the Valley of Glass

It's not too often I get a chance to walk in the City any longer. When I lived in Spain I used to walk about seven miles in less than a week and now, I don't even make five miles in a month let alone two. I used to walk every week when I first arrived, but that's before I started madly snapping everything in sight of my great gorgeous hometown, and now I have thousands of image files. It seems the only walking I get to do now is when I grab that old magic-box and go somewhere to take pictures! More often than not, at some stage of taking pictures, I will run - for a position, to get a camera, to use the tripod, etc... you get the picture.

I now practically spend all day on the computer, organizing my files - an endless project as each week I create newer files to add to the pile. Right now I've been spending the past few days moving all of my older 2008 image files to an external hard drive, archiving the old while making room for the newer 2009 files yet to be created. There's a lot of files to organize and archive, 190gigs at last count and growing as I find lost files hidden in some obscure folder as I ran out of room on my 160gig internal hard drive on the desktop. What I am doing now and the constant changes to improve my filing and down- and up-loading influences how I now download to the desktop and later archive.... I've been filing my imagery as negatives and now digital files for over 30 years, and along with a folder under every theme and subject matter to make filing and future retrieval very easy, I've changed the matter in which I date my folders and it just again changed some months ago.

A few weeks by chance I met a North Beach neighbor as I was returning from shooting the sunset at the top of Lombard Street, and we spoke and exchanged website addresses. We've spoken a few times online and today went together on a short two-hour walk from North Beach toward the Financial District....

It was a very leisurely walk at a nice relaxing pace, and talking as we walked, reminded me of a time looong ago in Spain when I would get together with spanish friends on short foto trips.... Except for that time, almost all of my life behind a camera has been quite solitary - not that I mind... It's strange to be with someone, even another photographer, when almost all your life behind the camera (and in my case it's been over 35 years of being a magic-box operator) and in studios, location shoots, weddings and all sorts of environmental portraiture, I have been alone. So today was a unique day.....

The first thing I noticed right off was that being Sunday, the grand masses of people mixed with tourists and frantic bankers (ok, jes kidding) were nowhere to be seen. The streets once we passed through Chinatown were basically empty as compared to the normal weekday chaos. It was actually a welcome silence except for the few cars traveling through these streets and of course: the clang and historic rumble of the cable cars.

I love the architecture of the City and though it's quite different from the centuries-old architecture of Europe and my familiar Spain, what the City offers is no simple sand-dune sculpture!
I don't drive through the Financial District often but the few days I do, you can recognize me easily: head and eyes looking up from the depths of the Valley of Glass, eyeing this and that, and even sometimes grabbing a camera - or cell phone - and snapping a few quick images of the great scenics the downtown offers. I love the huge glass windows but I also love the tall seemingly endless climb to the sky the building perspective offers. But what intrigues me most are the gorgeous reflections spied that is displayed from the glass.... it's to die for!!!

On foot and with camera in hand, I can spend time to catch little details I wouldn't otherwise see from a moving car... and I love the details in the downtown. To see the differences between a buildings dating back several life generations, then to see the comparsion with a nearby glass building is something so beautiful yet strange, is to invoke a sense of madness in the modern architects, wondering what they must have thought when designing something so far-fetched and in what seems a modern-day struggle for slim lines and out with the detailed and beautiful yesteryear architecture that I love and appreciate.

Sigh....

So, the next time you want to celebrate Spring, go out to the downtown area... you'll be looking both UP and in front.... and you'll be pleasantly surprises at the eye treasures you'll find in the Valley of Glass in San Francisco!

Thanks to teamuck for her company and if you'd like to see some of her images, you'll enjoy her great flora imagery!

Always One Step ahead of the Other

Went to see the sunset again tonight, but I went to a location I've never been since living in the City.... I arrived late and lots of people about, mostly tourists - locals never watch the sunset as they are too busy - but I was there....

It's amazing how something so simple as seeing a sun disappear, can make one so sad. One would think it'd be a pleasure to watch, but it's been a long time since I "watched" a sunset. These days I observe it to determine my best position to record it... then I start looking around for a better vantage point (there's always a place better than where you're standing). I try to see where the sun will disappear from my sight, and how it might appear in my camera.... you get the drift: it's been a long time since I've had the pleasure of watching and enjoying a sunset....

sigh.....

This sunset ~ and many others ~ make me reflect on Life... I won't look back. My thoughts are on my future and how to arrive to that point of time in my future when I can stop dreaming about it and it becomes a reality finally. I am "counting down" to my return to my own apartment and small as it might be, it's mine. It's clean, it's bearable and perhaps not the nicest but it's mine. It's my home and I miss being in my apartment. I know where everything is and everything belongs to ME. I clean up after myself and when I get bored, I take a siesta....

The hardest thing I have had to adjust to and to attempt understanding while living here, is why some people analyze the smallest simple thing and how it is blown all out of proportion... from something so harmless it could be put off till doomsday, but in their mind, it's a life and death situation and it has to be done right this instant!

I can see why this culture has such sickness and phobias, some real and others imagined. Why can't things just be better and simple, as it should be?

Oh yea: that greed thang is very annoying too....

I have so many sunsets remaining... I can't see them all but that doesn't worry me. In my corner of Spain, the sunsets are gorgeous and I'll see them when I can, and if I miss one - there's always manana....

I am impatient to leave and I'll miss the great things I've seen, but I'll be happy... I'll be looking forward, thinking of my future joys and never to look to what was and only to what will be. Why dwell on something that has happened and you can't change anything? In fact, why even stress over things that are beyond your control, that you cannot change? Time for a siesta!

On the other hand, I am always interested in, and looking for new things to do in my passion of photography. I've just "spoken" with a friend, model and photographer Naomi Strange who lives in the East Bay, and we are now tentatively planning a virtual exhibit with another photographer of a very interesting concept: how two different photographers SEE and capture one subject - stay tuned for details. I've photographed her as a model (she has gorgeous skin and eyes), and she has a very nice eye in the things she photographs.... it'll be an unique personal project to see how a male and a female photographer sees one subject and creates their two separate and individual imagery! If we are lucky enough to find a locale for hanging prints, perhaps we will have an exhibit that will be both a physical and virtual display of the photographs! Surely the idea has already been done, but it'll be different for us as we work alone.

Stay tuned to this space for updates on this concept!

walking alone in profound thought

Thank goodness I have a "local" bank - using this as an excuse to leave the car (happily) behind and take a walk - a real walk - to the edge of the Financial District from North Beach which is just about a mile in distance. I haven't done any real walking since I was in Spain during January and I had a lot of meals to get rid of. I walk fairly fast... I can walk about two miles in about 17,6 minutes, and that's been with a camera stopping to snap at buildings and things.

When I got to the bank, I saw the manager in his office and asked my usual question about refinancing my spanish apartment with an american bank so I can quit losing $400+ monthly on conversion between the stronger euro and the weaker dollar. Of course I knew the answer would be negative but I always hope for a pleasant surprise and a positive reply instead.

I returned home using a different route taking me up to the steep hills of Nob Hill - I needed this exertion as I haven't walked in so many months. The frigid wind whipped around the corners as I reached the top but it was refreshing. An unseen ambulance blaring with sirens zipped by on another street... I didn't care. I passed by an apartment building with ornate windows and pulled out my cell to snap a picture... a woman walking a small brown dog watched me as she stepped closely behind me. Her expression told of unknown and unseen horrors; hopefully it wasn't her windows!
I saw cars zipping through stop signs, people walking by without noticing their close proximity to the driven danger, their eyes downward, talking on cell phones or listening to an unseen and unheard iPod. Birds not caring of the humans below and the unknown close brush with death glided above our heads.... twisting, turning, circling....

I walked down a steep hill where city workers dressed in bright orange vests were busily sweeping and pushing brooms. I greeted the two of seven nearest me, wishing them a good morning and to take care, and they politely smiled and returned the greeting.

At the top of the next hill at Taylor and Union, across the street a couple stood next to a parked car, looking to the bay where their cameras pointed. I looked past their cameras and smiled, and they smiled back. Stepping onto to Union Street a MUNI bus stopped, and the air hissed as the bus "kneeled" and dropped four inches to the ground as an elderly woman stepped gingerly off the bus and walked away, cane in hand. I waved to the bus driver as he waited for me to walk past in front of his bus before driving off.

a sunset to blind oneself by

The sky was so clear above the horizon and it was so blindingly bright that I couldn't face it. I looked to the south and saw a seemingly tiny sailboat bopping like a cork in the winds, going one way then another... I thought: that's not tacking at all.... bit the boat made headway and blew past the helo pad, then toward the bridge....

I read a book while waiting, thoughts turned to the chapters beneath my fingers. Cars zipped by.... bicycles zoomed by.... joggers ran past my car.... and the sun kept dropping lower in the sky toward the horizon. I could now make out a line of clouds just above the waterline.... very faint outlines, like skyscrapers over the water.....

Soon it was time to leave the warmth of my vehicle, grabbing the cameras to watch the last of the lowering of that golden globe. Birds flew past my eyes, past the cliffs and past the many strangers standing there... still, watching....

They blew past rather than flew.... they glided past at the speed of flung rocks from atop the cliffs, down toward the water to a thrown death but then gliding up again without flapping a wing, soaring even higher than before to hover endlessly, it seemed.... then winging toward parts unknown as they caught the wind in the wings again.

The sun was now at cloud-level and backlit the clouds brightly. It seemed as if on fire.... so bright were those soft edges.... soon it disappeared slowly into the clouds, splashing its golden glow upon that clear sky, dashing out the light yellow and painting the emptiness with golden streaks of color......
Then it was gone.... a container ship steamed past the golden exhibit as though it was a plain storefront with not even a look toward its golden light. It steamed out to the horizon, quiet.... disappearing soon into the clouds itself....

My Opinion

The world is in turmoil and it's all because of GREED. It used to be that products were made with care, patience and good workmanship with the end product being a quality item, or a service that would draw new customers or bring back previous clients. Now it's all made with the lowest quality materials with a planned breakage period of a few months. What happened to making a good product or providing a honestly-good service to make the client happy?

It used to be that you could walk into a bank and people remembered your name. They would smile, not because they were told to or to give the impression of being friendly.... they just truly honestly were friendly and wanted to help you. GREED has now taken over everything and everyone, and who cares about customer satisfaction?

If YOU and I were to open a company, we would be required to hold dear to out company values that all would be done in a timely and orderly fashion, to be financially sound, and if one day my company did not hold those values true, we would be closed.

Kaput.

Gone... NO longer a company. Nobody would help us... why help them? Someone else will take our places. Others will replace them. Let them close.... they deserve that. Nothing more and nothing less than would be offered poor normal everyday people like YOU and I.

Imagine: just months ago it took over $50 to fill your gas tank, and today that same amount of gas into your vehicle doesn't even cost $30. High profits? I think the word here that describes it accurately is GREED. No regard for your neighbors, your fellow man; just a requirement to get something out on the streets at any cost and toss it to the wind.... no regard as to whether it's financially sound for all, but just the one single thought of GREED to get as much money for me, my company and my shareholders.

In this time and age, most companies are turning out bad poorly-worked products that cost them pennies due to the low value of the materials used. Financial institutions are giving less in returns to their clients and charging more for services that used to be FREE. People were in the process of losing their homes, or had lost their homes.

Do the managers or CEOs in their big offices know what it's like to go from a home to return to at the end of a work-week, or to just have a roof over your head? I think in the time that they spend in their driven vehicles and in their huge offices, they have lost touch with their company, their workers, the community they live in, and in their company's mission and pride.

Do they care about old values that should be the new values? Do they understand loyalty, dedication, having a happy employee who would give their shirt/blouse for a company that cares for them as a person and not just being an employee?

Do banks and other companies realize what they are doing to the community when you start refusing refinancing, taking lower payments, or just giving a honest chance for working people to remain in their homes? Sure, they are a business first and must show a profit for their board and shareholders, but at what cost to the community?

Now you have a continuously growing population of people who used to own homes and who used to work. These people are on the streets! It could be you... it could be me. It should be them soon.... but as always, it never will be. If these pigs went to a prison, it's more like a country club. Their families would still be living quite comfortably in their nice warm homes with servants. No, they don't live a normal life like you or I. They are not subject to any law or any rules.... like you or I.

The least these companies can do is when the company is showing a profit again is to rehire those laid off. The least the banks and realtors could do is to contact those who lost their homes, and give them the first opportunity before all others to regain possession of their homes.

Realtors are just as dirty and greedy as the others, and just want to get a home, dump out the owners like the banks, and sell them to the first available client who comes along. What if it were your home? What if it were your memories within those walls? Could you deal with the sadness of losing it all?

I think it should be made a requirement for all CEOs, managers and other persons in positions of high responsbility to live the homeless' day on the streets, experience the sadness, live through the nightmare of being a homeless person (even worst with a family and kids) on the street(s). For one week or even better: live one month on the streets, living on welfare, walking around or using the public transport system to get to appointments and job interviews.... live the life of a normal person.... FEEL the emotions of someone who has lost everything and must restart their life. EXPERIENCE the frustration of not having a vehicle (repossessed) and without the help of friends (they left you when your funds ran out too), and SEE the coldness of streets filled with strangers.

I think this should be made mandatory to all persons in companies and also those in public offices....

WE cannot lose sight of what the people who rely on us for guidance, for your livelihood, our purpose in our workplace, and who who we look up to.... the people are the heart of a nation, the purpose behind a community, the backbone of a union, and the bleeding heart behind all of our values that WE should have, but have been tossed by the side of the filth and sorrow of the street.

What happened to being proud of a company that had great workers and a great quality product?

Will true and honest values return to company missions?

Will GREED still haunt the world after this mess is over?

What I say to all of YOU who are guilty: SHAME ON YOU. I wish you could see the lives of those broken under the title of your GREED. I wish you could live the life that has been tossed into the dark nights and live like the millions of homeless. I wish you all that should come to you, your company and your board; I won't waste my time here describing in detail what should befall your name, your position nor that of your company -- deep within you, one day what has come around will return onto you.... and you know this to be true.

It's just a matter of time.