Happy Thanksgiving!
These old bottles, valve and hinge live in an unused barn on my sister’s ranch. It’s a great place to explore both for grand vistas and more intimate scenes like this one.

Dishes on the shelves at my sister’s ranch. We’re up for a few days over Thanksgiving.

37°29’9.59″N 122°13’53.88″W
A commuter train pulling into the Redwood City train station near sunset. Panning with the train, 1/10 sec exposure with a very wide angle 11mm lens.

37°22’58.09″N 122°10’45.62″W
Okay, so there really isn’t such a thing as a pigeon vulture, but this flock was in the Arastradero Preserve observing the fields from the top of a dead tree. They seemed very out of place.

The tree itself is a popular photo subject. If you search on Flickr for public pictures tagged with “arastradero” you’ll see the lone trunk show up quite often.

38°36’18.49″N 122°51’39.30″W
Taken just after sunset on a railroad bridge over the Russian River. 30 second exposure, I lit myself with a flashlight for about 15 seconds and then left the shot so I would be transparent.

After shooting my Gibson guitar picture, I wanted to play around more with “light painting”, so I grabbed some veggies and headed down to the garage. This shot is a 20 second exposure in a blacked out room, lit with a small Maglite flashlight moving around to light the scene. This image is direct from the camera – completely unretouched, including brightness, contrast and color balance. Pretty cool.

37°33’44.57″N 122°23’46.49″W
I rode the length of Sawyer Camp Trail today, 12 miles round trip. The trail, which is paved, travels along Crystal Springs Lake and San Andreas Lake (both reservoirs).

This image is of poison oak growing up the side of an old abandoned water department shack.

My cherry Gibson Les Paul Studio.

Done with “light painting.” 30 second exposure, lit with a small flashlight moving about.

34° 6’9.39″N 118°20’23.16″W
Taken on the escalator in the Hollywood & Highland Center (the shopping mall next to the Kodak Theater). The center art piece is this series of mirrors hanging under a grand piano suspended from the ceiling.

I rode the escalators a few times to get a good shot. This one was taken right before a security guard came and told me I couldn’t take pictures there. Clearly BS, as probably a thousand pictures are taken there every day. I asked her why not, and she said because I might take a picture of a security camera. Huh? I think they were really just getting creeped out by a lone guy going up and down the escalator over and over again late at night.

I built this Adirondack chair about 18 years ago when my first child was just an infant. It is the same as the other Adirondacks I’ve built, only all dimensions were halved, creating a chair less than two feet tall – perfect size for a one year old to sit in.

The chair now lives on our front porch, and offers seasonal respite for pumpkins instead of munchkins.