serviced in a facility that is long gone but became the public Old Trolley Barn Park.

Photo by Joe WilcoxMar 1, 20229:30 pm

Stump Sculpture

I vaguely remember when, a few years ago, one of my neighbors created this lawn art over the course of several days. Chainsaw comes to mind as main tool, but my recollection is sketchy. Until shooting the Featured Image, though, I didn’t understand that a massive, magnificent tree reached skyward several stories above the roof. Google Street View reveals what was.

The stump sculpture has aged quite nicely, baked in the San Diego sun.

Photo by Joe WilcoxFeb 28, 202211:44 pm

Strike That: Nine More Class Days to Freedom

Is the timing deliberate or coincidental? March 11 will be the last day that California school students ~~will~~ may be required to wear face masks. On that date two years earlier, the World Health Organization declared SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)/COVID-19 a pandemic. Shall we just call the crisis over, with lifting of the order that compels kids to cover up?

Update, next day: On the morning news, officials from the San Diego school district held firm to masks—meaning students and staff will be compelled to continue wearing them. Reasoning: True that the governor has relaxed rules, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers the county to be high risk and the organization’s guidance supersedes that from the state.

Photo by Joe WilcoxFeb 26, 20229:32 pm

Amazing Grace

While walking along Oregon Street in North Park today, my wife and I unexpectedly came upon free food distribution outside Grace Church. Most of the gathered recipients were elderly, and they are a population often hiding in plain sight. There are many somewhat unkempt houses scattered about this San Diego neighborhood and those adjacent. Within may live someone older, or retired, who owns the property but lives on meager fixed-income in an area with rapidly rising cost of living.

Homeownership isn’t wealthiness if you are aged, attached to where you live (meaning not wanting to move), but barely able to manage ongoing expenses, which could include food. Tell you this: I saw no heavyweights waiting in line. This was a lean lot.

Photo by Joe WilcoxFeb 22, 20229:51 pm

Desolation Boulevard

Roaming The Boulevard, carrying Leica Q2 Monochrom, on Super Bowl Sunday, I stopped to take photos of brewery patrons and Red Fox Restaurant. But I botched the street shot of El Cajon and Texas, which attempted salvage is the close-cropped Featured Image. Vitals, aperture and shutter speed manually set: f/2, ISO 2000, 1/125 sec, 28mm; 5:51 p.m. PST, Feb. 13, 2022.

The sun set 17 minutes earlier but that intersection is below the horizon, making for a darker dusk and opportunity to spotlight the camera’s lowlight capabilities, which benefit from there being no color overlay on the full-frame sensor.

Photo by Joe WilcoxFeb 21, 202210:19 pm

Rudford’s Remembers JFK

For Presidents’ Day 2022, we celebrate with a slice of history. This morning, my wife watched a local TV news story about the John F. Kennedy photo hanging on the outside wall of Rudford’s Restaurant. A high school student shot the portrait as the president’s motorcade passed by the diner on June 6, 1963. I don’t know which early morning news station, and no search results lead me to the source.

In response, Annie and I walked from University Heights to North Park to investigate—and, sure enough, the massively enlarged photo adorns side of the building along Kansas Street. Rudford’s faces El Cajon Blvd, which is where Kennedy rode past 59 years ago.

Photo by Joe WilcoxFeb 20, 20227:52 pm

The Torn One

Walking along the University Avenue bridge that crosses highway 163 in San Diego’s Hillcrest neighborhood, I passed two remnants of a torn up dollar bill. The shredding surprised because many homeless folks frequent the area and would regard a buck as precious commodity. So what’s the backstory? Did someone panhandle the wrong person, who responded by taking out a dollar and ripping it to pieces? I’ll never know.

I used Leica Q2 Monochrom to capture the Featured Image, feeling rushed but nevertheless taking too long. The bridge is a busy thoroughfare, and I knelt down blocking the way to get the shot. The camera balked about ambient light, which was odd. But being harried and not thinking clearly enough, I chose the smallest aperture opening as quick remedy. Using exposure compensation would have nicked the problem—or my actually paying attention to the settings. I had moved the shutter speed from auto the night before and neglected to switch back the dial.

Photo by Joe WilcoxFeb 19, 20228:21 pm

Promises, Promises

Who other than perhaps researchers at a Chinese lab could have predicted the global lockdown to combat SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)/COVID-19. Surely, owners of the Red Fox Steak House couldn’t guess when the restaurant and piano bar—long a fixture within the iconic Lafayette Hotel—lost its lease. Like its crafty namesake animal, the eatery cunningly chose to make a new home directly across El Cajon Blvd in San Diego’s University Heights neighborhood.

But building and opening anew during California’s Coronavirus crackdown, when the governor ordered citizens to stay home and prohibited indoor dining, clearly proved challenging. In January 2021, I shared with you a photo of the then unfinished construction with banner “Opening early Fall 2020”. As you can see from the Featured Image, the place is still outfoxed by the virus—even as mandated restrictions relax. Will we ever eat medium-rare amidst the ambience of live music? I really wonder.

Photo by Joe WilcoxFeb 17, 20228:01 pm

Pizza Face

D you recall that scene from movie Poltergeist where the dude picks apart his face? I feel kind of the same way about the Featured Image, captured today using Leica Q2. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/400 sec, 28mm; 1:09 p.m. PST.

Looked at from a different gruesome perspective, how is self-cannibalism an effective way to sell pizza? You tell me. The mural is on the same side of building as yesterday’s two slices but closer to the street and behind a temporary fence; the new eatery isn’t yet open for business—but soon, presumably.

Photo by Joe WilcoxFeb 16, 20228:53 pm

Cheesy or Queasy?

Do you remember this mural from the abandoned Twisted Taps? The building art is gone—replaced by what you see in the Featured Image. I see something disturbingly dystopian about the pizza slices, representing the new restaurant taking up residence. The drawing style immediately makes me think of something out of Invader Zim.

Also appears to be missing, and I will need to walk over to Louisiana Street and El Cajon Blvd in San Diego’s University Heights neighborhood to confirm: The tree behind the building, visible in the photo from August 2021. Is it really gone, or is the slightly closer perspective enough to hide the towering thing?

Photo by Joe WilcoxFeb 14, 20229:57 pm

Where Do You Hang Your Heart?

I saved the Featured Image, captured on Jan. 2, 2022 using Leica Q2, for Valentine’s Day. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/400 sec, 28mm; 9:43 a.m. PST. The tree rises above a utility […]

Photo by Joe WilcoxFeb 13, 20226:24 pm

Game Night

As I write, Super Bowl LVI is still underway, with the Cincinnati Bengals ahead of the Los Angeles Rams 20-16. At dusk in my San Diego neighborhood of University Heights, the cheering and clamoring of groups gathered rise from among the many residences.

Twelve minutes after sunset, 5:43 p.m. PST, I ventured past one of the many local breweries and shot the Featured Image—Leica Q2 Monochrom, from the hip. Vitals, aperture and shutter speed manually set: f/2, ISO 1600, 1/125 sec, 28mm. Photo is cropped about 98 percent.