in search of heavy fog -- didn't find any

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photo by Donald Kinney

I grew up in the little ocean-side town of Pacific Grove, so I am no stranger to fog. Heavy fog. Fog thick enough to cut with a knife. Fog so dense that visibility is measured in noses, not yards. Fog that can chill a boy to the bone. Fog so soupy and drippy that a certain young lad might have had second thoughts about not wearing his rain-gear.



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photo by Donald Kinney

So, last Thursday I thought, surely, a massive amount of fog would be waiting, but I arrived at the twisty grove of Cypresses at San Francisco's "Land's End" only to find much less than I had hoped for. And yes, the trees were still artfully ghostly--just not quite enough "vapors" to evoke a mood.



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photo by Donald Kinney

An adventurous hike took me down to Sutro Bath Ruins, where I have rarely seen such a low tide--revealing a wide and wet sandy beach. One old codger with a camera, one fisherman without much luck, and a plethora of gulls.



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photo by Donald Kinney



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ripples and reflections -- temporary works of art

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photo by Donald Kinney

I'm afraid I will never achieve the coveted super-power of being "invisible". So I guess I'll just have to deal with people and their harmless but often asked question; "What in the world are you taking a picture of?"



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photo by Donald Kinney

Oh, I usually point, and exclaim with as much excitement as I can muster; "Little temporary works of art, right there in the water".



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photo by Donald Kinney

Then comes a reply to the tune of; "Oh, are you an artist? To which I always feel obligated to launch into my diatribe about how Edward Weston never allowed anyone to call HIM an artist. That being called a "photographer" was sufficient... Anyway, I'm certainly no Edward Weston, but I've always wondered if E.W. ever fantasized over that same super-power--"invisibility". [ note: this last image is not new -- taken August 29, 2012 ]


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fog rolling in like a freight train

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photo by Donald Kinney

First, an apology is due to all of my fine friends who live in the beautiful city of San Francisco. I withdraw my remark yesterday that The City is a "hell-hole". Mike, Diane, Denis, Josh, Travis, Troy, Bob, Nancy, Meli, Brad, F.T., Sonia, and several other of you fine San Francisco folks; forgive me for such a broad and unwarranted smear on your home. I should have known better.



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photo by Donald Kinney

But to see fog like THIS, you've got to be up on my beloved Mt. Tamalpais--UNLESS you prefer your fog wrapped around buildings and sky-scrapers.



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photo by Donald Kinney

Just as "city fog" rushes in through the Golden Gate, our fog here in Marin County comes rolling over the ridges on Mt. Tamalpais like a freight train.


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Golden Gate Bridge -- an artful beauty

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photo by Donald Kinney

Quite unfairly perhaps, San Francisco gets all of the credit for the Golden Gate Bridge. But without our beloved Marin County there would be no need for the bridge--lets give credit where credit is due. Marin County ROCKS!



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photo by Donald Kinney

After all, who in their right mind would WANT to live in San Francisco? My apologies to friends who live in San Francisco, but lord, what a hell-hole.



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photo by Donald Kinney

Okay, time to give the "powers that be" at the GGB some "crap" here. Since opening in 1937 over 1600 confirmed suicides have taken place on the span. And every one of them could have been prevented had the bridge been designed or retrofitted in a manner that would prevent jumpers from being so successful.

Today, there are 25 to 30 confirmed suicides suicides per year from the bridge. Another six to 12 suicides aren't confirmed, according to estimates, and about 80 people per year are taken off the bridge prior to jumping. That's 120 people per year, on average, who go to the bridge with the intention of killing themselves. (source: The Final Leap)

So why haven't adequate barriers been built? Simply because something like a difficult to climb fence or barrier would detract from the esthetic qualities of the bridge. Money also seems to be an issue.   [insert sarcasm here]


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Lagunitas or Papermill -- creek with two names

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photo by Donald Kinney

I've always called it the Lagunitas (La-goo-knee'-tas) Creek, meaning "little lagoons" in Spanish, but many locals also refer to it as Papermill Creek--in the late 1800's Samuel P. Taylor established a small paper-mill here relying on the abundant Fir trees in this area for his pulp feedstock.



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photo by Donald Kinney

The giant Redwoods here were of no use to Taylor in the manufacture of his paper, but San Francisco's insatiable demands for lumber made a quick buck for opportunistic loggers. By the 1870's a railroad had already been built through the area, making it economical to transport lumber and Samuel P. Taylor's paper to market. Taylor also established a large resort here as a rustic weekend get-away for San Francisco's wealthy "city folk".



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photo by Donald Kinney

Taylor died on January 22, 1886 and unfortunately his family lost ownership of the paper-mill and resort in the stock market crash of of 1893, however the resort, "Taylorville" continued to operate under new ownership until 1910. The paper-mill burned down in 1916, and in 1945 the State of California took possession of the property for non-payment of taxes, eventually turning the area into a California State Park; Camp Taylor.


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fog at Big Rock -- Lucas Valley

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photo by Donald Kinney

I'm probably just as much as a sleepy-head as anybody else, but when there is a chance of some morning color and/or drama, I am up-and-outta-here.



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photo by Donald Kinney

But the problem is deciding in which direction to go. West of Fairfax is our beloved Mount Tamalpais. To the east is China Camp with splendid morning views across San Pablo Bay. To the south is the Golden Gate Bridge and pleasing views of Angel Island. And in the northern direction--two superb places; the lake at Nicasio, and just a bit to the east--Big Rock--the area you are seeing here today.



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photo by Donald Kinney

And there it is--Big Rock itself, standing at about 40 feet tall. This rock has a bit of history. For years it was repeatedly plastered with countless layers of graffiti and tags, until George Lucas bought the surrounding land for his second campus in Lucas Valley (which by the way is not named after George or any of his relatives). Big Rock has since been cleaned up, fenced, lighted at night, and is under 24 hour video surveillance lest some miscreant be tempted to leave his or her mark.


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San Francisco -- the grand views

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photo by Donald Kinney

First off, I should reassure you that those birds WERE in the photo, just not originally that low in the sky. I used Photoshop's cool new Content-Aware Scaling tool, which allows for the compression of superfluous blank space whenever an image needs a bit of squeezing to make it less tall. The image has also been Posterized into a limited number of colors, and some other techniques were used--so to answer that often asked question; yes, there is a whole lot of Photoshopping going on in this image.



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photo by Donald Kinney

Bagdad-by-the-Bay, some call it. It has even been called "The City That Knows How". But oh, how many hearts have been left in San Francisco? So sad... Only San Francisco knows...



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photo by Donald Kinney

Oh, did I mention the fog? Our cool natural air-conditioning. Free (if you don't factor in the high cost of living here), and refreshing. Quite abundant.


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China Camp in late afternoon light

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photo by Donald Kinney



Feeling a bit ancient right now, but in 1963 Kodak introduced a great improvement on their oh-so-slow Kodachrome by making it two and a half times more sensitive to light, calling it Kodachrome-2 with an "ASA" (now called "ISO") of a whopping 25--slow as molasses by today's standards.



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photo by Donald Kinney

But the instructions that came with the old and new Kodachromes always confounded me. At first glance the instructions seemed to imply that all picture-taking should be done 2 hours after sunrise to 2 hours before sunset. I knew that couldn't be right, but yes, I do remember snapping a whole lot of very reddish pix early and late in the day. Kodachrome was rather wiggy.



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photo by Donald Kinney

Today we call the early and late hours of shooting the "Golden Hours", and covet this light for its warmth and depth. Generally, I just put the camera away during the middle of the day, or concentrate on subjects where the "color temperature" would have little effect.


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scintillating waters of China Camp

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photo by Donald Kinney

Photographers are a VERY funny lot... And EVERYBODY seems to be a photosnapper these days--welcome to our passionate, but nutty little club.



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photo by Donald Kinney

Maybe we all can sign up for a group rate on psychotherapy... Hopefully on-line. Must be a lot cheaper that way--and oh, do we photogs ever need help!



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photo by Donald Kinney

Gosh, we could be doing PRODUCTIVE things: Making things out of wood. Fixing Rhett Redelings' Jaguar. Sitting with the sick. Feeding the poor. Picking up litter in the streets. Oh, SO many GOOD things we photographers could do to replace this nasty and all-consuming photo snapping addiction.


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the daily "doings" of Kitty, the blog "animal"

photo by Donald Kinney

Kitty, the blog animal   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .     June 27, 2010
With Kitty it's not always easy to determine if she is just deep in a mood, or if she is actually thinking about something... 

Or maybe it's a bit more complex--maybe she finds comfort in exploring her spot in the space-time-continuum.   E equals M x C squared, and all that jazz... 



I ask her only simple questions--like what planet she's from...  
Either she doesn't know or she isn't telling...



photo by Donald Kinney

Kitty, the blog animal   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .      September 26, 2010
Well, Kitty, my  trusted companion,  is right here as always--there is just enough space for her on my lap...

We are a real team--she does nothing and I get to write about nothing--it's a great working relationship... 

Often, when the work is done, we hang around Kittyland afterhours and think about, well, largely nothing...  
Always nice to have that trusted companion nearby.



photo by Donald Kinney

Kitty, the blog animal   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .         May 30, 2009
Kitty's buddy, I think his name is  Alvin the Chipmunk,  wanted to know why we had no edition of KittyBLOG last week... 

 Well, Alvin, it's my fault I suppose, although I'm going to try my best to blame it on Kitty...



Last week I was getting all set to "do" KittyBLOG when Kitty decided not only to walk across my keyboard but also to sit on my mouse...   That delay caused another delay, and another, and another--so here we are today... 



Where's Kitty?   On my lap as usual--and right now she is having a rather wild dream, complete with snorts and snurts and a bit of wiggling around... Evidently, Kitty is a million miles away right now...   Life goes on...

Well, it has been about two years now since Kitty died. The hole in my heart which used to be big enough to drive a truck through is healing.

She was a great cat. Perhaps a bit demanding, but cute enough get away with most everything. But what she taught me over those ten or so years is the realization that "no man is an island". Kitty needed me and I needed Kitty--it all worked out quite nicely.

Kitty won't be "replaced" any time soon--and the other cats in the neighborhood, along with a plethora of deer have been taking-up-the-slack and keeping me company here at the place we knew for so many enjoyable years as "Kittyland".
Kitty's website is still up and running at www.pestbouncer.com

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exploring the mysteries of nature

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photo by Donald Kinney

...



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photo by Donald Kinney

...



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photo by Donald Kinney

...


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sunlight looking for a place to poke through

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photo by Donald Kinney

Behind that thick mass of clouds and fog is our beloved Mount Tamalpais.



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photo by Donald Kinney

Living here for eons longer than our odd human lot are creatures of peace.



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photo by Donald Kinney

Sunlight searching. Clouds forming, dissipating. Strange primordial seas.


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What's for breakfast?

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photo by Donald Kinney

Oh, before they went and built that darned Golden Gate Bridge in the mid 1930's, Marin County was oriented towards agriculture; supplying the San Francisco region with everything from honey, wheat and milk, to lumber made from tall Redwood giants. And yes, by the way; they did saw down every Redwood in sight--San Francisco had an insatiable appetite for wood.



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photo by Donald Kinney

And they say that Marin County is still an agricultural based county, but you'd never know it while navigating some of its more gruesome urban parts, like that very messy mass of marauders on Highway-One-Oh-One.



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photo by Donald Kinney

Meanwhile, in what we call "west Marin", the Shredded Wheat has arrived. Maybe a bit of milk and honey would go good with that...


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Ridgecrest Boulevard, Mt. Tamalpais

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photo by Donald Kinney

I've always thought it odd that "Ridgecrest Boulevard" a tiny and twisting road precariously hanging-on to the top of a mountain would be called a "Boulevard"; but it is (odd), and it is (twisty), and that's what it's called.



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photo by Donald Kinney

This is the low-spot on the crest. Fog driven in from the sea sometimes comes roaring through this spot like a freight train.  Hey--did you know? Redwood trees get most of their water through leaves, not roots.



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photo by Donald Kinney

An empty road. I was probably one of the few people there on Tuesday.
The photo seems rather empty--perhaps it "needs" something.
Or possibly it is the "emptiness" that is speaking here...


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China Camp -- a million words away

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photo by Donald Kinney

Oh, how w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l------it is "Wordless Wednesday" once again!



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photo by Donald Kinney




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photo by Donald Kinney



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the way to Point Bonita

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photo by Donald Kinney

Tourists usually take scenic Conzelman Road towards Point Bonita, while the more adventurous visitors have the option of taking the long, drippy, and dark "tunnel route" where cars wait at the 5-minute red-light for traffic coming the other way to clear in this one-way tunnel, a WW2 relic.



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photo by Donald Kinney

Soooo..... Why would anyone, tourist or "local" want to go to Point Bonita? Well, along the way there is an impressive orange bridge to oogle. There is the appropriately named Hawk Hill, and a plethora of crumbling military fortifications built into hillsides but with commanding views of the ocean. And yes, there was a Nike-Hercules defensive missile site here that makes for a bone-chilling tour. Hiking trails criss-cross and zig-zag Point Bonita.

These bluffs comprise the northern entrance to the Golden Gate, and yes there is a lighthouse. There is the long Rodeo Beach with mysterious "sea stacks" near one end, and perhaps not so mysterious "surfer dudes" on the other end. Between ends--birds, happy dogs and a few soul-searchers.



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photo by Donald Kinney

A few days ago I had my mind on the dead Cypress trees behind Battery Wallace. I'll catch up with the surfers, sea stacks, and soul searchers later.


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