Ice World

The other morning, the temperature was 12 degrees Fahrenheit when we woke up.  All of the upstairs windows were covered with frost - ice crystals.  Depending on where the windows were located, in relation to radiators or whether or not the sun was shining on the windows, made a huge difference in the patterns of ice on the glass. I think that this image is the most interesting of all that I shot.   Please click on this to see the incredible detail in the crystalline structure.

Low Winter Sun

Another photograph from my walks to the no-longer-in-existence power plant.  It was shortly before sunset and the shadows on the sycamore trees were very dramatic.  The trick was to find a particularly interesting tree for the foreground, as well as an interesting background.  I stopped at about six different spots along the way, and this is the most beautiful, in addition to being dramatic.  On, the funny thing?  The title of this post is based on a stunning TV cop series that I just finished watching!

Phragmites at Sunset

I went for another walk today, down to where the old power plant was located.  It is a three mile round trip which is good for exercise.  It also takes me along the harbor, and past the double rows of Sycamore trees, and then by Scudder's Pond, and later, by some remaining industrial structures.  It is a gold mine for photographs, in my experience.  I am always taking landscapes of the harbor and I photograph everything I see, even if I have photographed it before.  I can't help myself.  When I stopped to photograph at Scudder's Pond I did some wide angle photographs, and then thought of Dean's admonition, "get closer."  Well, this will not be close enough for his liking, but it is closer than what I usually do.  That's a start, right?  The setting sun, of course, is what makes this so beautiful.

Death's Door?

OK, so this is a puzzle.  It is a door on a street just off Abbot Kinney.  I have about a billion questions about this photograph that I just can't answer.  I don't even know if the door opens - I suspect that it does not.  And the artwork is the main attraction.  It clearly is the grim reaper, but what is he doing - helping a child in a crosswalk?  What would that mean?  One more piece of wonderful art in Venice! All guesses as to what this means are welcome.

Google Cardboard

Amy asked me to bring my Google Cardboard device out to California so everyone could try it using the NY Times Virtual Reality application.  It was a big hit - everyone was amazed at what it was like to watch scenes where you could turn left and right and up and down, and even 360 degrees around, and the scene would change, as if you were there.  I love this photo of liz because I love how delicate her hands are as she holds this device with my cellphone in it.

Walking Wesley

I got to do a lot of walking while in Los Angeles.  That's because Liz has a dog named Wesley, and he definitely enjoys having his walks each day.  So I would go out with Liz and Sarah and Amy as they took Wesley for a walk through the neighborhood.  These were not once-around-the-block kinds of walks.  Usually we did about two miles which is not bad exercise if my day was spent sitting around talking and eating Christmas Cookies.  The walking was definitely one of the best parts of the day.  I was also trying to do something different, in terms of how the photograph looked.  Not sure how to describe seeing this way, but I do like how this looks.

New Year's Day Walk

It was a lovely day for a New Year's Day walk.  The temperature was 39 degrees and there was a 20 MPH wind and overcast skies.  The clouds were beautiful in their leaden gray colors.  I was lucky because as I walked along the harbor there was a break in the clouds in the distance, and the golden sun shown through.  Then, like frosting on a cake, a cloud of sea gulls began orbiting in a circle right near where I was standing.  Perfect.