photo blog

West Portal Muni

2011-03-04T19:59:00.000-08:00

Here are some more Cellphone Panoramas from my Samsung Captivate phone. Two are from the West Portal tunnel and the third from another station near Sloat and St. Francis. I learned that moving vehicles make lousy pano subjects since the cars whizzing by wrecked many attempts.

Android Panoramas

2011-02-25T19:02:00.000-08:00

After upgrading my Samsung Galaxy S phone to Android 2.2, I found it had a panorama scene mode. Here are some first tests.

Test of Android Blogger App

2011-02-05T15:43:00.001-08:00

Forced Close on my first try.

Model Release

2010-03-29T08:38:00.001-07:00

Name of Photographer:

Name of Model:

Agency/Client:

Brand/Product:

Date of Shoot:

Description of Shoot:

Hours of work agreed:

Fees:

I grant the photographer/agency/client and any licensees or assignees, the absolute right to use the photographs from the above mentioned photographic shoot, for the brand or product described above, solely and exclusively for

Usage: MEDIA , TERRITORY , TIME

(In this case it could have been …Packaging, U.S , 2 years)

I understand I have no interest in the copyright, or any moral rights, in the photograph

I am over 18 years of age

Name of Model: (Print)……………………………….
Signature of Model:…………………………………
Date: ………………………………………………….

In accepting the above release it is the responsibility of the photographer/agency/client not to use or authorise the use of the material except for the above media, territory and time periods. Further usage must be negotiated and agreed beforehand and in writing with the model.

St. Joseph's Coat Rose Petals

2009-12-02T13:01:00.000-08:00

This abstract shot of Rose Petals was shot with a Panasonic DMC-ZS3 and a Raynox DCR-250 macro lens. Because the ZS3 has a 300mm effective zoom, it's very hard to hold it steady hand-held even with it's optical image stabilization. It is comparable hard to focus. The magnification is also much greater, probably bigger than 1 to 1.

Stanford X-Country RAce

2009-09-26T14:42:00.000-07:00

I photographed the Stanford Invitational Cross Country Race today to shoot some sports for a photojournalism class. Huge meet with very little parking and it was hot. After the morning High School races, order broke down and everyone was crossing the red flagged lines, which is good because then I could get better photos. Mostly I shot the Stanford runners because they were in front and I figured I could identify them for my required captions. Here's one that I probably can't identify.

Week 2 Beach Day

2009-07-03T13:35:00.001-07:00

Week 2 Beach Day
Originally uploaded by wooac

Example of iPhoto Slideshow from Stanford Camp

Reclaimed Area in Presidio

2009-06-04T09:20:00.001-07:00

_MG_3104, originally uploaded by wooac.

My understanding is that this area used to be a dumping ground at the old U.S. Army base. The restoration now has a creek and a play area surrounded by landscaping.

Chance Photo on Lyons Street

2009-03-24T22:30:00.000-07:00

Bryan led the Y Walkers on sidewalks near Lyons Street. This shot was taken just above DiFi's house. I'm tempted to smooth out the sidewalk so the guy in the center looks as if he is hanging in midair. This version was straightened but otherwise unmodified.

Fairmeadow Houses

2009-03-21T17:57:00.000-07:00

After the Palo Alto Planning Commission meeting, I walked around the proposed "Single Story Overlay" Zoning district and did a survey of these "wonderful" Eichlers and their conditions. The Single Story Overlay limits new construction to 17 feet. It's the first step to the designation as a "Historic District" which would create another architectural review board comprised of neighborhood activists who would approve any remodels before they could be permitted by the Planning Department. It would also exempt all buildings in the "Historic District" from FEMA flood zone restrictions which would ptherwise force remodels to have the first floor start 5 feet from the ground. The entire neighborhood is somewhere between 5 to 15 feet above mean sea level and there is a major creek about 1/2 mile away.

Most of the neighborhood is reasonably maintained. But there appears to be a bicycle dump at one house. There is another with a small auto repair shop in the front yard. And yet another with extra toilets in the front which I guess were removed during a remodel.

I didn't include photos of my immediate neighbor who has a small tank in his driveway and a 20 foot geodesic structure with an office chair on top in the back. He's not in the proposed "Single Story Overlay" district.

Somebody is painting gang tags on my back fence while the city wants to declare the neighborhood a "Historic District." It's pretty clear that my priorities and my neighbors aren't the same.

Berry Falls

2009-03-21T17:30:00.000-07:00

Berry Falls on the Berry Creek Trail is the most photographed and famous falls in Big Basin State Park. This is a panorama image made from 6 positions with brackets of plusminus 1 stop. I had to throw out the plus one image due to lack of memory on the computer where I was running Hugin, the pano app. Surprisingly, I preferred the non-HDR version over the fused because the exposure changed for the images with the white water.

This image was a little difficult to get because the other hikers were pounding on the wood observation platform and shaking it up and down. The sun had not risen high enough to illuminate the canyon directly, so it was quite dark here. The long exposure is why the water is milky.

The image would be better if there were more on the right side. I think there must have been a tree in the way or I would have continued more in that direction.

Intercontinental Hotel

2009-03-15T20:42:00.000-07:00

The CAIS Institute Chinese Education Conference was held at the Intercontinental Hotel in San Francisco from March 12-15th. I shot photos of the conference and two of the field trips to Mandarin programs in San Francisco. I can't display photos of any of the people at the conference but here are two of the hotel. The hotel itself is a 33 floor glass structure directly across from the old location of the California Academy of Science, 888 Howard, on the corner with 5th Street.

Star King Elementary School

2009-03-15T19:15:00.000-07:00

These photos were taken during a site visit to Star King Elementary School from the Chinese Education Conference in San Francisco. Star King was a formerly failing elementary school in the Portero District which is now one third Mandarin Bilingual Immersion, one third Spanish Bilingual Immersion and one third normal. It's quite an impressive elementary school and much better than I expected. The school is bright, airy and has high ceiling. It sits on the top of the hill is 270 degree panoramic views.

The Mandarin Immersion program started three years ago so the first class is only now in third grade. Because the large variance in the student population and the lack of native Mandarin speakers, the actual language absorption seems a little slower than other immersion programs. But the students and the faculty seems enthusiastic and it's showing definite improvement.

No faces of either the students or conference participants in these public photos.

YMCA Hike After a Storm

2009-03-15T19:03:00.000-07:00

I managed to talk the Hike Leader to walk to the Golden Gate Bridge since many walkers didn't like walking on the muddy trails. The bridge turned out to be very unpopular because the noise and traffic. I suggested it for a rainy day because the bridge is basically a parking lot when it rains. Californians really don't know how to drive in the rain and some of their vehicles are unsafe with the lower rolling resistance. As a test, I carried a fully dSLR this day and shot RAW. After walking around with a P&S Nikon P5000 or a Canon S400, the results were dramatically better with even a consumer dSLR.

High Speed Photography

2009-03-15T18:59:00.000-07:00

I setup a rig for high speed photography and every now and then I try something. These are basically pre-focused shots in a dark room which are illuminated by a flash. I'm using an AC powered flash that is designed for Disco dancing. I've tried both acoustic and optical triggers for the flash. This photo was triggered by the noise of the rock entering the water. Thus what you see is the rebound of the displaced water. I think a larger vase might help. Also, since it's pitch black, it's hard to drop the object in the center.

I thought I could photograph directly through a rectangular vase but the optical quality of this cheap IKEA vase is suspect. Mostly the images are very muddled through the glass.

Model Railroad - Conservatory of Flowers

2009-03-15T18:53:00.000-07:00

I took advantage of free Tuesday to visit the Conseratory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park. The model railroad is still there even if it now has cobwebs. I sold one of these photos to San Francisco Magazine!

Trip to Muir Woods

2009-03-15T18:48:00.000-07:00

I volunteered to drive a group of Taiwan Exchange students to Muir Woods. Even though they were 5th and 6th graders, they all had cameras and some had iPods. They basically never stopped talking and seemed much more interested in shopping than large Redwood trees. It appears that "Nature Deficit Disorder" is universal. Gone are the days of digging up bugs or climbing trees. Now everything is an electronic gadget, a new videogame, music players, internet site or cellphone. Reality is now man-made.

Chinatown Lunar New Year Parade

2009-03-15T18:41:00.000-07:00

This year I walked with the CAIS float in the Chinatown Lunar New Year's parade. It was quite a privilege and I regret that I might have bumped another parent. My daughter was in the dance troupe in front of the float or I wouldn't have even asked. The last time I was even remotely involved with this parade was at ISTP where basically anyone who wanted to go could walk with the float. (There are now only 5 students in left in the her Chinese class.) Also, the design and building of the float was outsourced to former ISTP families at that time. CAIS does everything with parent volunteers and the kids that ride on the float and the parents who walk are tightly controlled. Also, the parade itself regulates how many can be in the parade.

The parade itself is a lot of hurry up and wait. It is a little confusing because the floats only appear at the last minute in three columns and the participants have to load up before it takes off. It can be a little like the battle of the bands with each float blaring out its music so the participants can practice. Plus there are real marching bands and dragon teams and drums practicing.

There is a surprising amount of power used in each float and each truck carries a large gas powered generator. The CAIS float used multiple halogen work lights for its basic illumination plus the OX's head and tail moved. There is a substantial amount of electrical plus the mechanical engineering. Another major consideration is safety, especially for the small children. The CAIS float had guard rails made of pipe all around it for use as handrails and keep the children inside. And since there are small children, the float carried a portable toilet and not the kind for potty training but one that sits on a 5 gal bucket, plus a frame and screen for privacy. Luckily it was only used once but it was used!

For photography, it helps to be one of the first floats because it was basically night before we even started moving. Most of the illumination was from the truck headlights on high beam and that illumination is extremely uneven. There is a section in front of Macy's where the TV crews film which is extremely well lit. But the float participants are not allow to take video or still shots in that zone (or the float will be penalized in the competition). Never mind that all the spectators are doing exactly this. But those are the rules. So photography and videography was challenging because it was extremely dark but with some wildly bright highlights and you and your subject are slowly walking down through the smoke of fireworks and firecrackers. You have to use a flash but the dropoff is fast and it can't overpower the uneven illumination. If I ever do this again, I'd like to try to use a camera with extremely good high ISO performance.

The previous year the weather was really terrible with high winds, but luckily the worst rains stopped just before the parade time. This year, it had been raining all week, plus it rained the next day, but the weather was mild for the parade itself. But because of the terrible experience of the previous year, the dance troupe didn't wear their normal fancy costumes but rather wore clothes in which they could stay warm if the weather deteriorated. Last year, one of the CAIS dancers made the front page of the SF Chronicle. This year CAIS was not as fortunate.

The float itself told the story of how the rat stole the honor of being the first animal in the zodiac by riding on the back of the Ox. But it was too subtle because you could hardly see the little kids in rat outfits on the top of the Ox. The float had to be explained to me and I already know this story. I think the Head of School or an adult should have worn the rat outfit and rode on the Ox's back because he would have been visible to the crowd. Though dimensionally correct, under the dark, smoky conditions, the little kids did not stand out enough to get the story across.

(Even though these kids were on television, my public photographs cannot display faces of the students since they were taken for the school.)

Chinatown New Year's Street Fair

2009-03-15T18:01:00.000-07:00

Two things are very striking about the Chinatown New Year's Street Fair. First about 10% of all of the booths represent gambling, either directly from a casino or bus agency, or as a game. The number of spinning roulette type games was amazing. If you only counted the large booths on Grant Avenue, the percentage would be even larger. Second, there is a large population of very old Chinese. Maybe it was the time of day (mid-morning), but about one quarter were over 65 or they looked as if they were. I don't normally see so many old Chinese folks in Chinatown walking about.

YMCA HIkes

2009-03-15T17:55:00.000-07:00

Started hiking with the YMCA in preparation for my backpacking trip in March. This is the walkway from the Presidio's Commandant's house to the gardens near his tennis courts. Some parts of the Presidio are very peaceful and idyllic. Other parts are freeways or cemeteries. This is from the first hike where I took photos on 1/30/2009.

Battery Near Golden Gate Bridge

2009-03-15T17:50:00.000-07:00

The coast trail on the west side of Golden Gate Bridge finally reopened. It's been rerouted further inland and there are still detours which force one over the old gun placements. This is one of those batteries in the late afternoon just before Chinese New Year.

Execution

2008-10-24T10:19:00.001-07:00

Execution, originally uploaded by wooac.

This is a child's drawing from a Refugee Camp. It depicts an execution and a boat full of dead bodies. It's from the "Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City" held by Doctors Without Borders in SF. The camp was very educational albeit depressing and there wasn't an overt push for donations. If it comes to your city, it's well worth your time.

Stow Lake: Golden Gate Park

2008-09-23T14:16:00.000-07:00

When it's not foggy, Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park has some great views. Unfortunately, it entirely artificial so the water doesn't circulate and is pretty much clogged with algae. The state of the water doesn't seem to bother the birds.

Dahlia Den: Golden Gate Park

2008-09-23T14:13:00.000-07:00

At the end of summer, the Dahlias at Golden Gate Park are in bloom. Clearly they have been bred to express wild flowers beyond any natural requirement. Still the flowers are nice to look at even if they aren't very functional.

After sunset on Alcatraz

2008-09-23T14:10:00.000-07:00

After sunset, most of Alcatraz Island returns to the birds.

Remains of the Berkeley Fishing Pier

2008-09-23T14:08:00.000-07:00

The Berkeley Fishing Pier extends a long distance into the SF Bay. It is so long that there are people living in tents on it. But apparently, at one time it was even longer. This is a photo of some of the remants with Alcatraz in the background. The Bay must not be very deep near Berkeley.

Adventures in GPS Mashups

2008-06-25T12:03:00.000-07:00

My recent trip to China was the final push to purchase a GPS datalogger to create mashups maps of my photographs. I bought a QSTARZ Q1000P because it can log a 5Hz and broadcast via bluetooth to an eventual auto or laptop real-time mapping program. It comes with a reasonably capable program "Travel Recorder v4" which does most of what you would like with some glaring exceptions:

1. It is really slow. I'm convinced it reads every image into memory to make it's own thumbnails. It's lack of speed adversely impacted my workflow.

2. If you want to embed location information into multiple sets of images you can't deselect all images, you have to do it one-by-one. I found it was faster to quit the entire program and start over.

3. Travel Recorder can obtain GPS information from your datalogger but it can't import the same information from any of it's export formats, gpx, nmea, kml or plt. Seems like the same information to me.

4. Without an internet connection to Google Maps, it won't display any information about the tracks.

In my early testing, I would shoot less than dozen photos at a time. My workflow was to start "Travel Recorder", load in the GPS data, "Add a Folder" of photos, shift the time stamp on the photos to better align with the GPS data (found that my cameras do not have accurate clocks), and finally write the location information back into the JPEG EXIF metadata. The last two steps were slow. But once I started taking hundreds of photographs per set, this workflow became untenable.

In an attempt to speed things up, I tried JetPhoto and Robogeo. In China, I used an ASUS EEE PC900 which has a 1024x600 screen. JetPhoto is very finicky about it's screen and font setup and won't run at all on this travel laptop. The trial version of Robogeo puts random LARGE errors in the location information. Since after the first few days in China I didn't have Internet connectivity, I basically uninstalled both of them and resigned myself to "Travel Recorder."

Once back in the United States with a decent network connection I decided to look for a perl based solution and work on the Mashups. I picked perl because I'm familiar with the excellent ExifTool modules and I found gpsPhoto.pl which does almost everything I want and a little more. But first I'll describe my experiences with online Mashups.

Online Mashups Which Don't Work

Probably the origin of my interest in location mashups started with Flickr's implementation which I still think is very nice. Flickr produces a map based on 20 photos per strip and if you happen to be taking hundreds of photographs, the resulting area displayed in this map is pretty reasonable. Unfortunately, since Flickr is part of Yahoo, it used Yahoo Maps which are fine for the United States but just awful for China. The resolution of their China Maps are just terrible except for major cities like Beijing. My trip involved several temples in Shandong Province, such as the Confucius Temple and Cemetary in QuFu. The Yahoo Map for QuFu at highest resolution consists of the entire city of QuFu and the surrounding countryside.

I next tried gpsvisualizer which is pretty good for visualizing a track. Unfortunately, none of their automatic photo loading options from Flickr work and I just couldn't see uploading hundreds of MBs of photos to a site which probably wouldn't store them properly.

I tried the My Maps option in Google Maps which has some annoying features. If you upload a long track in kml format, for some reason Google breaks it up into short segments. So if you are trying to show your route from SFO to Beijing by air, you have to flip through 4-5 webpages. It also doesn't automatically put placemarks for your photos. You have to do this manually which is pretty tedious for hundreds of photos and the plugin which is supposed to pull photos from your Picasaweb album doesn't appear to be able to select just your photos, you get everyones.

Finally I tried SmugMaps since I use smugmug as my archival site. All photos displayed on SmugMaps need captions (OK with this), must be world accessible and searchable by Smugmug itself. But SmugMaps will only display the last 150 images uploaded and there are no other options. You can't define sets or create multiple maps. And finally, it updates very, very slowly. If you delete an image which used to be on the map, it loses all the later images until a few hours later when it happens to regenerate the index.

My next post will be about gpsphoto.pl and Google Earth.

Miwok Hun ge

2008-04-15T14:38:00.001-07:00

Miwok Hun ge, originally uploaded by wooac.

From our excursion to the Gold Country. This Miwok Hun Ge is a Indian Grinding Rock State Park. It's pretty dark inside the Hun Ge but the Rangers had a fire going which smoked up the place. There wasn't much of a breeze but the smoke rose from the fire pit to the hole in the timber roof. A single shaft of light illuminated the ceremonial room.

It doesn't look like much from the outside but the Hun Ge was pretty impressive inside.

Bubbles in a Coffee Cup 4-15-2008 11-33-04 AM

2008-04-15T14:33:00.001-07:00

Bubbles in a Coffee Cup 4-15-2008 11-33-04 AM, originally uploaded by wooac.

Macros while eating lunch. This is a cup of instant coffee with soy. I couldn't shoot before the soy milk because the steam kept fogging up the lens.

Some of the macros have a tinge of red. Not sure of the origin of the red color but I suspect that something nearby must have been red and colored the light.

Some Observations on the Male Peacock

2008-04-04T22:46:00.001-07:00

Male Peacock, originally uploaded by wooac.

I observed a male peacock near the Puffer Steam Train at the SF Zoo (where Tatiana the tiger mauled three boys). One male and five females within about 10 feet. The male shakes all his feather and turns around and shakes his tail. The females walk around and generally don't pay that much attention. The male peacock does push his head back and forth, like the Di Peacock dance but I'm not convinced this isn't just a natural consequence of being so far out of balance with his plumage and tail up in the air.

Evolution driven by sex played a mean joke of the male peacock. I watched a female peacock take a shot flight when the train passed nearby. The male is exerting incredible energy just to keep his feathers off the ground. When he is shimmering and shaking, he must be burning as enormous number of calories. Since his mobility is severely limited by all the stuff he carries to attract the other sex, there must be abundant food for the male peacock to survive.

Clearly all this plumage and ritualized dancing does work. But why? Why would a female peacock prefer some bizarre male who would have a hard time feeding himself or help feed the young. What is the evolutionary advantage? The male peacock is an amazing animal and makes me wonder what happens to a species without survival pressure and decisions are made based on plumage. How many generations did it take for the male peacock to take this form?

So what does this say about homo sapiens? When did modern medicine remove most of the selective pressure? Antibiotics? C-sections? No wonder steroids are so popular.

Surfer near Fort Point

2008-03-28T20:22:00.001-07:00

IMG_3575, originally uploaded by wooac.

I was out testing a Canon 100-400mm IS L Lens and spotted some surfers. This is just a crop from the full frame. It's been sharpened because at 400mm, this lens is a bit soft.

Like my previous attempts at shooting surfers, most of the time surfers paddle around on their boards and yak. About every fifth wave someone might ride one of these little ditties. But the other thing is how old some of these guys are. A lot of bald heads and hanging paunches.

The 100-400mm is definitely an outside only lens. It's just too slow and the push-pull zoom is very annoying. It's also big and heavy and white.

Easter Lily

2008-03-22T20:54:00.001-07:00

Easter Lily, originally uploaded by wooac.

Easter Lily from Petals, A Flower Shop. Large, fairly simple flower.

Tulip

2008-03-22T20:53:00.001-07:00

Tulip, originally uploaded by wooac.

Planted a bag of Costco tulips and only a half dozen came up. This is one of them. Seems strange for a tulip.

Mission Gift Shop

2008-03-16T23:16:00.001-07:00

Mission Gift Shop, originally uploaded by wooac.

The Mission Gift Shop had some really strange wooden carvings for sale and they weren't cheap. These aren't your usual Made in China knock-offs. I wonder why the Chinese haven't made it into this market yet.

Staircase - Old Chapel

2008-03-16T23:13:00.001-07:00

Staircase - Old Chapel, originally uploaded by wooac.

Looking up from one of the stairs to the circular staircase in the Old Chapel at Mission Dolores. The ceiling was painted this way by the original Indians in the 1700's. Of course it has been restored a few times.

According to the Docent, the priests would use this rough wood staircase to ascend to a small balcony and watch the congregation below. Early big brother, except by the Jesuit Brothers.

California Poppy

2008-03-11T10:49:00.001-07:00

California Poppy, originally uploaded by wooac.

Unless you look very closely on a California Poppy, you might not notice the ridges on the petals. The ridges are the reason the water droplets are arranged in neat rows. The distribution of droplet sizes is a little more difficult to understand. One expects the less vertical surfaces to hold larger droplets but it also appears that the edges of the petals can hold larger droplets than the interior. Perhaps the ridges are more pronounced at the edges.

poppy blossom emerging from case

2008-03-11T10:45:00.001-07:00

poppy, originally uploaded by wooac.

This is a traditional poppy, unlike the California poppies which are also blooming now. This flower case is incredibly hairy and hydrophilic. My guess is that sprinkler ran earlier in the morning because there wasn't that much fog last night. The water caught in the case magnifies the petals inside.

Lemon Bottlebrush

2008-03-04T22:34:00.000-08:00

The common bottlebrush is another flower with more structure than one would see at first look. The pollen sticks on little bulbs at the ends of the red tubes and the stamen are buried deep inside. Since gravity and wind must play a role in the pollination, most of the successful pollen must drop from a pollinator on the top side of the flower or from an entirely different flower above. It's a curious struction because the basic brush shape seems to be an extremely ineffective design for collecting pollen.

Magnolia Flower

2008-03-04T22:28:00.000-08:00

For years I've viewed Magnolia flowers are large cup-like petals with tinged edges but if you look inside one carefully, they are very bizarre. The pistols and the stamens are separated with different colors. I suppose the way it works is that the pollinator rubs off pollen while gathering on the top and the distance reduces the amount of self-pollination. Because the flower is so large, these sex organs are also pretty large. I wonder if this favors pollinators of a particular type. I didn't see any bees or hummingbirds when I photographed this tree so it's hard to know for sure.

Chinese Lantern Flower

2008-03-02T09:07:00.001-08:00

Chinese Lantern Flower, originally uploaded by wooac.

I bought these flowers for valentine's day but it was so crowded in "Just Flowers" that I couldn't get the proprietor's attention. The bouquet wasn't very full and we throw in these Chinese Lantern Flowers at the last minute. But they turned out nicer than the Pincushion flower, Protea, or Leucadendrum.

Unfortunately, this Chinese Lantern Flower turned brown very quickly.

Oxalis Flower

2008-03-02T09:01:00.001-08:00

Oxalis Flower, originally uploaded by wooac.

This is a lowly oxalis. There are fields of them blooming now. And to think, I spent hundreds of dollars buying special chemicals in Nevada to kill this plant in my lawn. I'd rather have a yard of these than Kentucky blue grass (or Bermuda grass).

Broccoli Flowers

2008-03-02T08:58:00.001-08:00

Broccoli Flowers, originally uploaded by wooac.

We were away for three weeks and we let the winter vegetables go to seed. This is the last of the broccoli. It's probably still edible but I don't know what it tastes like.

St Joseph's Coat Rose

2008-03-02T08:55:00.001-08:00

St Joseph's Coat Rose, originally uploaded by wooac.

I was trying to achieve the "Georgia O'Keefe" look with this rose but it was difficult to focus in the bright sun. Also the rose wasn't as accessible as it could be. Probably the next time I should setup a ladder and a tripod or monopod. Also shot earlier in the day when it is less windy and the sun isn't as bright.

Feed Me Seymour

2008-02-29T10:54:00.001-08:00

DSCN1484, originally uploaded by wooac.

Not sure what this was. It is really only a bud but it struck me as the plant from the Little Shop of Horrors. Feed Me Seymour....

Face in a Flower

2008-02-29T10:52:00.001-08:00

DSCN1538, originally uploaded by wooac.

This flower was photographed at the Presidio Native Plant Nursery, way in the back where the plants are probably not native. So the question is why would a flower mimic a face or do we just see a face in this? I suspect the flower is really mimicking a face, not to attract bees but to dissuade potential eaters, like birds, to stay away.

Ice Plant Flower

2008-02-27T14:59:00.000-08:00

These are closeup macros shot with a reversed 50mm lens on a Point and Shoot camera of a single ice plant flower in Lincoln Park. Ice plants are known for their brilliant color and their ability to attract bees. But I would not have guessed that the pistols were so wild inside it. Also, the octopus like inner structure is quite amazing. Of course, on a spring day there are bits of pollen littered everywhere either from the wind or an errant bee.

Dandelion

2008-02-27T14:53:00.001-08:00

Dandelion, originally uploaded by wooac.

This is a closeup of a dandelion seed head before they've blown away. It was taken with a Point and Shoot Nikon P5000 with a reversed 50mm lens outside the 3x zoom lens off the fairway on one of the holes in the Lincoln Park golf course.

Some interesting things come out of this photo. The feathery spokes which loft the seed are not uniformly distributed. It's close but not quite. They do have bilateral symmetry however. I wonder if gravity is reasonable for this deviance from uniform or the closest packing (hexagonal) of the seeds themselves which forces this arrangement.

Davies Symphony Hall

2008-02-27T08:56:00.000-08:00

Davies Symphony Hall is an acoustically engineered room. It is optimized for the sound from the Orchestra to reach the audience as clean, clear music. I think it has been mostly optimized for the Orchestra floor level and we have box seats. It's particularly bad in the far back on Tier 1 and higher. Also, the reflectors actually make the organ sound worse and the cement structure and floor create a very cold hard sound.

One of the features I don't understand is this array of slots and protrusions. My guess is that is supposed to act as a slot array for extremely low frequencies because the size and distances are so large. But I can't think of any instrument, except for the organ, which produces such low notes. My other guess is that there is motor noise from something, perhaps in the ceiling itself or above like the HVAC unit and this array alleviates that problem.

If you have any ideas, please let me know.

Merced River Macro

2008-02-27T08:46:00.001-08:00

Merced River Macro, originally uploaded by wooac.

As part of the Ansel Adams Gallery Photo-walk the group walked along the Merced River from the Stone Bridge to a steel one. These macros were taken just to the west of the steel bridge. What surprised me was the amount of oil on the water along the banks. I was told that propane replaced heating oil in the Valley so I suspect that this is crankcase oil washed into the river from the roads.

Evaporation After An Overnight Snowfall

2008-02-27T08:19:00.001-08:00

Evaporation After An Overnight Snowfall, originally uploaded by wooac.

Taken from the North Bank of the Merced River of the gap to the east of Sentinel Rock. The rain turned to snow overnight. Scattered showers this day with occasional breaks of bright sunshine. This was one of those breaks with the sun directly over this gap, causing the flare. I particularly like the wave pattern in the sky above the condensation. It's not something I see that often.