I have amassed a backlog of photographed but unpublished putty-tats—many of them from months ago, like this Tuxedo seen on Oct. 20, 2020 and no other time since. The shorthair earns nickname Tails, for what I hope is obvious reason.
My wife and I encountered Tails along Golden Gate Drive, nearby where we once saw Bushy and Cali on the same day. ChaCho and Tony live in a house nearby.
Next door to Huck and across the street from Fluffy and Pepto, you could meet Angelo—as my wife and I did yesterday. Daniel Tiger lives on the same side of the street—as may Darth Mew, Ginger, Huck, Jedi, Milo, and Princess Leia; I haven’t seen any of them recently. The leashed, 17-year-old black, whom his owner has had since kitten age, drank water from a cup as we approached. A roommate watched Angelo, enjoying the delightfully sunny 18 degrees Celsius (64 F) temperature while laid back in a lawn chair.
I wouldn’t call the feline feisty. He moved slowly but assuredly. To assist aged digestion, part of Angelo’s diet consists of chicken and pumpkin puree reduced to pâté in a blender.
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Sometimes you need a second one to communicate the message. I captured the Featured Image today along University Ave. in San Diego’s Hillcrest Neighborhood. “Massachusetts” is correctly spelled in the billboard for Mike’s Pizzeria.
Digressing, why New England pie? I recall there being a New York pizza place in the location before it joined the many shops and restaurants that have closed thanks to the overly onerous lockdowns imposed by Governor Gavin “Gruesome” Newsom. He acts like some quirky, hallucinogenic-taking medium blessed him as the messiah of COVID-19—the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2). He will kill more people (and businesses) than he will ever save; he attacks the pandemic with the figurative equivalent of atomic bombs. Will someone please hide the launch codes before radioactive fallout kills us all!
Happy New Year! Here’s a worthy resolution that my wife and I saw today, chalked on the Madison Ave. sidewalk near Massachusetts in San Diego’s University Heights neighborhood. I used Leica Q2 to capture the […]
Our fifth New Years kitty to appear in the series, joining Gem (2020), Storm (2019), Norman (2018), and Chub (2017), is almost certainly the last. My wife and I are plotting to escape California soon as logistically possible. As such, I will rush through the backlog of photographed but unpublished kitties and close down the series, which later may become an ebook—because why not? But that’s a future topic.
For today, let us meet the Calico whom we shall nickname Lovely. My wife and I met her on Dec. 11, 2020, along Maryland near Monroe. That’s a treacherous area because of cars and coyotes—and females will soon leave the nearby canyon searching for prey to feed the pups. Be safe, Lovely!
On January 1, I introduced this series; now comes the final post of 2020 on the last day of the year. Longstanding Internet tradition demands a cat, who joins two others in entries “Devil’s Eye” and “Lotta Love, Lijah“. Wolfgang Franzen used Leica Q2 Monochrom to capture self-titled “Donna” on Nov. 30, 2020. Vitals: f/1.7, ISO 6400, 1/60 sec, 28mm. The portrait is a keeper for beautiful bokeh, compelling composition, creamy black-and-white, and high-ISO detail. Then there is the feline’s mood-setting character.
I came to this photo when searching Flickr, which Wolfgang joined eight years ago this month, specifically for the camera. If you wonder why: I am the proud owner of the Q2 Mono, which arrived from Leica Store Miami on December 28.
The final Wednesday of the year brings us to the second-to-the-last post in the series, should it conclude as previously planned. I am undecided. For now, our selection captures some of 2020’s most important themes—triple-P: pandemic, politics, and protests; for sure one overlaps another in some manner or another. My first choice, self-titled “Respirator Life“, by David Geitgey Sierralupe, is unfortunately All Rights Reserved. So I had to pick another selection, one Creative Commons-licensed, from the carpenter who lives in Eugene, Ore.
“Rally for Democracy“—with a nurse wearing KN95 mask and typifying fallout from the Presidential Election and SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2), better known as COVID-19—was a contender. But the choice came down to a coin-toss between two street shots with the same self-title: “Blue Lives Matter meets ACAB“. The acronym stands for “all cops are bastards”. The second choice (blame the quarter for landing tails).
The unexpected COVID-19 pandemic, caused by SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2), dramatically changed this series‘ planned character. There is much less street photography, fewer candid portraits, and more landscapes or scenes where people might be expected but are absent. Bleak black and white, or scant color, are common for what they represent during a year where, as I warned my wife in late January: “Fear is the contagion”. Examples relevant to today’s selection: “A Spring Snow Fall In Prescott, Wisconsin“, “A Yukon Quest Team“; “Barns in Snow“, “Break“, “Foggy Morning“, “Forever Silence“, or “Ice, Ice Baby“. The tonal change began in May, rather than March—my habit of curating two months ahead.
Our third Monochrom moment in a row comes from Subhash Roy, who used Leica SL2 to shoot self-titled “Winter afternoon at the Boston Public Garden” on Dec. 20, 2020. Vitals: f/8, ISO 200, 1/500 sec. I used to live nearby that lovely locale, and it’s wonderful to see a statue—of George Washington—still standing months after so-called peaceful protestors and rioters defaced or destroyed iconic (and some controversial) American statues and monuments. The winter scene takes the Sunday spot for composition, film-like quality, and mood.
I am not a photographer and bear no illusions about ever being one. My composition skills are raw, and rarely cooked, and I lack the post-production sense that someone else would use to create art. My camera, the Leica Q2, is professional grade and seemingly beyond my skills. But I handle the all-in-one well enough, and it is satisfying to use—enjoyable and versatile.
I am a storyteller, however, and use photos to mark moments or to illustrate a narrative. Take as example the Featured Image (warning: 30GB file), which I captured today along Georgia Street between Lincoln and Polk in San Diego’s University Heights neighborhood. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/320 sec, 28mm; 11:36 a.m. PST. The original was portrait, but I cropped square.
Happy Christmas! For months, I searched for a holiday-specific, Creative Commons-licensed photo and found none that wowed me. Instead, we go non-traditional but other timely—when bow and string made merry music and smartphone distractions were beyond the imaginations of even the most prolific, prophetic science fiction writers.
Roman Boed captured self-titled “Where Mozart Lives” on Dec. 28, 2017, using Leica M and Summilux-M 1:1.4/50 ASPH lens. The EXIF doesn’t identify specific camera model. Vitals: f/1.4, ISO 3200, 1/60 sec, 50mm. The string quartet portrait is a keeper for atmosphere, composition, film-like texture, and timelessness (just ignore the lamp’s pull-string).
I really should be more observant about where kitty portraits are taken. This one is on North—or could be Campus—nearby Madison or Monroe. For some reason I failed to use the iPhone XS camera for quick, GPS-marking shot. Sigh. The Featured Image comes from Leica Q2, on Dec. 4, 2020. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/5.6, ISO 125, 1/125 sec, 28mm; 9:41 a.m. PST.
The black earns nickname Measure, for how it sized up my approach and the motion of nearby birds.
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”.