I've been shooting some stuff that's actually a little atypical of my usual stuff, lately … catching views of the city and all. Not my usual oeuvre, I reckon you'll say, and you'd be right. I don't cotton much to cities, and prefer to pretend, at least photographically, that I don't live in one. I find crowds of people oppressive, and I'm always on edge. A gal in Seattle wrote to me that her parents-in-law had put up the money to take her and her husband and three kids to Disneyland for a whole week. Good grief! A whole week with all those crowds of yahoos … I'd a shot somebody for sure.
Now, these were taken after having taken someone to a downtown hospital for a lecture, and I was waiting for them to come out:
And a couple of interesting interior architectural details:
And, every once in a while, one finds a vantage point from which to take a picture that seems to give one a bit of distance while allowing a nice view. Admittedly, the distance hides a multitude of sins, but maybe that's a good thing … I'm not really an "Ashcan School" photographer. And so it was when, for the first time of travelling my usual route along the shore, I was going north instead of south (Don't ask me how things like that can happen, that a route used regularly for years only suddenly gets travelled in the opposite direction … it happens.), and I spotted these views of the city. So I stopped on a couple of separate days.
In these next ones, the wind was blowing … it is interesting to see the amount of mirage (at least that's what the benchrest riflemen call it) that gets picked up by the camera. It's not visible at all to the eye as one looks through the view finder.
I've got a few from downtown … I think I'll post them in another post.
Hmmmm … I see that these resized shots don't really show that mirage that I mentioned … it sure showed up in the full-sized versions … crooked, wiggly building edges. Forget that I said anything about it; don't strain your eyes.
der Wandersmann 
solidcopper
April 18, 2010 at 1:04 am
I like all the outdoor ones, particulaly the first few hospital ones, the best. I need to review the last bunch on a desktop screen and so will come back.
derWandersmann
April 18, 2010 at 8:04 am
You're always welcome, SC.
debplatt
April 18, 2010 at 4:04 pm
I had to laugh, dW, when you said that your comment had gone missing at Solid's site. The same thing happened to me here. My fault in this case. I had had too many tabs open in my browser, and simply ended up losing it before I had hit "Post comment". :doh: So this is my second effort.I especially liked the lighting and reflections in your first hospital video (and BTW nice of you to chauffeur someone there :up:).I really liked quite a few of the ones where you were looking back at the city. I liked being able to see the bridges in the bottom one, and the way the branches hung over the city. I was also particularly fond of this portrait one because of the way the branches framed the scene. It also gave an interesting glimpse of the bike path and the near shoreline.
derWandersmann
April 19, 2010 at 9:04 am
I haven't figured out how to get to that path, yet … the obvious way is down the bluff, but that seems a trifle abrupt, not to say dangerous, for a 71-year-old with a bum foot. I'll find it … I'm good at that.
debplatt
April 19, 2010 at 11:04 am
Originally posted by derWandersmann:
I agree that the direct path looks a bit risky. However once you do find a good access point, it looks like it'd be a really pleasant walk down there. I like being able to walk beside a body of water, and the fact that it has shade trees (at least some of the time) makes it seem like it would still be pleasant in summer.Funny that after all these years you noticed how attractive the view could be going in the opposite direction. :coffee:
PainterWoman
April 22, 2010 at 1:04 am
Really liked the inside architectural photos. This is the type of thing that always gets me in trouble with whomever I'm walking somewhere with. I'll stop to observe something interesting and they're way ahead of me and turn around to see me staring….off into space they say. 😆 This happened recently while visiting in Fargo. Really like the colors in the outdoor ones, especially in the 12th one….the two different blues of the water and the contrasting orange of the rocks.
derWandersmann
April 22, 2010 at 8:04 am
The rocks aren't really that orange … it was late afternoon. I actually toned the orange down a bit. Didgies have a tendency to emphasise warm colours.
RedFreya
April 28, 2010 at 5:04 pm
The stark beauty and/or elegance of the works of Man !
derWandersmann
April 29, 2010 at 12:04 am
Wow! I guess …