June 30, 2012

steamy -- Phoenix Lake, part 2 of 2


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photo by Donald Kinney

With emphasis on e-a-r-l-y, whoever who gets to Phoenix Lake e-a-r-l-y enough might occasionally, if lucky, be rewarded with steam wafting from its surface.



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photo by Donald Kinney

I imagine the frogs might view it as just another cloudy morning.



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I see it as my steamy morning cup of coffee. Gulp gulp, lup lup, sip sip.
Ah, 'dats good...


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June 29, 2012

green -- Phoenix Lake, part 1 of 2


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photo by Donald Kinney

On Tuesday, with slim chances for any sort of dramatic sunrise, I opted for an early morning hike around Phoenix Lake.



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photo by Donald Kinney

Close, but a million miles away. Phoenix Lake is nestled beneath our beloved Mount Tamalpais on its eastern slopes, behind the small and upscale town of Ross. The creek flows slowly this time of year.



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photo by Donald Kinney

Call them Horsetails or call them Scouring Rushes--these plants OBVIOUSLY came from Outer Space!

additionally, Wikipedia says they are very old:
Equisetum ( /ˌɛkwɨˈsiːtəm/; horsetail, snake grass, puzzlegrass) is the only living genus in the Equisetaceae, a family of vascular plants that reproduce by spores rather than seeds.

Equisetum is a "living fossil", as it is the only living genus of the entire class Equisetopsida, which for over one hundred million years was much more diverse and dominated the understory of late Paleozoic forests. Some Equisetopsida were large trees reaching to 30 meters tall; the genus Calamites of family Calamitaceae for example is abundant in coal deposits from the Carboniferous period.

It has been suggested that the pattern of spacing of nodes in horsetails, wherein those toward the apex of the shoot are increasingly close together, inspired John Napier to discover logarithms.


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June 28, 2012

Coyote on the ridge at Mt. Tamalpais


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photo by Donald Kinney

The ridge of our beloved Mount Tamalpais is a wild place, indeed. With slow and deliberate steps this Coyote was hunting something in the dry grass.

It has been a banner year for "shooting" wildlife on "The Mountain". Earlier this year I snapped a Wild Turkey, and a few months ago I came across a plethora of Woodpeckers with romance on their minds. I even got close to shy Coho Salmon spawning in the Lagunitas Creek.



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photo by Donald Kinney

But it has also been a good year for ripples. And the surface of Alpine Dam has some of the finest.



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photo by Donald Kinney

Photographic proof -- When ripples reflect, magic can happen.


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June 27, 2012

Pride Parade, San Francisco 2012


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photo by Donald Kinney

Attracting 500,000 spectators and participants, San Francisco whooped it up big-time for its 42nd. Gay, Bisexual, Lesbian, Transgender "Pride Parade" this past Sunday.



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photo by Donald Kinney

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June 26, 2012

two of Marin's mountains


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photo by Donald Kinney

Our beloved Mount Tamalpais (Tam-al-pie'-us) is our centerpiece and crown-jewell here in Marin County, California. We're located just North of the Golden Gate Bridge.



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photo by Donald Kinney

Marin translates as "marine" in Spanish. The county roughly resembles a triangle, with the Pacific Ocean on one side and San Francisco Bay on another. Fog is our specialty!



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And who wouldn't love a shapely mountain named "Elephant"?

You see, there is Marin County, and then there is west Marin County with vast expanses of rolling hills and ranch-land. We have Oysters in fjord-like Tomales Bay. And we have Point Reyes, the Nation's first National Seashore. Marin County is a beautiful place. A "photographer's paradise", I'd call it!


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June 25, 2012

just ghostly, at China Camp on San Pablo Bay


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photo by Donald Kinney

There are trees, and then there are ghostly trees.



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photo by Donald Kinney

Signs of life nearby...



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photo by Donald Kinney

And then, more ghostly forms. These are volunteer oats, dry as a bone. Summer has definitely arrived.


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June 24, 2012

misty morning in Marin


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photo by Donald Kinney

Misty



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photo by Donald Kinney

morning



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photo by Donald Kinney

in



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photo by Donald Kinney

Marin.


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June 23, 2012

low tide at Rat Island, China Camp


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photo by Donald Kinney

If it was solitude I was looking for,



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photo by Donald Kinney

I definitely found vast quantities...



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photo by Donald Kinney

of the precious commodity...



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photo by Donald Kinney

Thursday morning...



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photo by Donald Kinney

out at my beloved China Camp on San Pablo Bay, which is the northern "thumb" of San Francisco Bay.


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June 22, 2012

Webb Creek at Steep Ravine, Mt. Tamalpais


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photo by Donald Kinney

Webb Creek flows year-around, although this time of year the flow is a fraction of the cascading torrents after a heavy Winter storm.



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June 21, 2012

snags and pointy forest things


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photo by Donald Kinney

After completely "striking-out" with the sunrise on Monday I noticed that my beloved Mount Tamalpais was partially shrouded in fog.



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photo by Donald Kinney

On my arrival the fog was thick. Drippy almost to the point of being rain.



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In muted light, the reflections on Alpine Lake were putting on a quiet show.


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June 20, 2012

a novel sunrise


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photo by Donald Kinney

It was a dark and stormy night.



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photo by Donald Kinney

Quite a struggle--making its way through a thick blanket of fog,
but, as if on some predetermined schedule, the sun finally arrived.



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photo by Donald Kinney

Impromptu flags of celebration fluttered, wiggled, and flew in the breeze.


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June 19, 2012

a celestial morning with a sky-high ISO


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photo by Donald Kinney

Nothing gets my "juices" flowing better than the arrival of a new piece of photographic equipment. My new tripod rolled in yesterday. It's time to retire "Old Sticky", which was the knock-off version of what I have now.



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photo by Donald Kinney

"Old Sticky" had become SO uncooperative with age that I disliked using it. The temptation was just to brace the camera and boost the ISO "sky-high". End result is "noise" which is easy to fix in CameraRAW (Photoshop), but excessive noise-correction produces slightly "muddy" images, which is what you are seeing here. My professional photo buddy in Ohio, Jan Bell pointed this out in an email yesterday. A low ISO will require no noise-correction, keeping the tones bright.



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photo by Donald Kinney

Okay, all you shutterbugs... No, I DIDN'T get one of those overpriced high-tech carbon-fiber lightweight p.o.s.'s that you see advertised. This Til-Tall tripod is the exact same model I had as a teenager, oh so many years ago. It's made of aircraft aluminum, but it is heavy-duty and will easily support the weight of a 4x5 view camera. It clamps down securely with precise control. Maximum height=74". In a windstorm it can be tied to the ground.

Oh, do I love my new tripod?   Yes.
Will I enjoy carrying it?   No.


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June 18, 2012

quiet morning on San Pablo Bay


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photo by Donald Kinney

Beginning with the end; yes, the sun surfaced.



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photo by Donald Kinney

But the real show, in my opinion, is in the minutes prior to its arrival.



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photo by Donald Kinney

A photographer doesn't want to be late--even though at such an early hour being late might sound, to the uninitiated, slightly improbable. Yawn...


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June 17, 2012

edge of San Francisco Bay


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photo by Donald Kinney

A peaceful scene on Richardson Bay just north of Sausalito. This location is directly beneath the busy Highway101 Richardson Bay Bridge.



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This is not a new image (I always indicate when they're not) but I snapped it almost 4 years ago in pre-dawn light from a vantage point at China Camp. That is Chevron's Richmond Refinery in the distance.



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photo by Donald Kinney

Across San Francisco to the East and towards the Sacramento Delta, in the small town of Crockett is the C&H Sugar Company which has served as a cooperative processing plant for Hawaiian sugar growers since 1906.

In 2005 C&H went corporate and was purchased by Domino Sugar. Over 700,000 tons of pure cane sugar is refined yearly with a reportedly "unique" assemblage of aging and one-of-a-kind processing equipment. Factory tours are not given.


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