more from the spring wildflower backlog

Spring in (where else?) Lockwood

Owl's clover and calicoflower. The blue part isn't water,
it is really Downingia cuspidata growing in a vernal pool that has already dried

Midweek bonus photo

Two surprises about these guys: they can cover ground pretty fast and when you look closely at them, they are fuckin filthy.

Carrizo Plain I

After a winter with a decent amount of rain, it is definitely worth a springtime visit to the Carrizo. I have a lot more pictures from my few hours here. Hopefully I'll get them edited soon

Soda Lake

Shell Creek

This place was just lousy with photographers... a couple dozen at the very least. Unfortunately, this is the place where my lens started really going on the fritz... and I didn't figure out what was going on until later that day, so I didn't get nearly as many good shots as I wish I had. I'll just have to come back another spring.

Excuses, excuses

I know I've been a flake about this lately, but I have some pretty good reasons: my computer died and my favorite camera lens is barely working... and it has taken some time to get the new computer up to speed (I hate the bastard). Oh, and I've been hemorrhaging money on my car, too. (Never fear, it's nothing unexpected or drastic. Expensive, though).

With one thing and another, I'm just not feeling like spending time editing photos. In fact, I haven't even installed photoshop on the new computer yet.

So to all my fans (all three of them) I'll try to get back to this soon. -V

I like bark

Sycamore bark

Plantago ovata

Hames Valley

Lockwood

Barnacles

Morro Bay, CA

Photoshopping- I think I like the B&W one better

Snowday

Lockwood, CA

Haliaeetus leucocephalus

Finally, I have photographed this camera-shy fowl!

Rain

During the latest storm, I went on a driving tour of erosion at recent construction sites at work. Lacking the proper underwater (i.e ziplock) technology, I was restricted to taking photographs from inside the vehicle. For those of us below the 38th parallel in CA, precipitation is rather more of a treat than for y'all up north. (You have to click on the first one to get the full effect)

Bear

...aka The Dog, aka Stinky, aka Nixon/Tricky Dog, aka Doggie-you're-in-the-way

(my parents' misbehavin' critter)

Mono Lake

I know... it's been about four months since I took the blasted pictures and longer since I did a real update. What can I say, artistry happens at irregular intervals.

The lake is so saline that the birds float kind of
strangely... with their tails slightly elevated

There was a fire somewhere in the vicinity that evening...
by morning, the entire valley was full of smoke and it was
completely intolerable so I had to leave

View from Tacoma

That is, my truck, while parked near WR Hearst State Beach.

Leftovers

Some spring photos that I didn't get around to editing until now. (Lots more where these came from.)

Who is P.J.?

My mom and I found these in a bag of my grandma's old photos. Nobody can figure out who P.J. was, but he had a lovely, kind of bubbly script.

all aboard for Tokyo!
Syl, remember the 163rd St Crosstown?
P.J. April 1945

I presume the "Syl" was my grandma, but then again, in that generation there was at least one Sylvia in every Jewish household. I don't think P.J. is a relative of mine. I'm not sure where this photo was taken but I'm thinking he was probably shipping out from somewhere in California and was definitely not on a train on Honshu.

at ease!
P.J. May 1945

You can see the Army helmet on the right side of the photo. P.J. probably didn't have long to wait to go home.

San Miguel

Mission San Miguel Arcángel and an old building with schizophrenic architecture that I think is a henhouse.
(If you can't tell, I really like the roof/lichen thing going on at the mission.)