Fall Colors All Year-Round

Bold yellows, reds, and oranges from around the nation (Chicago, top; Columbia City / Seattle, middle; Lahaina, bottom)

Fall Harvest

Fresh vegetables and squash from the local farm stand. The rainbow chard is especially delicious.

Garba-Raas dance for Navratri

Celebrating Navratri is something everyone should experience. The whole room was moving up and down, forwards and backwards like waves breaking on a beach as everyone danced the Garba. Like gears in a clock, an overwhelming view of color and motion as circles of people orbited around other circles of people around the shrine in the center, like planets rotating about themselves and the sun at the same time. Hundreds of people following each other and they danced around the room. Oh the poor people who had to follow me. They eventually gave up in polite frustration and jumped ahead.

We formed a giant circle, two concentric circles for the Raas, the dandia dance. Yes, we banged dandias (sticks) together like swords and in a short pattern and kept rotating partners. Banging dandias with people of all ages, from 3 to 60 or more, is a great way to break the ice with a lot of people since you have to stare face to face as you coordinate the movements and rotate to the next partner.

People from all backgrounds were represented. Although most people were Indian or of Indian descent, people with backgrounds or from Asia, Africa, Europe, and local Americans were there too. Just in our group of seven there were people from Estonia, India, Africa (not sure which country), and the US. I even ran into some of my Indian co-workers who I think were more surprised to see me than I was to see them.

Ghost

Sent in by an avid reader (thanks Mom!). The story is that she saw this cookie and it reminded her of a photo from many years ago, which she dug out of  her archives (it runs in the family). What a great pairing!

The Apple of Man

One of the favorite costumes that I've seen -- so simple and very clever. For those who don't know the reference, see this link at Wikipedia.

Wild Mushrooms

These images represent a small sample of the myriad types of mushrooms that appear just within my neighborhood in the fall. I'm simply amazed at the diversity. Some are huge, some are small, some are layered, some are clustered, some stand alone, and come in so many shapes. They would be delicious grilled on a BBQ if only they weren't also poisonous.

Colors of the Fall

The reds and yellows of the oil boom mirror the changing season. The blurriness was unintentional but it adds a lot of motion and draws out more of the color.

The image of leaves on a barberry bush is ok, but what I really like are the saturated pinks, yellows, and greens, and all the colors in between. The blue-green block in the background? That's a watering can. I used it to add extra color to the image by taking advantage of the property that a large aperture results in a blurry background. The color is there without having a recognizable object distract from the foreground image.

Students in Their Natural Habitat

Tree-sitters protesting UC Berkeley's plans to chop down an oak grove.

I found this postcard on the ground next to the chain-link fence, a stark representation of what eventually came to pass. The light is coming from the numerous Klieg lights that surround the site. Normally that kind of lighting can come off as harsh and unattractive but I think it really works out here.

Looking out past Coit Tower

Looking out past Coit Tower.

Chinatown Shop

Inside a shop in Chinatown (San Francisco).

I love the flattened sense of depth in this image. Is that a contradiction? The large blurry lantern in the foreground leading to the sharp items in the background add depth as the view looks through the store. At the same time there are so many objects with similar colors and lighting that they just blend into each other, resulting a flattened jumble of colors and shapes.

On the Beat

San Francisco police officers.

Pure Red Blueberries

As a surprise I was taken to go blueberry picking out in the countryside. I picked several handfuls but very quickly became distracted by taking photos of the berries instead. I started by taking the standard photos of berries on the bush, in various clusters and of various colors, but found that capturing the intense colors, contrast, and shadows to be far more interesting.

To capture the image on the left, I held the bucket up directly in front of the sun, tipped the bucket toward me so the berries would pile up, and took the photo with the camera in my other hand. Holding the bucket high and shooting upward made it easy to ensure that only the pure blue sky was in the background. In addition, the simple blues and reds help emphasize the silhouette of the berries.

The image on the right was captured with the bucket on the ground. I placed the bucket so that the blueberry bush cast its shadow while still allowing direct sunlight to hit the bucket and to cast the red light over the berries.

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If you want to go fruit and berry picking (and live in the Puget Sound area), see the harvest schedule to know what's in season at http://www.pugetsoundfresh.org/fruits_nuts_berries_harvests.htm

Cooling Down

An idyllic moment on a hot summer day in New York City. I like how the tree, the bicycle, and the man on the right frame the image while also giving a great sense of depth when compared with the buildings and cars in the distance.

Grand Coulee Dam

The Grand Coulee dam is the biggest dam (and concrete structure) in the United States, but I bet that when people think of big dams, the Hoover dam comes to mind. The rivalry between the dams was made clear by our tour guide who was born and raised in the city of Grand Coulee. During the tour she kept throwing out impressive facts emphasizing how much more powerful and bigger the Grand Coulee dam was over the Hoover dam ("the Hoover dam could fit in the Grand Coulee and still have four hundred feet to spare.") Her angle made the tour both informational (intentional) and amusing (unintentionally).

The Hoover dam is in a very scenic location and has amazing art deco architecture and statues, but I think the Grand Coulee dam still comes out ahead. Sure, the Grand Coulee dam has some impressive stats, but feeling and hearing the massive structure shake like a rocket ship (from the water flowing through the turbines) gives a concrete sense of the enormous power of the dam (if you'll pardon the pun).

Looking up the dam funicular, which rides on top of a massive octagonal concrete water tube that feeds the turbines.

One single shot capturing the myriad angles and spacing of the textured concrete walls.

Detail of the buffalo on the dedication plaque of the dam.

The image above only shows about half of the width of the entire dam. If you look closely, you can see the funicular and concrete landings from the other photos. Bonus: the dam architecture looks like a level from Quake II (particularly the massive octagonal concrete tubes curving around the rough rock underneath).