A little more than a month after acquiring Leica Q, I shot the Featured Image. Zoom in to see the bee, if he doesn’t already jump out at you. I did consider close-cropping but kind of like leaving this one composed as captured.
Vitals: f/2.8, ISO 100, 1/640 sec, 28mm; 10:03 a.m. PDT, July 2, 2017.
Google Photos suggested something I couldn’t refuse: This fragrant flower from the courtyard of our old apartment—15 years ago. Your math is right: March 17, 2008. Better still, the Featured Image comes from one of my most loved and loathed digital compacts: Sigma DP1. Vitals: f/7.1, ISO 100, 1/125 sec, 28mm (film equivalent): 9:44 a.m. PDT.
Something isn’t right that teaches an important lesson about metadata and the passage of time. According to my story about procuring the camera, I didn’t purchase the shooter until March 27, 2008. How could I take a photo 10 days before buying? Oh, these are the mysteries.
For this sunny Saturday, we once again go back 10 years to a Featured Image that I don’t recall taking—neither why nor where. The location data claims the 4500 block of Campus Avenue in San Diego neighborhood University Heights.
This one comes for the LG-produced, Googe-branded Nexus 4, on March 31, 2003. Vitals: f/2.4, ISO 100, 1/1000 sec. 33mm (film equivalent); 2:16 p.m. PDT.
Last night, I set up the Galaxy S23 Ultra, using Samsung’s Smart Switch app. I connected the new smartphone to the older (S22 Ultra) and followed the prompts. What a superbly smooth process followed. Sometime in the next day or two, I will pack up and ship the other device, as per my trade-in agreement.
For every new smartphone, there is a first photo, which is the Featured Image. Vitals: f/1.7, ISO 10, 1/1200 sec, 23mm; 9:58 a.m. PST. While walking to San Diego neighborhood Hillcrest, I detoured off Washington onto Normal to avoid sidewalk congestion. There I passed this helmet, which unusual placement beckoned to be shot.
Rains returned to San Diego but broken by sunshine long enough for my wife and I to take a morning walk. After going along Panorama Drive, we crossed Adams Avenue to where Alabama Street starts. Few houses along, Annie stopped and regarded a pink rose poking through the open slats of a fence.
I turned Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra to that one, and another, which is the Featured Image—but from when I returned about 30 minutes later for a more deliberate composition. Vitals: f/1.8, ISO 12, 1/250 sec, 23mm (film equivalent); 9:48 a.m. PST.
Keeping to my goal of posting something each day, I share an outtake and humbly ask your understanding. I haven’t felt well most of today—and that is quite unusual for me, being someone blessed with hearty constitution. I suppose that my problem could be SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)/COVID-19. But symptoms say otherwise. No fever or other markers manifest.
Please pardon my being brief on this fine Tuesday evening, therefore. The Featured Image comes from Leica Q2 on Aug. 5, 2022. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/60 sec, 28mm; 6:11 p.m. PDT.
Our Internet service is wonky and unreliable, which is why the unexpected break from the planned series about the New Vision Christian Fellowship building destruction (and replacement). I have several suspicions (e.g. hypotheses) about what may be the cause. When, or sadly if, resolved, a separate post will be warranted.
For this Tuesday, to stay simple while we have some IP/bandwidth functionality, I share something unexpected: September sunflower; I usually only see these puttering about our San Diego neighborhood in late Spring or early Summer.
File the Featured Image in the category of “look up”. Because, until this evening when conducting an online image search, I had no idea that this hanging thing—upon which I repeatedly bonked my head over several months—is a banana flower. If I understand rightly, and someone correct me if mistaken, bananas should have been seen growing above had I turned my eyes upward.
I don’t exactly recall over which sidewalk the bulbous object hung, but it would be somewhere on the East side of Park Blvd in San Diego neighborhood University Heights. My guess: Louisiana or Mississippi street.
Welcome to an unexpected compare-and-contrast session. Tonight, while preparing to share a bee and sunflower shot, I came across another that is surprisingly pleasing, particularly considering its vintage and source. We’ll start with that one, from Google Nexus 5 smartphone on May 30, 2014. Vitals for the Featured Image: f/2.4, ISO 100, 1/4200 sec, 3.97mm; 9:44 a.m. PDT.
I made the moment outside what was the wonderful wildlife sanctuary nicknamed the Butterfly House. The tenants maintaining the lush plants and trees moved to Hawaii in January 2019 and the sanctuary is no more.
Last week, my wife and I drove out to La Mesa, Calif. to reminiscently walk around Grossmont Center, hoping to beat planned changes that could close many of the stores. Eleven months ago, Federal Realty Investment Trust announced acquiring controlling interest in the outdoor shopping mall from San Diego’s Cushman family. But the new owner won’t become sole proprietor for another three years, which will present a “unique opportunity providing an unencumbered ‘blank canvas’ for redevelopment”.
To my relief, most of the long-time tenants remain, even Barnes and Noble—a marvel of retail survival in the era of Amazon electronic and print book online sales dominance. But missing is what I photographically looked for: Flower beds down the center way separating stores. I clearly remember them, if nowhere else, near the Walmart.
Outside the home where lived Grace (before she passed away) and nearby where once crouched Champagne, chalked caution and watch out warnings seek to raise caterpillar awareness. Both putty-tats appeared in my “Cats of University Heights” series—in April 2018 and February 2021, respectively.
The husband and wife who own the property tend flowers and flora that attract butterflies and caterpillars. I often see Monarchs fluttering about. Spring—or in San Diego three-season parlance, early Summer—is breeding and feeding time. So, please, be mindful where you step.
San Diego may be a costly place to live, but the year-round summer, where lush growth and tweeting birds are constant, is big benefit—or so say I, the Maine boy. The Featured Image, roses growing alongside a house in an alley, demonstrates. The nearly 100-percent crop contrasts the blurred hanging flower pot behind.
Vitals, aperture manually set: f/2, ISO 100, 1/5000 sec, 28mm; 1:51 p.m. PST. I used Leica Q2 to make the moment on Jan. 1, 2022.