#32) Swings in Blue

The playground has a slight blue cast. Looks lonely and sad. It has the blues.

#31) Bamboo Wind chimes

We have these bamboo wind chimes outside our back door. I love its peaceful sounds.

#30) Lonely Boy

For some reason, I like this image which does not use the person in the image as its focal point. The person is really a compliment to the rest of the picture. I converted the color photo to B&W in the photo editor which comes with iLife's, iPhoto. I also adjusted the exposure and contrast levels to make it a bit more "moody."

I missed posting yesterday. All kinds of "events" were happening and I just didn't have time to even look at my email, much less post anything on any of my blogs. I will probably post another image today to make up for yesterday. For example, yesterday, one thing that happened, I had to buy a new printer. Right in the middle of trying to print out documents for my kids school work, the HP Photosmart (P.O.S.) printer, which has always been difficult to use, decided to stop working all-together. About a month ago, it started crumpling the paper as it went through the paper feed cycle and the paper would ball up in the rollers and yet, the printer would keep printing on a ball of paper. The ink for that printer is excessively expensive (even by printer ink price standards) and I had just replaced it ($60) so I wasn't really anxious to replace the printer. I decided to contact H.P. Tech support via their on line help. I know I was typing to a person in India. After about 45 minutes of trying all the fixes they had, it became obvious that it was a hardware problem. The person who was trying their best to help suggested I buy another H.P. printer and of course my printer was out of warranty. So off I went to Fry's Electronics (We have one about 1/4 mile from our house) and bought a Canon Pixma, all-in-one inkjet printer with wifi capabilities. I set it up in about 7 to 8 minutes and then my 11 year old son set it up to use the wifi in our house. It works like a charm- Oh, it also has a scanner built into it! I paid $60 plus $20 for a 2 year replacement warranty. (Fuck you H.P.)

#29) Bondage

This pipe apparently tried to escape at one time and had to be chained down. It was a naughty pipe.

#28) Dandelion

Dandelion Lawn by Pull Up A Chair

Soft, white lace-in-winter-bliss
Woven by sunlight
A child's kiss
The dandelion, a garden weed
simple
elegant
wind, blown seed.
Make a wish
Summers spent
The dandelion's
A lawns lament

#27) Metal Table

Sometimes shadows make or break a photo. I like the dark squares echoing the table shapes.

#26) Sliced Apple

An apple, sliced in half.

#25) A Walk in the Park

I missed a day. It was bound to happen. The truth is, I simply forgot to post yesterday. I took this photo Friday night in Balboa Park. I love it there and have spent a lot of time, over the years, walking its paths.

#24) Downtown @ Night

Okay - I didn't take this today but last night. San Diego @ night is a whole different world. It's edgy and almost mysterious.

#23) A Trip To the Guitar Store

We had an hour to kill before a scheduled guitar lesson and so we went to a local guitar store today. These are two of my favorite shots.

Jacqui

Ian

#22) Hose

Yep, it's a hose. Wish I could say something fascinating about it but come on, it's just a hose.

#21) Yard Flamingo- Fun With Effects

I altered this image using iPhoto effects. Sometimes an ordinary image can be made to POP when using these effects. Sometimes it is way over the top. Once in a while, I enjoy these effects.

#20) Bird of Paradise

It's amazing what you can find if you look closely enough. In this extreme closeup, of part of a flower, there are all kinds of things that go unnoticed to the casual observer.

#19) Little Green Apple

It's. A. Green. Apple.

#18) Salt & Pepper

I took this picture at a restaurant in Balboa Park that is lit mainly with candle and gas light so it is a very warm light.

#17) Shadows

I really liked this spiral shadow cast by playground equipment. It is its own, temporary painting.

#16) Dark & Light

I purposely over-exposed this shot in B&W. Going for a higher contrast. I liked the way the playground equipment stood out against the background and the shapes repeated themselves.

#15) The Nuts & Bolts Of It

“What's really important is to simplify. The work of most photographers would be improved immensely if they could do one thing: get rid of the extraneous. If you strive for simplicity, you are more likely to reach the viewer.”
William Albert Allard

#14) Pure Joy

Watching my kids swinging at the playground I realized how full of life and joy they are. I think this image reflects that pure happiness.

#13) Hoop Dreams

Got this shot today at the school playground --- Glorious day here.

#12) Pine

“Beware the pine-tree's withered branch! Beware the awful avalanche!”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

#11) Rose Hips on Chain-Link

From far away this scrubby, old, overgrown climbing rosebush wasn't all that interesting but once I got close, I could see a whole new universe.

#10) The Internet IS a Series of Tubes!

It's true. I thought it was just the ramblings of an old, white man. The internet IS a series of tubes. Here's actual photographic evidence. The photo isn't that great... Kind of like all those sightings of Big Foot or UFO's. One of the tubes also carries fire which is how fire gets from place to place. It's AMAZING!

#9) Elementary School Water Fountains

For those of you who haven't been to an elementary school since you were twelve, here's a little reminder. It's institutionalized and, for me, brings back some painful memories. That time in my life was particularly unhappy. Now, since I have a fifth and sixth grader who attend science and math every Wednesday and Thursday, I get to revisit being eleven at a public school.

#8) Simon

Cats are difficult subjects. Just when you see a great shot, they move. They seem to have a special sense in this area. I somehow managed to get this close-up of one of our cats and I didn't even have to drug him.

#7) Indian Corn

Indian Corn by Pull Up A Chair

Beautiful and simple
You a-maize me.
drew me to you,
In the grocery store
I bought you, just for your beauty.

#6) Playground Under Moody Sky

It was icy cold and I had a few minutes before math class and I slipped out and took some pictures of the playground. What I learned today: I have blocked out any Geometry I learned in high school and college.

#5) Succulent

Ever since I was a kid, I have loved succulents. In Southern CA, it's pretty much mandatory to have these drought resistant plants on your patio. It's almost impossible to kill them too.

#4) Cactus in the Window

I have this cactus in my kitchen window. Jacqui brought it to me as a gift a few months ago. It is an amazing, bright red. I don't even know what kind of cactus it is but it is beautiful. Happy New Year.

My memories of Flying on the Fabulous DC-3.. (Memory Lane)

A memory was jogged by this article I ran across on the anniversary of the first DC-3. I love the DC-3. Not from any aeronautical perspective but due to memories I have of being a frequent flyer on Southern Airlines. My Dad, (actually he was my step-dad. Out of boredom, Mom was forced to occasionally change husbands )...was a mechanic for American Airlines, in fact, he was their first hire on the west coast, post WWII at LAX. I came along in the '50's when air travel had style and class... which of course Southern Airlines lacked both. What they did have was oodles of humor and humor can trump style and class every time if you do it right. As a company, Southern Airlines knew not to take themselves too seriously. They knew their fleet of DC-3's had become, by modern-day-standards, somewhat comical and treated their passengers as if they were your favorite, goofy uncle, out giving rides in the back seat of his Dodge Dart. They flew so low, it felt that I could reach out and touch the treetops. So, because my mothers family was from Tallulah Louisiana, my dad would get us tickets through the airlines to fly down and spend a month every summer with her lesbian (shhhh, don't tell anyone) aunt who was a sheriff... sure, it's cliche but after all there is a whole lotta truth about how cliche's get to be cliché's.

Aunt Bobbie, circa 1935 to 1940


Those rides down to Tallulah on Southern Airlines were heart stoppers. We would fly to New Orleans on an American 727 and leave New Orleans on one of those amazing DC-3's and make the short hop over to Monroe via the fabulous, little DC-3.

If Willy Wonka designed an airplane, he would have come up with the DC-3. He would have made it all shiny with the smell of hot chocolate wafting through the cabin and it would have had big, bouncy cartoon tires but the overall look would remain the same.

It's best to be short when traveling on a DC-3, when I was a little kid, I was among those who could stand up at the seat and not hit my head. The stewardess (There was no such term as "flight attendant.") would start off her safety spiel with "Hey ya'll, welcome to Southern Airlines, where southern hospitality is a must since our planes were obviously constructed by the seven dwarves, we feel it's our duty to smile no matter how bad our backs feel." Then a joke, about how low we would be flying, would usually follow.

Once, in the '70's, while I was in college, I flew down to visit that aunt. I remember an announcement that went something like this: "To operate your seatbelt, insert the metal tab into the buckle, and pull tight. It works just like every other seatbelt, hopefully you can figure it out on your own, if you can't figure it out we will be happy to come by and laugh at you." They made the experience fun. After the announcements, the little plane would rumble and race down the strip, promising to get into the air. When it first came out in 1935, the DC-3 was considered revolutionary, ahead of its time. The cabin was large and roomy for that days standards but, by the time I was a passenger of Southern Airlines, in the '60's and into the '70's, it had become passe', cramped and comical. The DC-3 was, and still is, a tremendously reliable aircraft with at least 2000 still flying today and it's still one of my favorite planes. I revere my memories of all those, short nostalgia filled flights, sweeping close to the ground, over the lush, velvety green swamps and pastures of the South. Silos on the edge of cotton or corn fields and boats moored to little wooden docks melded into some odd kind of fairy-tale collage.

I got stuck in Greenville Mississippi, a small airport with a Quonset hut looking building for a terminal on that trip home in the '70's from visiting my aunt. The connecting flight wasn't connecting and there I was, a skinny, teenage girl with a "yankee accent." I had about $30, 2 bags and no credit cards. I was "shit-out-of-luck" as the natives put it. I took the only cab in town from the bleak, little terminal. The old, black man who drove me, drove to a little coffee shop that was next to a hotel that time had defiantly forgotten about. It was just off Nelson Street. Believe it or not, Nelson Street was a happening place during mid-century 1900's but by the time I got there, it was a bit past its prime. There were still several blues joints and back then, they didn't ask for your I.D..

My Dad had wired me a hundred bucks, which in 1976, was way more than anyone needed in Greenville Mississippi. My night, stuck in that two-bit town, was spent listening to the best blues guitar and bass combo in Mississippi while sipping rum and cokes. Oddly enough, I wanted to stay an extra day or two but instead, I met my connecting flight and left Greenville Mississippi behind, never to return. The memories are keen and etched deep in my psyche. Thundering down the runway inside the cozy, little DC-3 and soaring just high enough.