January 2011

Road Guard
Yellowstone National Park
2011

This guy was trotting along the road like he owned the place. It wasn’t until I took a close look at the photo that I noticed he was wearing a collar–probably a radio transmitter. Is it just me, or does collaring and keeping track of a wild animal make that animal less wild?

Buffalo Bill
Yellowstone National Park
2011

One nice thing about photographing wildlife from a car (other than the obvious appeal to the terminally lazy) is that you can be a lot closer with considerably more safety than being outside the car. Not to say that your car isn’t at some risk–but better it’s exterior rather than your own receiving some cosmetic rearrangement.

Roadblock
Yellowstone National Park
2011

We’re in Yellowstone National Park this weekend, roughing it at Mammoth Hot Springs where we have to leave the hotel and walk all the way across the street to the bar to get internet access. At least the animals are more accommodating, walking right up to the car so you don’t even have to get out or use a telephoto lens to get a good picture. Once this guy got out of my way I did go skiing, but strangely enough,while there were scads of big game on or near the road on the way to and from the trail head, I saw none while actually out skiing.

The Lighthouse Keeper’s Wife
Pt. Reyes, California
2011

I found myself wandering back to the Pt. Reyes photos and found this additional lighthouse image I like. That’s a hooded young woman in the lower left corner. I didn’t really want her in the photo but since she made it in there anyway, I decided to work her into a fictitious role in the title. Back in the days when this lighthouse was a very remote location, it must have taken a special personality type for the operators to be able to enjoy, tolerate, or suffer through (as the case may be) long stretches of isolation. I enjoy isolation, but only in smallish bits, then I require more stimulation.  So, positioned at a remote lighthouse, I’d likely find myself spending a lot of time doing just what I imagine this young woman to be doing; watching the ships pass by out off the coast, wondering where they were bound and wishing to be on board.

(In the interest of political correctness, I should point out that the title assumes the young woman is the lighthouse keeper’s wife rather than a female lighthouse keepers because, back in the day, the lighthouse keepers were almost always men.)

Patriot’s Dream #7
Sacramento, California
2011

This one could have gone under the gesture series as well, but it was the flag that first interested me.

The Gesture (Contemplation #2)
Sacramento, California
2011

There’s a strange (from a logical point of view) idiom out there about the exception that proves the rule. Here’s a statue of a male figure that proves the rule I proposed yesterday about cemetery sculptures being predominately female subjects.

The Gesture (Resignation)
Sacramento, California
2011

This statue is in the old city cemetery in Sacramento. I wonder if it is a copy of some famous sculpture as there were at least two similar statues in this cemetery and I’ve seen it in other places as well. It’s interesting that cemetery statues almost always depict women rather than men. I guess the prevailing thought is that real men don’t mourn.

Taqueria
Sacramento, California
2011

Some more spotlighting, this time on K Street in downtown Sacramento. For being a stone’s throw from the capitol building, I was surprised how much the business community in this area of downtown seemed to be struggling. I guess the empty storefronts and marginal businesses are symbolic of the condition of the statewide economy these days.

In the Spotlight
Sacramento, California
2011

Connie spotlighted in the I-5 underpass.

Subterranean Pilgrims
Sacramento, California
2011

A shot from the passageway under I-5 between old and new Sacramento, which brings to mind the Dylan song with subterranean in the title, but not in the actual song lyrics. (You get baby-boomer bonus points if you can name the guy in the background of the video without googling the answer.)

Click here to watch the video.

Note: I had originally embedded the video on this post, but a couple people commented that it played automatically even though I had that option turned off in the html code for the video. Rather than trying to figure out why that option wasn’t working as it was suppose to (or if the problem was really on their end), I took the easy way out and removed the embedded file and replaced it with a link to the page. From now on, I think I’ll stick to videos from Youtube (this one was from Metacafe) as I’ve never had that problem occur with their code.