The urban forest in which I live
The urban forest in which I live, originally uploaded by Kari_Marie.
When I first moved to Sacramento, I must have heard at least a dozen times the statement that this is the second most treed city in the world after Paris. I don’t know how true that is, but I like driving past downtown on the freeway and looking down into the city and seeing a sea of green, and, even more, I like living downtown, in the midst of that sea of green. I love the flowering trees in the spring, the shade in the summer, the fall color, and even the bare skeletal shapes in the winter. It’s crowded and raucous and dirty and parking stinks, but it’s home.
I live in an urban forest: vibrant, dense, and full of life, and I love it. I may not always stay here, but for now I can’t imagine living anywhere else, and I’ll miss it this summer when I’m gone.
Herbie goes to Sacramento
Y’all seen the Herbie movies? The REAL ones, not the cheezy knock-off from a few years back? I always loved those movies.
I’ve seen this car on my way home from work a handful of times, but I’ve never been able to get a picture of it before. Today two fortunate events conspired to help me finally get a picture — I happened to get right behind it on a one-lane road, and the one stoplight on that road turned red just as we got there. OMG WIN.
Herbie the Love Bug
This one is tiny and grainy because (a) I took the picture in my side-view mirror after I'd already passed it, (b) I cropped the heck out of it, and (c) I flipped it so that it wasn't reversed (from being taken in the mirror.) Awesome. :-)
Art in neon
Neon sign on the MAARS building a couple of blocks from me, originally uploaded by Kari_Marie.
This is a sign on the MAARS building a couple of blocks from my apartment. I’ve been meaning to take a picture of this sign ever since I moved to this town–there’s something I really like about it. Even when it’s light out, it still looks neat.
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I love Tower Bridge
(Pssst — go to the main page of my blog and check out my new header pics, then leave a comment here letting me know what you think!) :-)
One of Sacramento’s more distinct landmarks is the lovely art deco Tower Bridge, which spans the Sacramento River and leads to the state Capitol building. While I’ve driven across it, I for some reason never got around to actually walking or riding over it to take pictures. Now that I’ve finally gotten that new used* wide-angle lens that I’ve wanted (it’s the same one I rented for my trip to Rome last fall) I figured it was a good excuse to go and take bridge pictures, so I played hooky from work for a couple of hours yesterday morning and rode my bike dolwn there to get some lovely morning light pictures. And then I rode down there again this evening to get some lovely nighttime shots. Now I just need to go down at sunset — the bridge really glows at sunset, and I want to get a few pictures of that. I think that this is my second favorite downtown thing to photograph, after the Capitol building.
*I’ve been looking for this lens used on Craigslist ever since I got back from Rome. While it’s fairly common in the Nikon mount, it’s darned near impossible to find in the Canon mount, AND forget trying to get it new — it’s ALWAYS backordered everywhere, unless you want to pay an exorbitant (33%!) markup. Ummm, how ’bout NO. I’ve bid on eBay auctions before, and FINALLY won one…
Anyway, well, these aren’t the pictures I took with my new lens. Those will be forthcoming though, at some point. These were taken with my cameraphone, since I like how it looks and I like being able to post pictures so easily. As you can see, I had some fun with the sketch filter in the photoediting program on my camera for one of the pics… good times. :-)
Tower Bridge glowing in the Friday morning sunlight
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Fun with the sketch filter
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Just after sunset earlier this evening
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Eerie, dreamy reflection
Reflection on a window in downtown Sacramento during Second Saturday on May 8th, 2010.
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Fire dancing
I took some pictures of the fire dancer at Second Saturday a couple of nights ago–she was using a hula hoop internally lit by colored LEDs that had flaming wands attached to it. She was absolutely AMAZING. More pictures are in the gallery here. Oh, and these were intentionally long exposures–I wanted a motion blur. However, I had my 50mm lens on the camera, and I wanted a shallow depth-of-field, so I ended up at ISO 100 and overexposing them just to get the shutter speed down low enough to capture what I wanted, since that lens can practically see in the dark at its low end (f/1.4) and it was still too fast to get what I wanted. Thank goodness for being able to drop the exposure in post-processing. :-)
This is my favorite shot of the bunch, and I knew it the second I took it. Not sure how I did... sometimes that just happens.
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She looks like she's having so much fun... Not sure I'd be having a good time with a fiery hula hoop, but she was a pleasure to watch.
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I love the clarity of this shot and the look of rapt concentration on her face. Not bad given that I had my left elbow crooked and my left hand holding onto my right shoulder, with my camera propped on my outstretched elbow to use it as a tripod of sorts.
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The neck, the neck, the neck is on fire... (sorry, song reference... it's not that obscure, is it?)
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Long exposure meant that it looks like she has multiple sets of arms. So so so neat.
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Neighborhood night life
I never thought I’d enjoy living downtown in a large largish city, but know what? I really really do. Yeah, I hate it when the garbage truck shows up at 5:00 in the morning to empty the dumpster in the alley behind my bedroom. I’m not a big fan of the hipsters that hang out all day outside the business next door, sitting on the ground and smoking. And parking can really stink sometimes.
But there’s always something interesting going on–I always find something or someone to observe, and photograph when I can. I love my runs around the Capitol. I love being close to everything. Having so much life right outside my door more than makes up for the 5AM garbage truck, and while I know I don’t want to stay living in the middle of everything forever, it’s a heck of a lot of fun right now.
Tonight John and I went and wandered around Second Saturday for a bit. It probably would have been longer, but I seemed to have somehow pulled a muscle in my foot (I did a 5K this morning, but I don’t think it was that–not sure how I managed the injury!) and after about 15 blocks, I couldn’t put weight on it anymore. Meh.
Anyway, I had an absolutely lovely time during the time we did get out of the house… and it was even better when I realized that for the next Second Saturday, I’ll be in Croatia. SWEET.
Some video and pics from tonight:
Sorry this one is sideways–neither Flickr nor my phone will let me rotate it, and I’m too lazy to find a video-editing program just for this. :-p
Part of a group of musicians playing a block from my apartment. I love the shadow here.
Bass time.
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Quintessence of a spring evening in Sacramento
The Capitol at sunset, again
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Scenes from tonight’s run
First Capitol lap
Kids in identical t-shirts
Racing on the lawn
Taking pictures of the dome
Castle and children vivid gold in the setting sun.
Second lap
Kids herded to their bus
Waiting at my end of the block.
A few bolted to it
I sprinted toward them
We slapped hands as we passed
Laughing in the gloaming ether
Faces luminous in the fading light.
What a piece of work is this
The lovely quintessence of a spring evening.
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Some voices I could recognize anywhere
Totally randomly I ended up with a free ticket tonight to see Arlo Guthrie in concert at UC Davis. I grew up with both of my parents playing tapes (and then CDs, and now mp3s) of his music, and I’ve a huge soft spot in my music heart for him, but for some reason it never occurred to me that I might someday get to see him perform live.
So tonight when he came out on stage and started talking and then playing, there was something almost surreal about it. His voice sounds a bit different than on the mp3s I have of him from the early 80s — a bit deeper and more raspy… I guess older? He’s not *that* old! But at the same time, it’s the same familiar voice. I kept closing my eyes to listen to him so that I could focus on the sound and not be distracted by the visual. So in a way I guess it’s fitting that I did a lousy job aiming my phone when I was taking the video, so I don’t actually have any image? Also, sorry about the songs skipping a bit — my phone’s started to do that ever since the last firmware update, and I don’t know why.
I had such a lovely evening. Thank you so much for the ticket, Will — it was really a treat. :-)
Click here for the video for “Trainwreck At Los Gatos”
Click here for the video of “City of New Orleans”
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Fun with filters, again
When I take pictures with my cameraphone, I generally open them up in PicSayPro, an image-editing app for Android phones (I have the Motorola Droid) and do a bit of adjusting, mostly for temperature/white balance and tint (my phone tends to take pictures a bit on the bluish/greenish side.) Given the fact that (a) it’s a program on a cell phone, and (b) it cost all of $3, I can do some fun stuff with it (like this picture I took of my niece last Christmas.)
Anyway, PicSayPro has a ton of neat filters that I keep thinking I want to use, but then I almost never do. I’ll play with them, and then decide I want a more realistic look. I don’t know why… that’s just how I roll, I guess.
But in an effort to break out of the “realistic” rut and do something different, I took a picture of a random decoration on the side of a parking garage a couple blocks from my house, and then I dinked around with the filters. (You might remember I did something similar a couple of months ago… that was the same program as I used for these.) The results were kind of fun… not something I’d do all the time, but it was a good way to spend the 20 minutes I spent fiddling with them. :-)
This is the original shot
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Inverted.
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Neonified.
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Messing around with the hue...
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Heat map. Kinda fun!
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Cross-processed, then I upped the saturation and contrast.
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Rainbowized. :-)
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Scenes from a run
I finally decided a couple of weeks ago to get off my lazy behind and start running again. It’s been far too long, and I really don’t have an excuse not to. And I can’t wuss out after a week, since Darryl goaded me into doing the Race for the Cure on May 8th. I always forget how good I feel when I finish (ok, most of the time anyway) but I’ve discovered a new bonus to running–enjoying the lovely spring evenings in Downtown Sacramento. Now if only I’d remember to put on mosquito repellent before I go out…
The front of the Capitol at sunset
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Dogwoods at the Capitol
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Milo the Screech Owl
Milo the Screech Owl, originally uploaded by Kari_Marie.
This little cutie is Milo, a Western Screech Owl and a resident at the Discovery Museum of Sacramento. John’s nephews (ages 9 and 11) spent the night last night, and since it was pouring rain today and we didn’t want to do anything outside, we took them to the museum instead. It was a fun afternoon. :-)
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Full moon over a Midtown mural
Full moon over a Midtown mural, originally uploaded by Kari_Marie.
I’m actually using this as a test post–I’ve got someone helping me fix a couple of broken things on my website, so this is to see if that works or not. Carry on, not much to see here. :-)
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Bookshelf at Borders
Books on the shelf at Borders. I read in a photography book that you’re always ten meters from ten good pics. I found one. :-), originally uploaded by Kari_Marie.
I went to browse the photography books, and in one of them I read that you’re always ten meters from ten good pics. So I started looking around. It wasn’t easy–the bookstore’s lighting was flat and fluorescent and it was your standard chain bookstore. So I decided to play with the neat symmetry of the shelves vs. the chaos of the books on the shelves… and I still wasn’t happy. So it was time yet again to play with the photo editing app on my phone. Fun stuff. :-)
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Oil drops on wet pavement
Cool pictures of mundane things: oil drops on the parking lot at my bank, originally uploaded by Kari_Marie.
I stopped at the bank today and saw this and had to stop in the middle of the parking lot to take the picture. I think the people walking by thought I was a bit odd… Oh well–it was cool!! And since when do I care about people thinking I’m strange? Seriously now. :-)
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Fun with my cameraphone and in-phone processing
I know I’ve been totally MIA lately with regards to this blog. I’ve been working on a HUGE report project for work, and I’ve routinely been putting in 14+ hour days. Yes, I’m getting paid extra for this–it’s going in my trip fund for this summer. And it’s an interesting project–frustrating, but challenging. I thought we were done a couple of times already, but alas, no… but it’s just about there. Have to finish up a few little things this weekend, then it’s going to the printer on Monday, getting bound, and getting mailed off to the people who it’s for. Good times.
Anyway, last night I took a short walk because I needed to get out before I went crazy, and I took a picture with my phone of a neon sign on a car repair place around the corner from me. I’ve been meaning to photograph it for a while since I think it’s kind of a neat sign, and eventually I’ll get back out there with my “real” camera, but I thought this little experiment would be fun for now.
The first shot is the original one I took, and the successive shots are different processing methods done with an app on my phone called PicSayPro. Feel free to click on the title of this post and scroll down to the bottom and leave a comment voting on which one is your favorite–I’d really appreciate it! :-)
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Original shot.
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Duotone.
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Duotone again, but this time I dropped the exposure and upped the contrast.
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Posterized.
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Inverted.
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Cross-processed.
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Sepia and then cross-processed.
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So… favorites? Click on the title of this post and scroll to the bottom to comment. :-)
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The best camera is the one you have with you
Leaves: A hundred thousand reasons why I love fall. :-), originally uploaded by Kari_Marie.
I snapped this picture of a tree outside of my work this morning with my cameraphone. I wanted to just stand there and stare at the tree, to watch the morning light play over it.
Instead, I had to content myself with a couple of pictures and a handful of glowing leaves.
I love autumn.
Fire truck
Here’s one last one from Gladding, McBean. They used this fire truck to ferry people from the factory back to the tour meeting area. So neat.
Here’s the rest of those Gladding, McBean pictures
I know that the company is called Gladding, McBean, but I still feel rather awkward and ungrammatically-correct putting that comma in there.
Anyway, here are a few more GMB pics–as always, check out the rest on my Flickr gallery.
The kiln room. I could have spent all day in here, just watching the light change. So so beautiful.
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Glaze on a kiln wall. I'm posting this here because my mom said it was her favorite shot because of the color. I don't think it's all that great, but I'm glad she liked it. :-) It was pretty neat how the glaze coated and dripped off of the walls and ceiling of the kilns. I wasn't expecting to see that.
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Part of an original facade from the RCA building. Can you spot the typo? Yep, they really did that. Whoops!
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Have I mentioned how much I loved the lighting? I have? Well, I'm going to mention it again. Because, wow.
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Close-up of the capstone. I love the detail on it, and as always, the light...
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Urns.
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Gladding, McBean Factory in Lincoln, CA
OK, so I’ve been sitting on these pictures since, er, May. I’ve been meaning to get around to processing them, and it just fell down the list.
Anyway, back in May, I went on a photography tour of the Gladding, McBean factory in Lincoln, CA (about 30 miles or so from me.) The tour was set early in the day, so that we could have the best light possible for this beautiful location, and while the old buildings themselves were neat, the light was absolutely incredible. In fact, now that I’ve had plenty of time to sit on these pictures and then go back and process them, I’m kicking myself because I see shots I would have liked to do differently, and I really feel like I didn’t do the lighting justice. It was so beautiful. Oh well, I tried…
Before I get into the pictures, here’s some background from the tour:
Established in 1875, Gladding, McBean began its long and prestigious history when rich clay deposits were discovered in the town of Lincoln, California. Many historical landmarks throughout the United States were originally made with or are currently being restored using Gladding, McBean products. Gladding, McBean artisans have worked with some of the greatest architects, past and present, creating terra cotta pieces ranging from archways to exterior facades and gargoyles to graceful fountains. In all, Gladding, McBean has produced terra cotta for more than 10,000 buildings around the world. The tradition continues today as Gladding, McBean graces impressive contemporary buildings and landscapes with finely crafted terra cotta and garden pottery, sewer pipe, roof tile, floor tile, and brick.
Here are some pictures from the tour. Because I took so many pictures, I’m going to split them up into a couple of posts–this is the first one, and tomorrow I’ll post one more.The complete set is, as always, in my Flickr gallery.
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Bricks.
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Looking through a kiln, playing with depth of field to get the bricks in the back in focus. Didn't quite get what I was aiming for, but I still like how it turned out.
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Paging Little Boy Blue... Little Boy Blue, to the warehouse please
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A pile of very large pipe. Ignore the green glare off of my lens filter. I'm still kicking myself for that. Need to get a better filter!!
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This was pretty cool! This is our tour guide, explaining the measuring process they use. They have the shrink rate of their clay (from when it's fresh to when it's been fired in a kiln) precisely calibrated. So this is a ruler they use to make their models/molds with--it's sized up so that when you make something and it shrinks in the kiln, it comes out the right size. For example, say you want to make a tile that's two inches on each side, you measure out two inches on the ruler he's holding, which is actually more like 2.5". But when the piece shrinks, it's two inches, just like you wanted. COOL.
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Who would have ever thought that piles of sewer pipe could look so neat?
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Piece of old facade being used as a model for restoration work.
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Obviously this is an old sign. For some odd reason, I always channel Ayn Rand when I look at this picture. Fountainhead, anyone?
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My leopard, let me show you him
Randomness 015, originally uploaded by Kari_Marie.
I went to the Sac Zoo again this year for Smithsonian’s Free Museum Day a couple of weeks ago, and took this. Isn’t he gorgeous? I love this shot. :-)
ChalkItUp!
Ok, I know I promised balloon pictures, but I figured I should stick to chronological order and get these online first. Hence, balloon pictures shall be online sometime in the next few days. (Incidentally, I have quite the backlog of posts to get to–I would like to actually finish my trip to the car museum from, er, last April, and then there’s my trip to the Gladding McBean factory which was incredible, but those pictures haven’t yet made it out of RAW format. And finally, there’s my London/Amsterdam trip from this summer, which is on Flickr, but I’d still like to blog about. So yeah… trying to get everything on here, eventually anyway.)
Last weekend I rode my new (used) bike (my old one was stolen while I was in London) down to ChalkItUp, a street chalk art festival at Fremont Park in downtown Sacramento. I’ve been to I Madonnari in San Luis Obispo several times, and I’ve always loved it, so I was really looking forward to this. While it was nowhere near on the scale of I Madonnari, it was still really neat to see–I absolutely LOVE the colors and watching art come to life like this!
Here’s a few pictures–the rest are at the Flickr gallery here. :-)
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Tools of the day.
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Street chalk artist
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I don't know--what would Scooby do?
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I love these bats. :-)
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It's an egret. Playing a bass. SWEET.
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I absolutely LOVE the color on this one. I SO would hang this on my kitchen wall if I had it in painting form!
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Not only is this awesome for sheer weirdness, but check out the foot shadow.
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I decided to take this next picture:
Neat concentric circles.
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and have fun with a long shutter+zoom. It would have been better if I’d used a tripod instead of handholding the camera, but it still came out neat.
Trippy!
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Evergreen Supertanker
Ever since I read this Wired article Joel sent me about the Evergreen 747 Supertanker, I’ve been mildly obsessed with the thing. I have a somewhat buried fascination with planes(*) that only this morning as I was driving to work did I realize was my mom’s fault. When I was a kid and we were driving to my grandparents’ house, the route took us on the 405 freeway past John Wayne Airport, and if she saw a plane taking off, she used to open the sunroof of the car and try to time it so that we’d cross the plane’s path as it was directly overhead, and we’d be able to look out the sunroof and up at the belly of the plane.
Anyway, when I read in the Wired article that it was stationed on the former military base where I work, I realized I’d seen it from afar, and hadn’t really thought anything of it (while 747s are not really common over here, there seems to usually be at least one kicking around.) Yesterday morning (after I read the article) I stopped and took a lousy cameraphone picture of it. When I first drove over to where CDF/CalFire normally parks its planes, I didn’t see it, and was really disappointed (and amused at myself for my disappointment)… and then I looked the other direction down the runway, and there it was, sitting in all its beluga-whale glory. I actually giggled when I saw it–that’s how much of a geek I am.
This morning I took my good camera out to take a couple of pictures and ogle it some more. This time, the engines were idling–I wonder if it’s headed back to LA for more fire action? I’d LOVE to see this thing take off or land!! Maybe I’ll head over there at lunch and see if it’s still there…
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Evergreen Supertanker
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The center section of the jet. The nozzles for the fire retardant/water dispersal are barely visible on the bottom of the plane on the left side of the picture. Ignore the dark blur on the right side--I was taking this through a chain-link fence.
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Here’s a few more shots that I didn’t think needed to be posted full-size, but you can click on them to get the full-size versions.
- Tail section
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- Front end
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- I had to climb up on the base of a lightpost to get this one. :-)
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(*) and jets
A few neat old odds and ends
A replica of an 1882 horsecar (streetcar pulled by horses) purchased from 20th Century Fox, used in the movies "Hello, Dolly" and "Cavalcade".
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1909 Wolfe Touring Car.
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Wheel from the 1909 Wolfe Touring Car. Check out the chain drive on this!!
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1908 Ford Model T Touring Car. 1908 was Ford's first year producing the Model T.
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According to the docent I talked to, this was the highest-selling Model T ever a few years ago–I think he said it sold for $73,000. Nice. It’s one of only a handful in existence of this type, apparently. One thing that makes it unique is that it has two pedals and three levers (instead of three pedals–gas, brake, and clutch) and two levers, which Ford switched to shortly after this car was built.
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Gas generator for 1908 Ford Model T headlights.
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From the display:
In the top half of the canister is water and in the bottom there is a screen that holds calcium carbide. Turn the valve and let the water drip on the carbide crystals at about 90 drips per minute. This forms highly flammable acetylene gas. It also creates a stinky foamy mess inside the can. During the chemical reaction, the gas is released. It builds up pressure and flows through the tubing to the headlights. Quickly, you open the doors of the headlights and ignite the lights with a match.
Everything works just fine for a while. Then, pretty soon the stinky, foamy mess will start through the tubing also, eventually plugging the little holes in the headlight burners. In the dark, you will have to poke a wire around to open the holes again so that the gas can come through and the lights can be lit again! If the water and carbide last, and the system stays clean and unplugged, you have lights for a while. A lot of trouble, but worth the thrill of motoring!
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