The goats were grazing on land overlooking the sea. While I sketched, a fellow student recited poetry with the ocean sounds coming up from below. Behind me, somewhere in the distance, a woman was singing opera.

Sanchez, Ramirez, Buster Posse

The crowd chanted for Uribe.

Then Lincecum went by.

He is so San Francisco.

From our son’s email:

Miles had good innings. He always managed the most comfortable chair
in the room, and then convinced you to move it closer to the fire.

In his 87 dog years, Miles successfully peed on every other tree in
four area codes.

Miles was a good boy, and a dear friend. He will be missed.

In the meantime, however, he’d like us all to go outside for a walk!

Woof!

Sunday I tried out my new canon G 11 in the gardens of Filoli an estate in the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Mr and Mrs. William Bowers Bourn Ⅱ  created the name Filoli. The word comes from his credo: “Fight for a just cause; Love your fellow man; Live a good life.” I like that.

So this is what I do. I paint. I just took two years off to make photographs. I went into the studio to give it a spring cleaning and part of the ceiling fell down. Cracks from years of water damage had loosened the plaster to the point that the one inch thick plaster ceiling had started to come down. With a little investigation we found  netting that held the original plaster had been cut – nothing to hold the old thick plaster. Now I have a dusty studio with a new sheetrock and paint job. It looks like I have no excuse now. Gotta get in the studio and do something.

On the way back from the studio I drove by the Valencia wall and saw Emilio and Elena putting up photographs from the workshop in Los Angeles. I like the guy walking by with one eye looking at me.

What did I learn?  There is a really nice group of photographers out there.  Don’t cut off body limbs.  Think –  what do I want to say?  I must make the images my own. Be authentic to yourself. Photograph the reaction not the action. Think in metaphors. If I see a place that says to me I need to make a picture. Stay there, sit and wait. And the computer – Copy all raw into DNG when exporting from my camera. It’s not going to rain today. We’ll be at the wall on Valencia and 23rd putting up our images of San Francisco. These images are for the People.

Photos that are high key have a very beautiful look, in which there’s very low contrast with light tones and soft colors – in other words, a scene that’s mostly white/bright. This definition is cut and paste straight out of betterphoto.com! Bright fog came right up to the window. Sun from another window fell on the tulips.