you may be starting to detect a theme here

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photo by Donald Kinney

Okay, twist my arm and I'll tell you "The Short Story of my Life"...



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photo by Donald Kinney

I photographed as a kid, and now I photograph as an old man. The bit in the middle was, as I remember, fairly uneventful and photo-less, but I would see things and mutter; "Hey, I could make a photograph out of that".



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photo by Donald Kinney

But now I get to spend my mornings as an old cowboy, rounding up ripples and reflections that would surely otherwise go astray. Life flows on...


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leafy and reflective at Lagunitas Creek

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photo by Donald Kinney

So there I was, getting all leafy and reflective at the Lagunitas Creek. California's special-edition of Fall has definitely arrived.



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photo by Donald Kinney

One leaf; it will float for a while...



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photo by Donald Kinney

The somewhat still water of the mighty Lagunitas forms a large mirror.


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sunset vs. sunrise -- an age-old debate

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photo by Donald Kinney

These first two are sunsets.



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photo by Donald Kinney

This (above) and the first photo were taken on Thursday along scenic Ridgecrest Bouleverd, on my beloved Mt. Tamalpais, here in Marin County.



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...and these last three "thin" photos are sunrises.



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photo by Donald Kinney

You will often find me championing the merits of sunrises over sunsets.



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The way I see it, a start is usually more interesting than the end.
The sunrise holds promise of a new day.
The end of the day can be forgotten, but a new sunrise brings hope.
And hope springs eternal. Don't forget to wind your alarm clock...


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sunrise at Loch Lomond Harbor

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photo by Donald Kinney

As chance would have it, I saw impressive signs of a-n-o-t-h-e-r peacenik.



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With its clean sweep of the northern part of San Francisco Bay I have always celebrated the rocky breakwater, or "spit", at Loch Lomond Harbor. Location is about half-way between San Rafael and China Camp on San Pablo Bay.



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Nobody sane would believe this, but it is great time of the day to be up.
Usually it is just me and the birds...


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if it is flat, it was probably once part of the Bay

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photo by Donald Kinney

San Francisco isn't all that old that we can't sometimes figure out where nature stopped, and modern "progress" took over.



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Columbus Avenue is a bit askew to the other streets it intersects, but I like to follow its gentle slope to the shore, where the imposing Transamerica Pyramid now sits.

During excavation for the Pyramid's massive foundation, wooden ships were unearthed from the muck of the original shoreline of San Francisco Bay.



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This is the old Transamerica Building built in 1909. It is now a church of Scientology. The new pyramid shaped Transamerica Building across the intersection to the south was built in 1972.



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Soooooooooooo, today you have seen TWO of my obsessions--
(first photo) Wedding dresses from outside the shop window,
and (photo above) condiment caddies in empty restaurants.


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exploding sunlight on Mt. Tamalpais

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photo by Donald Kinney

Mother Nature was putting on quite a light-show Wednesday, on my beloved Mount Tamalpais.



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Finger-shadows, or are they trees?



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photo by Donald Kinney

One for Jerry Garcia...
Did you know that later in life Jerry Garcia turned into quite a prolific painter and designer? He used bold primary colors--what else?



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photo by Donald Kinney

Veiled in a fog--wrapped in softness... I think I'll go back to bed.


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Horsetails and streamside

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photo by Donald Kinney

While Fall colors seep through, last year's crop of Horsetails hangs on.



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photo by Donald Kinney

Bright and full of promise. These specimens were taken back in August.



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photo by Donald Kinney

I hope old Fly had a good Summer. He probably won't be here for Spring.



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A bit of trickery going on here, perhaps... I combined two similar shots.


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Valero Refinery at Benecia, California

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photo by Donald Kinney

The West Coast isn't quite as industrialized as the Midwest and Eastern Seaboard, but we do have an abundance of oil refineries here in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In addition to this Valero plant in Benecia, others within a small radius on the map are Tesoro in Pacheco, Chevron in Richmond, Phillips66 in Rodeo, Tosco in Avon, and Shell in Martinez.



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Valero near Benecia was purchased in 2000 from ExxonMobile, along with 350 Exxon gas stations in Caifornia, mainly in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Total feedstock throughput capacity of the Valero refinery is 170,000 barrels per day. Products include propane, butane, California Summer formula CARB gasoline, ultra-low-sulfur diesel, jet fuel, fuel oil, residual oil and asphalt.



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Had I gone knocking at the gate I'm fairly certain that permission to photograph would not be granted, so I had to be a bit stealthy with my long lens and early hour. Sometimes photographers need to push-the-envelope.



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I like that phrase--pushing-the-envelope...
Or as my dad used to say; "See you in the funny-papers"...


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more of Saturday's Suisun Bay sunrise

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photo by Donald Kinney

On Saturday I was exploring new places to view the sunrise on Suisun Bay.



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photo by Donald Kinney

The same cloud, a few minutes later and a few miles further down the road.



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Double-peaked Mount Diablo, or "Devil's Mountain" in the distance to the south-west.


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sunrise at Suisun Bay

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photo by Donald Kinney

On Saturday morning I visited the western shores of Suisun Bay.
The area borders tidelands along Highway680 between Cordelia and Benecia.



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photo by Donald Kinney

The layout of the land is surreptitious and Suisun Bay is sort of a transition zone, or an estuary, between the Sacremento Delta and San Francisco Bay.



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Although I never reached my destination, I intended to visit the wind-geneators of the Montezuma hills, to the west of Highway12 between Fairfield and Rio Vista.

Wheat growing and sheep raising are the primary activities, but in recent years farmers have added to their income by leasing land for wind-farms.



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I checked... They are 13 to 15 miles away, as the crow flies. Not a breeze.


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fog clearing -- Mount Tamalpais

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photo by Donald Kinney

We had rain, but by Thursday our hills were once again wrapped in fog.



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From Ridgecrest Bouleverd on Mt. Tamalpais, looking North.



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Weather, performing a magic act before our very eyes.


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early morning at San Pablo Bay

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photo by Donald Kinney

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photo by Donald Kinney

With a few breaks in the dense clouds, Thursday morning had promise, but a more solid covering of clouds hung around most of the morning.



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photo by Donald Kinney

The Western Grebe [?] on the left didn't want to hold his head still.
The Egret on the right was turning ripples into artistic squiggles.



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So, this is the Loch Lomond Spit area. right: See the Richmond Bridge?
This is where you're probably going to find Don hanging out with fingers crossed for a colorful sunrise. Not much luck on Thursday, but the Chevron Refinery, across San Pablo Bay, was sending up powerful plumes of steam.


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San Francisco in the morning

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photo by Donald Kinney

Welcome to the Marin County side of the Golden Gate Bridge, folks...



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There is a beautiful view of San Francisco from a vantage point beneath the Richardson Bay Bridge. Mid-distant are masts of yachts docked in Sausalito.



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And with City half enveloped in a blanket of fog, a gull flies. Don snaps...


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Mt. Tamalpais -- early morning adventure

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photo by Donald Kinney

Working my way backwards, this was my final shot on Tuesday. That structure at top right is the Sutro Tower, chock full of communications antennas. The blanket of fog is covering San Francisco and the Golden Gate. The slivers of land are the high points in the Golden Gate National Recreational Area.



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No shortage of Coyotes on Mt. Tamalpais, but thankfully they still have a healthy fear of man.



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Moon goes down, sun comes up. Some mornings are a real science lesson.



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And this view, up and outside of Fairfax, is where I started my adventure. Sleepy residents of Marin County were just beginning to stir. Crazy-ass photographer was just beginning to snap...


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