a grey ride through golden gate park

There's a certain hubris involved in putting these pictures up. I'm in effect saying that what I see has meaning and substance that's more than passing interest, and that my perspective by itself is important. Sure, we're all unique snowfalkes or whatever, but does the fact that I caught the mist just so in the first photo, or the gesture of the other riders in the other photos really matter? An "internet friend":http://busblog.tonypierce.com/ of mine said recently that if you're still blogging in 2013, you're not doing it for fame, or fortune, you're doing it for the love. That's definitely true of me. In the end, I don't care if it matters wether my perspective is important or not; I love these picutes, the people, the things that happen, and I want everyone to see that. No, it's not just that I love all this. I have a responsibility to show the world what I see. It's the social contract you make when you go out taking pictures, the thing that prevents it from being complete masturbatory voyeurism: you have to show everyone. Then it becomes a conversation, a discourse, not mere naval gazing. That's what I want.

being a bad friend

I've been a bad friend. I haven't talked to a bunch of these folks in a while, not directly. I'm have to fix that after this weekend. I'm just so damn busy and run down. But there are Lunches (when all of these photos were taken) and there will be more of them. Sometimes it takes seeing things to remember how important some people are.

she says to me

She says to me last night, "You know people like looking at pictures, right?" So here are a bunch from her work party, and the drive home. The view from the Oakland hills is really rad. I didn't get many good pictures of the guests, the house, the spread, or anything you'd expect. If you can believe it, that was only the second cutest dog there. What can I say, I was tired.

the smaller camping trip

This was also incidentally the weekend when my trusty D700 bit the dust, or more precisely, took a bath. I was getting into my tube, and fell in with the camera. It was a brief dunk, but that was all it took. Almost four years of abuse, thousands of miles, and too may drops to count. The sands of Egypt, the streets of many cities, and finally what did it in was tubing in Sierras. I still have all the parts, and I'm eventually going to make it the world's most expensive photogram machine. It was seriously a great way to spend a weekend; The water in both spots we went to was just cold enough to keep you cool, but not enough to freeze you. There were trees for my hammock and plentiful beers. And then, on the ride home, we had amazing pizza.