November 18, 2009

doing Dogpatch and Pier70 with Troy Holden


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photo by Donald Kinney

Foist of all folks, I've fixed this first photo -- yesterday it had a yucky blue sky and was kind of dark overall.   Other than the yucky sky, I trusted everything to the image's "Histogram" forgetting to look at the image subjectively with my eye to judge the brightness.   Fortunately I've caught and corrected my mistake.

This was shot on an adventurous trek through the Pier70 area with best photo buddy (bpb) Troy Holden, formerly known as Plug1.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Here's Troy Holden, one of the key members of CALIBER GROUP, and that character in the background is one of 81 "Girafas" Troy has tracked down throughout the City.



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photo by Donald Kinney

Boo...   And it can get kind of spooky, spooking around all those old warehouses and abandoned shipyards.   Pretty good odds that someone was inside this van sleeping.



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photo by Donald Kinney

And it was a pleasant morning -- traces of rain from a few days before were opening up photo-ops here and there.

Along the way Troy asked me how adventurous I was feeling -- if I wanted to slip under a fence and tip-toe along a slippery shore to make our way into an old dry-docks building, and we tried, but someone had reinforced the fence and plugged up some holes -- we were thwarted in getting way out to where we were really not supposed to be.



click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney

Besides walking very gingerly through the parking lot of the local Hell's Angels clubhouse, another highlight of my photo-walk with Troy was getting to take a look at a 1946 Muni bus that is going to be restored by Muni shop personnel.

There is no shortage of friction between the "workers in the trenches" at the bus repair shop and the "big-wigs" at the higher echelons of Muni and City Hall.

Besides starting the restoration work at a time when workers are being laid-off and bus fares are going up, restoring the bus will take an estimated $800,000 in materials and man-hours, plus it will pull mechanics away from the type of work they are supposed to be doing (((like fixing busses))).

Personally, I think the City and Muni should enlist the aid of the Hell's Angels to do the restoration work on the old bus.   Seems like they would enjoy working with metal and making the bus look all pretty -- they hang out nearby, so it's right up their street, so to speak.   It could be one of those community projects where they would stop slamming speed-balls long enough to help out their poor beleaguered Municipal Transit System.   Would boost their image...

CLICK to see Troy's great interior shot of the old bus.


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Your comments are invited and welcome.

3 comments:

Troy Holden said...

that was a fun photowalk, Don!

i like your smokestack photo :) very much looking fwd to our trip to Marin.

photowannabe said...

Great shots of a dicey place. I like the smokestack too. Glad you found a bpb to scout out the interesting places.
Trouble with the Muni and the City just never stops.

Louise said...

I really thought the smokestack picture was upside-down because the reflection is so clear. Your sense of adventure makes me seem like a wimp!

 
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