#13

#12

#11

Backyard Biodiversity

The term backyard biodiversity came up in a conversation recently, and it made me think of all of the life (much of it not welcome, but all the same) that our small raised-bed garden attracts in the heart of this megalopolis: enormous beetle larvae, cabbage moths, earwigs, pillbugs, ladybugs, mantises, cutworms, aphids, squirrels, a nocturnal raccoon now and then, cats, rodents I'd prefer to leave unnamed, crows, hummingbirds, phoebes, an occasional hawk, jays, and a raucous, destructive troupe of house sparrows that mowed down every new seedling I planted before the bird netting went up.

Then there's this little bird in the photo. (Bad photo, I realize, but I wasn't willing to sacrifice my gear in the rain.) This is a Yellow-Rumped Warbler, as far as I can tell. She only visits us during the rain. I've never, ever, seen her on sunny days. The aforementioned gang of delinquent sparrows who live nearby make a shrill racket on a typical day, but disappear entirely when the rain starts falling. I don't know where they go, but I wish they'd stay there.

I also don't know what this little warbler scavenges among the straw in our soaked yard, but it's always a pleasure to see her, the only bird who visits on rainy days like today.

#10

#9

#8

My weeks also have seven days in them, but I have an overabundance of tree photos now, and this seems like a good place to put them.

I hadn't shot any photos of ficus trees for a few years, until just a couple of weeks ago. Then I started, and now it's hard to stop. Once you start seeing something you had previously failed to notice, you really see it. These trees are everywhere in the L.A. area. So, Ficus Week is over, but I'll post some more pictures of these goofy trees as work and baking permit.

Re-enactment

With the little baking I do, I so enjoy the whole process. There's a reason Play-Doh is so popular with the kids. I do, though, have a favorite moment: It's pulling the Dutch oven out of the oven oven (not a typo), and marveling at the newly baked loaf, listening to it crackle and pop before pulling it out and setting it down on a rack to cool. The black cast iron perfectly frames the fresh loaf, makes it look so much warmer, breadier. This is sort of what that moment looks like, but not what it sounds like. Or smells like.

Golf

#7

#6

#5

#4

#3

#2

It's Ficus Week!

In celebration of nothing in particular, this photo blog will be hosting a week's worth of pictures of ficus trees, L.A.'s favorite underappreciated, unheralded, unfavorite curbside flora. I have no real love for these trees, per se, no sentimental attachment. They just express form and mass and scale and human intervention in a way that I enjoy, like nothing else in the urban landscape as I encounter it.
If you haven't already seen the B&W ficus photos I made a few years ago, visit my Etsy shop for a look. Check back here tomorrow for more.

Ficus

Demo

Self-Propelled

My Camera

isn't equipped to capture smells. Yet.

New Year's Harvest

Compost Lesson #11

Gingerbread houses are, of course, compostable. And so it all comes full circle, almost like a Hendrik Hertzberg essay, but messier. Happy Holidays!

The Banality of Banality

Gingerbread Rad, contd.

Gingerbread Rad

Go, B!

I Need a

Like the pak choi in the previous post, the vegetables pictured on this photo blog are what we grow in our backyard. These beets are an exception. They just looked too good not to photograph.

Pak Choi

"Formula for an Interesting Life:

Acquire skills and use them. The more skills, the more interesting."
-Stewart Brand
The Next Whole Earth Catalog, Second Edition

No Knead Bread How-to Video with Mark Bittman and Jim Lahey.

Artifact #2, Though Not Chronologically

LolaGrover.
[I hate to distract from pictures with words, particularly in what I had hoped would be a wordless series, but I feel this editorial aside is necessary in order to note that Grover was called Lola long before the Kid discovered Charlie and Lola. So, the Lola in this photo was named Lola and unnamed Grover without consideration for Lola of Charlie and Lola. I probably should have just left that alone, but wanted to make sure it was understood that Grover became Lola just because a two-year decided it should be that way—for no discernible reason apparent to her adult handlers—and not because this then two-year-old was referencing Charlie's kid sister Lola. Clear?]

Artifact

Lola and Charlie.

Compost Lesson #10

Strange life forms under the surface.

Luv 2 Nap

Every day I pass witty vanity plates and think Wouldn't that make a funny photo? No. I've spared you more times than I could count.
Napping, however, is my special talent. It's something I'm really good at.
So I share this with you.

Cyclocross

Typically a freezing rain and mud type of bike race in the rest of the country and in Europe, Southern California cyclocross is its own thing. This is a small glimpse of SoCal cross on a recent 72-degree afternoon in Glendale, CA.

The fast guy in this photo wearing his aerobic strain with poise is Andrew.
Up! Up!

Now I'm Ready

http://www.wikihow.com/Be-a-Bike-Punk

For a bit of background on this photo, taken a couple of years ago, check this.

Pallet Shelter

While you're at it, you might want to see this, too.

Facebook

I like the idea of it and even enjoy my friends' updates, sometimes.

Wall Schmutz

How does this happen?

Recycle, Compost, Landfill

Life and work have gotten in the way of this photo blog of late. And that's good. I'm not one of those people who values wedding photos over weddings, and if life wants to step forward and assert its primacy, well, by all means.

But I'm back from a trip to the Bay Area and have a picture or two to share, something I hope to do with more regularity in the near future.

For starters, here's one from the California Academy of Sciences. I can't wait to go back. Along with almost everything I saw at this ultramodern museum, these waste bins really show the thoughtful design (and money—oh so much money) that went into making this institution light years better than anything we have in L.A.

Recycle. Compost. Landfill.

Labeled

I just came across another obituary that overlooked DeCarava's true greatness by narrowing his stature: African-American photographer. (Try Cartier-Bresson: French photographer.) DeCarava was, indeed, that but what about his plays with light? His prints that grabbed this viewer's eyes and pulled me in, hoping for, seeing revelations? I've never seen prints in a gallery that called for such viewing effort as did his. Not many have given me more pleasure. Blacks, lighter blacks, barely lighter blacks, set off by a touch of light, many shades darker than white. His work may have shown those of us not of his time or his place or his background something of what he knew, but it also granted us a very deep look into mysteries that can't be confined to superficial ethnic or cultural or racial categories. His street photography was more complex and rich than that of most of his contemporaries. It's aged better, too.
His cultural contribution should be celebrated, but that's hardly where his profoundly deep art ended. It's easier to categorize art than to work at seeing it.

Roy DeCarava 1919–2009

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/parting-2/?hp
One of my favorite photographers died today.

Up

Not Muse

Oh no. Just equipment testing helper.

Carrots

Enough rain today to keep the seeds moist, but not enough to wash them away. Grow, little carrots. Grow.

Wrapped up in Books

Park[ing] Day '09 Gallery

Last year I drove around visiting and photographing a number of Park[ing] Day parks. This year I decided to leave the car at home and use buses, trains and my feet for getting around. Between the reduction in sites this year and the limitations of public transportation—and, of course, the heat—I didn't get to see quite as much as I had hoped. If I didn't get to your park, I wanted to—I really did—but it's a big city and I had to choose parks along or near the Wilshire corridor to maximize the limited time I had. By the end of the day I had taken 2 trains, 6 buses and walked about 5 miles.
I saw a lot of people who made a big effort to temporarily reinterpret public space, photographed some, and here it is.

It Is That Time Again

Sugar snap peas.

Park[ing] Day L.A. 2009

This is Gruen Associates' park from 2008. Creative people all over L.A. will be taking over parking spaces and making parks again this Friday (9/18). And I'll be taking pictures. Last year's gallery of the sites I visited is here. Here's a map of who's doing what/where this year.

CHALK CHALK

Bike geeks like bike art. I'm no exception. It just so happens that a dear friend (who happens also to be a relative) makes some quietly fun stuff in that category—spare, elemental chalk drawings of bicycles that are beautiful individually, even more so grouped together. But don't take my word for it.
See for yourself.

Sweet and Dandy

We grew our first watermelon. And ate it. And it was sweet.

Books

Compost Lesson #9

Straw is available wherever people in jodhpurs and velvet helmets ride horses. It is the brown to your kitchen waste's green. Add it to a compost bin to keep things balanced and unsmelly. Smelly = Out of Balance. Bales of straw are also great for mulch in the garden and as benches for outdoor summer screenings. And they're cheap.