It was so cold in the city last night that we thought we might not make it to the fireworks, but once they began, we completely forgot about our frozen extremities. KFOG Kaboom might be the coolest 18 minutes of the year. You really have to see this in person to appreciate the scale of…
Category: Bay Area
San Francisco Death March
Entertaining guests from out of town is exhausting. Ann and Lynne had made a detailed list of must-see Bay Area “attractions” – some of which I had been successfully avoiding for nearly 25 years. Places like Fisherman’s Wharf, The Haight, Lombard Street, the Painted Ladies, Chinatown, Ghirardelli Square, San Francisco cable cars and Alcatraz are…
California Tourist Death March
We spent last weekend with a couple of long-time friends from Wisconsin. Ann and Lynne were determined to cram as much sightseeing as possible into a short visit. We were lucky enough to have friends with a home in Carmel, so we spent a couple days shopping and eating in trendy Carmel. We visited all…
Freeway Collapse
A few folks have asked about this. Unfortunately, I can not get to a position to take better shots. (I REALLY need that press credential.) You can get the whole story – and better pictures – on sfgate. I am amazed at the amount of damage one carefully placed tanker full of gasoline can cause…
The Best Wine We’ve Ever Tasted
Last night was our 6th wedding anniversary. To celebrate, I made my soon-to-be-famous skirt steak for dinner with our best friends – Chris and Ben. We opened a 1994 Coppola zinfandel with dinner, which turned out to be outstanding. (Thanks, Dave and Sonja!) But the real treat was the sensational dessert wine Chris was kind…
Spring is Here
While most of the rest of the country is experiencing freezing temperatures are snow, spring brought glorious blue skies and near 70 degree temperatures to the Bay Area this weekend. Splendiferous!! What’s a little earthquake now and then when you can have have weather like this on March 3rd? After Saturday brunch at Sam’s in…
Coming About
I wasn’t too excited about what I saw through the viewfinder when I snapped these images of a sculpture in downtown Tiburon, but after tweaking them just a bit in PhotoShop, I have now decided that I like them all.
Queen Mary II Arrives in San Francisco
We had everything worked out. We’d start with margaritas and a spicy bloody Mary at Sam’s in Tiburon. After a brunch of crab cakes Benedict and a fresh-shucked oyster and bacon omelet, we’d drive to the Golden Gate Bridge and park at the north end to avoid the huge crowds coming to see the big…
Your Basic Fire Opera
Have I mentioned how much I love living in the Bay Area? Where else I could find an event quite like The Crucible’s red hot Romeo and Juliet Fire Ballet? I’ll be honest here – I am not likely to ever attend a “real” opera. This sort of music/theater springs from a level of consciousness…
Chris Picks His Top Five Weather Books
Can you even name five weather books? Didn’t think so. Well Chris Burt has no trouble naming his favorites in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal. Chris’ short reviews are so interesting that I now want to go out and buy all five!
Housing Explosion!
Coming to your neigborhood soon. At least if you live in Oakland! Buildings like this are springing up everywhere. I’m very happy to see some of the new structures feature fun, creative color schemes. The blaze orange and powder blue looks great! I wonder if all this construction will lead to a housing glut in…
Magic Light
Kelly will undoubtedly be upset that I posted this, because as anyone can clearly see, the loft is a “total mess!” Sorry Kelly, but I just wanted to share with my friends and family the light that came into our home at 4:01 PM today. Our loft lighting has been different every day of the…
Something to Feel Good About
Yesterday we attended the end-of-season horse show at the Xenophon Therapeutic Center in Orinda. This little organization pairs disabled children with specially trained horses. Kelly has been volunteering her time at Xenophon for two years. I was not sure what to expect on my first visit. What I found was truly beautiful and inspirational. Many…
Monticello Vineyards
We were lucky enough to be invited to Napa valley for a private wine tasting at the Monticello winery on one of the nicest days of the year. Our Indian Summer started late – today will probably be the last 84 degree day this year. Thanks again to Scott and Justyna for the invitation! Wow….
Love Fest San Francisco
After looking at about a thousand pictures from previous Love Fests, I almost didn’t go. The pictures are so lame that they only occasionally hint at a good time. Then I decided that it was my duty to attend and get a few decent shots of what probably is a pretty good event. So, armed…
Happy Birthday, Elise!
Happy Birthday, Dear. Seeing your fabulous smile in the office every day has been one of the best things about going to work these last six years. Lots of love to you! More party photos here. A huge thanks to our incredibly gracious hosts Joe and Jeff who made us feel welcome in one of…
Playa Art UFO/Car
I spotted this dust-covered vehicle parked on the street a block away, and just happened to have my trusty Nikon. My pal Andrew told me that there was a whole fleet of these on the playa this year.
Fantastic Fire Arts Festival
Wherein Utilikilt-clad white male fire-worshippers from around the Bay Area converge on the Crucible in Oakland for their 6th annual Fire Arts Festival and play in public with very dangerous but mesmerizing big boy toys. Whoa. The things we saw there definitely fall into the “Don’t try this at home” category. This ain’t your Mother’s…
The Golden State and Blog Categories
I’ve noticed lately that some of the pages on this site are becoming rather unwieldy. Some of my Category pages are enormous. My Photography link, for example, launches a page almost 8 megabytes in size! This is a problem, even on my 6 megabit-per-second connection. Since there’s no practical way for me to reduce the…
Kids Say the Darndest Things
While driving home from dinner tonight at Luka’s Tap Room, I discovered that there’s a punk club one block from our loft. So, naturally, I grabbed my camera and went after some images. Tonight’s alcohol-free event looks like so much fun I might have to go back after dark to shoot the dingy club in…
DAMMIT!
The frustrating thing about this is that I have no recollection of having done it. My guess is that I stopped at the red light, checked both directions, and then proceeded through the intersection – possibly thinking that I was turning from a one-way street on to a one-way street – a perfectly legal maneuver….
Walk in the Wild – 2006
Tonight Kelly treated us to one of her favorite events – Oakland Zoo’s fabulous Walk in the Wild. The adults-only fund-raiser features tons of food and wine, loads of animals, live music, the occasional Elvis sighting and no children. Wow. Is there a better time to be had at the zoo? I don’t think so….
Happy Birthday Bill!
We celebrated Bill Dalton’s birthday last night at the Burt’s residence on a surprisingly mild evening in the beautiful Oakland Hills. Ben prepared another of her world-famous Thai dinners with help from Tum. We met Tim Cahill – founding editor of Outside Magazine and prolific travel writer and his wife Linnea. Jerry Alexander dropped by…
Carnaval 2006
I can’t believe that a whole year has passed since the last Carnaval Parade in San Francisco. This year’s event must have been the largest ever. The parade lasted nearly four hours. I had planned to put a few shots up and link the rest into some sort of photo album, but after looking at…
Oakland’s Magnificent Fox Theater
My recent visit to the Oakland Fox Theater was very interesting. I saw first hand what nearly 40 years of neglect will do to a building. The photos below look better than the building does “in person”. The shots below give a clue to the condition of the walls and the plaster pretty much throughout…
San Francisco on a Sunny Day
Weather forecasts called for overcast skies and even the possibility of rain which seemed to work in our favor today as we breezed into the city with Paul, Joanna and new friend Michael. We hit many of our usual stops – Union Square, Lefty O’Douls, the Top of the Mark and finished off the evening…
KaBoom!
We try to see the KFOG KaBoom every year. We normally drive into the city, but decided to avoid the hundreds of thousands on Fogheads in the city and instead watched the fireworks display with a musical soundtrack at the nearby Middle Harbor Shoreline Park – the best park noboby knows about. The KaBoom is…
Olive, Ice Cream
We were lucky to have a few hours with our most excellent friend Olive. It was a lovely evening, so we took a short walk with Olive and her somewhat spastic dog, Frisco, to Ben and Jerry’s in beautiful Jack London Square. Yes, she ate the whole thing.
Steaks on the Grill
Chris and Ben hosted another fabulous shindig at their home in the Oakland Hills. No Thai food this time, though. Instead, we had good ol’ steak and corn-on-the-cob. Yum! These images were all shot by Grant with his amazing Canon 5D. This dang camera produces absolutely the best color and simply amazing sharpness. I own…
Schultz Has a Heck of a Lot of… Friends!
He also has a lot of stuff. So much stuff that I suggested to him at his 70th birthday bash today that we need to do some serious shooting before this special place disappears forever. He suggested a coffee table book, and I think that’s a terrific idea. You see, his unique home/workshop/museum is on…