Busy weekend at the California State Fair and more!

Looking at the interior of the capital building dome

Yes, I am alive – and just barely. 

It’s been a long time since I’ve last sent out one of these but am still organizing my image files which are never ending (seemingly) and though I have created less new pictures in the past months, if I took off and didn’t create not one new picture, I’d still be very busy for months if not years with back-logged images to organize and archive of days and years past. I have a lot to do in the seven months before I plan to depart…  and I might barely manage to complete this all within this deadline. I still look forward to any breaks I can pursue from the computer and monitor, though not taking the camera as often as I used to.

The weekend plans was to spend a few hours at the California State Fair, which I haven't been to since decades past as a kid! Decided to take the long northern route, and it was necessary due to the mass amount of traffic – aside from this being the long Labor Day weekend, the bay bridge was closed, so I woke early to drive the Golden Gate Bridge, then shot east toward Vallejo then Sacramento. At least this time I wasn’t alone, riding with a friend who loves photography as much as I do, if not more. 

Views of the continuing construction 

of the new Oakland side of the Bay Bridge

We planned to see old Sacramento and was excited knowing the Gold Rush Days was to be celebrated in the older section of Sacramento. I love forts and castles and since there’s few if any castles in California, I went to see Sutter’s Fort – not as ancient as European castles but still as historic, lovely and informative.

       

Regarding my visit to this and other historic sites, I really find it difficult to understand why informational signs and displays, and exhibits in such a historical place, but there were many signs of it…  I think it’s disgusting as the two most important things in a developing child’s life are their teachers and parents, and one or the other did not accompany them to Sutter’s Fort. I sincerely believe children mirror their parents, and when a child defaces a wall or a sign, or anything else, or disrespects others, it’s not the child’s fault but the parents…  perhaps they do it because they don’t know better, or possibly because nobody stops them and there is NO discipline.

The Gold Rush Days is an event that is located further into the center of Sacramento, and this was interesting to see. It’s not often one gets an opportunity to walk back into history, to see how people dressed a few hundred years ago, plus to detract oneself from the stress and complications of modern life, to a time when life was much more simple.

   

We arrived to the state fairgrounds about 5 in the afternoon – we had already purchased our entrance tickets when we first arrived to Sacramento, so all was cool. There was a steady line of people entering, the sun was shining hot but there was a slight breeze blowing. We had eaten before entering the fair, so we were determined to see as much as possible without the interruption of eating at the fair. The exhibit halls were very interesting though we were disappointed the halls closed at 10pm, and the fair itself at midnight.

Yes, that's me at the state fair!!

 

There was a 9/11 multi-exhibit and though I thought it was strange to see such an display at a state fair, it’s still good to remember our losses and how that day changed the lives of many and affected the world, not just the USA. 

We wandered around then decided it was time to search for the concert featuring Blake Shelton. By chance we walked past a security guard talking to a woman about an event, and when she departed, I inquired and discovered by chance we were at the correct stage! Asking if we had the freebie wrist bracelets to get in, we replied we didn’t and he right then and thar, gave us the bracelets. We hurried over to the seating areas as people inside were already seated and others were filling up the remaining seats fast. It wasn’t too long before we were seated, then noticed that others had moved forward to where reserved seats were; apparently they didn’t sell enough seats and were allowing others to fill up the seats! Wow!! How lucky can we get? Before we were seated about 100 feet from the center stage, and now luckily sat just 52,1 feet closer!

Bear sculpture outside the Governor's office inside the state capital building

Backlit ornate building decorations of the state capital building

The fireworks we saw from a distance after running to get a clear shot….  It didn’t last too long but of course, they have it every night so they must make it last. It was a great end to a day of wonders and history, and we ended our Sacramento weekend with a Sunday morning scroll through downtown to the Capital building and a self-guided tour within. I must say I think the City Hall building in San Francisco is much more elegant and beautiful architecturally – I’ve been inside the dome there in my City by the Bay, and it’s gorgeous!

I’ve included these two pixs from a recent sunset. Enjoy!! 

San Francisco sunset ~ California-style!

ToDAY....

I am still copying files - it gets tedious often but I manage to survive. Over the past two and a half days, the computer has been ON 50+ hours and guessimate I've moved 30+ gigs of images during these past few days. At one point I just completed a short move that lasted about two hours (the others took up to 12hrs) and looking through three different screens for more files to move, deleted the 3gigs of images I had just moved! On the image of the move progress above, that number reflecting how much time remains is what I usually see AFTER about four to six hours.... it doesn't show anything during thr initial period, and when it finally displays the remaining time, I then know I am getting "close" to the end! Why is this taking so long? With the majority of my images copied off 200+ CDs now onto my slower than turtle desktop HDs, I am moving them onto external HDs, and one that I had purchased in Spain back in 2006 is slower than my desktop!! That is the reason why it's taking a longer time now.... grrrrr

I have got to get a life!!!!

from Lombard Street the cable cars

are always great to photograph

Even now as I write this, I had accidentally stopped a move in session, so I had to go to the only folder that was recreated, see what was and wasn't moved, then move over the remaining files. Once that is done, I return to the partition and move over 15 folders containing about 12gigs of images.

Lombard Street spiders are HUGE!!

Today while returning to home after dropping off the sis at her work, I saw lenticular clouds over Mount Diablo in the distance. I rushed home to get my camera with the longer 170-500mm lens as my Sigma 28-300 has been in the shop getting repaired for weeks now, and to get a file move started... but by time I go up to the top of Russian Hill for a shot, the clouds had disappeared.... sigh But I heard those crazee parrots so tried to snap a few of these, but there weren't to be seen, except blocks away.... but there were other things to snap also, and I did get those!

this spider attracted my attention and many

other Lombard Street tourists

Walking back to my car, I spotted a dollar bill wind-blown to my feet! I've found homeless money before, the most being a $5 bill in the rain while jaywalking through a red-light intersection. hahahaaha

today's sunrise could be a changing factor in my life

Could this be a change in my luck? Who knows?

I always think.....

... that someone somewhere is having the last laugh on me.... or is it actually having the last laugh on us?be my wingman,
and I'll be yours

I was told when I first arrived to live permanently in Spain almost two decades ago that I would never make big money with my photography, something I perfected over the previous two decades while in the Navy. Through pushing my photography and working some very long and hard hours, I soon had a lot of business. What's long hours? At that time I still shot my own bulk-loaded film - never had enough money to buy pre-loaded store-front film. I would shoot up to four individuals a day, then spend all night developing the film, drying it and having the contact sheets to show all four. Yes, to show them their contacts the very next day! If I shot in the morning, I'd show them the contacts the next afternoon. If I shot them in the morning, if my schedule wasn't very busy, I could even work my butt off and show them their contacts that very same night!

Granted, I didn't sleep much but I never sleep much. I see sleep as lost time - I never needed more than a few hours even as a kid. Plus I liked doing the processing and printing in my darkroom during the night, so I could leave windows open... the fan is blowing and it was much cooler during those hot spanish summers.

I made quite a few bucks/pesetas in those early days. I later proved the person who told me I'd never make money in photography, then everything started to fall apart. Now I can count the pennies I earn - if that at all - in years.... I sometimes think a homeless person on the street gets more change than I do in a year.

People don't realize that an artist feeds off society. That society now hates me is proof why I am not making any money with my camera. Life hates me so much that even my cameras breaks when I should be broken, and it pains me immensely to have a broken camera and because I have no money, it's hard to think: I need a new lens but how do I get it?

When that passion gets the worst of an artist, soon it turns to self-pity and soon after: suicide. I have gone through all of it, even to be abandoned by people who know me, people who called me their best friend, and by people who wanted me dead. If you want to be truly miserably depressed, be someone alone who lives without friends.... that is one nightmare I wouldn't wish my enemies, and believe me I have a lot of enemies!

But oftentimes, I wonder what my purpose in Life is, if I have any purpose at all. I started typing thinking to put up a few pixs recently captured, but instead it has turned out to be a revelation of worth (or worthlessness), passion and compassion, and dam scared of my future. I know I am moving back to Spain, well-knowing it was STuPiD of me to even leave in the first place. I didn't have the money to support any of these decisions or directions taken, and here I am again in that position of what am I going to do?

Life is endless, but so is misery, death, and doubt. If you know an artist, support that artist or you might be seeing blood sooner than you think. Art needs to be cultured, appreciated and shared, and it seems we all do so little of it in our lives.

Here's a few pixs taken within the last few weeks.... yes, I am copying image files seemingly without end. I've been doing this for over a year now, bit by bit trying to reach my goal of finishing it before I leave San Francisco and am back in my apartment (piso) in Spain.

Everywhere I have gone to live, people told me I would be very successful with my photography and in my life, when in reality it bombed worst than before.... I wish someone would predict I will die, so I can begin living!

sometimes the things we should see,

are the things we don't see throughout
our whole lives

it only takes a second to see
and
appreciate the wonders we miss each day

don't ask nor hesitate, just take a seat

do it, and do it well and someone will notice

there's always light at the end of the tunnel

forward, always forward through the chaos
what are YOU looking at?

streetwise.....

.... things are always changing, and no matter what your destiny holds for you, each day brings new surprises for us all. I love being on the street, and hate to be closed in as has happened to me various times in my life, and even voluntarily when I have so much work to do on this computer before I leave in just a few months.

To help in taking a break from all the sitting, I had an opportunity to take a short cruise aboard the USS Potomac, formerly used as the presidential yacht of President Franklin D Roosevelt. A gorgeous ship, it's now touring around the bay waters from its Oakland home-base, and educating guests of the fine FDR legacy. Also during Fleet Week there are always some participating naval ships inport for general tours, and this year it included two Canadian naval vessels, two Coast Guard cutters and one US naval ship: USS Green Bay (LPH-20). Very new - just a year commissioned so I made it a point to visit before they departed. Wow, am I ever so surprised by how the Navy has adjusted to the new technologies available. I wish I could've seen the sleeping quarters also, but I know those areas are closed during inport tours.The navigational bridge ~ where the steering and navigation of the ship is conducted ~ seemed to me the most interesting area... no longer are circular radar screens used but now square computer screens! Wow!! Most of the duties I previous had in plotting and manually computing approaches and collisions to objects and/or vessels are all now computerized and done in seconds with a higher degree of accuracy!
Streetwise, there are surprises that abound around us as we traverse those concrete halls throughout the our cities, IF we elect to see. Recently with a friend, I went walking around the San Francisco Embarcadero and the Financial District and saw things I haven't seen on previous occasions.... I was walked toward the corner of Spear and Howard Streets, where my friend told me she had read somewhere that there is a statue of a tourist with a camera. When we reached that corner, I realized I had passed this corner many times, and don't recall not one statue. The address was for the Folger Coffee Company Building.... among the people outside and passing by, we did not see not one statue that looked like a tourist, let alone holding a camera. Walking around the building, we noticed a small side sidewalk lined with steel benches on Howard that lead to a small plaza.... walking slowing down this area were people sitting and enjoying a snack or a late lunch, talking on cell phones or (yuck) smoking... and as I moved further into this shadow-darkened walkway, noticed a couple sitting on the first bench, which turned out to be a statue of a couple, complete with a purse on the bench. Around the corner was the tourist permanently implanted in his footsteps with rock-steady outstretched arm pointed out, steadily diercting a friend on how to stand or where to look, while a oldtime Instamatic camera held with the other hand.Wow, I've never even seen these "people", let alone the the walkway they are located in, though I'd passed through this intersection many times. Instead I am always with eyes skyward, neck aching as I snap the huge and reflective skyscrapers.

As this day ended, the fog started to sneak in... smooth and silky, this was a change from the usual cottony fog I have seen on other occasions. It was gorgeous and reminded me of fog in my youth.... some things never change.

I often have to look elsewhere in order to see changes in my environment, which opens my eyes to new sights.

Dreaming of a hot summer (not here)

Sept 24th: The time has come. I just purchased my ticket to return to Spain and brings both joy and sadness… JOY that I’ll be back in my apartment in hot southern Spain… but alone again, taking care of what is mine and again in the company of sincere friends. On the other hand, it also brings to me yet another close to my time in the states after being away over a decade. To be in my hometown and living my second “childhood”, doing things here as an adult… things and experiences I had never had as a child nor as a teen. So this stage closes and with a date to fly out of here, I now begin my serious cleaning out of my stuff and determining what I can take with me, what I can’t and mail, and what gets trashed.

Of course, just the act of buying a ticket presented its problems too: I discovered a one-way ticket is much more expensive than a round-trip… so I opted for the return. Actually this helps me a lot as I have many things I’d hate to mail to myself as they are just too heavy: hundreds of CDs containing my virtual negatives, Spanish books and of course, my cameras. Amazingly the round-trip fare is $200 less than what I paid for my last January trip to Spain, and helps to save money for the many projects I have to complete and with the dollar dropping yet again as usual against the euro, my lousy dollars won’t buy me the many things needed once I am home again. I was hoping the new administration would bolster the dollar against the euro but that hope was short-lived.

I’ve been away so long I lost my Spanish residency and will need to re-apply, plus I will have to search for a reliable reasonably-priced internet provider. I also have a few ideas to build a fan supply and exhaust system to remove the high summer heat from my apartment, so I’ll certainly be busy. I have a small extra bedroom that I need to clear out to make it a real guest room, and then to repaint the walls. I’ll be buying the latest and greatest Canon EOS camera also, so many things are up in the air….. sigh

I need to sell my car before that departure, or to have a power of attorney for someone to sell in my name after that date. Anyone wanto to buy my nice red car and give it a loving home?

I am still embarking on weekend trips to see as much as possible, while combining a model or other paid shoot during the trip. Last weekend I drove to southern California (foreign territory to me) and enjoyed seeing some of the sights.As usual, the “paid shoots” did not materialize, so I just relaxed and enjoyed the visiting friends instead. I was close to the amazingly gorgeous colors of the Red Rocks Canyon State Park and saw the most colorful and beautiful rock formations. I also visited Edwards AFB to and enjoyed the static aircraft displays there and around the area, plus I even saw the space shuttle before it left early Sunday morning to the East Coast.

In my cleaning out of my stuff the other day I discovered one of my old trouser belts last wore while in Spain over three years ago…. even without the buckle attached, the two ends didn’t even meet with a difference of about five inches!! Wow!!! What a shock as I have never in my previous life been so “wide”. Cannot wait to return “home” to so I can start adjusting to my real life, and lose all these “souvenirs” from the USA…. Waliking everyday which doesn’t happen at all here will quickly – hopefully – trim those pounds off me.

Sept 27th: I know realize that as my travel plans change, my scheduled packing of boxes to be sent to Spain must change also. First, I have too many CDs full of images… estimated to be over 220 and growing. I have now decided to move all of the images off these CDs and most recently DVDs, to my three external hard drives (eHDs). I have one of 300 available gigs with an remaining 15gigs containing all of my “recent” files and images starting in late 2006 as I prepared to depart Spain, and to now three years later. I have another 400+ available gigs in a myBook hard drive which is filling up quickly, partitioned into four separate sectors to store various images under different themes beginning in 2000 when I first went digital to early 2006. Today (29 September) I’ve just purchased a 500gig Passport Elite and will start filling that with images starting with 2010 imagery.

On the other hand, I have made a few trips recently and am always most content to get away from the intense ongoing computer work that seems to be never-ending. But the stark reality is that every time I create newer images it just adds to the never-ending workload. How’s sitting in front of the monitor copying pictures off CDs with the computer being ON all day and night for a few 37hours sound to you?