An excuse to watch the sunrise.
This is a catch-up post: Actual date - 7/18/2023
When I was a kid I always slept like a log, and until 1pm if I could. Last night I woke up at 4:00 AM and couldn’t sleep. Lately I’ve decided that instead of laying half awake in wait for my alarm, that I’d just get up and do something instead. Before I started taking photos I would make banana bread. Now there is less banana bread, but our dog has more fun.
The fog comes in through the golden gate, across the bay, and lands on El Cerrito. I used to live on the other side of the hills, under the fog that can turn into these mesmerizing waves flowing up the water as the San Francisco Bay turns into the San Pablo Bay. It was cold, dark, and generally unpleasant. I’m like a moth, maybe like a lizard… someone once asked if I was a plant when I said off hand that “I’d be half dead all day because it was gloomy”. I need sunshine.
(full disclosure this photo was taken a couple of days after I got my camera and I kind of overcooked the development, but I’ve since lost the original.)
Every time since this day when I’ve ended up on the ridge I’ve had the same reaction; “I should have started up the hill a half hour ago.” Even though I’ve left earlier each time, it always seems like the best parts are happening just as you get there and you’re missing them. Even though the sun is going to come up every day on the hill, it feels like you’ll miss out on something really fleeting if you don’t manage to capture it.
Each second seems to make a completely new scene.
As you’re hiking across the ridge you start to notice all of the wildlife waking up. They’ve probably been up for hours, but I’ve always been kind of transfixed by the sunrise.
I’ve never been good at bird ID, but they’re incredibly fun to take photos of. You never realize how quick and agile they are until you try to point a camera at one for a little while. We’ve got a thriving hummingbird population as well, which take the agility and difficulty to a whole new level!
You end up with a lot of hummingbird blurs and butts.
I’ve always thought that dragonflies were pretty amazing bugs, but I’d never really gotten to take a close look at one till I started photographing them. This was one of the first that I noticed landing after patrolling its territory, and just sat there for probably 20 minutes taking shot after shot of the guy, getting a little closer, a little closer, a little closer, till it just filled up the frame with its elegant papery wings.
I was totally transfixed, and after this I walked home feeling like I was walking on the wind. What an incredible bug! I felt so lucky to have gotten even one picture of him. I decided to take my camera on the errand that we ran, going to the Ruth Bancroft garden. They were having a sale and Liz had cactusy dreams that she needed fulfilled. I had no idea that the garden was going to be completely covered in dragonflies…
Turned out it was a dragonfly kind of day. Oh ya, there were a heap of neat cactuses there too!
Spiney Fireworks
These always remind me of jester’s hats, and make me wonder at the same time “how the hell did this evolve to look like this?”
I like mallows, these are globe mallows. I am not sure I’d like them as much if I didn’t know their name.
Echevaria flowers always look like they should be associated with some completely different plant.
There’s something really satisfying about spirals that occur in nature. This somewhat ratty looking cactus had some truly amazing blossoms on it.
I have the feeling that this will be mostly stream of consciousness, hopefully a bit more related to the actual day the photos were taken. At the time it all felt so brand new. Looking back it has that time dilated sense of feeling like it was yesterday and years ago at the same time. In any case, it was a beautiful morning.
