Tag: photography

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Six Flags

For Independence Day, I shot two different flag illustrations, choosing the one along the bike lanes. The Featured Image is the other, captured using Leica Q2 along Lincoln Avenue in San Diego neighborhood University Heights. […]

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I Know What Grandma Would Say To This

She would start by quoting Proverbs 16:18. “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling”. Then she would more provocatively cite 1 John 2:16,17 because, well, grandma isn’t intimidated by how other people might react.

“For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever”.

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Does Anyone Care Enough to Comply?

While my household has ample supply of masks, including environmental and medical N95s, I have absolutely no plans to cover up should mandates return—and looks like they will; in Los Angeles County, at least, and possibly here in San Diego, too. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention returns both areas to the SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)/COVID-19 high-risk category, which could lead to resuming face-covering requirements.

As of yesterday, according to official public health data that excludes Long Beach and Pasadena, 1,107 people are hospitalized in LA County—up from 606 about thirty days earlier. One-hundred twenty-nine are in intensive care, or about 11 percent of capacity. Daily Coronavirus deaths: Four, which is down from six on June 14. And that’s a health emergency enough to bring back mask mandates?

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The Cats of University Heights: Blackie

For the ninety-sixth feline found behind door or window, we return to Alabama for the ninetieth profiled putty-tat from the street between boundaries Adams and Lincoln.

I first saw the black on April 30, 2022—date for the Featured Image. The companion comes from today, and I used iPhone 13 Pro for both. Vitals: f/2.8, ISO 32, 1/602 sec, 77mm; 1:38 p.m. PDT. The second: f/2.8, ISO 32, 1/1179 sec, 77mm; 3:23 p.m.

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Will the Meaning be Lost?

So-o-o, should I presume somebody’s sidewalk message is meant to be sarcastic? According to the good folks at Merriam-Webster, a factory farm is “a large industrialized farm, especially: a farm on which large numbers of livestock are raised indoors in conditions intended to maximize production at minimal cost”. Presumption: Animal cruelty—or so claims fourteen of the first fifteen results to my search query.

Let me ask then: We should eat less food as a means of not supporting factory farming? That starvation will put the entities out of business and thus diminish livestock hardship? Timing is odd, given all the warnings about food shortages.

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Long Haul Trucker

I initially planned to close-crop the Featured Image but instead present it as shot. Both bikes are something of anachronisms in San Diego, where more and more riders mount motorized hybrids. Blame electric rentals or SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)/COVID-19 lockdowns—both, likely—for dramatic behavioral shift in a short span of about two years.

The Surly is a Long Haul Trucker model that the manufacturer describes as a “long-distance cargo bike ready to go anywhere”. The single saddlebag—pannier, if you prefer—suggests somewhere. The LHT was retired last year, after 17 years of production, which makes me wonder how much the sudden surge in popularity of electric (and some gas-powered) hybrids played into the bike’s end of life.

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Let the Music Begin

This evening, after a two-year hiatus because of SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)/COVID-19 lockdowns (and fear), Friday-night Trolley Barn Park musical concerts resumed here in University Heights.

I passed by minutes before the players took the stage and while people settled in for a pleasant evening shared listening and commiserating. Temperature was a comfortable 22 degrees Celsius (72 F). Even now, as I write, 20 degrees (68 F) refreshes park-goers.

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The Cats of University Heights: Doodle

Today, while walking with my wife, I spotted a black-and-white kitty looking out a window. But approaching, I discovered two shorthairs. Surprisingly still: Tonight, while examining the Featured Image, I see somebody familiar. The larger furball, with dark face, is Scooch, who I observed outdoors a few houses away with Springer during September 2021. Both are nicknames.

The portrait comes from iPhone 13 Pro. Vitals: f/2.8, ISO 32, 1/469 sec, 77mm; 9:32 a.m. PDT. What shall we call the ninety-fifth feline found behind glass and/or screen? I say Doodle for spots that look like they were drawn on with a marker pen.

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The Cats of University Heights: Defender

The number of dogs living in the neighborhood exploded exponentially during the SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)/COVID-19 lockdowns. Northern California is fido-country, and high-techies suddenly able to work from home hightailed south, where lofty salaries ($296,000 median at Google) made buying or renting in San Diego comparably affordable for San Francisco-area escapees. Can we send them back?

How many mutts can one person, or couple, own? Gotta ask because I see fewer people walking one dog and many more leashing two, three, or more—and that’s without tallying the overall increased numbers. Not surprisingly, doggy decorum demands harassing cats; do these NorCal migrants simply not know better because they lack feline finesse or are they merely amused letting their beasts taunt kitties?

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The One That Remains

Two days ago, I shared with you a palm pair on Oregon Street in North Park; the shorter of the two had been marked by city contractors for removal. More by chance than planning, my wife and I walked by the location this afternoon; the tree infested with South American Palm Weevils is gone.

The other must be healthy because it still stands, as you can see from the Featured Image. Vitals: f/1.7, ISO 100, 1/8000 sec, 28mm; 3:50 p.m. PDT. I used Leica Q2 to make two street shots, choosing the cropped top to include the magnificent, sprawling shadow.

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The Fourth on Fifth Avenue

For an errand, this afternoon, I walked from my neighborhood of University Heights to Hillcrest and back. To celebrate Independence Day, the city put out American flags. The Featured Image captures two on Fifth Avenue beside one of the many controversial, and new, bike lanes.

San Diego is in the process of transforming select streets to connect a regional bikeway. The idea is to gain, ah, independence from carbon-emitting vehicles by encouraging more pedal power. Oddly though, hybrid electric or motor bikes are suddenly everywhere, which makes me wonder about the strategy. One reason: Those riders tend to avoid the bike lanes and flow with traffic; the partially powered two-wheelers are too fast-moving.