Transamerica Pyramid

Transamerica Pyramid, originally uploaded by lacadaz.

I probably should have spent my day off working on the rest of the Pride pictures but I was hit by the desire to hit the road and take some more building shots. JPEG magazine has a submission theme open for "Geometry" so I thought I would take some photos of our city's most famous pyrimid.

Fire on Union Street

So this was the scene about a half a block from my store just about an
hour ago. One of the old buildings that houses a Tibetian shop run by
a wonderful lady named Gity Joon caught fire and it seemed like the
whole fire department responded. It looks like the fire was confined
to the upper floors and the SFFD had it out pretty fast but it sure
caused a stir to end the evening.

So I Took Some Anonymous Advise

So I took the advise of the "anonymous" person that left a comment on my Pride post and submitted some pictures to the SFGate. It's not like I was on assignment or anything but it was very friendly when they accepted all five of my submissions and the Reader Photo's section on the front of the gate was filled with my pictures. Here's the screen grab. Mine are the tiny black and white pictures at the bottom of the page. 

Pride Photos!!!

Brides on Bikes, originally uploaded by lacadaz.

Lot's of Brides on Bikes to start the parade thanks to the California Supreme court decision. Yes, I know it is a colorful event and I processed all the pictures in black in white. I'm afraid I'm starting to develop a little bit of a specific style. Anyway I took more pictures today than any other day of my life. I managed to get through about a third of them. So follow this link and check out the first sixty-six with more to follow. I've really got to get some dinner and watch some Law and Order Criminal Intent.

Catching You Up

I've got lunch on my mind so I'll try to make this quick. 

I had a great time at the Old 97's at The Fillmore. It was my first time at the Fillmore as well as my first time seeing the Old 97's. Both were impressive. Except for the heat the venue felt comfortable to be in. That's a lot coming from me who feels comfortable practically nowhere. The band was fantastic, one of the best shows I've seen. Absolutely exuberant. Since the show was right after the Laker's getting pummeled by the Celtics (a game I drank my way through) I had one of my happiest nights in a very long time. 

However that night led to one of my least favorite mornings in a long time as the combination of standing all day at work drinking cider non-stop for two hours and then standing and bouncing up and down for another four hours all without any water left me and all my joints dehydrated and aching. I'm still not back to a hundred percent and that makes me a little pissy. 

Friday I went to the de Young and saw the Chihuly exhibit. That was incredible. Like nothing I've ever seen. Beautiful glass objects set in some stunning instillations. The glass pieces lit on black mirrored glass gave the rooms an otherworldly dimension. It reminded me of that magical novel Veronica that I love. Highly recommended. 

I got in touch with an old friend that I hadn't spoken to in over a year. She said she was busy and would call me back shortly. That was two weeks ago. She hasn't responded to any of my texts since then. It's starting to dawn on me that maybe she just hates me. I'm so bad at reading people I really have no idea. I'm feeling a little out there right now I guess. The Unnamable-X is falling in love again. (Hey, she publishes in the public arena and I read it what are you going to do?) This is leading to a resurfacing of completely unjustified jealousy. Not pretty. Not pretty at all. Of course there is the girl I'm trying to spend more time with who hasn't returned any of my calls for the past week. I'm starting to worry that I sleep-phoned something embarrassingly forward to everyone in my phone book and that's why no one will talk to me. 

That pretty much brings you up to date. More later as it happens. 

Some Bay to Breakers Pictures

baytobreakers08 14, originally uploaded by lacadaz.

I've gone through some of my Bay to Breakers pictures and gotten them onto flickr this week. This one is my favorite so far. I'm trying to get better about writing but it's hard for me to stay focused lately. My neck and right shoulder have been bothering me pretty bad most of the year especially the last couple of months. In absence of longer items I've tried to embrace twitter a little bit more so that I can at least get a little record of what I'm doing down. I've got the feed running in the margin. My lack of writing has extended to the home front too. I've only put three journal entries in my computer all month. This is contributing to my unease I know. When I don't write every day I get a little more lost an anxious. This morning I did manage to get breakfast and have a write at the Sugar Cafe. I had my camera and computer with me and took a stroll down Market where I took some pictures of emergency services responding to someone passed out on the street car tracks. Then I headed here to the Main Library figuring I would try to get back into the swing of blogging. So here I am. Trying to remember how to do this.

New, as in Shot Today, Pictures

Newsstand, originally uploaded by lacadaz.

Yes there are new pictures on my flickr page. Yes they are ones that shot less than two months ago. Yes, they were in fact shot today. By popular demand (well one person actually) there are several portrait orientated architectural shots.

I was going to spend another day locked in the apartment working on my photo backlog but decided that it might be better to actually figure out what had become of my camera. So I took a walk down to the MoMA to check out the photography books and then made my way back up to California and caught a cable car home. I know it's territory well traveled for me but I believe there is always a new angle or process.

Where Have You Been?

Girl, originally uploaded by lacadaz.

Well to tell you the truth I've been right where I usually am. Spring and Summer are always hard times for me creatively. The Sunshine gets me down. I guess that's why it's good that I have a job that gets busier the more the sun shines. Work has been taking up more of my energy but not so much that's it's wearing me out, just an upturn in the business (though not as much as my bosses or I would like). I bought a Roku Netflix streaming box that I've been loving and using to watch a bunch of documentaries. My favorite was one on Henri Cartier-Bresson. It prompted me to order a couple of his books on Amazon. The main one arrived just yesterday. And it was yesterday that I finally locked myself in my apartment and went through all the pictures that I took when Colleen was out here at the end of April. There are a hundred and thirty new pictures on my flickr pages so click on the girl with her hands on her hips and take a look. I still have a sizable backlog to go with my Bay to Breakers and Union Street festival photos too so stayed tuned. I even managed to hit the street last night to take a couple of shots which I'll try to put up tonight.

Spring Fever

Dancer in the Wings, originally uploaded by lacadaz.

Just a quick note to say yes I am alive and I have not completely abandoned my artistic endeavors. While I may have not posted anything in the last few weeks here or on flickr I have actually taken a large number of photographs. I hope to process some of them over the next few days. Let me just say that I hate spring. Everything goes through upheaval in the spring and to tell you the truth I don't like that all that much. I like fall. I like knowing that winter is coming and things are going to freeze for a little while so maybe I can negotiate my way through life a little bit more effectively for a couple of months.

They remodeled my store, it's pretty but easier to rob. In my head I couldn't decide if I was a midwestern family man or a west coast urban hermit. I finally decided on software and a system for processing my pictures, they upgraded both of the programs I use and once again I can't make up my mind. I get the girl I've been chasing for years to spend the weekend with me, we part as friends.

Now I know that these are not catastrophes by any means. But they are the kinds of things that make it hard for me to produce any meaningful work. This is one of the reasons I like photography. I have not been able to concentrate or write or stay on task for very long this last month. Yet I have amassed several hundred photographs that are waiting for me to get my ass back on track. I've found my medium.

Things are looking up though. I have more help at work. I've joined the San Francisco Fine Arts museums and my trips to the de Young and Legion of Honor have already had a great impact on the way I see. I bought the catalog to the MoMa Friedlander show last night and it is changing my life. I know where I belong. I'm staying in the city. If rent control isn't voted out of existence next month I'm probably staying in this apartment. I've spending more time and energy with an old friend that is also trying to work her way out of a corporate rut. Happy productive times are just around the corner. Stay tuned.

Bejing Marches on San Francisco

Bejing Marches on San Francisco, originally uploaded by lacadaz.

My first batch from yesterday's Olympic Torch protest extravaganza are up on flickr. I've got some more to put up that will be coming later. I'm also going to try to label them with more backstory than usual. I'll try to get to that by the end of the weekend. In the meantime check out the set so far.

Olympic Torch Protests

Monday in Front of City Hall

Mayor Gavin Newsom, originally uploaded by lacadaz.

Monday I found myself a half an hour early for the main branch of the San Francisco library to open. So I started to take some pictures of City Hall. That is when I noticed a group of people with a podium using City Hall as a backdrop. So I wandered across the plaza and came upon an endorsement event for Supervisor Mark Leno's race for the State Senate. This gave me a chance to take some close shots of several members of the Board of Supervisor's as well as the Mayor and Joe Alioto Veronese who had dropped out of the race to endorse Mark Leno. I was approached by a member of the campaign while I was shooting and ended up sending him copies of the shots I took for him to use. Who knows where they might end up. Anyway here is a gallery of some of the the shots I took.

Mark Leno Event

Office With a View

We'll not quite an office but as close as I can get. I managed to get an alcove all to myself on the 5th floor of the San Francisco Public Library with a nice view of City Hall. I had power and internet and of course my phone and music with me so it was a nice change of pace from writing in my little room with its alley view of the Hotel Rex. I even managed to take some birds eye pictures of people on the street from up here. I'm definitly going to be doing this again. 

Easter Morning

Crissy Field Path, originally uploaded by lacadaz.

This one is from Easter Morning before going to work and before the parade and festivities. I have a couple of more days of intensive work as I try to get through the weekend, close out the first quarter with a bang, look to hire some new people and get my store ready to be closed next weekend for inventory. Once I'm through that though, things should be pretty good. I've decided not to offer my services to any other store and instead take four days off next week instead of two. The idea is blissful. I just need to stay healthy so I can enjoy it.

Some Pictures from the Easter Parade

Egg Bonnet, originally uploaded by lacadaz.

Well I'm back. I have been taking pictures but I've been struggling with the post-production. Today I went to a 3 hour seminar that Apple was doing at the Westin on their program Aperture. Despite being pretty much sold on Lightroom and having a library in it of several thousand images I've been tinkering with Aperture since 2.0 came out. The presentation was impressive and I came back home eager to try out some of the things I'd learned. My first hour was spent having to delete the program, re-install it, destroy all my settings, rebuild my library and in general get pretty pissed off. I finally got it to work again and managed to import and process all of my Easter Parade pictures. That went well. I narrowed down and processed 400 pictures into the 37 that I loaded on to flickr tonight. Well that's all for me. I've got more pictures to go through but that will happen sometime after I get a night's sleep.

2008 Union Street Easter Parade.

I Went out to the Bridge on Monday

Saturated Bridge, originally uploaded by lacadaz.

I had to go into the store to process something that was on a deadline so I took the opportunity to jump on the 28 and take it out to the bridge. I tried to catch a shortcut down to Fort Point but ended up in a very steep and wooded area so I had to backtrack. Nothing more embarrassing than getting lost in the woods in the middle of a city. I took a few shots and then headed home. I just finished my two days off and frankly I felt antsy all the time. No, that's not quite true. For a while there I was feeling testy. Yesterday I seemed to use most of my day researching the in's and out's of keywording photographs. I went ahead and signed up for smugmug and I'm starting to get serious about the organization and presentation of my pictures. It is a daunting process to say the least.

A Big Thank You

I know I have used this space to make fun of m y 254 square foot apartment before but tonight I would like to thank my friend John for his part in adding a great new feature to my abode. You see after spending the evening at Fiddlers celebrating St. Patrick's day my apartment now has that added bonus of spinning round round like a recored baby round round like one of those cool restaurants that give you a whole city in the round. After single-handedly raising cider futures I can report that my apartments now turns on it's own.

My New Best Friend

My New Best Friend, originally uploaded by lacadaz.

It's been a rough week or so with a hell of a stomach flu descending on me early last week. I haven't felt like doing much of anything in that time but I did manage to take at least one picture a day. Tonight I finally got around to posting them on flickr. This one is from Sunday and it is of my savior.

I Made the Finals

Remember that calendar contest that I was pimping for votes on last month. We'll they've narrowed it down to one picture from each of the four weeks in February. Mine is week three. The prize is actually something I'm very close to buying for myself, a one year pro account to Smugmug. So if any of my readers might see fit I could use a little support. At the moment I'm one vote off the lead so even a little bit of help would be appreciated.

The link is here

ADIDAP Flicker Round February


And stop to check out the rest of the site. All Day I Dream About Photography is a great photography blog and one I read every day.

I'm sick and I think I gave it to my iPod.

iPhone,

For the last three days I've had the worst stomachache. I called in sick today and have spent the last two days mostly moving from my bed to my bathroom. The one exception was a trip down to the local Genius Bar. This morning I woke to discover that my phone was feeling more poorly than I was. I spent two hours trying to reset it but was unsuccessful. But here is another endorsement for Apple's customer service. Because 15 minutes after I walked out of the store with this brand new phone. I just wonder where I could get a new stomach that fast.

My Weekend Has Arrived

Red Rose 5, originally uploaded by lacadaz.

Grace had to take this past weekend off so I was alone at the store for the last three days. Three warm and sunny days. Three busy days. Three days when I could have really used my assistant manager. Anyway it was a long weekend for me and I spent most of Monday just cleaning up the store. But Monday was my Friday so now I'm off and looking forward to taking some new pictures. Here is a rose from tonight. After work I realized that it was already the third and my February Muni pass was going to stop working in the morning so I took the bus down to Safeway so I could use my debit card to buy it. I decided to buy some flowers while I was there to work on my macro photography. There are some more on my flickr site. I don't know what I'm going to shoot tomorrow but I know I want it to be new. Whatever it is I'll be posting it around twenty-four hours from now.