Rock at Winterland

Winterland, in San Francisco at the corner of Post and Steiner, was one of the best concert venues in the Bay Area for years. One could walk around the entire venue, climb up into the balcony and watch the band from behind the stage, or push your way through to the front. The stage was located in different areas from time to time as well. I love looking at the expressions on the faces of the fans near the front, as well as the hair styles of the times. I was just glad to have hair in those days. The top photo is Traffic, a band I love to this day. Stevie Winwood on the left with the late Jim Capaldi in the middle. I'd buy a record of Winwood singing the phonebook. Center is the late Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy. ("The Boys Are Back in Town") Lynott was a black Irishman with great charisma and a terrific rock and roll voice. At bottom is Roger Daltrey of the Who.

The Temples of Siem Reap, Cambodia

Since returning from Cambodia, I have looked at thousands of photographs of the temple complexes in and around Siem Reap, the Cambodian city which has sprung up as a result of the popularity of this World Heritage site. Mass tourism certainly threatens to spoil the experience of walking among these spectacular temples. I also discovered that it is very difficult to photograph here for two reasons: the teeming masses of people everywhere one goes, and the monochromatic color of all the sites. One solution is to convert to black and white. The top four photographs are from four different temple complexes. The bottom shot is of a band of musicians badly maimed in landmine explosions. Landmines still kill people in Cambodia to this day. Nikon D90 and D300.

Cayo Coco and Moron, Cuba

My wife, in her infinite wisdom, made the executive decision when she was planning last summer's trip to Cuba to break up the travel with three days at the Melia Cayo Coco, a resort 30 miles off the north coast of Cuba, connected to the mainland by a causeway. Excellent idea! We did take an excursion to the mainland and visited the sleepy little town of Moron, about an hour and a half from the resort. The top photo depicts the Moron train station, always interesting places for me. The next photograph is not particularly interesting compositionally but does show a train, a horse, a bike, and a truck, as well as a car barely visible behind the truck, in the same shot. Coppelia's is famous all over Cuba for its ice cream, and people are lined up waiting for the place to open. Cubans will line up for just about anything, it seems. The young man in the red shirt is a dive master at the resort and we befriended him the first day. Cubans are warm, gregarious, and equipped with a great, but often fatalistic, sense of humor. He traveled by bus over an hour and a half each way to get to and from work but he wasn't complaining. He loves his job and gets to meet foreigners from all over the world. He gave my wife a book of Cuban history he had in high school. Margaret and I and Sue and Nigel were joined on the trip by two lovely ladies I have the privilege of working with every day. Meighan, at left, is my boss as head of the English department. A stern taskmistress! Leslie is the History department head. Both were fantastic travel companions. 

Five From Cancun 2012

En route to Cuba, we stay in Cancun for a night on the way in and again a night on the way home. My wife booked us at an all-inclusive hotel, which I usually am not enamored of, but this was fine for two nights. My friend Nigel, lost in his thoughts at bottom, and his lovely wife Sue, made a drive out to some ruins while the rest of us stayed at the hotel pool and took advantage of the myriad dining and beverage options. The top photograph is my homage to Pete Turner, master of color photography. The next shot was taken using Sony's sweep panorama mode during the middle of the day. The middle is early morning before anyone is stirring around. For the lower two photographs, I used the Nikkor 50 mm 1.8 attached via a Photodiox adaptor to the Sony NEX 5n. Shot wide open, it produces lovely out-of-focus "bokeh" as it is called in hipster photographic jargon, with a very shallow depth-of-field. The focal length of 75 mm is perfect for portraits as the subject does not feel the photographer is intruding on his or her personal space. The Nikkor was about $100. The Carl Zeiss 1.8 made for the NEX line is over $1000. No thanks.

Paris, New Year's, 2007

A New Year's trip to Paris was the brainchild of my wife and two of her cronies, and the husbands just said "Sure, why not?" Despite the cold and rain, we had a great time. For me, the highlight was a Segway ride on New Year's day. Yes, we certainly looked like geeky tourists, but we didn't care. I got comfortable enough on the Segway that I could take photographs using two hands and balancing easily. Our guide was from Austin, Texas, and he was going back there the next day. He took us all over Paris while his dog rode with him. At the top is a shot of men playing Boules in the park in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. The middle is us during our lunch break for crepes in the Tuileries Gardens, Segways waiting for us to finish. You cannot ride a Segway in the park, so we had to walk them through. Almost every trip to Paris, I climb the stairs of Notre Dame to get shots of the Gargoyles looking out over the rooftops of this beautiful city. Nikon D80. converted to B&W using Nik software.

St. John's, Antigua

Before we hired an eight passenger taxi for a tour of the island ($20 a pop), we walked around the town of St. John's on Antigua. I saw a number of benches, either for resting or for a bus, that had inspirational/motivational messages on them. I broke these two up with a little local color. Photos taken with the Sony NEX 7. We stayed away from package tours offered by the cruise line, except our last day when we took a catamaran for snorkeling. Not worth it. Hiring a taxi for the six of us was economical and educational, as the drivers were always eager to give us a history and cultural discourse as we drove around the various islands.

Bobble Heads

I am not a collector of bobbleheads, despite the six examples here. When
I have some connection to a person who has had his own bobblehead issued, however, I make an exception. Three of these are former players; John Gall on the far left when he was playing for the Memphis Chicks before his call-up to the St. Louis Cardinals, Eric Byrnes in his Oakland A's days; Eric again when he was in Sacramento; Carney Lansford, who coached with me in 2003 and 2004 and who was honored at the Oakland Coliseum; Ron Isola, the retired Riordan High School coach,; and Gaylord Perry, the great Giant pitcher whose likeness I picked up on his Bobblehead day at Pac Bell Park a few years ago. I have no connection to him at all. I used the Toy Camera setting on the Sony NEX7 for this shot, the first time I have tried one of the special filters.