September afternoon light

17 September 2010

The late afternoon light as I was walking home from work inspired these photos. Conditions were unusually nice, with dark clouds to the east and a low sun angle from the west.

The middle photo was shot in the Uplands at Berkeley and the top and bottom photos from the Upper Rockridge neighborhood. All are along a walking route between campus and our home.

Bicycling by the Bay

11 September 2010

This summer, when it hasn't been cold (most of the time), it has been hot. And this was one of those days.



Alison and Ingrid concocted a plan to keep cool by riding bayside, and I tagged along. They put together a picnic lunch. We meandered through Oakland, Emeryville, and Berkeley to the Bay Trail.



This neat yellow sculpture is outside the offices of one of Emeryville's biotech firms.



After crossing I-80 on the bicycle/pedestrian overpass, we headed north, going past Golden Gate Fields, the dog park, and Costco before reaching the Richmond marina. After lunch, we doubled back and saw these egrets in the tidal wetlands adjacent to the freeway.



And we did manage to keep cool.

Dahlias

11 September 2010

Ingrid is growing these spectacular flowers just outside our back door. They are on shoulder-high stalks.



How should flowers be photographed? I made the choice here to do tight cropping using a closeup lens to stress the beauty of the bloom itself. But there is no context, so the viewer is left without any reference. I like being able to see things in close-up photographs of flowers that are hard to see with the unaided eye.



One of the big challenges with a flower like the dahlia is its 3-dimensionality. With many flowers, one can shoot a closeup from a position that is perpendicular to the main plane of the petals and have most or all of the flower in focus. With a dahlia, there is nothing close to a flat surface and so only parts of the flower are in focus.

Here are the last of the dahlia blossoms, photographed on 16 October.

Cape Cod, Massachusetts

10 September 2010

Crazy, modern professional life. A committee of ten, appointed by a national agency, working for a year. Our charge: review and report on the anticipated consequences of climate change for indoor air quality and the impact on public health. Our fourth and final 2-day working meeting was scheduled for this beautiful site near Falmouth on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.



We all are busy people and so the committee members participate to different degrees. One member, from the UK, participates only one morning by internet video. A second member, who lives in Atlanta, is on conference call for most of the meeting. A third member can only be present for a half day on the first morning and so flies in the night before and leaves after just a few hours of work.



I spent all day Wednesday traveling. Leave home at 7 AM, catch a 7:30 train at the Rockridge BART station to arrive at SFO at 8:30 in preparation for a 10 AM departure. Flying Virgin America, I manage about 4 hours of productive work enroute using the in-flight wireless system before landing in Boston just after 6 PM EDT. It took an hour to get a rental vehicle. Navigating solo to Cape Cod, I made two significant wrong turns (but only two!), so the 90 minute drive took 2.5 hours and I finally settled into the hotel about 9:30 PM. Up the next morning at 7 AM (= 4 AM body time) for a full day's work at this spectacular location (see bottom two photos) with absolutely marvelous weather. And top off the day with a wonderful lobster dinner.



On Friday, I was up early (maybe too much dinner?) and used the opportunity to take some sunrise/early morning photos (top three photos) before heading off to the meeting site for an 8-3:30 working session. Immediately after the meeting adjourned, I was back in the rental car for the rush-hour drive back to Boston (only one wrong turn this time) and a late-night flight back home. In all, over these three days, I spent 24 h in transit, about 14 hours doing committee work, and maybe another 8 hours working on some of my other professional responsibilities. Those 14 hours of "face time" in the committee were very important. And having a laptop with almost constant wireless access makes it relatively easy to keep up with important matters in Berkeley no matter where I am. But there is definitely some wear-and-tear. This is not a sustainable model for working, either as an individual, or for the society!

Carmel Mission

5 September 2010

Shadow and Light II

3 September 2010