Tag: street photography

Read More

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!

Read More

Decisions, Decisions

On June 15, 2021, California will largely reopen—fifteen months after Governor Gavin Newsom shut down most businesses and institutions, also instructing citizens to stay at home, in an attempt to slow spread of SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)/COVID-19. This sidewalk sentiment seems oh-so appropriate for near-normalcy returning. Granted, inflation rises, the housing market is insanely competitive, supply shortages increase cost for goods like lumber, and many reopening businesses struggle to hire enough employees—among other oddities. So normal isn’t nearly enough.

Newsom will free Californians four days before the traditionally celebrated Freedom Day/Emancipation Day—also known as Juneteenth. How ironic—or arrogantly preemptive—is that? But he is not relinquishing the emergency powers used to close down the state. How will that decision affect his chances during the special recall election that could, in a few months, remove him as governor? Surely some people will respect his maintaining authority, while others will say that he oversteps his gubernatorial powers. We’ll see soon enough.

Read More

The Cats of University Heights: Wary

Along several streets on the East side of Park Blvd., a neighbor has posted photo and description of a skinny—observably emaciated—grey female wearing a collar and bell. The person hopes to catch the presumably lost, or abandoned, kitty and take her to the animal shelter or vet for microchip scan that might identify—and possibly help locate—the owner(s).

So, as the sun started sinking below the horizon, I moseyed over for a late-day walk—during what is typically an active time for cats. I passed Reddy sitting in front of his new, self-adopted home on Georgia. Moments earlier, I came upon a tan-and-white shorthair between Meade and Mission. My raising Leica Q2 to shoot put the animal in trepidation stance. The Featured Image is the first of three taken and the only one usable. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/2.8, ISO 500, 1/125 sec, 28mm; 7:47 p.m. PDT.

Read More

The Cats of University Heights: Bear

This fine feline reminds me so much of our lost Kuma that I spent the better part of an hour comparing photos. Resemblance there is, but nothing more. Our part Maine Coon disappeared on Jan. 15, 2012, and we believe that a coyote got him because city workers found his collar in a nearby canyon fifteen days later.

My daughter chose Kuma, which means bear in Japanese. Hence my choice of nickname for his doppelgänger. On May 22, 2021, as my wife and I crossed Madison moving South along Mississippi, Bear moved just enough behind glass to catch my attention. While the late-afternoon sun illuminated the cat well enough for a portrait, he sat back to me. So Annie and I continued walking, then I stopped and reversed direction for a photo. But he still faced inward, so I started away—then one-eightied once more. As I momentarily stood, iPhone XS ready, Bear turned—and posed! I gulped and wondered: Does he recognize me? Is that Kuma?

Read More

Stand Off!

Temperature rose to 25 degrees Celsius (77 F) today in San Diego. As we walked about during early afternoon, I suggested going along Louisiana and perhaps sighting some kitties lounging about. My wife smartly observed that any sensible animal would be sleeping during the heat of the day. But as we crossed Mission moving towards Monroe, cries of something stirred our eardrums. “Are those babies?” Annie asked. Nope. They were felines fiercely yowling, practically nose to nose.

I immediately recognized the animals: Ash and Bandit, both of which were profiled in my “Cats of University Heights” series. Annie and I were on the opposite side of the street; capturing the Featured Image meant crossing part ways and shooting without disturbing the already disturbed beasts. In the two minutes that we observed, and I photographed, them, the two males maintained a stand off. If their territorial dispute ended in a fight, we didn’t witness it. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/8, ISO 200, 1/125 sec, 28mm; 1:50 p.m. PDT.

Read More

The Flower Power House Goes Dark

This is unexpected. The flower power house that I photographed on April 8, 2021 and posted here three weeks ago has gone black—as you can see from the Featured Image taken today, using Leica Q2. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/7.1, ISO 100, 1/250 sec, 28mm; 9:38 a.m. PDT.

Obviously, some kind of renovation is underway, which the mural made lively—and that was a refreshing sight in a neighborhood where the clank, clank, clank of construction obliterates the soothing chatter of birds and occasional caw of crows. In these dark days of segregation and tribalism, fueled in part by so-called social justice warriors and their opponents, the repainting is a mood metaphor. Someone cancelled the expressive art. So let’s stretch it all into a symbol of cancel culture

Read More

The Cats of University Heights: Jasmine

Feline identification can be tricky. I would under any other circumstance state with certainty that this kitty is Guido, who lives a half-block down, across the street, and around the corner with Bruce and Little. I spent better part of an hour comparing his photos to those of this tabby—and the shorthairs sure look alike to me. Except they cannot be. I frequently see the tiger-stripe where she is supposed to be—romping outside the home that she shares with Annie. If I really have confused them, some day a new portrait will replace this one.

Jasmine, who is about four years old, is the sixty-seventh cat from Alabama Street between boundaries Adams and Lincoln. That works out to 16.5 percent of the series‘ 406 profiles. I am baffled about why so many. Numbers creep up for Louisiana and Madison, but they lag far behind—and there are at least three other putty-tats on Jasmine’s block of which I am aware (seen briefly while trying over several weeks to get a good shot of her).

Read More

Pandemic Pollution

What a difference a year makes. In April 2020, when SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2), which causes COVID-19, seemed so dire and face masks were so difficult to find, I wrote about the perils of not wearing one—illustrated with a rare, discarded protective covering. Now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises that vaccinated individuals no longer need to wear masks, or social distance, in most situations—meaning: “except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance”.

Long before the unexpected change to pandemic public policy, just two days ago, face masks could be found littered all about the County. San Diego Union-Tribune spotlighted the debris along beaches in July 2020; early last month, ABC News reported that “discarded masks litter beaches worldwide, threaten sea life“; the local CBS affiliate, reporting about the April 24, 2021 “19th-annual ‘Creek to Bay Clean-up'”, explained that there has been a surge in ‘single-use plastics”— and the “biggest offender? PPE [Personal Protective Equipment], especially masks”.

Read More

The Cats of University Heights: Joy

While walking with my wife along Mission Ave. between Alabama and Mississippi, on May 12, 2021, I spotted a black bird-watching from the semi-seclusion of a home’s attached planter. I shot several portraits using iPhone XS and Leica Q2, and the Featured Image comes from the camera. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/500 sec, 12:51 p.m. PDT.

Call me befuddled trying to come up with yet another nickname appropriate for a Halloween Cat. Let’s go with Joy, because the shorthair seemed so content where it relaxed and observed.

Read More

This Thing Creeps Me Out

Months ago, while walking along Alabama Street in my San Diego neighborhood, I came upon a lawn fixture from behind. The shape, which you don’t see in the Featured Image or companion, reminded me of a fetus—dare I say aborted—or not fully-formed infant. Then I moved past and saw the adult-child face, which gave me even more willies than the disturbing impression on approach.

Perhaps this thing doesn’t bother you, but it sure upends me. Zoom in and look at the two fangs for teeth exposed by the septic smile. This evening, I passed the creature while looking for kitty Annie‘s tiger-tabby housemate; she often is briefly let out after dawn or around dusk and I want to make a portrait for my “Cats of University Heights” series.

Read More

Tipped Moon

How odd. I posted the Featured Image to my Flickr nearly 11 years ago but never here. The street shot harkens back to my first Leica, the X1—a fixed-lens digital compact that I could (barely) afford at the time. Vitals: f/5, ISO 100, 1/320 sec, 24mm; 7:05 p.m. PDT.

I purchased Leica X1 as a self-birthday present, and the camera arrived after on July 13, 2010. I captured the photo three days later. Manual controls and high IQ (image quality) beat my expectations. But with the economy in crisis, we had money troubles as Christmas approached—compelling me to sell the X1 and luckily for only a few hundred dollars less than I paid for it.