Tag: people

Read More

Batter Up!

The appropriate action would be to ask this gentleman why he watches television outside. But I instead chose to shoot stealthily from across the street because mystery makes the moment. The answer could ruin the curiosity.

Perhaps his partner or spouse doesn’t like baseball. Maybe he is lonely and hopes the outdoor game will draw some company. Perhaps ambiance is the reason: He wants a taste of remembered experience of going to the stadium and watching the game. I will never know and don’t want to.

Read More

Mom’s Prom Dress

Mom passed away six years ago today. Last night, I came across a portrait digitized a few days later but not published. This evening, I spent some time editing, and also applying preset black-and-white filters, but in the end present the Featured Image as it was recovered in August 2017.

Photographer is unknown, as is timing. Mom is dressed for prom, but I am not sure what year of high school. She doesn’t appear to be pregnant, as she was during 12th grade. She already was married during junior year, having eloped to Canada at (sweet) sixteen.

Read More

Big Band Bubble Brigade

Summer never really ends in San Diego but ebbs and flows throughout the year. Yet the last Friday night live music event in Old Trolley Barn Park feels like end of the season, even as the dog days of August are yet to come.

I walked over this evening, beckoned several blocks away by the boisterous big band sound of Sue Palmer & Her Motel Swing Orchestra. She drew quite the crowd, and sizable group—mostly older folks—danced before the stage. If mosh pits were for kids and grandmas, well I observed one tonight.

Read More

He Waits for What?

We end the month, and first half of the year, with a somber Featured Image captured tonight. I typically avoid taking photos of San Diego homeless, out of respect for them and their plight. With the high cost of housing, anyone could end up in their situation—particularly with the rising number of renovictions: landlord removes long-time tenants and makes upgrades to justify drastically raising rents.

According to the Regional Task Force on Homelessness, number of the city’s—what I will politely call—street dwellers is up 35 percent from 2022. Broadly, across San Diego County, people aged 55 or older make up 29 percent of the homeless population and about 46 percent are newly in this condition. That circles back to long-time tenants, sometimes for several decades, living in rentals they can manage but being evicted and unable to find affordable housing.

Read More

The Golden Man

Following up yesterday’s “The Photobomber“, we come to the intended subject of that photo—the golden man in the Featured Image and two companions. When passing him in San Diego’s Balboa Park on April 20, 2023, I was puzzled. He hung so still to the lamppost, I wondered if he was some statue—which there are a few round about. Then he moved, startling me and breaking my stare.

In the first of the three shots—all from Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra—he looks at approaching people. Vitals: f/4.9, ISO 50, 1/310 sec, 230mm (film equivalent); 3:14 p.m. PDT; composed as shot. Unfortunately, none of the trio aptly captures just how gold painted is his face.

Read More

The Photobomber

Consider the Featured Image as start of a two-parter. The intended subject of the street shot is the big guy hanging on to a lamppost, and I had planned to close-crop on him. But just as I clicked Leica Q2 Monochrom‘s shutter, someone scooted into the frame. The unintentional photobomber instead makes the moment.

Vitals, aperture manually set: f/5.6, ISO 200, 1/1600 sec, 28mm; 3:11 p.m. PDT, April 20, 2023. Location: San Diego’s Balboa Park.

Read More

The Flower Lady

Let’s start with a Happy Mother’s Day to the moms. Some of you work the holiday, as does this woman at her gift stand set up in my San Diego neighborhood of University Heights. She and her husband greeted me yesterday, and I had every intention of returning to buy flowers for my wife. But I waited too long. The lady sold out, and they were packing up when I arrived this afternoon.

I used Leica Q2 to take the Featured Image, which (sigh) is presented as composed, because I could create no crop that wouldn’t take too much context from the photo. Maybe you see something that I don’t. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/500 sec, 28mm; 12:36 p.m. PDT.

Read More

The Witnesses

While wandering around Balboa Park on April 20, 2023, I passed by several spots where people evangelized their religious faiths. Among them, Hare Krishna was one and Jehovah Witness was another. For the latter, I stopped to chat with a tall gent, wearing a broad smile, thick-frame eyeglasses, and straw-like hat.

He regularly comes down from Vista to San Diego to spread the good word about Jehovah. I didn’t think to mention that my apartment is located about three blocks from a Kingdom Hall. He graciously agreed to be photographed—and the woman, whom I believe was his wife, too. The Featured Image comes from Leica Q2 Monochrom. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/5.6, ISO 200, 1/1250 sec, 28mm; 3:16 p.m. PDT.

Read More

Power Outage!

Quite literally, as I hit the button to post about cats Firecracker and Dynamite, lights flickered and went out. That was 6:41 a.m. PDT today. Power would remain out for us and others in portions of San Diego neighborhoods Hillcrest, Normal Heights, and (here) in University Heights until 5 p.m. sharp.

The SDGE outage alert in my customer portal at first estimated utility restoration at 8 a.m., then 9 a.m., then 2 p.m., then 3 p.m., and finally 6 p.m. We prepared for an evening in darkness and possible food spoilage in the refrigerator and freezer.