out past Nicasio, out at the lake

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photo by Donald Kinney

It's a genuine "Thistle-fest" right now out at the lake at Nicasio. The sun has been helping out.



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photo by Donald Kinney

We have new thistles on the way. And brilliant Lupine to add my favorite color.



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Lumps of earth with chunks of rock bigger than anyone's house. And a lake that steams in the morning, just once in a while when conditions are right.


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Nicasio, a town stuck in time

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photo by Donald Kinney

If you drove through Nicasio, California, praying with eyes closed-tight, you might miss seeing Old Saint Mary's. Otherwise, you've got no excuse to miss framing up a little composition with camera or your mind's-eye.

Notice how I photographed the cross from the side, rendering it one straight line. Forgive me, dear Lord, for messing with your logo.



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photo by Donald Kinney

This is Mary, the most patient woman in the Universe.   I love Mary...



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So here's the deal. The big thing in Nicasio is baseball. Besides having to watch out for errant baseballs, you've got to drive around the baseball field if you expect to motor through town. Most cars make the two required 90 degree turns, a few don't.



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The OLD fire station and the new fire station in Nicasio. Photographic-proof that there has been progress in Nicasio over the past 150 years!



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People back in civilization, not that far away, probably have no idea cows are grazing leisurely in a tiny town named Nicasio, over the hill to the west.



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She's a dark-blue beauty and she's a Ford. And Nicasio is her home--an old truck stuck in time in the old town of Nicasio. Life goes on...


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Altamont Pass, Northern California

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photo by Donald Kinney

Altamont Pass is a gateway between the San Francisco Bay Area and California's Central Valley. A surprising number of San Francisco's workforce drive the extra distance up and over Altamont Pass to valley towns like Tracy and Stockton where home prices are still somewhat affordable.



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Unspoiled land. Looking South-west towards Livermore and San Jose.
What I needed (but lack) is a wide-angle lens, but I made this by stitching together 6 vertical images to form a panorama.



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Wind turbines -- they weren't moving ONE BIT while I was there.
I had plans for motion photos of the turning blades. Maybe next time...



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photo by Donald Kinney

I suppose my first question would be WHY, if wind-power generation is SO profitable, is this fellow selling the farm?



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Summit Garage has been here a while. This was the old Summit Road and more traffic passed before a faster 8-lane freeway was built a mile away. Imaginably, a lot of cars must have broken down on this old road. I doubt if repairs at Summit Garage were ever cheap, then or now.



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The Altamont Speedway Free Festival was an infamous rock concert held on Saturday, December 6, 1969, at the Altamont Speedway in northern California, between Tracy and Livermore. Headlined and organized by The Rolling Stones, it also featured, in order of appearance: Santana, Jefferson Airplane, The Flying Burrito Brothers, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, with the Rolling Stones taking the stage as the final act.

The Grateful Dead were also scheduled to perform, but declined to play shortly before their scheduled appearance due to the increasing violence at the venue. “That's the way things went at Altamont—so badly that the Grateful Dead, prime organizers and movers of the festival, didn't even get to play,” someone was quoted in Rolling Stone.

Approximately 300,000 people attended the concert, and some anticipated that it would be a "Woodstock West." Filmmakers Albert and David Maysles shot footage of the event and incorporated it into a documentary film titled Gimme Shelter (1970). The event is best known for having been marred by considerable violence, including one homicide and three accidental deaths: two caused by a hit-and-run car accident and one by drowning in an irrigation canal. Four births were reported during the event. Scores were injured, numerous cars were stolen and then abandoned, and there was extensive property damage. source: Wikipedia

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Crosses of Lafayette, part 2 of 2

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photo by Donald Kinney

Continuing from yesterday, these are the 4000 crosses on a hillside in Lafayette, California. They grieve for the needless loss of 6436 American soldiers in two wars that have scarred this country in so many ways.



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Crosses of Lafayette, part 1 of 2

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photo by Donald Kinney

The cost of freedom, or a tragic waste of human life?



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These Christian crosses and Stars of David are symbolic, so of course no soldiers are actually buried here. Lafayette, California, is home to a hillside planted with over 4000 wooden and metal crosses.



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Jeff Heaton, a building contractor in Lafayette, wanted to find a way to express his sorrow and appreciation for the huge number of soldiers who have lost their lives fighting two inexcusable and hideously cruel wars.



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Peace...


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the foggy Monterey Cypresses of San Francisco

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photo by Donald Kinney

Well, it doesn't get much more "west-coast" than the Monterey Cypress.
I found these ghostly figures above the historic remains of Sutro Baths in San Francisco.



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Early Sunday morning couldn't have been much foggier. Drippy and wet. Cold and chilling. And not one humanoid in sight. Bliss...



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Monterey Cypresses do well along California's central coast where they are frequently bathed by moist sea fog. Ocean winds shape their foliage. Trunks and branches often take on ghostly designs. They remind me of my roots--I grew up on the Monterey Peninsula, 120 miles to the south where they flourish, quite expressively in my opinion.


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Frank Lloyd Wright's Marin Civic Center

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photo by Donald Kinney

Not that Marin County doesn't have it's own share of urban problems and human suffering, but most residents see it as a special place.



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In 1959 councilwoman Vera Schultz learned of Frank Lloyd Wright's visionary work in architecture while reading a copy of the magazine House Beautiful, and quickly decided that Marin County needed to build a real showcase of a civic center designed by the famous, wild, and expensive architect.



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Vera Schultz had good persuasion skills, but she quickly met with a firestorm of opposition. Too expensive and too radical of a design. Vera and her supporters stuck to their guns. Amidst heated legal battles, construction was started and the first half of the building was completed in the early 1960's.



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Today it would be difficult to find anyone who actually dislikes the building. Oh yeah, those who have to stop by to pay a traffic fine, or those unfortunates who become temporary residents of it's jail might have a different opinion...


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morning adventure on Mt. Tamalpais

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photo by Donald Kinney

With no clouds in the sky on Saturday morning, my chances of making something out of the sunrise were slim. I decided to make a short trip up the hill to the outskirts of my laid-back little town of Fairfax, California.



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The Iris are at their peak right now. And they are plentiful this year--seldom have I seen more. We were two months late in getting our Winter rains, but for some reason the Iris have responded with a bumper crop of beauties.



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Quite a vantage point here... That's Mount Diablo in the distance and that's the San Rafael-to-Richmond Bridge mid-frame. The morning was warm and pleasant. I had to pinch myself to check if I was still dreaming.



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So how's that for a little hour long adventure? I've been thinking of selling tickets...


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Woodpeckers on Mount Tamalpais

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photo by Donald Kinney

There is an old slogan amongst photographers that rings true for me--"f-8 and BE there". The point is--while a Woodpecker might conceivably come knocking at my door some day, I've really got to go where they live. And the less dicking-around with equipment and camera settings, the greater the chances are that I might find something (just possibly woodpeckers) to snap.



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I'm no expert on birds, but I believe this is California's Acorn Woodpecker. But I have never seen more than one Acorn Woodpecker at a time. On Thursday up on my beloved Mount Tamalpais there must have been 10 or more, and they all seemed quite active, going between tree to tree in the same general area.

Because of all the activity I wondered if it might be mating season, but in checking the Wikipedia entry I see that it may be a little bit early--California Acorn Woodpeckers are said to mate in May and June. Possibly they were just enjoying the pleasant day. Or just possibly, love is arriving a little bit early this year?



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Okay, those of you with nothing better to do for 6 minutes and 13 seconds are welcome to watch Woody Woodpecker playing the piano.


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Wild Turkeys of Marin County

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photo by Donald Kinney

Wild Turkeys? Wow, does Marin County ever have a plethora of wild Turkeys! Over the past 20 years there has been a population explosion of Turkeys. Not exactly a good thing either because they have been throwing the ecological balance out of whack for native creatures and plants.



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So, it's the same old story--man is to blame for the population explosion. In 1988 the Fish and Game Department released a small flock of Turkeys on a ranch for "hunting purposes". That small flock quickly multiplied and expanded their territory. Today we have thousands upon thousands of wild Turkeys roaming the wilds of Marin County--I am not kidding!



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You and I are learning this information together. The article I found on our Turkey problem was written in 2002, so if the numbers were large then, they've skyrocketed since that time.

The old article mentions plans for bringing hunters in to thin the flocks, but I know for a fact that never happened and the population continues to grow unchecked to this day. Curiously, any organized Turkey hunt would require a difficult to obtain permit from the State Department of Fish-and-Game, the same department who introduced the Turkeys in the first place.


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getting my socks knocked off

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photo by Donald Kinney

Well, I'm pleased with the general consensus that we all enjoy a good and colorful sunrise.



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Same view, several minutes earlier and zoomed in a bit tighter.



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And a bit to the right of the main event. Where the clouds are free to express subtle moods and interesting designs. A monumental art gallery right there in the early morning sky. Kind of knocks my socks off...


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Birdland on San Pablo Bay

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I'm working on an assignment for my class this week. I need to make three images of a "place", so all this week I'll be making my early morning pre-sunrise dash out to my favorite spot at the Loch Lomond Harbor Spit on San Pablo Bay. Wish me luck. (Update--a visit to Marin Civic Center changed the subject of my assignment--stay tuned.



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It's just me and the birds at that hour. I believe my feathered friends are beginning to accept me as one of their own. Quackity, quack, quack.



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But when it comes down to it, they can fly and I only wish I could. Those are Pelicans in the photo, but it's probably time that I dust off and crack open my aging copy of Jonathan Livingston Seagull.


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capturing wildflowers, casually

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photo by Donald Kinney

Oh, I suppose my parents would been a lot more happy with their son if I had turned out to be follower of their religious persuasion, but I consider myself a rather spiritual person nevertheless. I don't know the nature of the spirit, but I can clearly see it in this wildflower--maybe you can see it too.



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So, if you think I spend hours and hours carefully setting up my camera and composing my images you would be quite wrong. I'm more of a snap-shooter, and in fact I made the pair of photos above, and the photo below while my clothes were in the dryer at the laundromat. My beloved Mount Tamalpais and it's wildflowers isn't far away. I'm a pretty lucky guy.



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With apologies to Monbretia, the Douglas Iris has got to be my favorite.
Each leaf is painted in what I think looks like an art-deco style of design.
Oh, I suppose the decoration makes a good landing-strip for the pollinators.
Life goes on...


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