Hummingbird

Taken at the shore of the bay, right by my office. I love the rich sparseness of this picture. It is elegant without being overbearing. I think the patterns of the branches are fascinating, and I feel quite fortunate to have caught a snapshot of a hummingbird. I tried to catch him in flight, but I'm just not that good.

A composition with trees...

A clear day today, and I just started taking pictures whereever I was. This one I like particularly -- the trees fit together really nice in this composition.

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By the way, this is my 365th post!!! That's right folks, I've officially been dumping my crap on you for a whole year. Can you believe it?

I'm not at all sure that I can -- this is the longest streak of doing anything daily that I've ever done (that didn't involve dying if I dropped the ball).

Driftwood

Taken on our Sunday morning dog walk at Crissy Field.

The Bend in the Road

Taken near Pescadero (off Highway 1, south of Half Moon Bay).

Bright Red Berries

The color is so lush here. I also like the juxtaposition of the marina through the bush.

Baby pine cones

Some fungus among us...

A patch of mushrooms growing at the base of a tree near the bay. Interesting looking, but probably deadly.

Rocks at the shore

Walking along the shore on the western edge of the bay, I caught this view of these rocks. I liked the colors, the shapes, the light, etc...

Pine Cone

Amazing how a little green and a little brown come together in nature. Texture, color, and contrast, all together.

Thousands of chances ...

It was a beautiful day here today. We had gorgeous blue skies. We even went into the city *TWICE* today.

The camera, however, never made it out of the house. I forgot to grab it this morning, then I had to put it on the battery charger at lunch, and then I forgot to grab it again when we went to go pick Clemmy up.

As a result, you get a close-up of a flower in my back yard, taken after dinner (around 8:00pm).

Spider Web

Click for a bigger picture

Went to work REALLY early this morning (3:00am) and came home and went back to bed at lunchtime. As a result, I didn't get much time to snap pictures.

So, I decided to play with focus, macro settings, etc, and found this spider web on my poor broken grill (which, by the way, won't be broken after this weekend, cause I got the replacement parts in while writing this!).

Just a hint of rainbow...

Click for a larger picture

Stopping at our closest Starbucks this morning, I glanced up and saw this rainbow.

Note the red pickup truck parked next to the sign that says "No Truck Parking"

Another trip down I-280

I love Interstate 280 between San Francisco and San Jose. It is an amazingly beautiful route as it slides next to coastal range, especially as it passes Lake San Andreas (which sits directly on top of the fault by the same name).

This picture (along with the ones I added to the Flickr page, were taken on my way home from taking Clayton to a focus group he had in Foster City. The weather was kinda yucky, but even still, the landscape is just breathtaking.

Cut up cactus ...

On Interstate 280, about 1/2 way between San Francisco and San Jose, directly across the highway from a lake that sits directly ON the San Andreas fault, is a rest stop with a really interesting statue of Junipero Sierra (the monk who founded the Mission system in California) There are some pics of the statue in the Flickr page.

On the trail leading up to the statue is this stand of cactus. Apparently, this particular cactus doesn't have any thorns or anything else to protect it from marauding vandals such as Janet and Jesse.

Beautiful day in SF ...

click on the picture for a larger version

It was TRULY gorgeous in San Francisco today. Mid-60's/low 70's and barely any clouds. We left work early to pick up Clem from the dog sitters because we have a concert to go to tonight.

On the way home, we decided to go via "Great Highway", the road that runs along Ocean Beach. It was nearing sundown, and I had to stop to take some pictures of the sun on the ocean (go to the flickr page to see more, plus the ones of BOB taken from our dog sitter's back yard).

This one, while it doesn't have the sun on the water that I was looking for, jumped out. It probably would have been a better shot for Wednesday (Valentine's day), but, I took it today, so it goes in today! The shadows on the sand of the friends and the lovers -- the whole composition makes me pretty happy.

The Stump and the Slug...

It rained HARD today. Our area usually gets lots of rain between mid-January and mid-March, but this year, not so much. Today's rain was really the hardest, drenching rain we've had so far this year.

Anyway, there's a break in the rain, and so I decided to go around the block to look for today's picture before it gets too dark. I took about 25 shots, mostly stuff being wet, water flowing, places where water flows, etc. I got a couple of good shots of the cloud cover descending over the hill behind us (you can see the "almost ran" shots at my new flickr page here).

Then, as I was walking around the house on my way back in, I came across this stump. The homeowner's association hires gardeners who take are of our front yard, and they recently cut down a small tree that was dead. I saw the slug on the stump and found myself wondering "where is his shell" (we don't get a lot of slugs, mostly snails).

One last chase ...

I went to visit my son today (he's at UC Davis, which is about 70 miles from here). On my way home, I was still trying to find that great picture to take, when I noticed that the sun was going down, and, if I hustled, I could get to the beach in time to get a sunset picture.

Of course, I didn't count on the backup at the tolls on the Bay Bridge, so, alas, when I got to Ocean Beach, the sun had finished its journey below the horizon. Dejected, I turned the car down Great Highway and started home. At a stoplight, however, I looked out at the ocean, and saw a surprising site.

The beach was still FULL of people. Many were starting to wind their way back to the parking lot, but litterally hundreds of folks were still out on the beach -- a fair number of them with dogs, still splashing around in the surf.

I hurredly parked my car, grabbed my trusty D70, and headed down the sand.

I particularly like the fact that I caught the little guy completely in mid jump. I also liked the way the shadowy reflections in the wet sand blur the line where the people end.