Love of Lens

on the move

2011-01-20T07:07:00.005-03:00

It's time for a change! I've redone my main site and have migrated this photoblog over there. It'll be nice to have everything under one virtual roof.

Come with me over to LIMPIRE and together we shall take over the world.

into the rabbit hole

2011-01-19T07:36:00.002-03:00

After Mexico, we went to meet my family in Cuba.

This photo was taken outside of Trinidad, near the top of this tower used as a lookout point.

Popocatepetl

2011-01-18T08:32:00.004-03:00

Mexico City is in a valley--a large valley. Just southeast of the city is the second largest peak in Mexico--an active volcano called Popocatepetl. Here it is topped with snow, even though Mexico City is a balmy 75 degrees during the day.

stretched to the limit

2011-01-17T07:21:00.002-03:00

I'm not sure why Mexico City abruptly ends at this road.

behind the aluminum curtain

2011-01-14T09:18:00.000-03:00

Getting around

2011-01-13T09:09:00.002-03:00

I was pretty shocked to see that Mexico DF has a bicycle-sharing program. It's just such a large, congested, and sort of frightening city that I can't imagine anyone biking around it. The EcoBici program is almost a year old and only in select (re:posh) areas of the city. I didn't really see anyone using them, except for on Sunday on the car-free avenues as recreational vehicles.

The city is also in the midst of installing miles of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) with dedicated lanes. I suppose if you're the largest city in the Americas, you need to be doing this sort of stuff.

Teotihuacán

2011-01-12T07:55:00.002-03:00

It's very steep.

high-noon salute

2011-01-11T07:52:00.002-03:00

I think I got a tan, even though we nearly froze to death every night.

underground

2011-01-10T07:49:00.001-03:00

The Mexico DF metro...hot and muggy, even in December.

corporate canvas

2011-01-09T08:47:00.002-03:00

An abandoned office tower in Mexico DF.

doggie day care

2011-01-08T08:43:00.002-03:00

Where the dogs come to play in Parque México, in the Roma/Condessa neighborhood of Mexico DF.

whacky holidays

2011-01-07T07:39:00.002-03:00

A market in Mexico DF hawking mostly holiday wares the week before Christmas.

Everywhere You Turn

2011-01-06T07:25:00.000-03:00

Around the historic center in Mexico DF, there seemed to be no sit-down restaurants. The streets were filled with people hawking food from trucks, baskets, stands, and people eating all over the sidewalks.

the basics

2011-01-05T07:17:00.003-03:00

We found ourselves in the historic center of Mexico City just days before Christmas. It was so crowded with people that sometimes it was hard to move. Because I find photography to be extremely difficult in crowded, overwhelming places, I focused on the few things that I normally shoot. Like Volkswagen Beetles.

Many of the taxis in Mexico City are Volkswagen Beetles. But aside from that, the city is just teeming with them. It seemed like every tenth car I saw was a Beetle.

2011 oh my!

2011-01-04T12:50:00.003-03:00

I just returned from a hectic 16-day trip and have about 1200 images to wade through. Get ready for the onslaught of stephotography!

Day One in Mexico City, otherwise known as Ciudád de México, or México DF (Distrito Federal). A completely overwhelming place.

xmas cookies

2010-12-27T07:49:00.000-03:00

I had a fun time making Christmas cookies this year, even though it meant neurotically cleaning and moving the cookies around from surface to surface because we have a serious ant problem. They love sugar just as much as me!

I fashioned a double boiler to melt chocolate for the first time, and I'll definitely be doing that again.

couchsurfing

2010-12-26T07:23:00.001-03:00

Last year at this time, Suzanna and I were couchsurfing in Montevideo with a sweet German couple. Here they are, doing some sleep-arranging and blowing up an air mattress.

happy holidays

2010-12-25T07:16:00.002-03:00

25-second exposure under a bright moon on the Pacific.

twas the night before...

2010-12-24T07:14:00.002-03:00

Hope your holidays aren't spent stuck in traffic. Or, if you're stuck in traffic, I hope your holidays are full of good music.

breakfast

2010-12-23T07:09:00.000-03:00

Breakfast in the Westy. What a miracle to have toasted bagels and hot coffee first thing in the morning in our little campsite by the ocean.

flea marketing

2010-12-22T08:11:00.001-03:00

rebel yell

2010-12-21T08:06:00.003-03:00

I love how surfers run into the water, like they just can't wait to plunge into the freezing cold surf. When I used to live by the beach on Fulton or Taraval or Balboa, I would often see surfers running down the sidewalk in their wetsuits.

just pick me up some sausage

2010-12-20T07:47:00.000-03:00

found

2010-12-19T07:59:00.001-03:00

walking the dog

2010-12-18T07:43:00.000-03:00

ah, fresh produce!

2010-12-17T07:48:00.001-03:00

A farm for brussel sprouts in Watsonville.

plovers

2010-12-16T08:02:00.000-03:00

I have always loved plovers, the way they run on the beach on their little toothpick legs. Last weekend when we were camping, a woman pointed out to us the way plovers chill in people's footprints on the beach and sometimes try to nest like that. It's not a very stable situation, which is why the plovers are sadly endangered.

campground host

2010-12-15T07:50:00.000-03:00

I love this photo because it looks like Juan is doing some Christmas trick-or-treating in an RV park.

californians in the mist

2010-12-14T08:00:00.000-03:00

somewhere

2010-12-13T15:21:00.001-03:00

There was the faintest hint of a rainbow over this campground in Half Moon Bay.

when photographers bowl

2010-12-10T08:17:00.000-03:00

Or, your Friday vertical!

7-10 split

2010-12-09T16:06:00.003-03:00

Check out this perfect bowling form:

I'm not criticizing. She still beat me.

winter whites

2010-12-08T15:23:00.001-03:00

I love it when people put out their clean underwear.

tuesday specialties

2010-12-07T08:57:00.003-03:00

I'm special!

However, I would like to point out that I am improving. Not only is this a much more spectacular break than the last one, but the photo of it is much nicer. Agreed?

fantastical!

2010-12-06T08:55:00.001-03:00

Did you ever wonder what it would be like to live in the same town as SIX FLAGS GREAT AMERICA?

welcome back

2010-12-05T08:48:00.001-03:00

The lovely view returning to San Francisco this week.

in the nick of time

2010-12-04T08:53:00.000-03:00

The day before I left Illinois, it snowed.

anniversaries

2010-12-03T08:04:00.002-03:00

A year ago yesterday, I woke up in Buenos Aires for the first time. It was an afternoon nap.

This was the view from my balcony on Lavalle.

settling in

2010-12-02T07:54:00.000-03:00

We are addicted to playing Settlers of Catan.

wednesday vertical

2010-12-01T07:49:00.002-03:00

Another day-after-Thanksgiving tradition...the last lawn-maintenance session of the year.

joy buzzers

2010-11-30T08:46:00.002-03:00

The house was filled with the sound of remote-controlled helicopters all weekend.

Don't ask why.

giving thanks

2010-11-29T13:40:00.002-03:00

I ran into my friend marching in the annual day-after-Thanksgiving animal rights protest on Michigan Avenue.

happy thanksgiving

2010-11-25T08:07:00.002-03:00

Thanksgiving is the one family event that is non-negotiable, more so than Christmas. It's kind of funny, though, because in our family, every day is like Thanksgiving. We loves to eat! This is on New Year's Day, 2009, in Malaysia.

family lineup

2010-11-24T13:21:00.001-03:00

This is what it looks like when we try to gather for a photo.

keeper of the goal

2010-11-23T08:45:00.000-03:00

cue whitesnake

2010-11-22T08:16:00.001-03:00

sunday vertical

2010-11-21T08:18:00.003-03:00

This was in Segovia, Spain, in July. A lot can happen in five months.

in the end

2010-11-20T09:01:00.000-03:00

Everything looks beautiful--if you look at it in the right way.

hikers on a hillside

2010-11-19T08:48:00.002-03:00

thursday duo

2010-11-18T08:45:00.002-03:00

Post office boxes in Sea Ranch (Sonoma):

And mailboxes at the harbor in Sausalito:

sunset talks

2010-11-18T06:53:00.000-03:00

The Pacific by Bodega Bay.

never turn your back on the ocean

2010-11-17T08:44:00.001-03:00

solitaire

2010-11-16T08:37:00.002-03:00

It was so windy at the beach on Saturday that Juan could play frisbee with himself.

old crow

2010-11-15T08:27:00.002-03:00

I read that crows can live to be 75 years old.

my other limo

2010-11-14T07:54:00.000-03:00

Muni at night.

Ricky

2010-11-13T07:52:00.001-03:00

I've known Ricky for 10 years.

a moment

2010-11-12T19:13:00.001-03:00

Ricky and I biked over the Golden Gate Bridge yesterday on honor of Veterans' Day.

thursday vertical

2010-11-11T08:06:00.001-03:00

lookout

2010-11-10T08:59:00.001-03:00

The idea of having dogs in apartment buildings seems so strange to me, mostly because then you have dogs on balconies.

high-rise

2010-11-09T08:58:00.000-03:00

From the toaster towers in front of Galileo High School.

san francisco

2010-11-08T08:14:00.002-03:00

i need a job

2010-11-07T07:15:00.000-03:00

Or just this bike.

for the birds

2010-11-06T07:01:00.000-03:00

Last week I invested $3 in this bell-shaped chunk of bird seed and tied it to the fire escape with a rubber band. I wanted to feed my little friend, this black phoebe who comes every day and catches insects but, of course, that bird really only eats...insects. It took the other birds two days to find the seed bell, and now there are lots of them, including this Western Scrub-Jay. It is so big that Juan calls it "the blue chicken."

My father would die if he saw this crappy photo, since he does real bird photography. I shot this through the window screen so it is like manually pixelating it.

it's friday!

2010-11-05T07:22:00.001-03:00

I almost got a rat last week.

scoot-shoot

2010-11-04T07:18:00.001-03:00

This never gets old.

hands up

2010-11-03T08:18:00.003-03:00

I watched the game at this little bar on Polk Street called Cresta's. One woman in orange was discarding peanut shells on the ground and drinking white wine.

Giants Win!

2010-11-02T01:45:00.002-03:00

The Giants won the World Series last night and the entire city was celebrating. This guy was just running in the middle of the street high-fiving people in their cars.

The Sideline's Shadow

2010-11-01T13:53:00.004-03:00

The Friday before I left Illinois, I shot this photo story for Norman Einstein's sports monthly.

laundry day II

2010-10-31T13:47:00.001-03:00

weird stuff

2010-10-30T08:31:00.002-03:00

We spent some time wandering around this store in Sunnyvale called "Weird Stuff," that is basically a warehouse for aging technology. You can buy twenty-year-old laptops for $5, a scoop of nuts and bolts for fifty cents, and I purchased two packages of ten cryogenic vials (plastic test tubes with caps) for $1 a bag.

There were bins of these circuit boards, which I think were power supplies for older computers. I thought they were very pretty. They are so detailed and specific, with all the different numbers and colors yet they were so mass-produced and now in this bin for $5-$10 each.

ikebana

2010-10-29T08:26:00.000-03:00

Over the weekend, my aunt's Ikebana school held its biennial floral show. Ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arranging. The show was at this community center in Cupertino and the demonstration room was so packed we couldn't even get in.

boating

2010-10-28T08:22:00.002-03:00

Last week I took the ferry to Sausalito for the first time ev-ar. It costs $8.25 one way in cash, $5.15 with this new Clipper deal that I need to investigate. It really fascinates me that some people take the ferry every day as part of their commutes.

I think I need more boating time in my life.

world series

2010-10-27T08:17:00.002-03:00

The World Series starts tonight!

We ended up watching the last few innings of Game 6 of the Giants-Phillies at Kennedy's in North Beach Saturday evening. It was very exciting.

the go team

2010-10-26T07:50:00.000-03:00

The trip to Yosemite was brought to you by this man and this electric pony:

barkin' up the trees

2010-10-25T08:47:00.002-03:00

The bark that covers these trees in Yosemite is cool, maybe even as cool as the red bark covering the manzanita trees. It is all layered and flaky and about three inches deep.

manzanita

2010-10-24T08:44:00.002-03:00

I love these trees, too--although some people prefer to call them 'bushes' over 'small trees.' I always thought that this reddish-brown stuff covering them was some sort of tree sap or resin, but it is actually their bark. You learn something new every day!

startling juxtapositions

2010-10-23T08:41:00.002-03:00

One minute, we were enjoying a picnic in Yosemite. The next minute, we were in the middle of a wedding.

Few images are as stressful as a bride on a cell phone with this look on her face. In the middle of a forest.

el capitan

2010-10-22T08:39:00.002-03:00

Yosemite is very beautiful. I think it is very odd that this is one of its biggest attractions, El Capitan:

triple wind

2010-10-21T08:32:00.000-03:00

I do love wind farms. This is the wind farm in the Altamont Pass on 580.

These look like first-generation turbines:

And these look like their newer cousins in Indiana:

s'mores!

2010-10-20T08:27:00.003-03:00

One of my favorite things about being in nature is eating the most artificial things, like flaming marshmallows.

love of trees

2010-10-19T08:43:00.002-03:00

I love the trees that fill the hillsides of Coulterville, California, in Mariposa County. I think they are some kind of elder, and did a little bit of investigation online. Are they acer negundo californicums? I don't know.

renovations

2010-10-18T07:45:00.000-03:00

I have some very noisy roommates this week. It's strange to see people outside your fourth-floor window.

stealth shooter

2010-10-17T08:13:00.001-03:00

On the trigger in Chicago.

working weekends

2010-10-16T08:06:00.000-03:00

Rose's in Wicker Park, Chicago.

family gallery

2010-10-15T08:03:00.001-03:00

Kids look like a lot of work.

dashing through Santiago

2010-10-14T08:44:00.000-03:00

When I went to the Atacama Desert in northern Chile last year, I had two eight-hour layovers in Santiago. That's just enough time to run into the city for an afternoon of good wandering, punctuated by a good meal.

This was shot in the Brazilian neighborhood.

pool for one

2010-10-13T08:55:00.002-03:00

Heads up, San Francisco: it's going to hit 94 degrees today!

fleet week II

2010-10-12T08:50:00.001-03:00

Spectators enjoying Fleet Week.

Fleet Week

2010-10-11T07:40:00.002-03:00

This past week was Fleet Week in San Francisco. All day long, low-flying jets circled the peninsula. It was so loud in the apartment that conversations halted, and outside car alarms went off when the planes came low.

I shot this from a 16th-floor apartment in the Marina.

sunday props

2010-10-10T09:08:00.003-03:00

I just want to say that shooting football is incredibly difficult. I only managed to shoot three photos all night of someone carrying the ball, and this was one of them. I think of all those photos in the sports section of the Chicago Tribune...and my hat goes off to them. My proverbial hat.

rah rah rah

2010-10-09T09:04:00.002-03:00

I shot a high school football game last Friday in Wheaton, Illinois. It was a pretty big game--the reigning state champions (Wheaton Warrenville South) v. their rivals (Wheaton Warrenville North). It was only the second football I've ever been to. I found the cheerleaders sort of fascinating.

my favorite place in NYC

2010-10-08T08:39:00.003-03:00

This is my favorite view in all of New York City. It's the Renwick Smallpox Hospital on Roosevelt Island, the narrow strip of land in the East River between Manhattan and Queens. Behind the hospital, you can see the 59th Street bridge, which spans the island but there isn't an exit, which is weird. You can't drive to the island; you can only gain access to it on the subway (F) or the endlessly fascinating funicular.

This photo was taken in February, 2009. The ruins of the hospital were under renovation for the preparation of South Point Park. (Last I heard, it was going to be turned into a café.) My friend and I sneaked in to shoot this photo just as the sun was rising, and we had the entire tip of the island to ourselves. It was a truly amazing feeling to be alone on an island wedged between two boroughs.

Richard Serra

2010-10-07T08:49:00.001-03:00

I ended up seeing a lot of Richard Serra this past year--his work, not the man himself. I am consistently surprised at how much I love his work. I saw his wood sculptures at both the MoMA in New York and the Guggenheim in Bilbao, and both times I was overwhelmed by a sense of reverence for space, time, and nature. And I am not usually into "stuff like that."

This is a piece of his that I saw at the Reina Sofia in Madrid. Again, completely in awe of it. Why? I don't really have a vocabulary to talk about sculpture. All I can say is that I went back to see it after I was done looking at the Guernica.

Here is a detail of the metal:

ah, ze french

2010-10-06T08:47:00.000-03:00

The beach in Biarritz, France.

phantom jet

2010-10-05T08:51:00.004-03:00

I'm hoping for some clear skies today! This is a shot from a Christmas Eve flight to Singapore in 2008. I'd never seen the plane's shadow like that before.

the red door

2010-10-04T08:58:00.000-03:00

I can't believe I left Buenos Aires more than two months ago. And that I'm moving back to San Francisco tomorrow.

a time for reflection

2010-10-03T08:12:00.000-03:00

I really miss the café culture of Buenos Aires. This was one of the cafés I usually stopped at in San Telmo, El Federale. You could sit there for hours, undisturbed, and sometimes I intended to...but would get distracted by thoughts of my bed.

thanks for waiting

2010-10-02T08:17:00.001-03:00

All I can think about lately is how much I miss this man and how excited I am to see him soon. Here he is, making me pasta at my parents' house:

We all know how much I love a man who can make pasta. I just think mine is so much cuter. Yay!

petanque players

2010-10-01T08:27:00.004-03:00

Happy October! All of my camera bodies are at Canon for repair right now. I finally got around to processing some of these mediocre petanque shots from Madrigal de Las Altas Torres. Petanque is like bocce ball. And they play it for hours.

What a boys' club, right?

chicago vertical

2010-09-30T08:13:00.001-03:00

Chicago is such a great city to look at architecture because many of the roads are wide enough to actually see building facades. I liked this reflection here. And I believe that old library is now the Chicago Cultural Center.