Tag: San Diego

Photo by Joe Wilcox
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You Can’t Call 911

This payphone is one of many things out of place along University Avenue in downtown Hillcrest. At my request, today, Annie dropped me in the San Diego neighborhood when she went out on an errand. I walked home, for a change in scenery. Eh, what a change.

As I stood at the stoplight, waiting to cross Sixth Avenue, something tumbled end over end over University and landed in the gutter across the way. Then a skinny, shirtless, suntanned dude strutted across the street—haughty and boisterous. He picked up what looked like a metal pipe or handle and began twirling it combat-style. I pushed the walk button to cross University rather than Sixth.

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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‘You Are Being Watched’

Funny how the intention for taking a photo isn’t the reason for publishing it—as is the case with the Featured Image, captured yesterday using Leica Q2. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/4, ISO 100, 1/500 sec, 28mm; 5:26 p.m. PDT. The crusty, “Criminal Beware” sign struck me as really funny—no deterrent at all—and I planned to wisecrack about how the old, neglected thing would frighten off nobody. Then my wife got into the final frame, and everything changed.

She stopped to check her mileage (from walking), while I fumbled with the camera. I really like the synchronicity of her dipped head and hat with the cloaked villain’s posture. Her presence lends perspective, too—how ridiculously high off the ground is the warning. I have passed by that intersection, at Mississippi and Monroe, hundreds of times and hadn’t before noticed the sign. If a posting doesn’t register with residents, will criminals scouting people and places at eye-level see it—or even care? By the way, newer “Neighborhood Watch” signs are lower.

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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Storm Warning

They say it never rains in Southern California—until a thunderstorm rolls in without warning. This evening, I ventured out for a late-day walk and progressed one-and-a-half blocks from my apartment, when rain drops started falling. I had been looking West to mainly clear skies, where hung a crescent moon. A downpour commenced seconds later, and I took refuge in an apartment building carport. Meanwhile, lightning flashed and thunder roared.

I used Leica Q2 Monochrom to capture the Featured Image, looking out at the clear horizon while water pummeled everything about me. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/1.7, ISO 5000, 1/125 sec, 28mm; 7:33 p.m. PDT. The photo is cropped to remove building overhang but otherwise is presented as rendered RAW.

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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Desperate Hunter

About a month ago, I heard some commotion a few streets away and a woman yelling loudly to someone else: “It’s a coyote!” The location is far enough away from a canyon to be surprising. Over the weeks that followed, my wife observed occasional Nextdoor posts about additional sightings—mainly between Alabama and Louisiana either along Madison or Mission.

This morning, as Annie and I walked on Louisiana approaching Mission, she spotted a coyote strutting down the sidewalk on the other side of Madison moving towards Adams. We followed. The animal’s left rear leg was clearly injured, and the skinny beast hobbled on the other three. When she first saw the coyote, it was under the magnificent tree that I shared with you in June 2021.

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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Ripe and Ready

Call my obsession with grapes overkill photography, but I must present one last look at the vine located between Campus and Cleveland along Meade in San Diego’s University Heights neighborhood. They’re gone now; someone picked them, or so seems the case.

I worried they would ripen and rot, being located between sidewalk and street rather than on someone’s property. Thankfully, they appear not to have been wasted—like so much other fruit languishing from lush trees outside residences. I don’t understand why. Food is precious, and the berries and citrus that I see requires so little human effort to grow.

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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All That Remains

I more frequently walk down the Louisiana block between El Cajon and Meade, here in University Heights, looking to see when (now vacant) houses and shops at the corner will be leveled and another—ah-hum, morbid—San Diego redevelopment project begins. Two months ago, I explained how the forthcoming demolition led to the sudden closure of Postal Convenience Center, after 35 years in business.

Across the street is the abandoned Twisted Taps, which flatlined during last year’s SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)/COVID-19 lockdowns. On Aug. 24, 2021, while scouting Louisiana, I stopped to gawk at the mural on the side of the closed brewery/eatery and captured the Featured Image. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/160 sec, 10:06 a.m. PDT.

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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Where There’s Smoke…

The evening started with a brush fire here in University Heights. San Diego police and fire crews blocked access to Old Trolley Barn Park, which is the Featured Image, and along Panorama Drive. As Annie and I approached the area, on foot, a helicopter made several passes dropping water on the blaze. Obstructing trees prevented my making the shot. I had to accept two others, and they are presented for documentation’s sake.

I used Leica Q2 to take all photos. Vitals for the first, aperture manually set for each: f/5.6, ISO 250, 1/125 sec, 28mm; 6:28 p.m. PDT. Smoke can be seen beyond the playground, rising up from the canyon, which is center and to the right beyond a fence.

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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The Cats of University Heights: Bold

Since this series‘ start in October 2016, I have seen few felines in the alley separating Cleveland and Maryland. Prowler, Spirit, and Tux are the only ones that I recall. On Aug. 14, 2021, my wife and I spotted another perched on a balcony railing—hence nickname Bold.

The Featured Image and companion come from Leica Q2. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/180 sec, 28mm; 9:28 a.m. PDT. The other—the context capture—is same but 1/200 sec.

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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Graffiti? Message? Warning?

What a surprise is this. While walking in San Diego’s North Park neighborhood today, I spotted the oddest thing: The pictured graphic and text on a utility pole at Monroe and Utah. Is that sign meant to alert Antifa members? During last year’s racial riots and protests, I frequently passed persons all-black-clad—the group’s de facto uniform—hanging about some University Heights streets, presumably waiting for rides.  Seeing such scribbling, self-labeled anti-fascists would know where to gather—or maybe the scrawling is nothing more than graffiti.

I used Leica Q2 to capture the Featured Image. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/640 sec, 28mm; 2:47 p.m. PDT. In post-production, I over-saturated purple and red; sunlight had faded both colors.

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Photo by Joe Wilcox
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The Cats of University Heights: Mocha

On the Alabama side of the alley shared with Mississippi, Goose surprised by pussyfooting along a roof and fence before entering eves of a carport. The sighting was chance, as my wife and I walked that way seeking shade. But he wasn’t alone. Goose pursued a stunning shorthair seeking distance in what appeared to be an odd territorial skirmish—strange since he lives elsewhere on the block.

I hadn’t encountered the newcomer before that day, Aug. 4, 2021, or since. Because of the side of alley seen, he (or she) becomes the seventy-first Alabama Street cat—and I wouldn’t be shocked to discover that the beastie belongs somewhere else. For rich fur color, the Siamese earns nickname Mocha.

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