Tag: street photography

Photo by Joe WilcoxJul 15, 202012:02 am

Flickr a Week 29: ‘Oxford Street, 2019’

We greet mid-month with startling self-titled “Oxford Street, 2019“, which Sam Rodgers captured on September 8 using Fujifilm X-Pro2 and Fujinon XF16mmF2.8 R WR lens. Vitals: f/11, ISO 200, 1/500 sec, 16mm. The portrait is evocative of Sam’s street shooting style—getting down low to the subject. Before moving to San Diego, I often would lay on the pavement or sidewalk with my camera for more interesting perspective. But Californians love their dogs and let them defecate and pee everywhere; rain is too infrequent to naturally clean away the crap. So I stay on my feet.

Sam shows how changing angle and viewpoint can create character from what otherwise would be a mundane moment. He also gets in close to people, shooting wide open, and his portraits tend to be more dramatic—and clever—as a result.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJul 12, 202011:52 am

Quack, Quack

While walking the Campus-Cleveland alley in San Diego’s University Heights neighborhood, I saw the oddest thing between Van Buren and Tyler. Yep, a rooftop reaches out, where a rubber duck demanded attention. Say, isn’t the […]

Photo by Joe WilcoxJul 11, 20208:36 pm

The Cats of University Heights: Tangerine

For Caturday, we present another fine feline who gets a second chance at making the series—and does so, barely. I encountered the Orange on Dec. 15, 2017, and it’s a meeting easily recalled because of […]

Photo by Joe WilcoxJul 9, 20209:58 pm

The Urban Pumpkin

Now here’s something you don’t see every day: A pumpkin growing among the decorative greenery-space separating sidewalk and street. My wife and I first came upon the thing sometime last week, while walking home from the grocery store (Smart and Final). Making the same journey today, we were surprised to see the odd round of orange undisturbed. Amazing.

What may not be apparent from the Featured Image (warning: 24MB file), which I captured using Leica Q2: The pumpkin grows precariously close to the street and entrance to a parking lot—on Alabama Street across from the BLVD North Park, which is really located in the less-trendy San Diego neighborhood of University Heights. But, hey, anyone living nearby Smart and Finally can claim to rightly be in North Park. Blvd is real-estate marketing fiction.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJul 7, 20208:41 pm

The Cats of University Heights: Hope

SInce shooting the Featured Image and its companion on Oct. 3, 2017, I have long considered adding the tabby to the series but refrained. The mesh on the patio that turned it into a catio obscured too much, particularly given distance away. But like Candor, the kitty earns a place, on reconsideration; he (or she) is the third presented catio cat (King and Jester are the others).

The furball earns nickname Hope, for longing look and my hoping that the beastie still lives in the apartment (unlikely), which is along Carmelina Drive and behind Old Trolley Barn Park. I used Leica Q and iPhone 7 Plus to capture both portraits, respectively. Vitals for the first: f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/250 sec, 28mm; 10:08 a.m. PDT. The other: f/2.8, ISO 20, 1/297 sec, 6.6mm; 10:04 a.m.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJul 3, 20209:27 pm

The Cats of University Heights: Candor

To the present, we bring the past—and a portrait taken about three-and-a-half months after the series began, in October 2016. I am reviewing and reconsidering discarded kitty pics. The Featured Image, captured on Jan. 31, 2017 using iPhone 7 Plus, is among them. Vitals: f/2.8, ISO 20, 1/1808 sec, 6.6mm; 1:31 p.m. PST.

I saw the feline, nicknamed Candor for no particular reason, once and never again—along Madison between Campus and North. He (or she) is the fifty-second profiled furball seen behind either window or door.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJun 30, 202010:14 pm

Monument to History

As vandals and rioters deface and topple statues around the country, I am reminded of their importance—something steadfastly absorbed during my long residence in the D.C.-metro area. History matters, whether or not racially- and politically-motivated […]

Photo by Joe WilcoxJun 27, 202010:00 pm

The Cats of University Heights: Friday

Fifty-one: The number of felines found on Alabama between boundaries Adams and Lincoln, since the first three—Anthony, Goldie, and Itchy Valentino—appeared along a single block on the same day: Sept. 5, 2017. The black also is sixty-third seen behind door or window, since the series started in October 2016. Confession: This handsome shorthair lives in a house that, being a whisk beyond Lincoln going towards University Ave., could classify as North Park. Welcome to boundary-bending Caturday!

Not very original, Friday is the beastie’s nickname—chosen for the day of the week for June 19, 2020. I captured portraits using Leica Q2 and iPhone XS but chose the Featured Image from the smartphone shots rather than the camera. Better composition, aided from the secondary lens, is main reason. Vitals: f/2.4, ISO 16, 1/232 sec, 52mm (film equivalent); 9:20 a.m. PDT.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJun 24, 202012:04 am

Flickr a Week 26: ‘Follow at Your Peril’

Classic car makes an iconic moment—self-titled “Follow at Your Peril“, which David Ingram captured on Nov. 9, 2013 using Canon EOS 5D Mark II and EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM lens. Vitals: f/5, ISO 400, […]

Photo by Joe WilcoxJun 20, 20207:17 pm

The Cats of University Heights: Sylvester

Humans aren’t alone emerging from the the SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)—also known as COVID-19—pandemic lockdown. After a kind of drought, I suddenly see more kitties—three of them yesterday morning, all along Mississippi between Howard and Lincoln: This fine Tuxedo, another, and a ginger. But I failed to get portraits of the others, seen on another block; if lucky, perhaps we’ll meet again sometime soon.

This fine feline earns nickname Foxtrot, in part for how he foot-stepped his approach to me and my wife. I used Leica Q2 to capture the Featured Image. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/125 sec, 28mm; 8:55 a.m. PDT.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJun 16, 202010:08 pm

Signs of Our Turbulent Times

Six minutes after seeing the squirrel treed by Bruce, I came upon something quite unexpected along the Florida-Georgia alley between Madison and Monroe in San Diego’s University Heights neighborhood. The Featured Image (warning 29MB file) needs no explanation—other than camera (Leica Q2) and vitals: f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/125 sec, 28mm; 10:15 a.m. PDT, today.

We started 2020 with a pandemic and subsequent, nearly-nationwide shutdown of most businesses and all schools. Just as states started to reopen, a black man (George Floyd) died in the custody of white police officers. People poured into the streets, protesting and rioting, in response. Seattle surrendered six blocks to vigilante demonstrators, who have cordoned off the area, which they claim to be a cop-free zone.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJun 16, 20209:08 pm

Fright for Life

While walking down Alabama Street today, something scurried by brush to my right—Bruce, who was profiled in my “Cats of University Heights” series during May 2017. The fairly diminutive tabby treed a squirrel, and it […]