Happy Birthday, Sarah Kate!

A second post today because I missed one yesterday and this one's a photo within a photo with similar colors and tones- but wait- there's more! It's a photo of my daughter Sarah Kate taken oh, maybe 23 years ago or so when we lived in Oakland, CA, but probably not on her birthday which would've been over the top, but it is photographed, like the original, in front of the current family room fireplace. Ok, so that's enough of the photo metaphor thing already. But like the previous post today, photos are mementos, too, maybe even moreso than other objects, which would explain the explosion of cameras in nearly every digital device being made today.
All of which brings me to the current moment which has me holding Sarah's photo near, remembering the times she and her sister would barge in on their mother and I on weekend mornings and snuggle up and revel in burying their noses in the pillows and sheets, our shoulders and cheeks even as she's living life large, enjoying a weekend with her honey and close friends in NYC.

May you have as many, if not more, wonderful memories, too!

Mementos

Those things that are left to remind you of someone or someplace- an event perhaps, that have some intrinsic value of their own, but take on a deeper significance when you know you will never again see that person, be in that place, partake of that event or similar one in this lifetime.
Some say that we imbue some of the objects we touch with our own spirit; mostly I think we associate those things with our memories of the person, place, or event they belonged to. This was my Mother's crystal clock. Photographed in the fading afternoon light at a wide aperture rendered a very narrow range of sharpness that also makes it appear to be floating above the surface it's resting on. I shot it thinking I would get more color from the facets, was maybe a bit disappointed that there wasn't more showing but now looking at it and writing about it, I'm seeing elements of her personality and our relationship that hadn't occurred to me before. I like that.

Acalanes Ridge

After a pretty intense day of photographing mortgage brokers and realtors in a windowless conference room, the end of the day brought an end to some wacky weather and a visit to the Briones/Mt. Diablo trail about a half mile from home. Deep shadows and golden light.

April Showers

keep things green here in the San Francisco Bay Area.  A new leaf pops out from other spring growth on a miniature Japanese maple while raindrops act like tiny lenses on the older leaves.

All About the Roses: Part 2

The same blossom as photographed on April 24-what a difference 48 hrs makes when you add some heat and sunshine.

Early riser

It's Sunday morning. Make some coffee, fetch the paper, and already the worker bees are out in force in the lavender. Good thing they are still here. Without them or other pollinators like them, we wouldn't be. So, easy on the insecticides and pesticides, ok?

It's all about the roses...

this time of year, anyway. After long, drab and weary winters, the first rose of spring hints of long, warm summer days and nights, kids playing on the lawn, and sleeping with the windows open.

"You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns have roses."

Ziggy

Hello, world!

Too late to the party?

Hope not.

I'm thinking this will be a visual diary. The intent is to post a photo a day of something that caught my eye. Maybe some folks have seen the movie "Smoke" in which Augie, the smoke shop proprietor, who also happens to be an avid photographer, makes it a point to photograph the scene outside his store from the same vantage point with the same lens at the same time day after day after day, and then then puts them in chronological sequence in an album. This will be more eclectic than that.

Hmm. Let's see what develops!

So, here's a jar full of pennies, tossed onto the floor, old & new alike. Like so many thoughts.