Tag: kids

Photo by Joe Wilcox
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California Reopens

But explain to school kids what’s different, because they have to wonder. While establishments of all types are open at full capacity, the classroom routine is little changed: Students must continue to wear masks—a requirement that baffles the frak out of me. Is it possible reason that most of them have not been vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)/COVID-19? For adults, the mask-mandate is only lifted for those people who have had the shot(s). Children are extremely unlikely to be infected, manifest the disease, become seriously sick, or die. So why muzzle them?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, children ages 0-4 account for 2.1 percent of U.S. COVID cases; 10.4 percent for 5-17 year-olds. Deaths: Zero percent and 0.1 percent, respectively. Citizens ages 18-49 account for 4.7 percent of total deaths, so teachers are probably pretty safe—especially if vaccinated. So, again, I ask: Why muzzle the kids? This morning, my wife and I passed by Birney Elementary as students arrived; they all wore masks, and parents, too!

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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Five Years Later

Eldest daughter. Second born. Older twin. There are many more appropriate ways to describe my sister Annette but none more than loss. She unexpectedly passed away five years ago today. Left behind: Three children. All adults and parents of their own. Must be mentioned being Mother’s Day.

I used Leica Q2 Monochrom to capture the Featured Image, made from a print. The copy can’t be better than the original, which isn’t sharp. Maybe soft focus was the photographer’s intention; he or she is unknown. The re-creation is edited with a fair amount of noise reduction applied (due to ambient overhead lighting ISO is 16000).

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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The Other N95

As the SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)/COVID-19 pandemic winds down (hopefully), most people hearing “N95” will think respirator mask. But I remember a time, before Apple had a meaningful App Store or iPhone with capable camera, when N95 referred to Nokia’s smartphone, which competently captured photos as well as, or better than, some digital compact point-and-shooters. I owned two, or was it three, different variants—as well as successors N96 and N97.

My wife, Anne Wilcox, used the Nokia N95 to capture the Featured Image on Oct. 10, 2008, at Oma’s Pumpkin Patch. Vitals: f/2.8, ISO 125, 1/125 sec, 5.6mm; 1:17 p.m. PDT. Wow. These kids, whoever they were, are teenagers now. How many already finished high school, I wonder.

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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Flickr a Week 52: ‘Llama Love’

What’s not to like about a child receiving a little “Llama Love“? Ian Sane used Canon EOS 5DS R and EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens to capture the self-titled portrait on March 23, 2019. Vitals: f/2.8, ISO 250, 1/800 sec, 50mm.

About the moment: “Here’s my granddaughter, Penelope, getting a kiss from an unlikely source at Riverfront Park in Salem, Oregon. Full disclosure: I love her wild looking hair”.

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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San Diego Gives Kids Permission to Play

Finally. After SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)—also known as COVID-19—restrictions shut down playgrounds across San Diego County in mid-March 2020, they reopened on October 2. Strange juxtaposition? Same day, the President of the United States was admitted to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, after testing positive for the disease. What’s that saying about coincidental timing? If there is one.

Along with the playgrounds, public libraries reopened—and the timing is quite deliberate. California has started sending out mail-in ballots for the November 3 election (we received ours yesterday). Drop boxes will be placed in libraries.

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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Reopen the Playgrounds!

Nearly six months have passed since San Diego cordoned off Trolley Park and others like it around the city. As summer started, the public spaces reopened but the playgrounds remain closed—a restriction that defies common sense and current science regarding SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)—also known as COVID-19.

“The best available evidence indicates that COVID-19 poses relatively low risks to school-aged children”, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “Children appear to be at lower risk for contracting COVID-19 compared to adults…as of July 17, 2020, the United States reported that children and adolescents under 18 years old account for under 7 percent of COVID-19 cases and less than 0.1 percent of COVID-19-related deaths”. Seasonally, the flu kills more kids—and, unlike that virus, children ages 0-9 are extremely unlikely to be infected with SARS-CoV-2 or to transmit it to adults. In San Diego County from Feb. 14, 2020 to yesterday, among that age bracket, 1,514 tested positive—or 3.3 percent of the 45,425 confirmed cases.

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Living by Joe Wilcox
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Slow Down!

Our old apartment of 10 years overlooked an alley, from the dining room and my office. There is something compelling about alley life that gives different insight into San Diego neighborhoods. For example, here in University Heights, utility poles run along the alleys rather than major residential streets. Palm trees reach for the skies in their place.

Many properties keep trash cans and dumpsters in the alleys, where residents will place unwanted items they want to give away rather than throw away. Savengers on foot, bicycle, or truck collect this stuff or forage for redeemable bottles and cans. Some of these people rip open bags of refuse, which attracts wildlife—ranging from birds to possums. 

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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What’s the Story, Morning Glory?

Park Blvd. divides University Heights East and West—for reasons that make no sense to me. This San Diego community is about 12,000 people living in an area around 1.132 square miles. My hometown, Caribou, Maine, is residence to a little less than 8,000 folks in a city spanning 79.3 miles. Oh, Hell, I fuss. But you get the point?

Yesterday, as I walked West to East, down Monroe Ave. towards our recently rented apartment, a beautiful cluster of morning glories demanded that I stop with iPhone 7 Plus and honor them with a portrait. I shot the Featured Image—an auto-generated HDR composite—at 12:13 p.m. PDT. Vitals: f/1.8, ISO 20, 1/474 sec, 3.99mm. 

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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Lemonade Stand

The Fujifilm X100F is now my nearly-always outdoor companion—a role iPhone 7 Plus had filled. The camera is compact and light and comfortably slings over the shoulder attached to the ONA Lima strap. Earlier today, my wife and I walked down Maryland Ave. toward The Hub plaza in Hillcrest. Along the way, we passed a lemonade stand, with some kids fundraising for the local elementary school, Alice Birney. They had already raised $60 when I snapped the pic, at 1:15 p.m. PST. Somebody paid more than the requested 25 cents a cup. Hehe.

The Featured Image is a crop of the original, which is visible below the fold. Both versions are unaltered, except for horizontal cropping to the first and straightening of both. The visual cue is different in each, though. The first is aligned vertically with the lemonade stand and the original against the house in the background. 

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