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photo by Donald Kinney
Well, to me these two Turkey Vultures seem rather posed -- like they are stuffed and on display in a museum, but no, this is the real thing. I found them not at China Camp Village, but along the 7 miles of tranquil shoreline that encompasses the whole of China Camp State Park.
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photo by Donald Kinney
And of course I can never make it out of China Camp Village without shooting the back door to the boiler room. The boiler was used to dry the catches of Bay Shrimp. Before the boiler was installed (probably in the 1930's) shrimp had to dry in the sun, a less dependable source of heat.
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photo by Donald Kinney
Oh, did I mention that they netted Bay Shrimp here? China Camp Village is on the western shore of San Pablo Bay, which is the northern thumb of San Francisco Bay.
China Camp was established in the 1860's and large catches of Bay Shrimp were pulled out of the bay. Today the lone remaining resident of China Camp, Frank Quan, now in his 80's, still sets a net -- usually just at the end of the dock, but the catch these days is paltry in comparison to former days. Bay Shrimp can't tolerate a lot of salt water and salinity levels in San Pablo Bay have increased in recent decades due to fresh water diversions from the Sacramento River that would normally flow into this part of San Francisco Bay.
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photo by Donald Kinney
And here's another composition that I can never seem to pass up -- this may be my best iteration of the scene so far. Practice makes perfect, I suppose. Actually, I usually operate under the principle that if I take enough snaps, I'm bound to end up with a few potential "keepers" once in a while. It's the same theory as sitting ten thousand monkeys down in front of typewriters -- with enough time one of the monkeys is bound to type something intelligible.
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photo by Donald Kinney
From left to right, these read; 1) Safety on land and sea, 2) Get what you want, and 3) Peace and prosperity. They hang inside the recently refurbished museum at China Camp.
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2 comments:
Nice capture of the Turkey Vultures and I enjoyed your other photos and love your header.
Great shot of the turkey vultures.
There is something so intriguing about the 3 signs. they have so much character.
Glad you are getting all the pictures you can before the State Park is closed. (:0(
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